Biography of A. Vijh, Institut de Recherche d'Hydro-Quebec, Varennes, Canada

A. Vijh

The Royal Society of Canada
The Canadian Academy of the Sciences and Humanities
La Société royale du Canada
L’Académie canadienne des sciences, des arts et des lettres
 
Ashok K. Vijh, O.C., C.Q., FRSC
President, Academy of Science
 
(2005-2007)

Ashok Vijh obtained his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Ottawa. He is Maître de Recherche at the Institut de recherche d’Hydro-Québec and, concurrently, invited Professor in Institut Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique of the Université du Québec.

Dr. Vijh’s research has earned him world-wide reputation in electrochemistry. His insight in adopting and adapting concepts and methodologies from solid state physics, applied from a physical chemistry perspective, has allowed him to make an extraordinary number of original and innovative contributions, published in well over three hundred refereed publications.

Ashok Vijh has received over forty major prizes, awards, medals, decorations and other distinctions including the Noranda Lecture Award of the Chemical Institute of Canada (1979), the Urgel-Archambault prize of l’Association canadienne-française pour l’avancement des sciences (1984),  Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec (1987), the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial prize (1987), Doctor honoris causa of Concordia University (1989) and University of Waterloo (1993), the Thomas W. Eadie Medal of the Royal Society of Canada (1989), The Chemical Institute of Canada Medal (1990), Officer of the Order of Canada (1990), Compagnon de Lavoisier (Order of Chemists of Quebec (1995)), University Lectureship of the University of Ottawa (1997), Prix Marie-Victorin (Les prix du Québec; 1998), and the Golden Jubilee Medal (Queen Elizabeth II) in 2002. In 2005, he was elected a Visiting Fellow of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge University.

Elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1985, he has served it in many capacities such as: 
Director, App. Sci. & Eng. Div. of The Academy of Science (1990-92); Director, Math. & Phy. Sci. Div. of The Academy of Science (1994-97); Chair, Society Awards and Medals Committee (1998-2004); Chair, External Awards Committee (1995-98); Chair, Science and Ethics Committee (1995-98); Vice-President, The Academy of Science (2003-05).  

Dr Vijh is a Fellow of several scientific societies and international academies, including the European Academy of Arts, Sciences and Humanities. He is well-known as a forceful advocate of the importance of fundamental research in Canada. He has also written on themes such as science and ethics, epistemology of science, and the unity of creative processes in arts and sciences. Dr. Vijh is an outstanding example of the vitality injected into Canadian culture and society by the community of new Canadians.