A Western University neuroscientist's groundbreaking research into strokes and dementia has landed him top honours and a $100,000 prize.
The Canada Council for the Arts announced on Tuesday that Dr. Vladimir Hachinski has won the 2018 Killam Prize for health sciences.
Hachinski co-founded the world’s first successful acute stroke unit and co-discovered a link between Alzheimer's and stroke. He also created a new clinical diagnosis tool for identifying the treatable components of dementia.
The Killam Prize honours Canadian researchers, scientists, doctors, and scholars for their inimitable contribution and research in industry, government agencies, and universities. Run by the Canada Council for the Arts, the program is funded through a private endowment by the late Dorothy Killam.
Hachinski is one of five academics to win this year's prize. Other winners include Université de Montréal professor André Gaudreault who helped to create Canada's first PhD program in film studies and University of Calgary researcher Walter Herzog for his strides in the field of biomechanics and muscle contraction.
Winners of the Killam Prize are selected by a committee of their peers.