Dr. Georgia Mason, professor in the Department of Integrative Biology in the College of Biological Sciences at the University of Guelph, has been named a Fellow of The Royal Society of Canada, the country’s most prestigious body of independent scholars, researchers and creatives at the forefront of intellectual leadership.
Six U of G faculty representing the Ontario Agricultural College, the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences and the College of Arts have been named Fellows and one faculty member from the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences has been named to the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.
“This impressive acknowledgement of academic and scholarly excellence at the University of Guelph honours each of these faculty members for their remarkable work,” says Dr. Rene van Acker, vice-president (research and innovation). “We are proud to celebrate these seven researchers on this significant achievement.”
Dr. Georgia Mason, award-winning professor of behavioural biology, is an internationally recognized leader transforming the way humans treat other species through her extensive research in animal welfare. A global authority on the effects of captivity on animal behaviour and health, Mason investigates animal emotions, moods and overall wellbeing leading to discoveries that have changed attitudes, guidelines and laws to better protect animals globally. Mason’s creativity in this work brings light to an otherwise confused subject, bringing statistical and conceptual approaches from evolutionary biology and ecology into the animal world. A former Tier II Canada Research Chair, she is currently director of the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare (CCSAW) and an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (U.K.).
“I am thrilled, and very grateful to my referees, as well as to all my wonderful current and past grad students and post-docs,” Mason shares. “I am also excited to bring the fascinating, ethically important topic of animal welfare to new audiences.”
Since 1882, The Royal Society of Canada has enhanced the development of robust scholarly, scientific and artistic excellence and engagement. In its founding, the society queried how leaders can come together to help make a better future as scientific and technological change, demographic transformation, political reconfiguration and cultural diversification evolves throughout history.
More than 3,700 scholars and artists have been elected to the society’s three academies – the Academy of Arts and Humanities, the Academy of Social Sciences and the Academy of Science.
A formal Celebration of Excellence and Engagement will be held Nov. 7-9 in Vancouver, B.C. to induct all new Fellows and College Members.
