Dr. Robert Boily is President of the Academy of Science of Canada, First Vice President of the Royal Society of Canada and mentor of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at the University of Montreal, among many other responsibilities. His career spans 50 years and more than 1000 research projects for science programs totaling billions of dollars. He was a long-time (35+ years) researcher and senior science advisor to the
Governement of Canada (National Research Council, Department of National Defence, Canadian Space Agency, etc.) and the Government of Quebec (National Institute of Scientific Research, Hydro-Quebec, etc.), collaborating with some of the world’s top corporations and research organizations such as Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Engines, the NASA, the European Space Agency, General Electric and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (USA).
He spent his entire career doing research at the intersection of applied physics and engineering, contributing to numerous sectors of science and technology such as electronics, photonics, imaging, electrical energy, aerospace, nanotechnology and advanced materials. An important part of his work consisted in communicating the latest scientific findings to government and industry executives, and to scientists from other fields of research in the scope of multidisciplinary projects. He also worked extensively with universities and research grant agencies.
His work enabled hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D funding from governments and the industry, the creation of hundreds of high-level scientific jobs and new innovative companies spun off from academia, the development of science-based government programs and policies, and the transformation of scientific discoveries from laboratory concepts to real-life applications.
A Sigma Xi Fellow and member for 21 years, he was also elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the American Physical Society, the UK Institute of Physics, the Engineering Institute of Canada and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was decorated as a Knight of the National Order of Quebec (Canada), Knight of the Order of Academic Palms (France) and Knight of the Order of the Pleiade (France). He also received the Gold Medal of IEEE Montreal and the John P. McGovern Award of Sigma Xi, among many other awards and honors.