It was with great sadness that we learned of Louis Bernatchez’s passing on September 28, 2023
Louis was a very accomplished scientist, colleague, friend, dad, and partner to Caroline.
Having Louis on the iTrackDNA team was amazing as his experience, wisdom and friendship helped getting the project funded, started, and rolling. Louis Bernatchez was the director of IBIS (Institute of Integrative and Systems Biology) at Université Laval and held a Canada Research Chair in genomics and conservation of aquatic resources. He was recognized worldwide for his pioneering role and his influential contributions in molecular ecology and known internationally for the importance of his work in several other fields including the study of the origin of species, phylogeography, evolution applied, adaptation to human activities, environmental protection and the study of environmental DNA. A prolific researcher, he has published more than 500 articles, often in the most prestigious journals, including Nature, Science and PNAS. He was the author of two books on Quebec fish which are widely used for teaching and of more than 160 research reports. The numerous awards and distinctions awarded to him testified to the importance of his contributions: he was an elected member of the Royal Society of Canada, Knight of the National Order of Quebec, elected to the Hall of Excellence of the American Fisheries Society and elected fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and won, among others, the Prix du Québec Marie-Victorin as well as the Molecular Ecology Prize. His international leadership was recognized by the publisher Wiley, who requested his services to found two journals: Evolutionary Applications (2008) and Environmental DNA (2018), of which he was up to now the editor-in-chief.
You will be missed Louis!
Valérie, Caren & Jérôme, on behalf of the extended iTrackDNA team
(On the picture, we can see Louis wearing his iTrack leadership shirt that we made him this summer when time was rough to encourage him)
