At the Council of Canadian Academies, I work at the interface between science and policy. Prior to joining the CCA in 2016, I was a research scientist at the St. Lawrence River Institute, where I worked on aquatic invasive species in the Great Lakes and on eutrophication in the St. Lawrence River. In 2019, I became the chair of Partnership Group for Science and Engineering and was nominated to the Science Advisory Board of the International Joint Commission. When not working, I can be found biking, paddling, or playing accordion.
My first exposure to the study of limnology consisted of spending hours observing diatoms under an electronic microscope in the laboratory of Dr. Antonella Cattaneo at the Université de Montréal. At that point, I was probably more fascinated by the geometry and beauty of these algae than by their ecology. While becoming a researcher, I maintained a connection with the arts because I believe it helped me to be more creative scientifically. Practicing music has provided me with a space where I could immerse myself and take a much-needed break. Performing music in public may have taught me how to better connect with my audience while delivering scientific presentations.
Recently, I have started to incorporate music into my public presentations and share ideas on the links between the arts and science. The CreativeMornings speaker series was an opportunity to talk about the importance of water as a resource and also about its beauty (by showing diatoms) and its role in shaping who we are today (by playing Les Raftsman, a loggers song that preserves the memory of a hard life mixed with a certaine joie de vivre). This experience showed me that scientists may be able to convey effective messages to a wider audience in ways in which they were originally not trained to do so.
Videos
Visit the following links for a
sample of Jérôme’s music:
Rose of Raby
Recorded for Lakes Letter on
Earth Day, 2020
Les Raftsmans
The CreativeMornings
(at ~4:30 mark in recording)