Recipient: Michel L. Tremblay, Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre, McGill University
The role of Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases in Human Disease
The Michel Sarrazin award recognizes the scientific career and outstanding contribution of an established Quebec researcher.
Michel Sarrazin (1659-1734) was Canada’s first scientist. He arrived in Quebec in 1685 as a surgeon whose task was to care for soldiers who had survived the trans-Atlantic crossing and who had to fight the Indians, the English, the Spanish and any other threats to the French empire. He went back to France in 1693 to study medicine and returned to Quebec in 1697 with the title of king’s physician. And he was an excellent physician. For example, when there was an outbreak of spotted fever, he managed to save all the patients of a crew arriving from Europe.
In addition to medicine, Michel Sarrazin was also interested in botany. He studied various species of native plants in Quebec and submitted his observations to the prestigious Académie des sciences de Paris. He was the first naturalist in Canada, but his scientific curiosity was not limited to botany. He wrote anatomical descriptions of the brown bear, muskrat, seal and other animals that lived in Quebec.
We offer our most sincere congratulations to Dr. Tremblay and look forward to his future innovations and insight into this field.
Further information regarding this prize can be found here (in French)
October 19, 2012