Personal information

René Doyon

Chaire de recherche du Canada en astrophysique expérimentale et sciences exoplanétaires

Département de physique Université de Montréal C.P. 6128, Succursale Centre-Ville Montréal, QC Canada   H3C 3J7 Phone: 514-343-6111 x 3204 Fax: 514-343-2071 Email: doyon@astro.umontreal.ca Office: Campus MIL, B-3411

Research field: Infrared instrumentation; exoplanets and brown dwarf stars.

Description of the research project:
René Doyon's research focuses on the development of advanced astronomical instrumentation for various observatories on the ground and in space. He is also actively involved in various observation programs targeting the search and characterization of brown dwarfs, exoplanets and low-mass young stars. René Doyon leads various instrumentation projects in the infrared domain (camera and spectrograph) for the telescope of the Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic. He is also involved in the development of the Gemini Planet Imager for the Gemini South Observatory in Chile, which has been in operation since 2013. He is the co-principal investigator of SPIRou, a high-resolution spectro-polarimeter optimized for the infrared domain for the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. SPIRou is designed to detect telluric planets (i.e. similar to the Earth), located in the "habitable" zone around low-mass stars in the solar neighborhood. René Doyon is also the principal investigator of NIRISS, one of the four scientific instruments of the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for launch in October 2018.

List of graduate students:
Charles Cadieux (Ph.D.), Dominic Couture (Ph.D.), Antoine Darveau-Bernier (Postdoc), Clémence Fontanive (Postdoc), William Frost (M.Sc.), Farbod Jahandar (Ph.D.), Alexandrine L'Heureux (M.Sc.), Olivia Lim (Ph.D.), Salma Salhi (M.Sc.), Thomas Vandal (Ph.D.)

Prix et distinctions:

• 2011-03 : Médaille d'Honneur de l'Assemblée Nationale
• 2010-02 : Newcomb Cleveland Prize, The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• 2010-01 à 2011-12 : Prix John-C.-Polanyi, CRSNG
• 2009-05 : Prix Peter G. Martin, CASCA
• 2009-01 : Scientifique de l'année, Société Radio-Canada
• 2008-01 : Mérite estrien, La Tribune - Radio Canada
• 2007-01 à 2011-12 : Chaire de recherche industrielle en astrophysique expérimentale, CRSNG