Michel Pigeon

24th Rector of Université Laval

2002-2007

Michel Pigeon was the 24th rector of Université Laval. He was elected to the position on October 15, 2002.

A Sillery native, he earned his degree in civil engineering from Université Laval in 1967. He then studied at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London on an Athlone Fellowship from the British government.

After working several years as an engineer, including at Lavalin, he entered academia. In 1984 he defended his doctoral dissertation at Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie in Paris.

Mr. Pigeon began his professorial career in 1972 at Université Laval. Teaching was his primary focus until the mid-1980s, when he increasingly turned to research as a vehicle for learning. In the course of his career, he has supervised or co-supervised more than 75 graduate students. Mr. Pigeon has been a full professor since 1987.

In 1986 he founded the Centre de recherche interuniversitaire sur le béton (CRIB) with colleagues from Université de Sherbrooke and several young researchers. The CRIB has built a lab at Université Laval dedicated to studying infrastructure service life, and funded by a $6.5 million grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation. The work of Mr. Pigeon and his team in the field of concrete durability and repair has made Université Laval a globally recognized centre for excellence in this high tech field.

In 1989 he founded Service d’expertise en matériaux inc. He served as a visiting professor at École normale supérieure de Cachan in France every year from 1991 to 2001, and also held the Industrial Chair on Shotcrete and Concrete Repair from 1994 to 2004. Between 1999 and 2002, he was director of the Department of Civil Engineering, vice dean of research at the Faculty of Science and Engineering, and dean of the Faculty as well.

Always active in the academic community, he was also faculty representative on the Université Laval Board of Directors (1992–1998). He has authored and coauthored numerous publications, including the book Durability of Concrete in Cold Climates, organized international symposiums, served on numerous international associations, juries, and external committees, and founded the Regroupement francophone pour la recherche et la formation sur le béton.

Mr. Pigeon was president of the Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec (CREPUQ) from 2006 to 2007. He was also a member of the board of Fédération des Chambres de commerce du Québec, and since 2003 has chaired Comité Québec Capitale, a group of leading local decision makers working to advance the greater Québec City area.

Mr. Pigeon was awarded the Wason Medal for Materials Research from the American Concrete Institute in 1991 for the excellence of his research and academic career, and is a Fellow of both the American Concrete Institute (since 1993) and the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (since 1992). He received an honorary doctorate from Lyon’s Institut national des sciences appliquées in 2005, an honorary doctorate from Université de Liège in 2006, and the Prix Josef-Hode-Keyser in 2006 from Association québécoise des transports et des routes. Also in 2006, he was made an Officer of France’s Ordre des Palmes académiques, recognizing “the rector’s truly exceptional contribution to the academic and cultural relationship between Québec and France.”