Université de Montréal Confers Honorary Doctorates to Three Distinguished Scholars
Every year, Université de Montréal awards honorary doctorates to distinguished individuals whose outstanding achievements have earned them esteem at home and abroad. It is the university’s highest distinction. This year, the recipients are Stephen Toope, Joël Bockaert and Sharon Straus.
In May, Jean-Marc Léger, economist and founding president of Léger Marketing, received an honorary doctorate at HEC Montréal’s convocation ceremony. In June, engineer and entrepreneur Serge Gendron, and Kwang Hyung Lee, rector of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), were honoured at Polytechnique Montréal’s convocation ceremony.
Here’s a brief look at the new cohort of honorary degree recipients and their accomplishments.
Stephen Toope
Stephen John Toope is a Canadian legal expert with degrees from Harvard University, McGill University and Trinity College, Cambridge. An expert in human rights, public international law and international relations, he has published in international journals on a wide range of topics, including the law of persons, international dispute settlement, international environmental law, the use of force and international legal theory.
His eminent academic career led to terms as president of the University of British Columbia (2006–2014) and vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge (2017–2022). He also served as director of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto, and president and CEO of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. In November 2022, he was appointed president and CEO of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR).
Stephen Toope will receive an honorary doctorate at UdeM’s Ph.D. convocation ceremony on August 23 at 3:30 p.m.
Joël Bockaert
A graduate of the École normale supérieure de Paris, biologist Joël Bockaert earned an agrégation in natural sciences in 1968 and completed his thesis at the Collège de France. His research focuses on intercellular communication in the brain, in particular on receptors, the molecules responsible for detecting and interpreting messages between cells.
From 1973 to 1983, he served as assistant director of the Cellular Physiology Chair at the Collège de France. In 1982, he founded and then headed the CNRS-INSERM Institute of Pharmacology-Endocrinology and later, in 2005, the Institute of Functional Genomics. He has held positions at several universities, including Université Paris VI and Université de Montpellier, where he is currently on the faculty.
After being awarded an honorary doctorate by Université libre de Bruxelles, Joël Bockaert will receive his second honorary degree from Université de Montréal at the Faculty of Medicine’s convocation ceremony on August 24 at 3 p.m.
Sharon E. Straus
Author of over 400 publications and three medical textbooks, Sharon Straus ranks in the top 1 per cent of highly cited clinical researchers, according to Web of Science. After completing M.D. and M.Sc. degrees at the University of Toronto, she pursued a research fellowship at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on promoting the application of scientific knowledge, improving systematic review methods, optimizing patient care and geriatric medicine.
She holds the Canada Research Chair in Knowledge Translation and Quality of Care and has spearheaded many major projects, including a meta-analysis for the CIHR-funded Drug Safety and Effectiveness Network. She is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, including Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2013) and Member of the Order of Canada (2021). She is currently a professor of geriatric medicine at the University of Toronto.
Sharon Straus will receive an honorary doctorate at the Faculty of Medicine’s convocation ceremony on August 24 at 3 p.m.