McGill University

Founded 1821. Montreal's English flagship, where Ernest Rutherford did his Nobel radioactivity work.

Overview

Founded from fur trader James McGill's bequest, the university rose on the slopes of Mount Royal. Ernest Rutherford, working at McGill 1898 to 1907, mapped radioactive decay and half-life, work recognized with the 1908 chemistry Nobel. William Osler, of medical textbook fame, graduated and taught here. Eleven Nobel laureates affiliate with McGill, and the medical school anchors Montreal's hospital research network. Montreal winters do not dim the festival summers that students fill. McGill fields roughly 40,000 students from 150 countries.