MRC President Dr. Henry Friesen was the special guest at the reception.
Among those honoured were researchers with 25 or more years of continuous funding from the MRC.
They are: Barry McBride, Microbiology and Oral Biology; John McNeill, Pharmaceutical Sciences; Michael Smith, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; James Hogg, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine; Chris Fibiger, Psychiatry; Stephen Drance, Ophthalmology; Bernard Bressler, Anatomy; Philip Bragg, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; and Alan Hannam, Oral Biology.
Also at the reception, Friesen announced the creation of the Dr. Harold Copp Lectureship. Copp, a professor emeritus, discovered calcitonin, a calcium-regulating hormone which inhibits bone loss and is one of the most widely used therapeutic agents for the treatment of osteoporosis.
Friesen said Copp should also be applauded for his leadership in promoting medical research funding in the 1950s, which led directly to the creation of the MRC.
The MRC's donation of $25,000 was matched with a similar gift from the Wolfe and Gita Churg Foundation.