On April 26th, 2017, Professor Sophie D’Amours was elected Rector of the Université Laval. She is the first-ever woman rector and the 26th person to hold this position. Université Laval is one of Canada’s leading university, with more than 45 000 students. 9 500 employees and an annual budget of over $1 billion (research budget $400M). Sophie D’Amours is a mechanical engineer. She holds a master degree in business administration and a PhD in applied mathematics.

Her career is marked by important research contributions in business engineering and planning, notably applied to the forest sector. She has hold a Canada research chair as well as a NSERC industrial research chair and lead national and international initiatives in her field.

She is a board member of the International Development Research Centre of Canada and she chairs Universities Canada’s board of directors and the Conseil de l’innovation du Québec. She is an Officer of the Order of Canada. She is a member of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and an International Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Forestry and Agriculture.