Dr Rémi Quirion

Dr Rémi Quirion has been appointed Quebec's first chief scientist, and chair of the board of the directors of the newly created Fonds de recherche du Québec, fulfilling a key component of the province's updated research and innovation strategy. Quirion is an internationally renowned researcher and research administrator in the area of Alzheimer's disease, with more than 700 published papers and numerous awards including the Order of Quebec and the Order of Canada. A professor in McGill Univ's department of psychiatry, he holds several positions at the university. These include scientific director of the Douglas Institute Research Centre, vice-dean, science and strategic institutes, faculty of medicine and senior university advisor for health sciences research. He is also executive director of the International Collaborative Research Strategy for Alzheimer's Disease — an initiative of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and served as scientific director of CIHR's Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction until 2009. Quirion also maintains a laboratory at the Douglas Institute. He will be stepping down from these positions to take up his new responsibilities and will close his lab within 18 months. Quirion received his post-secondary education at the Univ of Sherbrooke where he obtained a BSc in biology and an MSc and PhD in pharmacology...