René Doyon obtained his PhD in astrophysics from the Imperial College of Science, Technology
and Medecine in 1990. He is full professor at the physics Department of the Université de
Montréal, Director of the Institute for Research on Exoplanets and Mont-Mégantic Observatory.
His research activities focus on the search and study of exoplanets, young stars and the
development of state-of-the-art astronomical instruments for ground- and spaced-based
observatories. He is principal investigator of the Canadian-built instrument onboard the James
Webb Space Telescope, to be launched in 2021. He is co-PI of SPIRou and NIRPS, two
instruments optimized for the detection of Earth-like planets around low-mass stars. He and his
students led the development of novel imaging techniques that contributed, in 2008, to obtain the
first images of a multiple planetary system outside the Solar system. His distinctions includes the
2009 Polanyi award from the Natural Science and Engineering Council of Canada, the 2009 prize
from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the 2011 Médaille de
l’Assemblée Nationale, the 2017 Urgel-Archambault prize awarded by the Association
Francophone pour le Savoir and the 2018 Killam Research Fellowship.