2025 Award Winners:
CSPC 2025
Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
CSPC 2025
Trailblazer Award Winner
CSPC 2025
Trailblazer Award Winner
CSPC 2025
Youth Award Winner
The CSPC Science Policy Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes outstanding individuals who have made significant contributions to science policy, and throughout their career have championed and inspired the science policy community in Canada. This award recognizes the work of individuals who have worked in science policy over a period of many years and made a deep impact in Canadian science policy.
The Lifetime Achievement Award is nominated and selected by the CSPC Board of Directors. CSPC encourages all individuals and/or organizations to forward names of any persons who they believe might deserve to be nominated for this award to CSPC ([email protected]). The CSPC is committed to the principles of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and encourages individuals from all groups to apply. An individual may win the CSPC award only once.
2025
Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
Dr. Rémi Quirion
Chief Scientist of Québec, President of INGSA
Dr. Rémi Quirion has been selected as the recipient of the CSPC 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his extraordinary and long-term contributions to science, innovation, and public policy in Quebec, Canada and internationally.
As Québec’s first Chief Scientist, Dr. Quirion has been a tireless advocate for interdisciplinary research, international collaboration, and public engagement with science. He has elevated Québec’s standing as a global leader in science and innovation and become one of Canada’s foremost champions of science diplomacy, fostering strong ties with the Francophonie, the Global South, and other partners worldwide.
2022 – Lifetime Achievement Award Winner:
Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Citizen Advocate on Environmental, Cultural and Human Rights
Sheila Watt-Cloutier has been selected as a result of so many years of exceptional contribution and leadership over the course of her career in bringing Indigenous perspectives and knowledge to national and international policymaking, in particular on environmental health, sustainability and preservation.
She has raised awareness of the threat of climate change in the Arctic and its relationship to human rights and Indigenous rights in Canada, and globally, She has been clearly articulating the interconnectedness of Inuit culture, the environment, the economy, foreign policy, global health, and sustainability. Her work with the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment integrated traditional and western knowledge and evidence, bringing a human face to climate change in the Arctic. She has inspired the science policy community across Canada with her insights, courage, and voice.
The CSPC Trailblazer Awards recognize individuals who have demonstrated novelty and creativity through leadership, vision, courage, and commitment and have positively and significantly impacted Science, Technology, Innovation and Society in Canada. These individuals have been instrumental in boldly spearheading change via one or more transformative initiatives while blazing a trail and inspiring others to follow.
CSPC 2025 will present four Trailblazer Awards, one in each of the categories of Policy for Science, Science for Policy, Innovation Policy, and Science & Society.
CSPC encourages nominations from all disciplines of policy and science (natural sciences, engineering and technology, health and life sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities) and from all sectors (governments at all levels, academia, private and nonprofit sectors, media and others).
Please note that this award does not consider technological or scientific discoveries, inventions, or innovations.
2023 – Trailblazer Award Winner
Category: Innovation Policy
Dr. Catherine Beaudry
Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Industrial Engineering at Polytechnique Montréal
2023 – Trailblazer Award Winner
Category: Science for Policy
Dr. David Hammond
Professor and University Research Chair in the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo
2023 – Trailblazer Award Winner
Category: Policy for Science
Hon. Kirsty Duncan
Deputy House Leader Member of Parliament
2022 – Trailblazer Award Winner
Category: Innovation Policy
Dr. Elicia Maine
Associate Vice-President, Knowledge Mobilization and Innovation, Simon Fraser University
2022 – Trailblazer Award Winner
Category: Science for Policy
Dr. Gregory J. Smallwood
Principal Research Officer, National Research Council of Canada
2022 – Trailblazer Award Winner
Category: Policy for Science
Dr. Imogen Coe
Professor, Toronto Metropolitan University
2021 – Trailblazer Award Winner
Category: Innovation Policy
Josephine Etowa
Professor, University of Ottawa
Senior Investigator, Centre for Research on Health and Nursing
2021 – Trailblazer Award Winner
Category: Science Policy
Yann Joly
Research Director, Centre of Genomics and Policy
This award recognizes a young individual (student, postdoctoral fellow, researcher, entrepreneur, etc.) under the age of 35 who proposes an innovative and compelling evidence-based policy that will make a positive difference to Canadians. This award is designed not only to highlight innovative, evidence-driven policy ideas by policy students and young professionals, but also to encourage young people not currently studying, or working on, public policy to share their policy ideas.
Eligible recipients include all young Canadian residents under 35, regardless of their field of study or work.
2025
Youth Award Winner
Dr. Burhan Hussein
Program Director of the Canadian Black Scientists Network
University of Toronto
Burhan Hussein is a research chemist, educator, and innovation enthusiast with expertise in sustainable technologies, materials science, and science policy. Burhan’s career spans academic research, industry collaboration, and commercialization, with work ranging from carbon capture materials to new cancer therapies.
Topic: Coming Soon
Featured Applicants:
2021 – Winner: Shaarika Sarasija
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Ottawa
Topic: Step up: Finding respite care for persons living with dementia among students of Canadian health professions
Runners up:
- Taylor Reidlinger – A Call to Modernize Canadian Fisheries Policy: for Better Community Well-being, Food Security, Climate Resilience, and Economic Prosperity
- Hannah Rahim – The need for community-driven phenomenological research to address the suicide crisis among Indigenous peoples in Canada
Runners up:
- Taylor Reidlinger – A Call to Modernize Canadian Fisheries Policy: for Better Community Well-being, Food Security, Climate Resilience, and Economic Prosperity
- Hannah Rahim – The need for community-driven phenomenological research to address the suicide crisis among Indigenous peoples in Canada
2020 – Winner: Hannah Harrison
Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Geography, Environment & Geomatics, University of Guelph
Topic: Improving seafood direct-marketing for Canadian economic resilience and food security
This award recognizes a young individual (student, postdoctoral fellow, researcher, entrepreneur, etc.) under the age of 35 who proposes an innovative and compelling evidence-based policy that will make a positive difference to Canadians. This award is designed not only to highlight innovative, evidence-driven policy ideas by policy students and young professionals, but also to encourage young people not currently studying, or working on, public policy to share their policy ideas.
Eligible recipients include all young Canadian residents under 35, regardless of their field of study or work.
2021 – Winner: Shaarika Sarasija
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Ottawa
Topic: Step up: Finding respite care for persons living with dementia among students of Canadian health professions
Runners up:
- Taylor Reidlinger – A Call to Modernize Canadian Fisheries Policy: for Better Community Well-being, Food Security, Climate Resilience, and Economic Prosperity
- Hannah Rahim – The need for community-driven phenomenological research to address the suicide crisis among Indigenous peoples in Canada
