Jan 21 2008
Rio Tinto Alcan reinforced its commitment to community involvement today with a $1-million donation to the ‘Thinking Ahead Campaign’ at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (MNI), affiliated with McGill University and the McGill University Health Centre. The campaign is a five-year $40-million initiative to invest in people and expand facilities and services.
The donation, in support of the MNI’s multidisciplinary NeuroEngineering program, was announced by Rio Tinto Alcan Chief Executive Richard Evans at Rio Tinto Alcan’s Montreal Headquarters. Mr. Evans is a member of the MNI’s ‘Thinking Ahead Campaign’ cabinet. David R. Colman, Director, MNI, said: “We are proud that Rio Tinto Alcan and Dick Evans have chosen to invest in the MNI. Their support of the ground-breaking NeuroEngineering program gives us the opportunity to expand our research into new directions that we can’t even imagine now - exploring and bringing together new disciplines and technologies that we hope will improve the quality of life for those debilitated by injury or neurological disease.”
“Rio Tinto Alcan believes in supporting inventive institutions and organizations in the communities where we are present,” said Richard Evans, Chief Executive, Rio Tinto Alcan. “Good health and strong healthcare facilities are key to a community’s success and growth. Supporting the MNI’s innovative NeuroEngineering Program is another way that we can play a role in improving the quality of life of people in Quebec and around the world. Advancement in this area could lead to significant scientific and medical breakthroughs that benefit populations everywhere.”
The NeuroEngineering Program is a truly synergistic effort in which neuroscientists are engaging physical scientists to work together on some of the most compelling, unsolved problems related to nervous system damage, such as in traumatic spinal cord injuries. Using the expertise of the physical scientists, the entire team is devising biological platforms and “engineering tools” geared to restoring function and repairing the nervous system. The creation of a new research laboratory will allow the MNI to recruit world-class scientists who will add unique expertise to come up with fresh, innovative ideas and apply them to neurological problems.