Stephen Collis, a professor in the Department of English, and Lynne Quarmby, a professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, are the 2015 recipients of SFU’s Nora and Ted Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy for their extensive work in sustainable energy and materials policy surrounding pipeline issues.

Collis and Quarmby will be presented with the Sterling Prize in an award ceremony held on Tuesday, Oct 13 at the Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue in Downtown Vancouver.

Following the ceremony, the winners will co-present their lecture: When Democracy Becomes Controversial: Climate Change and the Corporate State. The event is open to the public, but require registration.

Collis says that he was pleasantly surprised when their names were announced as the 2015 Sterling winners, but describes receiving this prestigious award as a great honour.

“What Lynne and I engaged in was not the sort of work you expect to be ‘professionally’ recognized for - it was not performed within a disciplinary field or professional community, but rather, within the wider public sphere,” he says.

 “I would like to think this award recognizes the importance of such socially engaged and public actions that we all collectively need to take up together.”

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