Suzanne Fortier served as the 17th Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University from 2013 to 2022. Prior to her appointment as Principal, Professor Fortier was President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) from 2006 to 2013, and held the position of Vice-Principal (Academic) from 2000 to 2005 and Vice-Principal (Research) from 1995 to 2000 at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, where she was a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and in the School of Computing (1982-2006).
A native of St-Timothée, Québec, Professor Fortier graduated from McGill with a BSc (1972) and a PhD in Crystallography (1976). Her research work has focused in the development of mathematical and artificial intelligence methodologies for protein structure determination. She has also made contributions to the development of novel techniques in crystallographic data mining to gain new insights from the large structural databases.
Professor Fortier was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2018.