René Doyon wins the 2025 Killam Prize for natural sciences

René Doyon, Director of IREx and the Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic, has been honoured today with the 2025 Killam Prize in Natural Sciences. The Killam Prizes are awarded annually to active Canadian scholars who have distinguished themselves through sustained research excellence, making a significant impact in their respective fields. He joins four other Canadian scholars in the humanities, social sciences, health sciences, and engineering, each receiving $100,000.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the sky,” said Doyon, who is also professor of physics at the Université de Montréal and the principal investigator for the Canadian contribution to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) for the Canadian Space Agency and NASA. “Thetford Mines, where I grew up, is a small city, so you can really see the sky at night. I remember one winter, outside our house, there were all these drapes in the sky: it was the aurora borealis, the Northern Lights. Fascinating,” he tells our UdeMNouvelles colleagues, who take the opportunity of this award to retrace the remarkable career of our director.

He also expressed his surprise at receiving this award, despite having already earned several prestigious distinctions in recent years, such as the Prix Marie-Victorin and Radio-Canada’s Scientist of the Year award (twice!). “I thought ‘Wow, I don’t consider myself in the same league as other recipients of this prize.’ But it’s not only a recognition of the work that I’ve done and its impact, it’s a recognition of the work of my team. I didn’t do it alone.”

Mr. Doyon, who has always insisted on the importance of teamwork, concludes by recalling the power of international collaboration: “The United States, Canada and Europe have made JWST a joint project — probably the most complex machine ever built. What has enabled us to succeed, and to grow stronger scientifically, is our close collaboration.”

The members of IREx are incredibly proud and consider themselves fortunate to be led by this pioneer of astronomical instrumentation and exoplanet research!

Well done, René!

To learn more

Read UdeMNouvelles article ‘I’ve always been fascinated by the sky’, 19 March 2025.

About Killam Prizes

The Killam Prizes are awarded to active Canadian scholars who have distinguished themselves through sustained research excellence, making a significant impact in their respective fields in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, health sciences, and engineering. This prestigious distinction was awarded to Yoshua Bengio and Gilles Brassard from the Université de Montréal.