Dorval Courchesne, Noémie-Manuelle

After earning a double degree in Biotechnology (Chemical Engineering & Biochemistry) from the University of Ottawa, Prof. Dorval Courchesne spent a few years in Boston to pursue graduate studies.  She completed her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in the groups of Paula Hammond and Angela Belcher.  She then worked as an FRQNT postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.  She joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at McGill University in August 2017. Prof. Dorval Courchesne authored several publications and hold patents in the fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology and materials science.  She believes that biologically-derived materials have a tremendous potential to improve the functionalities of various devices for environmental and biomedical applications. She aims at developing novel methods for engineering and assembling functional protein-based materials and devices.  Prof. Dorval Courchesne is a member of the Québec Center for Advanced Materials (QCAM/CQMF); the Research Center for High Performance Polymer and Composite Systems (CREPEC); the Quebec Network for Research on Protein Function, Engineering, and Applications (PROTEO); the McGill Institute for Advanced Materials (MIAM); the McGill Sustainability Systems Initiative (MSSI); and the Trottier Institute for Sustainability in Engineering and Design (TISED). In 2020, she was recognized as the recipient of the Christophe Pierre Award for Research Excellence (Early Career) in the Faculty of Engineering at McGill, and as an Emerging Leader in Chemical Engineering by the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering. In 2021, she became Canada Research Chair in Biologically-Derived Materials, and in 2022, she was the recipient of a Johnson & Johnson WiSTEM2D Scholars Award in the Engineering category.