Dr. Patrice Sawyer Re-Appointed as Laurentian’s Vice-President, Research and Francophone Affairs

February 15, 2013 – Laurentian University’s Board of Governors today unanimously approved the re-appointment of Dr. Patrice Sawyer as Vice-President, Research and Francophone Affairs, for a second five-year term beginning on July 1, 2014 and ending on June 30, 2019.

The re-appointment was recommended by an evaluation committee of ten people, including members of the Board of Governors, administration, faculty and students, and was endorsed by the University’s Senate.

“Dr. Sawyer is very highly-regarded within the university community. We received positive feedback about his leadership throughout the renewal process,” said Michael Atkins, Vice Chair of the Board of Governors.  “He has also earned the respect of his peers, as shown by his recent election as Vice-Chair of the Ontario Council on University Research (OCUR),” said Atkins.

“Dr. Sawyer brought a 2012-2017 Strategic Research Plan to Senate last year, and won unanimous support for this vision of our research objectives,” said Dominic Giroux, President and Vice-Chancellor.  “With his re-appointment, the university will continue to build on the momentum we’ve created in setting out our strategic plans for the next 5-years.”

“I am grateful for the vote of confidence from the Board of Governors, the Senate, and the review committee. I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues, students and external partners as we direct our collective efforts toward the ambitious targets set by the University community for research and francophone programs,” said Dr. Sawyer.

During the course of Dr. Sawyer’s first term in the post, Laurentian’s position relative to other Canadian universities has improved in several measures.  Since 2008, Laurentian has recorded significant increases in total sponsored research income, research income per full-time faculty member, number of publications, number of publications per full-time faculty member and impact of publications. The University’s proportion and value of funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research has increased since 2008, and the University has been particularly successful with recent research funding applications in mining and occupational health and safety.  Dr. Sawyer also championed the creation of the Board’s Research Ethics Board Liaison Committee and led Senate’s revision of the Policy for Responsible Conduct of Research. He has been an active member of the boards of directors of Health Sciences North and of the Advanced Medical Research Institute of Canada.  In 2012, Laurentian submitted a request to seek a partial designation under Ontario’s French-Language Services Act.

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About Dr. Sawyer

Dr. Sawyer completed his B.Sc. at Université Laval and his Ph.D. at McGill University. He was a faculty member at the University of Prince Edward Island and at the University of Ottawa prior to joining Laurentian’s Department of Mathematics and Computer Science in 1994. He served as representative of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada at Laurentian from 2000 to 2008, and also contributed as a member of several research-intensive boards of directors, including the SNOLAB Institute, the Mining Innovation, Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corporation (MIRARCO) and the Shared Hierarchical Academic Research Computing Network (SHARCNET). He is currently the Chair of the Institute Council and of the governance committee of the SNOLAB Institute.  Over the past 19 years, he has been active on several university committees, including on the board of the Laurentian University Faculty Association. A Full Professor, he served as Chair of his department and became Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering in 2006, Acting Vice-President, Academic (Francophone Affairs) in 2008 and Vice-President, Research and Graduate Studies in 2009. Francophone Affairs were added to his portfolio in 2010. 

Media Contacts

For further information or to schedule an interview, please contact:

Joanne Musico                                                                                     

Manager, Communications                                                                    

Tel: 705-675-1151 ext. 3445 or 1.800.263.4188 ext.3445                          

jmusico@laurentian.ca              

Sherry Drysdale

Communications

Tel:705-675-1151 ext. 3412

sdrysdale@laurentian.ca