At McMaster’s fall convocation ceremonies this week, two exceptional graduates will be honoured with the 2025 Distinguished Alumni Awards: A historian whose work has reshaped our understanding of war, memory and Canadian culture; and a scientist whose groundbreaking research spans chemistry, physics, biology and even the mysteries of space.
The Distinguished Alumni Awards celebrate graduates who have achieved outstanding success in their fields and made significant contributions to scholarship, public service and their communities.
In order of presentation, here are the remarkable alumni being recognized this fall.
Jonathan Vance ’85
Faculty of Humanities
2025 Distinguished Alumni Award for the Arts
Jonathan F. Vance is a Distinguished University Professor and the J.B. Smallman Chair in the Department of History at Western University, where he teaches military history, Canadian history, and social memory. He previously held the Canada Research Chair in Conflict and Culture for a decade. After growing up in Waterdown, Ontario, Vance earned his BA in history at McMaster, followed by his Master’s degree at Queen’s University and his PhD at York University. At the beginning of his career, he was a lecturer at Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of Guelph and Brock University before joining the faculty at Western in 1997.
Vance has authored numerous books, some of which have crossed over from scholarly into popular history. His highest-profile works include the award-winning Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War (1997) and A Gallant Company: The True Story of “The Great Escape” (2003) which has appeared in multiple editions for international markets. He is also the author of High Flight: Aviation and the Canadian Imagination (2002); Building Canada: People and Projects that Shaped the Nation (2006); Objects of Concern: Canadian Prisoners of War through the 20th Century (1994); Unlikely Soldiers: How Two Canadians Fought the Secret War Against Nazi Occupation (2008); A History of Canadian Culture (2009); Bamboo Cage: The P.O.W. Diary of Flight Lieutenant Robert Wyse, 1942-1943 (2009); Maple Leaf Empire: Canada, Britain and Two World Wars (2011); The Great War: From Memory to History (2015); and A Township at War (2018).
Vance, who served as editor of the Encyclopedia of Prisoners of War and Internment, curates The Ley and Lois Smith War, Memory, and Popular Culture Research Collection for materials such as children’s literature, postcards, military training manuals and popular culture artifacts. He also leads a public history project that brings to life postcards from men and women who served in the First World War by reproducing those postcards and sending them to their original destinations and by using them as teaching tools for schools, libraries and museums.
An elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Vance has earned the Premier’s Research Excellence Award along with several honours for individual books including the Lela Common Award from the Canadian Authors Association for the best book in non-fiction, the Floyd S. Chalmers Award for Ontario History, the Charles P. Stacey Prize from the Canadian Committee, the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize from the Canadian Historical Association, and the J.W. Dafoe Foundation Book Prize for distinguished writing that contributes to the understanding of Canada.
Chérif Matta ’02
Faculty of Science
2025 Distinguished Alumni Award for the Sciences
Chérif F. Matta, who earned his PhD in Chemistry from McMaster University in 2002, is an internationally recognized theoretical and computational chemist whose work bridges the fields of chemistry, physics, biology, and astronomy. Following postdoctoral research with Nobel Laureate John C. Polanyi at the University of Toronto and with Russell J. Boyd as an Izaak Walton Killam Fellow at Dalhousie University, Matta joined Mount Saint Vincent University in 2006 where he is currently Professor of Chemistry and Physics. In 2009, he earned the Habilitation to Direct Research (HDR) from Université de Lorraine in France. Matta holds honorary-adjunct appointments at Dalhousie, Laval, and Saint Mary’s Universities, and has frequent visiting professorships at dozens of universities and research institutes around the world.
Matta’s research has helped reshape several frontiers of physical science. While at McMaster, he discovered the “hydrogen-hydrogen” bonding interaction. He later introduced electron localization-delocalization matrices (LDMs) as quantum descriptors in molecular design, and elucidated the electrostatic role of ATP synthase enzyme in mitochondrial bioenergetics. His recent work on diffuse interstellar bands is a step in resolving this century-old mystery in astrochemistry. His work is disseminated in more than 200 publications including four books as well as invited lectures in more than 40 countries.
A leader in shaping science policy, Matta has chaired the Interdisciplinary Adjudication Committee of the Canada Research Chairs Program, served on the Canada Excellence Research Chairs Selection Board, and as director of accreditation for the Canadian Society for Chemistry. He is a current member of the Canadian National Committee for Crystallography and a member of the Commission for Quantum Crystallography of the International Union of Crystallography.
Matta is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the African Academy of Sciences, the Chemical Institute of Canada, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Biology, and the Royal Society of Arts. His honours include the John C. Polanyi Prize in Chemistry, the Molecular Graphics and Simulation Society Silver Jubilee Prize (UK), the Lady Davis Fellowship, the NSERC/Acfas Science Exposed Prize, the Mount Saint Vincent University Research Excellence Award, the Science Atlantic Speaker of the Year Award, and the Polish Minister of Science Distinguished Visiting Professorship.
A gifted communicator, Matta promotes science in his native Arabic as well as in English, French, and Spanish, and is the creator of the bilingual outreach series A Conversation with a Scientist on YouTube. He has served as chair of the Board of Trustees of Dalhousie University’s Legal Aid Services and testified as an expert witness before the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research.