December 2017

The 10th edition of the RQR Symposium was held on November 14th and 15th 2017 at the Pavillon La Coop in StHyacinthe, and was preceded by a pre-Symposium workshop titled “Mitigating gender bias in science”.
Winners, best platform presentations:
Gender equality in science is a key issue that has received considerable recent attention, and many interesting points were raised that generated much discussion at the workshop. Thirty-six RQR scientists and trainees were in attendance. At the RQR Symposium, RQR director Dr. Derek Boerboom introduced the «new» RQR, mentioning aspects that will remain the same while presenting new initiatives that are being undertaken. During the Symposium, we also thanked Julie Blouin for her 7 years of service to the RQR. Julie received an honorary plaque from former RQR director Bruce D. Murphy.

In addition to the conferences from our three guest speakers, participants attended 17 platform presentations and 59 posters. Here are the students who particularly distinguished themselves:

As for all RQR Symposia, two RQR members were honored for their knowledge transfer efforts, highlighting the links they have built with reproductive research endusers. Here are the recipients of the 2017 RQR KT Awards:

• Researcher Award: Dr. Vardit Ravitsky, Université de Montréal (absent at the
  award ceremony)
•  Student Award: Océane Albert, PhD student, McGill University

The RQR wishes to congratulate all these winners and would also like to thank all the participants:

Winners, best platform presentations:

1. Mayra Tsoi, Université de Montréal (1^ère position – 300 $)
2. Yining Li, McGill University (2^e position égalité – 150 $)
3. Virginie Bertrand-Lehouillier, Université de Montréal (2^e position égalité – 150 $)

Winners, best poster presentation:

1. Roxane Assaf, McGill University (1^ère position – 300 $)
2. Tatiana Cardinal, Université du Québec à Montréal (2^e position – 200 $)
3. Anne-Sophie Pépin, McGill University (3^eposition – 100 $)

The RQR is proud to congratulate Courtney Smith (CRRD, McGill University), who started her Master’s degree last September under the co-supervision of Dr. Daniel Bernard (McGill University) and Dr. Puttaswamy Manjunath (Université de Montréal), for obtaining an RQR scholarship in the amount of $10 000.