List of McGill University people

The following is a list of chancellors, principals, and noted alumni and professors of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

List of Chancellors

# Charles Dewey Day (1864-1884) cite web|url=http://www.archives.mcgill.ca/resources/guide/vol1/rg1.htm|title=Chancellors of McGill University|work=McGill University Archives]
# James Ferrier (1884-1888)
# Sir Donald Alexander Smith, Lord Strathcona (1889-1914)
# Sir William Christopher Macdonald (1914-1917)
# Sir Robert Laird Borden (1918-1920)
# Sir Edward Wentworth Beatty (1921-1942)
# Morris Watson Wilson (1943-1946)
# Orville Sievwright Tyndale (1946-1952)
# Bertie Charles Gardner (1952-1957)
# Ray Edwin Powell (1957-1964)
# Howard Irwin Ross (1964-1970)
# Donald Olding Hebb (1970-1974)
# Stuart Milner Finlayson (1975)
# Conrad Fetherstonhaugh Harrington (1976-1984)
# A. Jean de Grandpré (1984-1991)
# Gretta Chambers (1991-1999) [cite web|url=http://www.quadcom.gc.ca/bio/chambers_en.pdf|title=Gretta Chambers, CC, OQ, LL|work=Judicial Compensation and Benefits Commission]
# Richard W. Pound (1999-Present) [cite web|url=http://www.mcgill.ca/chancellor/|title=The Chancellor|work=McGill University]

List of Principals

# George Jehoshaphat Mountain (1824-1835) cite web|url=http://www.archives.mcgill.ca/public/exhibits/installation/main/appointed.htm|title=Principals Appointed by Resolution|work=McGill University Archives]
# John Bethune (1835-1846)
# Edmund Allen Meredith (1846-1853)
# Sir John William Dawson (1855-1893)
# Sir William Peterson (1895-1919)
# Sir Auckland Campbell Geddes (1919-1920)
# General Sir Arthur Currie (1920-1933)
# Arthur Eustace Morgan (1935-1937)
# Lewis Williams Douglas (1938-1939)
# Frank Cyril James (1939-1962)
# Harold Rocke Robertson (1962-1970)
# Robert Edward Bell (1970-1979)
# David Lloyd Johnston (1979-1994)
# Bernard Shapiro (1994-2002)
# Heather Munroe-Blum (2003- ) [cite web|url=http://www.mcgill.ca/principal/munroe-blum/|title=Meet Principal Heather Munroe-Blum|work=McGill University]

Notable students

*Jennifer Heil — 2006 Olympic gold medallist in freestyle skiing. (BComm)
*Charline Labonté — 2006 Olympic gold medallist in Women's Ice Hockey (BEd - Physical Education)
*Justin Trudeau — son of former Prime-Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau and current front-liner for Liberal candidacy. (M.A. - Geography)
*Sam Roberts - Canadian singer/songwriter (BA)

Noted alumni and professors

Nobel Prize graduates and faculty members

* Mohan Munasinghe — alumnus, Peace (2007)
* Robert Mundell — former faculty member, Economics (1999)
* Val Logsdon Fitch — alumnus, Physics (1980)
* David Hunter Hubel — alumnus, Physiology (1981)
* Rudolph Marcus — alumnus, Chemistry (1992)
* Ernest Rutherford — former faculty member, Chemistry (1908)
* Andrew Schally — alumnus, Physiology (1977)
* Frederick Soddy — former demonstrator, Chemistry (1921)

Academics and scholars

* Antony Alcock — involved in the negotiations leading up to the Belfast Agreement
* Brian Alters — evolution and education
* Frederick Andermann -- neuroscientist
* Eric Berne (psychiatry) — originator of the psychoanalytic theory of transactional analysis
*Ayşe Buğra — economist.
*Arthur Lindo Patterson — physicist.
* Gerald Bull — former professor of mechanical engineering, expert on projectiles, designer of the Iraqi Project Babylon
* Mario Bunge — philosopher
* Margaret Ridley Charlton (medical library) — one of the founders of the Medical Library Association (professional associations)
* Thomas Chang — developed world's first artificial cell.
* Thomas H. Clark (earth sciences) — mineral Thomasclarkite was named after him
* R. F. Patrick Cronin — cardiologist, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at McGill (1972-1977), and healthcare consultant
* Carrie Derick — first woman to become a professor in Canada (in botany at McGill)
* Charles R. Drew — physician and professor
* Hamid Etemad — professor of international business and renowned business guru and researcher
*Ismail al-Faruqi (philosophy and religion) — renowned Muslim philosopher and comparative religion scholar
*Ariel Fenster (Chemistry) — Chemistry professor who has appeared on the Discovery Channel TV show "What's that all about?"
* Donald Olding Hebb (psychology) — father of cognitive psychobiology, pioneer in artificial intelligence, developed concept of Hebbian learning
* James E. Gill (BSc 1921) — Geology professor who introduced the Master's of Applied Science in Mineral Exploration program and established an analytical laboratory for the application of geochemistry to mineral exploration
* S. I. Hayakawa — linguist, U.S. senator, former president of San Francisco State University
* Herbert Jasper -- neuroscientist
*Julian Jaynes — psychologist, author of "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind"
* George Karpati -- neuroscientist
*Roger Keesing — celebrated anthropologist
*Raymond Klibansky — philosopher
*Daniel Levitin -- cognitive psychologist
* Colin MacLeod — Canadian-American geneticist discovered DNA breakthroughs
* Joseph B. Martin — Dean of the Harvard Medical School, [ [http://www.hms.harvard.edu/jbm/jbm_about.html About the Dean ] ] former chair of neurology and neurosurgery
* James Mallory — for many years Canada's leading constitutional scholar
* Ronald Melzack (medicine) — developed the McGill Pain Questionnaire
* Armand de Mestral — professor of international law
* Brenda Milner — provided the first clear demonstration of the existence of multiple memory systems in the brain with patient H.M.
* Henry Mintzberg — internationally renowned business guru
* E.R. Ward Neale, geologist, professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland [ [http://www.legacy.com/Can/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStoryPrint&PersonID=110296762 Neale's obituary on Legacy.com] ]
* Percy Erskine Nobbs — former professor of architecture and designer of many buildings in Montreal, especially at McGill, and in Alberta, British Columbia, and South Africa
* Santa J. Ono — immunologist, Vice-Provost Academic & Deputy Provost Emory University
* William Osler (medicine) — graduate in medicine (1872) and then McGill professor, he was a medical pioneer, developed the modern form of a doctor's bedside manner. Later one of the four founders of the Johns Hopkins Medical School at Johns Hopkins University
*Bhikhu Parekh, Baron Parekh — celebrated political philosopher, currently at the London School of Economics
* Wilder Penfield (neurosurgery) — neurosurgery pioneer, first director of the renowned Montreal Neurological Institute and Montreal Neurological Hospital, which are affiliated with McGill University
* Steven Pinker (cognitive psychology) — author of "The Blank Slate", "How the Mind Works".
* Judah Hirsch Quastel (biochemistry) — pioneer in neurochemistry and soil metabolism; Director of the McGill University-Montreal General Hospital Research Institute
* Fazlur Rahman (Islamic studies)
* Richard Birdsall Rogers — civil engineer and designer of the Peterborough Lift Lock
* Witold Rybczynski — Scottish-born McGill-trained architect and internationally known writer and critic
* Philip Carl Salzman, anthropologist
* Joseph A. Schwarcz — chemist, science populizer, science journalist
* Harold Shapiro, former president of Princeton University and former president of the University of Michigan.
* Bernard Shapiro (education) — Ethics Commissioner of Canada, former Principal of McGill and Deputy Education Minister of Ontario. Twin brother of Harold.
* Charles Taylor (philosophy) — renowned writer, versatile philosopher, and political theorist, 2007 winner of the Templeton Prize
* Dale C. Thomson -- Vice-Principal (1973-1976) and Professor of Political Science (1973-1994)
* Bruce Trigger -- Anthropologist
* Immanuel Wallerstein - former professor of Sociology (1971-1976) [http://www.binghamton.edu/fbc/cv-iw.pdf] and renowned political scientist, known for the World Systems Theory
*Lydia White — Linguist
*Reuven Brenner -- Renowned economist and current faculty member
*Charles W. Gladhill -- World renowned classicist and scholar

Business and media

* Vinod Agarwal — Founder & former Chairman of LogicVision ($100 million NASDAQ traded company: LGVN)
* Conrad Black — embattled press baron and media tycoon in the Anglo-Canadian tradition of Lord Beaverbrook and Lord Thomson of Fleet, owner of 650 dailies/weeklies around the world [cite web|url=http://utpress.utpress.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/cw2w3.cgi?p=biro&t=45801&d=2498|title=Conrad Black's Canadian Who's Who 1997 entry|work=University of Toronto Press|quote=McGill Univ. M.A. 1973]
* Cale Brillinger — staff writer for Sankei Shimbun daily newspaper based out of Tokyo.
* Edgar Bronfman, Sr. — former CEO of Seagram Distillers. [cite web|url=http://utpress.utpress.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/cw2w3.cgi?p=brock&t=34570&d=1418|title=Edgar M. Bronfman's Canadian Who's Who 1997 entry|work=University of Toronto Press|quote=McGill Univ., B.A. 1951]
* Charles Bronfman — Order of Canada recipient, Philanthropist, former Co-Chairman of Seagram Distillers. [cite web|url=http://utpress.utpress.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/cw2w3.cgi?p=brock&t=33318&d=1251|title=Charles Bronfman's Canadian Who's Who 1997 entry|work=University of Toronto Press|quote=McGill Univ.]
* John F. Burns — current Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist, formerly of The Globe and Mail
* Marc Chouinard — president and chief operation officer of The Bay
* John Cleghorn — former chairman of the Royal Bank of Canada, the largest bank in Canada. Currently chairman of SNC-Lavalin group. [cite web|url=http://utpress.utpress.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/cw2w3.cgi?p=clarke&t=49189&d=1920|title=John Cleghorn's Canadian Who's Who 1997 entry|work=University of Toronto Press|quote=McGill Univ. B.Com. 1962; C.A. 1964]
* Paul Desmarais, Jr. — Chairman of Power Corp. [cite web|url=http://utpress.utpress.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/cw2w3.cgi?p=denman&t=78230&d=1902|title=Paul Desmarais, Jr.'s Canadian Who's Who 1997 entry|work=University of Toronto Press|quote=McGill Univ. B.Comm. 1977]
* Darren Entwistle — president and chief executive officer of Telus
* Adam Gopnik — staff writer for The New Yorker magazine
* Charles Krauthammer — Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist, The Washington Post and Time Magazine.
* Parker Mason — Communications Coordinator | CNW GROUP.
* Mark Phillips — CBS News London bureau correspondent since 1982, formerly CBC News London correspondent
* Seymour Schulich (investments) — benefactor to the Schulich School of Music at McGill and Schulich School of Business, York University
* Lorne Trottier — founder of Matrox Electronic Systems
* Les Vadasz — co-founder of Intel Corporation
* Mort Zuckerman — CEO of Atlantic Monthly Corporation and publisher of "U.S. News & World Report"
* John Roth — former CEO of Nortel Networks
* Jade Raymond — videogame producer at Ubisoft and co-host of G4TV's Electronic Playground
* Moses Znaimer — co-founder and former President and Executive Producer of CityTV and Chairman/Executive Producer of the Access Media Group
* Dick Irvin, Jr. — Canadian sports broadcaster and author; second longest serving member of CBC's Hockey Night in Canada (after Bob Cole).

Politics and government

* Sir John Abbott — first Canadian prime minister to be born in Canada
* John Aimers — Dominion Chairman, Monarchist League of Canada
* Ian Binnie — Supreme Court justice
* Wendy Bisaro Northwest Territories MLA 2007 - present
* Zbigniew Brzezinski — former National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter
* Joe Clark faculty member, former Prime Minister of Canada
* Irwin Cotler — Justice Minister of Canada, distinguished legal scholar and international human rights lawyer
* Thomas D'Arcy McGee — Father of Confederation and one of only a few notable political assassinations in Canadian history
* Marie Deschamps — Supreme Court justice
* Morris Fish — Supreme Court justice
* Sheila Fraser — Auditor General of Canada
* Charles Gonthier — Supreme Court justice
* Sir Wilfrid Laurier — former Prime Minister of Canada
* Annie MacDonald Langstaff — in 1914 became McGill's and Quebec's first female law graduate but was not admitted to the Quebec bar until 2006 (posthumously); the Quebec bar did not admit women until 1941, at which time Langstaff felt she was too old to join
* Jack Layton — leader of the New Democratic Party
* Joni Madraiwiwi, Vice-President of Fiji
* Elizabeth C. Monk — BA'19, BCL'23, LLD'75, first woman admitted to the Quebec bar in 1942
* Dr. Ahmed Nazif — current Prime Minister of Egypt
* Daniel Oduber Quirós — former President of Costa Rica
* Bernard Shapiro — Federal Ethics Commissioner
* Marie-Claire Kirkland Strover — first woman elected to the Quebec National Assembly
* Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga — President of Latvia
* John McCallum — current Liberal Finance Critic in the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet and former Dean of the Faculty of Arts at McGill University.
*Peng Ming-Min — Senior Advisor to the President of Taiwan
* Vivienne Poy, a Liberal Senator representing Toronto.
* Ian Brodie, current Conservative government Chief of Staff
* Gilles Duguay, former ambassador to several African and Eastern European countries, currently a guest professor at McGill.
* Gary Gold, American Ambassador chosen by George Washington over Navdeep.

Art, music, and film

* Patrick Allen — English actor and businessman, most famous for narrating the controversial Protect and Survive public information films for the British government as well as several Shakespearian roles
* Yanic Bercier — drummer for Canadian death metal band Quo Vadis
* Michael Andre — poet and editor
* Burt Bacharach — Academy Award-winning musician
* Hadji Bakara — "Sound manipulator" and secondary keyboardist for Wolf Parade
* Samantha Bee — correspondent, The Daily Show
* Win Butler — musician, co-founder of The Arcade Fire
* Anne Carson — poet and professor of classics
* Leonard Cohen — poet, author, songwriter, singer
* Robert Cooper — president of TriStar Films
* Hume Cronyn — actor, "The Seventh Cross", "Cocoon". Studied theatre, left for Broadway without completing his degree.
* Hubert Davis — BA '00 and Oscar nominee for best documentary short subject
* William Henry Drummond — Irish-born Canadian poet
* Louis Dudek — poet
* Jake Eberts — producer of "Gandhi", "Chariots of Fire"
* Arthur Erickson — architect (Robson Square, Vancouver; Canadian Chancery, Washington DC; Roy Thomson Hall; Museum of Anthropology, UBC; Simon Fraser University; Museum of Glass, Tacoma; California Plaza, San Diego Convention Center)
* Mary Fahl — singer and actress
* Colin Ferguson (actor) — actor, Coupling
* Jessalyn Gilsig — actress, "Boston Public", "NYPD Blue"
* Linda Griffiths — playwright, actress
* Aaron Harris — Percussionist/Drummer, of Islands (band), Montreal-based indie rock group
* Gavin Heffernan — director ("Expiration")
* Jennifer Irwin — actress, "Still Standing"
* George Karpati
* Mia Kirshner — actress, "The L Word"
* Irving Layton— Canadian poet
* Robert Lantos— Film producer
* Daniel Levitin
* Stephen Leacock — humorist and economist
* John McCrae — surgeon, poet, author of famous Canadian poem "In Flanders' Fields"
* Kate and Anna McGarrigle — musicians and folk-singers
* Hugh MacLennan — Canadian writer ("Two Solitudes", "Barometer Rising")
* Miles Mander — early film actor, director and novelist.
*Cameron Mathison — actor, "All My Children"
*Casey McKinnon — actress
*Raymond Moriyama — architect (Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto; Canadian Embassy, Tokyo; Ontario Science Centre; Toronto Reference Library; Canadian War Museum; Saudi Arabian National Museum, Riyadh)
* Christopher Plummer — film and stage actor
* Sam Roberts — musician
* Dean Rosenthal — composer [ [http://netnewmusic.net/wiki/index.php/Dean_Rosenthal Dean Rosenthal - Sequenza21/NetNewMusic Wiki ] ]
* Moshe Safdie — architect (National Gallery of Canada, Vancouver Library, Salt Lake City Public Library, Musee de la Civilisation, Habitat '67)
* Kid Koala real name Eric San, turntablist and musician.
* Robert Edison Sandiford — short story writer and essayist
* John Ralston Saul — Governor-General's-Award-winning philosophical author
* Mark Shainblum — Author and comic book creator
* William Shatner — lead actor in "Star Trek" and Boston Legal, played Captain James T. Kirk
* Jaspreet Singh — author, "Seventeen Tomatoes"
* Sonja Skarstedt — poet and illustrator
* Evan Solomon -- Journalist and co-host of CBC News
* Ruth Taylor — poet
* Ken Vandermark — Jazz saxophonist and MacArthur Foundation Genius Award winner.
* Rufus Wainwright — (briefly attended — dropped out upon record deal) Canadian recording artist, musician.
* William Weintraub — Author, journalist and filmmaker ("Why Rock the Boat?")
* John Weldon — Academy Award winner and National Film Board animator
*Matthew White (countertenor) [ [http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/White-Matthew.htm Matthew White (Counter-tenor) - Short Biography ] ]
* Jan Wong — Globe and Mail columnist ("Lunch with Jan Wong" series), and author of several notable books, including award-winning "Red China Blues" and "Jan Wong's China".
*Christian Lander author of the Stuff White People Like blog
*Jessica Trisko; 2007 Miss Earth titleholder

Inventors

* Bernard Belleau — inventor of Lamivudine, a drug used in the treatment of HIV and Hepatitis B infection
* Willard Boyle, inventor of the Charge-coupled device (CCD)
* William Chalmers — first in the Western Hemisphere to investigate methacrylate plastics
* Thomas Chang — creator of first artificial cell
* James Creighton — Law, 1880, generally considered to be the originator of North American ice hockey rules
* Charles R. Drew — MDCM '33, black American medical pioneer, track star who led McGill to five intercollegiate titles, and, as medical advisor for the Blood for Britain program of World War II, the father of blood banks
* Alan Emtage — inventor of Archie, the grandfather of search engines
* Dr. Cluny MacPherson; inventor of the MacPherson respirator gas mask during World War I.
* James Naismith — BA 1887, inventor of basketball
* Paul Moller — inventor of the Moller Skycar, a VTOL aircraft

ports

* Mike Babcock — head coach of the Detroit Red Wings, 2008 Stanley Cup champions
* Russ Blinco — Montreal Maroons centre who was voted NHL Rookie-of-the-Year in 1935
* Jack Gelineau — Boston Bruins & Chicago Blackhawks goaltender who won Calder Trophy as NHL Rookie-of-the-Year in 1950
* Betty Archdale — former captain (1934/5) English women's cricket team
* George Burnett — former head coach for the Edmonton Oilers
* Doug Carpenter — former head coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs and New Jersey Devils
* Ken Dryden — LLB '74; a Canadian politician, lawyer, businessman, author and retired National Hockey League goaltender from the Montreal Canadiens. Also served as President of the Toronto Maple Leafs
* Phil Edwards — MD '36, one of Canada's most decorated Olympians with 5 bronze medals
* George Hodgson — BEng, 1916, Canadian Olympic men's swim team (1912 and 1920), McGill's first athlete to win an Olympic gold medal and the first Canadian to win two Olympic gold medals (Stockholm, 1916)
* Jackrabbit Johannsen; legendary Norwegian-Canadian who is credited with introducing cross-country skiing to North America and in retirement lived at McGill's Mont St-Hilaire Nature Preserve
* Kevin O'Neill, former head coach of the Toronto Raptors
* George Jost — member of the Red Birds Ski Club, North America's oldest downhill ski club, founded in 1928 at McGill, and first non-European to win the International University Ski Championship (in 1933)
* Frank Patrick — BA 1908, wrote much of the NHL rule book
* Hon. Sydney David Pierce — BA '22, BCL '25, LLD '56, 1924 Olympic swimmer and former Canadian ambassador to many countries
* Richard "Dick" Pound — former Olympic swimmer, former IOC vice president, chancellor of McGill, current chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)
* Kim St-Pierre — BEd, 2005, Canadian Olympic women's hockey team (2002 and 2006), McGill's first female athlete to become an Olympic gold medallist (Salt Lake City, 2002)
* Frank "Shag" Shaughnessy — first professional football coach hired by a Canadian university, he revolutionized Canadian college football by introducing the forward pass in 1921 in a game against Syracuse University and lobbied for a decade until the forward pass was adopted by the Canadian Rugby Football Union in 1931
* Jack Wright — MDCM '28, eleven-year veteran of Canadian Davis Cup team in 1920s and 1930s
* Stephanie Rankin — BSc 2006, World Famous Female Sumo Wrestler. Harajuku girl in spare time.

Fictional characters

* Dr. James Wilson — oncologist at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in FOX Network TV drama "House".
* Dr. Walter Langkowski, a fictional researcher from the Marvel Comics Canadian superhero series Alpha Flight. Langkowski was portrayed as McGill-based biophysicist researching the gamma radiation accident which created the Hulk. His discoveries transformed him into the superhero known as Sasquatch.
* Major Donald Craig, a Canadian commando serving with British special forces during World War II, portrayed by Rock Hudson in the 1967 war movie "Tobruk". Though the film was loosely based on real events, it's not clear whether or not Hudson's character was based on a real person. Most likely he was a pastiche character, given a Canadian background as cover for Hudson's inability to emulate a British accent.
* Lieutenant Alan McGregor, played by Gary Cooper, Lives Of the Bengal Lancers (1935)

Others

* Norman Bethune — as "Bai Qiu'en", subject of essay by Mao Zedong; medical professor. He became the Red Army’s Medical Chief and trained thousands of Chinese as medics and doctors, he died in 1939 (from blood poisoning) during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
* Lawrence Moore Cosgrave — Canadian signer of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender
* Thomas Neill Cream — Glasgow-born serial killer of the 1800s, thought by some to have been Jack the Ripper
* John Peters Humphrey — co-writer of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
* Julie Payette — astronaut
* Robert Rabinovitch — President and CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
* Francis Scrimger. Victoria Cross winner, (1915). BA (1901), MDCM (1905). Later Professor of Surgery and Chief of Surgery at the Children's Memorial Hospital.
* Harmeet Singh Sooden — Peace activist once held captive in Iraq
* Robert Thirsk — astronaut
* Dafydd Williams — astronaut
* Charles Goren — world champion bridge player and bestselling author
* Autumn Phillips — wife of Peter Phillips, who is 11th in line for the British throne

References