Professor
Laval University
Yves De Koninck is professor of Psychiatry & Neuroscience at Laval University, Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology at McGill, Scientific Director of the CERVO Brain Research Centre and Director of Research of the Quebec Integrated University Health and Social Services Centre. Former President of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience, he founded the Quebec Pain Research Network and holds a Canada Research Chair in Chronic pain and related brain disorders. His research focuses on altered synaptic function in pathological syndromes, including chronic pain, drug dependence, and cognitive decline in aging and Alzheimer’s disease. This includes understanding the basis of cell signalling, synaptic plasticity and neuroimmune interactions underlying these syndromes. He also leads the Canadian Neurophotonics Platform, which brings together physical and biomedical scientists from seven leading centres across the country to support the development and testing of new optics-photonics tools to push further the field of neuroscience. Finally, he leads Sentinel North, a global initiative to harness the power of light for the benefit of health, the environment and sustainable development in the North. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada. He received the Jacques-Rousseau Prize from Acfas for multidisciplinarity, an honorary doctorate from University of Montreal and the Distinguished Career Award from the Canadian Pain Society.