POLYTECHNIQUE MONTRÉAL
Professor Samuel Pierre awarded the Engineering Institute of Canada's Julian C. Smith Medal

Professor Samuel Pierre. (Photo: Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec)

 

Each year, the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC), a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to the development and promotion of continuing education in engineering, awards the Julian C. Smith Medal to one or two engineers in recognition of their outstanding achievements and service in the development of Canada. This distinction was established in 1939 in memory of Julian Cleveland Smith, a past president of the EIC.

Professor Pierre is being recognized for his internationally significant role in information and communications technologies, specifically his breakthrough work in mobile and cloud-based systems planning. By combining thermodynamic and ecological considerations with approaches informed by evolutionary biology and mathematical programming, he has enabled considerable progress in reducing the ecological footprint of cloud computing systems.

In its citation, the EIC also notes that as founder and director of the Laboratoire de recherche en réseautique et informatique mobile (networking and mobile computing research laboratory, known by its French acronym LARIM) at Polytechnique Montréal, and holder of the NSERC -Ericsson Chair in Next-Generation Mobile Networking Systems, Professor Pierre has presided over major technological advances that have improved service providers' understanding of the design and buildout of next-generation communications networks and provided them with an effective framework for environmentally responsible planning of cloud-based systems.

"I am humbled to be awarded this distinction in recognition of my contributions to the development of Canada," Professor Pierre said, adding: "It helps sustain my commitment to pursuing, with the same determination, my fight for a better world, transcending the geographical boundaries that only serve to circumscribe and limit us as humans."

Professor Pierre will receive the Julian C. Smith Medal at the EIC gala event on April 20, 2024, in Gatineau.

During his career, Professor Samuel Pierre has received a great many awards and distinctions in recognition of his engineering contributions. Most recently, he was awarded the Grand Prix d'excellence professionnelle by the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec in 2020, earned the title of Fellow of Engineers Canada and received the Engineers Canada Gold Medal in 2021, was made an officer of both the Ordre de Montréal and the Ordre national du Québec in 2022, and received the J.M. Ham Outstanding Engineering Educator Award from IEEE Canada in 2023.

Professor Pierre joins other Polytechnique faculty members who have been awarded the IEC Julian C. Smith Medal. Ke Wu, Full Professor of Electrical Engineering, received it in 2021, while Michel Aubertin, Emeritus Professor of Civil, Geological and Mining Engineering, was an honouree in 2017. The late Branko Ladanyi, Professor of Civil, Geological and Mining Engineering, was awarded the Medal in 2008. Roland Doré, Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering and a past director-general of Polytechnique, was the winner in 1992, and the late Augustin Frigon, a professor at Polytechnique and the institution's principal for many years, received the medal the first time it was awarded, in 1940.

Our congratulations to Professor Pierre!

Learn more

• Professor Samuel Pierre's expertise
• Department of Computer Engineering and Software Engineering website
• Engineering Institute of Canada website