Speakers

Professor Marie-Luc Arpin, Research Chair in Net Zero and Life Cycle Strategies
Université de Sherbrooke

Marie-Luc’s background is in engineering (environmental life cycle assessment) and social sciences (social studies of science and technology). She is an assistant professor of management at Université de Sherbrooke’s school of management, and her research focuses on the limits of problem solving in engineering and management.

Her expertise focuses on organizational and social paradoxes (including rebound effects), the social dynamics of digital technology, and socio-epistemic issues of environmental modelling and performance measures. The goal of her research program is to understand the growing complexity of decision‑making and the modern decision-maker’s role (in the context of environmental crises, for example) and to design strategies that enable people to tackle this complexity at different scales.

Professor Marcel Babin, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Remote Sensing of Canada’s New Arctic Frontier 
Université Laval

Marcel Babin is a polar oceanographer specializing in the study of solar radiation propagation in the ocean and sea ice. His research focuses on the Arctic. He is more broadly interested in the fundamental aspects of radiative transfer in the environment, photosynthesis in microalgae, and the functioning of the Arctic marine ecosystem, as well as their responses to climate change. His approaches include Arctic expeditions, laboratory experiments, and the use of marine robots and remote sensing.

Marcel Babin is the laureate of the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Remote Sensing of Canada's New Arctic Frontier at Université Laval (2010-2020), the Director of the Takuvik International Research Laboratory in Quebec City (CNRS and U Laval), the Scientific Co-Director of the CFREF Sentinel North program, the Scientific Director of the Amundsen research icebreaker and a new research station in Qikiqtarjuaq (Nunavut, Canada), and the Scientific Co-Director of the brand-new Tara Polar Station.

Guillaume Beaulieu-Houle, Manager / CFREF, CERC and C150 Programs 
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Guillaume Beaulieu-Houle is the manager of the CFREF, CERC and C150 programs at TIPS. Before joining the Secretariat, he led the development of the Discovery Horizons program at NSERC and the associated Tri-Agency Interdisciplinary Peer Review Committee.

He is particularly interested in program design and experimental approaches in scientific funding.

Professor Alexandre Blais, Scientific Director, Institut quantique
Université de Sherbrooke

Alexandre Blais is Professor of Physics at the Université de Sherbrooke, where he is Scientific Director of the Institut quantique. Holder of the Chair in Quantum Computer Architectures, his theoretical research focuses on superconducting quantum circuits for quantum information processing. He is a co-creator of the field of quantum electrodynamics in circuits, today considered one of the most promising approaches to the realization of a quantum computer.

Professor Blais is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Fellow of CIFAR, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society. His research contributions have earned him the Steacie Prize from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Herzberg and Brockhouse Medals from the Canadian Association of Physicists, the Urgel-Archambault Prize from the Association francophone pour le savoir, the Rutherford Memorial Medal from the Royal Society of Canada and a Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Carrie Boyce, Executive Director
Royal Canadian Institute for Science

Carrie Boyce is the Executive Director of the Royal Canadian Institute for Science (RCIScience). Celebrating its 175th anniversary in 2024, RCIScience is Canada’s oldest scientific organization, established in 1849. A registered charity, RCIScience’s award-winning programming builds science culture in Canada, providing a platform for public engagement with scientists to foster critical thinking, expand science dialogue and promote informed decision making. RCIScience also provides scientists with hands-on training and opportunities to hone their communication skills on a real platform, with a real audience, so that they can share their cutting-edge research with the public in creative, inspiring and thought-provoking ways.

With over a decade’s experience working in the field of science communication and public engagement, it’s fair to say Carrie has become a Jack of all trades, master of some… Originally from Northern Ireland, she moved to Cambridge, England to pursue a degree in Natural Sciences, before working for organizations like the University of Cambridge, the Royal Society of Chemistry and Cancer Research UK. Eager for life’s next adventure, she moved to Canada in 2017 and has been happily working with RCIScience (and drinking maple syrup) ever since. Carrie is also a co-founder and Executive Producer of Science is a Drag, an award-winning, science-themed drag show by and for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and manager of Falling Walls Engage Hub Canada, an international network of science engagement practitioners.

Dr. Christian Chouinard, Director / CFREF, CERC and C150 Programs
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Christian Chouinard is Director for the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, the Canada Excellence Research Chairs and the Canada 150 Chairs programs at the Tri-Agency Institutional Programs Secretariat (TIPS). He joined the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) in 2001, working in research partnerships. He left NSERC twice between 2003 and 2016, first to do a PhD and, after returning to NSERC for a few years, work in the private sector and at McGill University as a research administrator. Since 2016, Christian has been back with the federal granting agencies, with NSERC until 2019 and at TIPS since then.

Trained in solid state physics, Christian has a PhD in Environmental Sciences. His research has focused on inverse modelling of geothermal data to reconstruct surface temperature evolution over the last 25,000 years and infer past climate change at high latitudes.

Professor Pierre Cossette, President
Université de Sherbrooke

Pierre Cossette is a renowned physician, professor, and university and hospital administrator, and the President of Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS). Alongside his management team, he is dedicated to educating generation after generation of university students and increasing his university’s level of excellence. Under Dr. Cossette’s leadership, UdeS has enriched its programs and seen a remarkable increase in research income, which has more than doubled since 2017. UdeS provides a unique, competitive university option outside Quebec’s major urban centres. Its partnership strategy has been key to the development of nearly 500 research and innovation projects involving students, primarily in relation to SMEs and the Quebec community environment. Dr. Cossette has made sustainable development a priority. In 2023, this focus earned the university the highest ever STARS international accreditation rating ever awarded anywhere in the world. He also implemented numerous equity, diversity and inclusion measures. For five consecutive years, UdeS was ranked first in Canada for student satisfaction, according to surveys by Maclean’s magazine.

A former head of the Department of medicine at the Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke (CHUS), Dr. Cossette played no small part in the success of the CHUS- Hôtel Dieu expansion project. As dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, he contributed to a complete overhaul of the premedical program, the development of the first coop internship nursing science program, strong research growth and the creation of clinical simulation laboratories. Dr. Cossette was made a Knight of the Ordre national du Québec in June 2024.

Professor Ursula Eicker, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Cities and Communities 
Concordia University

Ursula Eicker is the Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Communities and Cities and Founder and Director of the Next-Generation Cities Institute at Concordia University in Montréal. She works on decarbonization strategies for cities using living labs and urban digital twins for scenario modeling, user engagement and operational optimization.   

Her research interests cover zero emission and smart cities, renewable energy integration, and sustainable urban infrastructure. With a team of about 50 graduate students and software developers she is working on multiple eco-district projects in Canada and builds the urban modeling and data analytics platform Tools4Cities. To engage users, 3D city models can be accessed via web interfaces or immersive gamification tools. Prof. Eicker has published 8 books, 20 book contributions, over 140 Peer-Reviewed Papers and more than 340 Conference Papers.

Professor Sara Hart, Canadian Excellence Research Chair in Developmental Science 
University of Waterloo

Sara A. Hart is the Canadian Excellence Research Chair in Developmental Science and Professor of Psychology at the University of Waterloo. Broadly, her substantive research relates to understanding how and why people differ in their cognitive development, particularly focused on reading and math development. She examines the role of genetic variants and home, school, and neighborhood contexts in predicting school achievement, learning disabilities, and school-based intervention response.

She also contributes to the field of meta-science, understanding how scientists do science, with a particular interest in supporting a rigorous and reproducible developmental science. With colleagues, she built a data repository, LDbase, to support the data sharing and data access needs of scientists working in fields of developmental science related to education. Beyond her research, she is passionate about mentoring, translation of research, and advocating for women and minoritized individuals in science.

Professor Heather Igloliorte, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Decolonial and Transformational Indigenous Art Practices 
University of Victoria

Dr. Heather Igloliorte, an Inuk-Newfoundlander and Nunatsiavut Beneficiary, is the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Decolonial and Transformational Indigenous Art Practices at the University of Victoria, BC, where she is a Professor in the Visual Arts Department. Heather directs a SSHRC Talent Partnership Grant aimed at training and mentoring Indigenous peoples into careers in research and arts leadership; she has been a curator since 2005 and has worked on more than thirty curatorial projects. Her curatorial work has been recognized by The Hnatyshyn Foundation with the Award for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art (2021).

Igloliorte has served on many advisories, councils and juries. She is the current president of the board of the Inuit Art Foundation, and was the first Indigenous person in Canada to be awarded a Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Medal for her service to Indigenous art and artists, also in 2021.

Claude Jean, Executive Vice President, Strategy & Partnership
Teledyne Dalsa Imaging

Mr. Claude Jean was named Executive Vice President, Strategy & Partnership, of Teledyne Digital Imaging in October 2022.  Prior to that he was Executive Vice President and General Manager of Teledyne MEMS from 2007 to 2022, Vice President & Assistant General Manager, DALSA Semiconductor from 2004 to 2007 and Director of Operations of DALSA Semiconductor from 2002 to 2004.  From 1989 to 2004 he held various positions in R&D and production in the semiconductor field.

Mr. Jean holds a B.Sc. and a Master degree in Physics from Université de Sherbrooke, Canada, and a graduate degree in microelectronics from University Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, France. He also completed an MBA from University of Sherbrooke in 2006. He served as chair of the board of directors of NanoQuebec from 2009 to 2011, member of the board of governors of the Council of Canadian Academies from 2010 to 2016, member of the board of directors of the MiQro Innovation Collaborative Center (C2MI) since June 2011 and chair of the board since 2020, member of the Commission sur l’éthique en science et technologies du Québec from 2011 to 2013 and member of the board of directors of Cimeq from 2013 to 2020, member of the governing council of the MEMS & sensor Industry Group since January 2020, member of the board of directors of Distriq quantum innovation zone and Technum Bromont’s innovation zone since 2022.  He is co-author of several scientific publications.

Dr. Valérie Laflamme, Associate Vice-President / Tri-agency Institutional Programs Secretariat
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Valérie Laflamme is Associate Vice-President for the Tri-Agency Institutional Programs at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Since 2019, she leads teams of 70 people and a suite of seven tri-agency programs ($1.2B annually) including the Canada Research Chairs Programs, the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, the New Frontiers in Research Fund, the Canada Excellence Research Chairs, the Research Support Fund, and the Canada Biomedical Research Fund. She has been at SSHRC since 2012. She joined the public service through the Recruitment of Policy Leaders Program.

Before moving back to Canada from France, she was a maître de conférences in sociology and demography at the Université de Lille, a researcher with the Institut national d’études démographiques and a municipal councilor (Tourcoing, France). Valérie has a PhD in demography and social sciences from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (France), and has received fellowships from both SSHRC and the Fonds de recherche du Québec. Her own research has focused on housing, urban policies, and the social and demographic history of urban families. 

Professor Eve Langelier, NSERC Chair for Women in Science and Engineering for Quebec 
Université de Sherbrooke

Eve Langelier is a professor of mechanical engineering at Université de Sherbrooke and Chairholder of the Chair for Women in Science and Engineering (Quebec). She is actively involved in the recruitment, retention and professional development of women in science and engineering.

She also develops resources and training courses, and sits on various EDI committees in research and higher education.

Professor Leonard MacGillivray, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Crystal Engineering for Green Chemistry and Sustainable Materials 
Université de Sherbrooke

Prof. Leonard R. MacGillivray is a Professor and Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in ‘Crystal Engineering for Green Chemistry and Sustainable Materials’ at the Université de Sherbrooke, Quebec. Prof. MacGillivray obtained a B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in Chemistry from Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1994. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1998, where he held a 1967 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Fellowship. He then served as a Research Associate at the Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa from 1998-2000. He was a faculty member at the University of Iowa from 2000 to 2023 where he was appointed a Collegiate Fellow and served as Departmental Executive Officer from 2019-2023.

Prof. MacGillivray has authored over 260 publications, holds 7 patents, given over 220 invited national and international seminars in over 22 countries, mentored 30 students to the Ph.D. degree, and received continuous support from the National Science Foundation, as well as other funding agencies. Prof. MacGillivray has received several awards that include a 2007 Cope Scholar Award of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the 2021 ACS Midwest Award. In 2007, Prof. MacGillivray was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and then a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2012 and Fellow of the ACS in 2015.

Professor Vincent Mooser, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Genomic Medicine
McGill University

Vincent Mooser MD is a physician scientist, board certified in internal medicine, born and raised in Switzerland, and research trained in his country, in Australia and in the USA.

Over the past 30 years, his research, performed in academic and industry settings, has been focused on the question as to how natural variation of the human genome can inform the discovery and development of new drugs. Since 2019, he holds the CERC Chair in Genomic Medicine at McGill.

Professor Isla Myers-Smith, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Global Change Ecology of Northern Ecosystems 
University of British Columbia

Isla Myers-Smith (she/her) is a global change ecologist and a Canada Excellence Research Chair from the University of British Columbia. She studies how ecosystems are responding as the planet warms in the Arctic and beyond. Myers-Smith works with her research group Team Shrub using tools from measuring tapes to drones in the Yukon Territory in northwest Canada and around the tundra biome to explore how rapid an accelerating warming is leading to a ‘greening of the Arctic’.

She works with northern partners including Indigenous communities, photographers, educators, and immersive storytellers to visualize climate change impacts. The CERC chair in the Global Change Ecology of Northern Ecosystems will investigate how warming temperatures and shifting seasonality affect Arctic tundra, alpine, and boreal forest ecosystems, including changes in plant growth, habitat composition, wildlife movement and species ranges. It will also examine the collective impact of these changes on the livelihoods of Indigenous communities in the Yukon Territory, Canada.

Professor Shinichi Nakagawa, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Open Science and Synthesis in Ecology and Evolution
University of Alberta

Shinichi Nakagawa is the Canadian Excellence Research Chair in Open Science and Synthesis in Ecology and Evolution and Professor of Evolutionary Ecology and Synthesis at the University of Alberta.

His group's research spans animal personality, environmental toxicology, and statistical and synthesis method development to meta-research, including EDI issues in ecology, evolution, and beyond. In his CERC project, his team aims to improve the reliability and inclusiveness of ecological and evolutionary research by facilitating global collaborations. 

Professor Carey Newman, Impact Chair in Indigenous Art Practices
University of Victoria

Carey Newman, whose traditional name is Hayalthkin’geme, is a multi-disciplinary artist, carver, filmmaker, author and public speaker. Through his father, he is Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw from the Kukwaḵ̓a̱m, Gix̱sa̱m, and Wawałaba’yi clans of northern Vancouver Island, and Coast Salish from Xwchíyò:m (Cheam) of the Stó:lō S’olh Temexw (traditional territories) along the upper Fraser Valley. On his mother’s side of the family, his ancestors are English, Irish, and Scottish Settlers.

Prof. Newman is the inaugural Impact Chair in Indigenous Art Practices at the University of Victoria. In June of 2023 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws, honoris causa, by Royal Roads University; he has also been awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in 2017, was named to the Order of British Columbia in 2018. Carey is a master carver; his most influential work, The Witness Blanket, made of items collected from residential schools, government buildings and churches across Canada, deals with the subject of Truth and Reconciliation. It is now part of the collection at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

Kristina Örhvall, Assistant Vice-President for the Development of Research 
McGill University

Kristina Öhrvall is Assistant Vice President, Research Development at McGill University’s Office of the Vice-President (Research and Innovation). In this role, she leads a team responsible for helping researchers and the institution take advantage of funding opportunities for significant large-scale projects and complete superior-quality projects. She also handles the implementation and monitoring of key performance indicators, as well as research administration to support large-scale research initiatives. 

Kristina Öhrvall has been working in research administration since 2003, initially at Concordia University, and has been at McGill University since 2012. A trained environmental engineer, she has a master’s degree from Sweden’s Luleå University of Technology and is a member of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec.

Professor Jean-Pierre Perreault, Vice-President, Research and Graduate Studies
Université de Sherbrooke

Jean-Pierre Perreault is a full professor of biochemistry and functional genomics at Université de Sherbrooke and has held several research management positions, including associate dean of faculty development (2009–2010) and vice-dean of research and graduate studies (2010–2017) at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, before being appointed Vice-president of research and graduate studies. His achievements include a series of initiatives that helped UdeS more than double its research income within seven years, climbing from 18th to 10th in Canada. Jean-Pierre Perreault is the founding director of the Centre of excellence for RNA biology research and one of the co-founders of the RiboClub, a group of Canadian researchers interested in the study of RNA. He was President of the Canadian Society of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology (renamed the Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences under his leadership). He was also appointed the administrator of the Acfas governing council in 2020 and served as its president from 2021 to 2024.

Jean-Pierre Perreault is a molecular biologist and expert in RNA and viroid enzymology. He holds the Université de Sherbrooke research chair in RNA structure and genomics, and previously held the Canada Research Chair in Catalytic Genomics and RNA (2005–2012). He piloted the development of new gene inactivation applications based on key findings from his laboratory.

Alysa Procida, Executive Director
Inuit Art Foundation

Alysa Procida, a passionate and dedicated arts advocate, has collaborated and worked closely with Inuit artists, curators and stakeholders for the past decade. In 2015 Alysa joined the Inuit Art Foundation as Executive Director and Publisher of the award-winning Inuit Art Quarterly (IAQ), bringing a variety of knowledge and exprience with Inuit art and non-profit leadership. Prior to her role with the IAF, Alysa was the Executive Director and Curator of the Museum of Inuit Art in Toronto, ON.

Under her leadership the IAF successfully launched several signature programs including the Igloo Tag Trademark, which protects artists from cultural appropriation and theft; the IAF Profiles, a first-of-its-kind biographical resource for artists to receive support in creating online CVs and the inaugural Kenojuak Ashevak Memorial Award, which has grown to support up to ten established Inuit artists in their careers with funding, as well as an acquisition, residency and exhibition at the WAG-Qaumajuq for the winner. As Publisher of the IAQ, Alysa oversaw a full redesign of the magazine in conjunction with the IAF’s 30th anniversary in 2017 and the magazine’s first National Magazine Award in 2018. In 2019, she was shortlisted for Publisher Grand Prix at the National Magazine Awards, and in 2021 the IAQ was awarded Best Arts and Literary Magazine and Magazine Grand Prix winner.

Professor Patricia Romero-Lankao, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Sustainability Transitions
Toronto Metropolitan University

Professor Paty Romero-Lankao is a Canadian Excellence in Research Chair and leader of its Network for Equity in Sustainability Transitions (CERC NEST) at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She was a distinguished research scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Paty examines crucial interactions among actors, climate and sustainability in many cities worldwide. She has developed innovative methods (e.g., clustering techniques) to examine how inequalities in income, education, and decision-making power are created (recognition justice) and relate to the distribution of benefits or harms (distributional justice).

She has also developed tools such as listening sessions and fuzzy cognitive maps to examine the aspirations and needs of women, elders, the working class, people of colour, and other underrepresented groups to inform the understanding and management of these needs (e.g., procedural justice). Paty is widely cited in her field, with about 150 peer-reviewed publications. She was the co-leading author of Working Group II of the Nobel Prize-winning IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. She led the social and policy approaches to LA100 Equity Strategies.

Dr. Richa Shivakoti, Research Area Lead in Migration Governance – Canada Excellence Chair in Migration and Integration
Toronto Metropolitan University 

Richa Shivakoti is the Research Lead on Migration Governance at the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration & Integration program at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her research focus is on the governance of labour migration and gender and migration. She is currently conducting research on various migration topics in Canada, Nepal, the Philippines and Ghana. She is an Associate Editor for the Comparative Migration Studies journal, Editor for the CERC-TMCIS working paper series and is on the Editorial Advisory Panel for Public Administration and Development.

Richa has a PhD in Public Policy from the National University of Singapore and a dual Masters in Public Affairs and Political Science from Indiana University, Bloomington. Previously, she was a research officer at Carleton University, a postdoctoral fellow at Maastricht University, the Netherlands, and a Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University. Richa has taught in various capacities in universities in Canada, USA, Singapore and Nepal. She has also worked for and consulted with various international organizations such as the International Organization for Migration, the International Labour Organization, the ASEAN Secretariat, the Open Society Foundations and the International Rescue Committee.

Professor Karen Soldatić, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Health Equity and Community Well-being 
Toronto Metropolitan University

The CERC Health Equity and Community Wellbeing program uniquely employs a critical disability intersectional lens to embed community knowledge into healthcare. By centering the experiences of diverse and marginalized populations facing systemic barriers, we aim to create more inclusive and accessible health systems. Recognizing disability as both a consequence and driver of health inequity, this program integrates disability perspectives throughout its research, from design to implementation.

As the CERC in Health Equity and Community Wellbeing, Dr. Karen Soldatić is developing a transformative research initiative that employs an engaged community partnership approach to expand our understanding, practice, delivery and participation in services to  improve health for all members of our communities.

Professor Sriram Subramaniam, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Precision Cancer Drug Design 
University of British Columbia

Dr. Sriram Subramaniam is Gobind Khorana Canada Excellence Research Chair in Cancer Drug design at the University of British Columbia, and also the Founder and CEO of Gandeeva Therapeutics, a drug discovery company based in Vancouver. Prior to his arrival in Vancouver, Sriram was Senior Investigator at the National Institutes of Health where he also founded and directed the US National Cryo-EM Facility.

He received his PhD in physical chemistry from Stanford University and completed postdoctoral training in the Departments of Chemistry and Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His work showed that the structures of proteins bound to drugs could be visualized using single particle cryo-EM methods at near-atomic resolution.

Professor Robert I. Thompson, Associate Vice-President (Research) and Executive Director, Research Services
University of Calgary

Professor Maia Vergniory, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Topological Quantum Matter 
Université de Sherbrooke

Maia G. Vergniory received her doctorate cum laude from the University of the Basque Country in Spain in 2008 and joined the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US as a postdoctoral fellow. After three years, she moved to the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics for a second postdoc. She won the L’Oréal Award for Women in Science in 2017 and the Ikerbasque Award in 2019. In 2023, she was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society.

Until 2024, she has been a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for the Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden. In 2023, she obtained a CERC on Quantum Matter, and she is now a professor at the Université de Sherbrooke.