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Suzanne Fortier

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Suzanne Fortier
OCFRSC
Fortier in May 2012
17thPrincipaland Vice-Chancellor ofMcGill University
In office
September 1, 2013 – August 31, 2022
ChancellorH. Arnold Steinberg
Michael A. Meighen
John McCall MacBain
Preceded byHeather Munroe-Blum
Succeeded byDeep Saini
Personal details
Born(1949-11-11)November 11, 1949(age 75)
Saint-Timothée,Quebec,Canada
Alma materMcGill University
OccupationCrystallographer
Scientific career
FieldsCrystallography
Institutions
ThesisThe relationship of pyroelectricity and crystal structure in tourmaline(1976)
Doctoral advisorGabrielle Donnay

Suzanne FortierOCFRSC(born November 11, 1949)[1]is a Canadian crystallographer who was the 17thPrincipaland Vice-Chancellor ofMcGill University.

Early life and education

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Fortier was born inSaint-Timothée, Quebec,a town on Île-de-Salaberry in theSt. Lawrence River.Her parents ran a small local hotel. She grew up speaking only French and attended a small local convent, which served as elementary school.[2]A nun who taught chemistry and was enthusiastic about the subject inspired her to pursue science.[3]

She was among the first group of girls admitted to the localCEGEP,where she and a friend decided to enter the 1968 Quebec provincial science fair.[4]Their project on the diffraction of sound waves interested acrystallographerfrom McGill University who was attending the science fair, and who invited Fortier and her friend to visit his lab. This visit further confirmed her interest in science generally and crystallography in particular, a field of study that she has said "present[s] you with beautiful puzzles to solve. There are incredible pictures that you get of the structure of matter."[4]

Fortier entered McGill University, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in 1972. She won an NRC Canada Post Graduate Scholarship and entered directly into a PhD program in crystallography. Her supervisor wasGabrielle Donnay.

During her PhD work, she attended a talk by U.S. mathematician Herbert Hauptman, who would later win the 1985 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and who studied directed methods for determining crystal structures. After being awarded her PhD in 1976, Fortier worked on biophysics for six years at the Medical Foundation of Buffalo, Inc., a private institute where Hauptman was research director (now the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute).

Academic career

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In 1982, she joined the Department of Chemistry ofQueen's UniversityinKingston, Ontarioas an assistant professor. She was the first woman to be hired by the department.[citation needed]She was interested in usingartificial intelligenceand other mathematical and machine learning techniques to determine the structure of proteins. In 1993, she was cross-appointed to the Department of Computer Science. She later served as Queen's Vice-Principal for Research from 1995 to 2000, and then as Vice-Principal for Academics from 2000 to 2005.[citation needed]

She took a leave from Queen's to become the President of theNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council(NSERC), aCanadian governmentagency that provides grants for research in thenatural sciencesand inengineering.She served as head of NSERC from January 16, 2006[5]until March 4, 2013.[6]

In September 2013, Fortier was appointed the principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University.

Fortier's current salary at McGill is $390,000 with a discretionary bonus of up to twenty percent. Her contract was made public in 2013 by the university.

She was a member of the Advisory Council on Economic Growth, which advised the Canadian Finance MinisterBill Morneauon economic policies to achieve long-termsustainable growth.The Council called for a gradual increase in permanentimmigration to Canadato 450,000 people a year.[7][8]

In 2022, Fortier announced her retirement from the role of principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University effective August 31, 2022.[9]

Honours

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Fortier was awarded a total of three honorary doctorates fromThompson Rivers University,Carleton University,and theUniversity of Glasgow.[10]In 1997, she received theClara Benson Awardfor distinguished contributions to chemistry by a woman. Fortier was also honored with theQueen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medalin 2012.

References

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  1. ^"McGill principal and vice-chancellor completes full circle".The Globe and Mail.19 September 2014.RetrievedSeptember 30,2014.
  2. ^"Ardent administrator: how Suzanne Fortier's unmistakable enthusiasm for Canadian science began with a passion for solving the" beautiful puzzles "of the structure of matter. - Free Online Library".www.thefreelibrary.com.Retrieved2017-10-26.
  3. ^Hoag, Hannah (8 March 2006)."Suzanne Fortier, president, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada".Nature.440(7081): 252.doi:10.1038/nj7081-252a.ISSN1476-4687.S2CID155850217.
  4. ^abCalamai, Peter (May 2011). "Ardent administrator: how Suzanne Fortier's unmistakable enthusiasm for Canadian science began with a passion for solving the" beautiful puzzles "of the structure of matter".Canadian Chemical News.63(5).
  5. ^"Biography: Dr. Suzanne Fortier (Wayback machine cache)".Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. 2009-06-10. Archived from the original on January 7, 2013.Retrieved21 August2010.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  6. ^Suzanne, Fortier (2013-03-05)."Statement from Dr. Suzanne Fortier".Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.Retrieved3 September2013.
  7. ^"Fortier, Ragan part of Advisory Council on Economic Growth".McGill Reporter.May 17, 2016.
  8. ^"Influential Liberal advisers want Canadian population to triple by 2100".Global News.October 23, 2016.
  9. ^Friesen, Joe (2022-01-07)."McGill University principal Suzanne Fortier to step down in August".The Globe and Mail.Retrieved2022-01-08.
  10. ^"Office of the Principal and Vice-Chancellor: Biography".McGill University.Retrieved2019-01-21.
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