Suzanne Fortier served as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University from 2013 to 2022. Prior to her appointment as Principal, she was President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) from 2006 to 2013. Previously, she spent twenty-five years as a faculty member at Queen’s University, where she was a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and in the School of Computing. At Queen’s, she also held senior leadership roles as Vice-Principal (Research) from 1995 to 2000 and Vice-Principal (Academic) from 2000 to 2005.
Professor Fortier has played an active role in numerous advisory and governance capacities. She currently chairs the Advisory Committee of the Goodman Cancer Institute and is a member of the Global Excellence Initiative Committee and the Advisory Committee of the McGill School of Music. She presided over the evaluation of Université de Strasbourg and Sorbonne Université, and co-chaired the National Killam Advisory Board. In Canada, she served as a member of the Federal Minister of Finance’s Advisory Council on Economic Growth and of the Canadian Business-Higher Education Roundtable. She has also been a board member of Montreal International, the Conference Board of Canada, Universities Canada, the Trudeau Foundation, the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal, Catalyst Canada, and the McGill University Health Centre.
Her national and international service includes membership in the federal government’s Council of Science and Technology Advisors and the Board of Directors of the Canada Foundation for Innovation. She chaired the Steering Committee of the Networks of Centres of Excellence, served on the Ontario Task Force on Competitiveness, Productivity and Economic Progress, and was Vice-Chair of the Science, Technology and Innovation Council. Internationally, she is a member of the Boards of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, SRMAP University in India, and is a founding Board Member of MBUST in Nepal. She also serves on the HEC Paris International Advisory Board and the University of the People’s President Council.
Professor Fortier chaired the World Economic Forum’s Global University Leaders Forum and co-chaired its Global Future Agenda on Education and Skills. She was appointed to the 12th International Academic Advisory Panel by the Government of Singapore and to the International Review Panel of Switzerland’s ETH Domain. She has also served as a member of the International Jury of France’s IDEX program (Investissements d’avenir), participated in reviews of Danish programs supporting research and innovation, and chaired the review of the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
Her achievements have been recognized with numerous honours and distinctions. She holds honorary doctorates from Queen’s University, the University of Glasgow, Carleton University, and Thompson Rivers University. She has been named an Officer of the Order of Canada and received the Order of Merit of France. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was named a Specially Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2015.
Throughout her career, Professor Fortier has been the recipient of multiple prestigious awards, including the Clara Benson Award for distinguished contributions to chemistry by a woman (1997), the Entrepreneurship Award from Communications and Information Technology Ontario (1997), the Queen’s University Distinguished Service Award (2005), and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012). In 2022, she was named Principal and Vice-Chancellor Emerita by McGill University in recognition of her outstanding service and leadership.