2020 CASCA Awards

2020 CASCA Awards
Our director René Doyon (left) and colleague Julie Bolduc-Duval (right) are both CASCA award recipients in 2020. (Credit: É. Artigau/CASCA/Dunlap Institute)

Dunlap Award

The Mont-Mégantic Observatory is proud to announce that René Doyon, Director of OMM and Professor at the Université de Montréal, is the recipient of the Canadian Astronomical Society’s Dunlap Award for Innovation in Astronomical Research Tools.

René Doyon. (Credit: Université de Montréal)

René Doyon has led many infrared instrumentation projects during his career and his work has benefited virtually every Canadian astronomer who has ever made infrared observations. In particular, he is heavily involved in SPIRou, NIRPS and the NIRISS instrument onboard the James Webb Space Telescope, which will identify and characterise nearby habitable planets, in addition to enabling a variety of other astrophysical studies.

This CASCA award is given to an individual or team for the design, invention, or improvement of instrumentation or software that has enabled significant advances in astronomy.

 

Qilak Award

Julie Bolduc-Duval

Julie Bolduc-Duval. (Credit: Dunlap Institut for Astronomy and Astrophysics)

In addition, Julie Bolduc-Duval, Executive Director of Discover the Universe, is the recipient of the Canadian Astronomical Society’s Qilak Award.

Ms. Bolduc-Duval is an outstanding communicator who has dedicated her career to making astronomy accessible to elementary and secondary school teachers. The Discover the Universe program which she initiated in 2009 has become Canada’s national, bilingual astronomy training program for educators across the country. The OMM is very pleased to collaborate with her on many projects.

The CASCA Qilak Award is intended to recognize the recipient’s outstanding contribution to public understanding and appreciation of astronomy in Canada, or to informal astronomy education in Canada.

Similar articles

SPIOMM, the OMM’s spy, unravels the mysteries of the Crab Nebula
6 December 2010

SPIOMM, the OMM’s spy, unravels the mysteries of the Crab Nebula

A team of researchers from CRAQ member Université Laval has produced the first three-dimensional map…

OMM and CRAQ researchers participate in the discovery of a planet fated to disintegrate
21 December 2011

OMM and CRAQ researchers participate in the discovery of a planet fated to disintegrate

A team led by researchers from MIT and NASA, with the collaboration of two CRAQ…

OMM delivers FGS/NIRISS to NASA
25 July 2012

OMM delivers FGS/NIRISS to NASA

Two instruments, whose acronyms are NIRISS and FGS, designed by a team co-led by Université…