Professor Michael Geist has been awarded the 2013 Impact Connection Award by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), which recognizes efforts to facilitate the exchange of research knowledge within and beyond the academic community.
“Michael Geist is truly one of the University’s most dynamic researchers—he has established a winning formula that engages the public and directly informs politicians, public policy makers and justices. This award will further strengthen Professor Geist’s already internationally recognized leadership,” says Mona Nemer, vice-president of Research at the University of Ottawa.
The award highlights Professor Geist’s contribution to copyright law through his SSHRC-funded seminal project, The Future of Copyright Law in Canada: Reconciling Creator and User Rights, which provided leading academic research on Canadian copyright law at a time when the Supreme Court of Canada issued an unprecedented five copyright rulings, on July 12, 2012, dubbed the “copyright pentalogy.”
Prof. Geist’s work was notable for bringing the broader public into the policy debate as well as the emphasis on knowledge dissemination, open access, multimedia and policy engagement in addition to extending the issue to international copyright areas. Through his research was born a new public interest model for copyright law in Canada that emphasizes a balance between the creator and user rights.
The Connection Award, worth $50,000, will enable Professor Geist to explore in his research the development of innovative tools that will allow Canadians to better understand the balance between the creator and user rights as decision makers begin to work on new reforms.
His latest book, The Copyright Pentalogy: How the Supreme Court of Canada Shook the Foundations of Canadian Copyright Law, was published in April 2013 by the University of Ottawa Press.
Congratulations to Prof. Geist!
To view the SSHRC announcement: Click here.