Meet the Executive Team

Professor Philippe Gros, Deputy Vice-Principal (Research and Innovation)

James Administration, Room 419
845 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, Quebec H3A 0G4

514-398-5626 or 514-398-7291| philippe.gros [at] mcgill.ca | Assistant: karen.kinsella [at] mcgill.ca (Karen Kinsella) 514-398-7078

Biography

Professor Philippe Gros began his role as Deputy Vice-Principal (Research and Innovation) on November 1, 2018. As Deputy Vice-Principal (Research and Innovation), Professor Gros’ principal mandate is to support the overall mission of advancing innovation and research excellence at McGill. He provides strategic vision and leadership in setting the course for how innovation and partnership initiatives are conceived, funded, and organized at McGill as well as collaboratively nationwide and internationally. He also supports the overall strategic directions of large-scale national and international research initiatives at the University.

Professor Gros has served as Vice-Dean, Life Sciences, in McGill’s Faculty of Medicine since January 2013. Renowned throughout North America and abroad for his investigations and discoveries of genes, proteins, and pathways that influence complex human diseases, Professor Gros holds six patents and is the author of close to 400 scientific publications.

He is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the McLaughlin Medal for Scientific Excellence from the Royal Society of Canada (2014), the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal from the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (2013), the Killam Prize in Health Sciences from the Canada Council for the Arts (2009), and the Prix Wilder-Penfield from the Government of Quebec (2008). He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2003, an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2016, and a Chevalier of the Ordre national du Québec in 2019.

Leading research organizations and private sector companies regularly call upon his expertise – experiences that continue to help shape and inform the new Deputy Vice-Principal (Research and Innovation) role.

Professor Debra Titone, Associate Vice-Principal (Research)

James Administration, Room 419
845 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, Quebec H3A 0G4

514-398-3418 | avptitone.vpri [at] mcgill.ca | Assistant: karen.kinsella [at] mcgill.ca (Karen Kinsella) 514-398-7078

Professor Titone leads and directs initiatives and projects that advance McGill’s research enterprise in the social sciences and humanities. She also provides strategic advice and counsel to the McGill community on projects related to her focus disciplines.

Biography

Professor Debra Titone of the Department of Psychology brings substantial experience working within the McGill research community to the role of Assistant Vice-Principal, Research.  As AVPR, Prof. Titone leads and directs initiatives and projects that advance McGill’s research enterprise in the social sciences and humanities.

Titone’s responsibilities include mentoring researchers during the development of grant applications, leading the implementation of programs designed to increase success in research funding and research intensity, and working with the Office of Sponsored Research to develop proposals for strategic business and corporate or institutional partnerships both in Canada and abroad. Additionally, she oversees the University’s prizes and awards portfolio, which generates and supports nominations for major national and international research prizes and awards.

Titone is a Full Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Language & Multilingualism. She is also an Associate Member of the School of Communication Sciences & Disorders. She directs the Language & Multilingualism Lab, where she trains undergraduate and graduate students, as well as postdoctoral trainees. She has been continuously funded by NSERC since 2003 and has also been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) over the course of her career. She has served on review panels for NSERC Discovery Grants, and in the past, for CIHR Operating Grants. Titone holds various leadership roles in her research community for which she was awarded the Richard C. Tees Distinguished Leadership Award from the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science (CSBBCS) in 2019. She co-founded Women in Cognitive Science Canada in 2016 and serves as an advisory board member of the parent organization, Women in Cognitive Science. She serves as an Axis leader of the CRBLM, and as Editor of the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Professor Benoit Boulet, Associate Vice-Principal (Innovation + Partnerships)

James Administration, Room 419
845 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, Quebec H3A 0G4

514-398-5586 | avpboulet.vpri [at] mcgill.ca | Assistant: karen.kinsella [at] mcgill.ca (Karen Kinsella) 514-398-7078

Professor Boulet's supports the overall mission of advancing research excellence at McGill while also increasing research performance and research intensity. He oversees Office of Innovation and Partnerships within R&I, with the goal of driving University progress in technology transfer and partnership programs with industry.

Biography

Benoit Boulet, P.Eng., Ph.D., SMIEEE is the Associate Vice-Principal of Research and Innovation (R+I), a role he has held since 2021. In this role, Professor Boulet supports the overall mission of advancing research excellence at McGill while also increasing research performance and research intensity. He oversees the Office of Innovation and Partnerships within R+I, with the goal of driving University progress in technology transfer and partnership programs with industry.

Concurrently, he is also a Professor in the Faculty of Engineering (Electrical and Computer Engineering), and Director of the McGill Engine, a Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre. He was Associate Dean (Research & Innovation) of McGill’s Faculty of Engineering from 2014 to 2020. Professor Boulet is also a board member at Mila (Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms), as well as Montreal InVivo, among other prominent research organizations in Quebec.

He obtained a Bachelor's degree in applied sciences from Université Laval in 1990, a Master of Engineering degree from McGill University in 1992, and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Toronto in 1996, all in electrical engineering. He is a former Director and current member of the McGill Centre for Intelligent Machines where he heads the Intelligent Automation Laboratory. His research areas include the design and data-driven control of electric vehicles and renewable energy systems, machine learning applied to biomedical systems, and robust industrial control. He first joined McGill University in 1998.

Kristina Öhrvall, Assistant Vice-Principal (Research Development)

James Administration, Room 419
845 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, Quebec H3A 0G4

514-398-6000 | kristina.ohrvall [at] mcgill.ca | Assistant: karen.kinsella [at] mcgill.ca (Karen Kinsella) 514-398-7078

Kristina Öhrvall acts as an agent of change, driving continuous improvements in how McGill identifies, develops, proposes and manages world-class, large-scale research initiatives. She helps McGill capitalize on opportunities for the funding of major large-scale projects and ensures that these projects are executed to the highest possible standards.

Biography

Previously the Director of Strategic Initiatives within R+I, Kristina Öhrvall brings substantial experience working within the McGill research community to the role of Assistant Vice-Principal, Research Development.

As AVP, Öhrvall acts as an agent of change, driving continuous improvements in how McGill identifies, develops, proposes and manages world-class, large-scale research initiatives. She helps McGill capitalize on opportunities for the funding of major large-scale projects and ensures that these projects are executed to the highest possible standards.

Öhrvall joined McGill in 2012. Prior to that, she worked at Concordia University also in administration. Trained as an environmental engineer, she holds a Master of Science degree from Sweden’s Luleå University of Technology. In her tenure at Strategic Initiatives, she helped secure three Canada Excellence Research Chairs and four Canada 150 Chairs. She was also instrumental in establishing partnerships between McGill, the Government of Quebec, and Genome Canada. She put in place the successful management structure and functioning of Healthy Brains, Healthy Lives, McGill’s Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) $84-million project, acting for a period as its interim CEO. More recently, she helped the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force establish its secretariat at McGill. In addition, she led the development and implementation of new bibliometric tools, such as SciVal, which are accessible to researchers and administrators across the University.

Roman Szumski, Special Advisor to the Vice-Principal (Public and Life Science Policy and Business Development)

James Administration, Room 419
845 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, Quebec H3A 0G4

438-350-9253 | roman.szumski [at] affiliate.mcgill.ca

As Special Advisor to the VP-RI in Public and Life Science Policy and Business Development, Dr. Szumski assists McGill to provide strategic and public policy input to support the advancement of biomedical and health sciences research for the broad benefit of society and individual wellbeing. He will help support McGill’s research and innovation agenda as well as the University’s engagement in the unique biomedical ecosystem operating in the city of Montreal.