Christian Paradis visits Concordia
Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis was at Concordia University this week to introduce a new report on Canada’s Economic Action Plan.
Paradis held a press conference at the Richard J.Renaud Science Pavilion on the Loyola campus on January 31. Concordia President Frederick H. Lowy, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science Brian Lewis and Department of Biology Professors Vincent Martin and Adrian Tsang were in attendance.
Paradis then visited the Centre for Structural and Functional Genomics. The centre will soon house high technology laboratories for research into the conversion of biomass, biofuels extracted from cellulose and alternative energies. The centre has received a grant of $29,345,000 from the federal and provincial governments as part of the Knowledge Infrastructure Program.
The new facilities will be part of a 5,400 m2 addition to the Richard J. Renaud Science Complex on the Loyola Campus. The new wing will permit staff, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and professors from the sciences and computer science departments to successfully carry out their research programs.
The space will also be open for other researchers from Concordia and elsewhere to use its advanced facilities as a knowledge base. The layout of the laboratories will encourage interdisciplinary discussions, crucial to enhancing the research potential of genomics and systems biology.
The inauguration of the Centre for Structural and Functional Genomics is planned for August 2011.
Related links:
• Concordia Department of Biology
• Ministry of Natural Resources
• Canada’s Economic Action Plan