Dr. James MacKillop was recently named a 2019 University Scholar, along with five other McMaster University professors.
Recognition as a University Scholar is granted on the basis of communication and preservation of knowledge, excellence in education and pedagogy, and service to local and global communities. University Scholars receive $15,000 each year of the award, provided by the Provost & Vice-President (Academic) and the recipient’s Dean. The award is intended to recognize mid-career researchers.
Dr. MacKillop is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University. He works as the Director of both the Peter Boris Centre for Addictions Research and the Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Research (CMCR). MacKillop conducts research out of the West 5th Campus of St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, and is the inaugural Peter Boris Chair in Addictions Research.
Dr. MacKillop conducts translational research on addictive behaviour. His works focuses primarily on the causes, maintenance, and treatment of alcohol use disorder, tobacco use disorder, cannabis use disorder, gambling disorder, and obesity/food addiction. To understand these conditions, MacKillop’s work integrates various perspectives and methods from behavioural science, cognitive neuroscience, behavioural genetics, and clinical research.
In 2018, Dr. MacKillop was awarded the Anne & Neil McArthur Research Award, which celebrates an internationally-recognized researcher at St. Joe’s.
Dr. James MacKillop and Ms. Joanne McArthur, after MacKillop was awarded the Anne & Neil McArthur Award at Celebrate Research 2018
In January 2019, the work of an international research team that included Dr. MacKillop was published in the journal Nature Genetics. The team found hundreds of genes associated with risk tolerance and risk behaviour, in a study of over one million individuals.
As an expert on the subject of medicinal cannabis, MacKillop is often cited by news broadcasters, particularly in the fall of 2018 as Canada moved to legalize recreational cannabis. He has been part of numerous community education events, and will host the 2nd annual CMCR Conference on May 31, 2019.