Louise Filion

Filion was born in Montreal, Quebec on 6 December 1945, the daughter of Marguerite Bernier and Maurice Filion.^[1] She holds a bachelor's degree in geography, a master's degree in agriculture, and a Ph.D. in biology from Laval. She is the former director of the Geography department and Centre d'Études Nordiques at Laval University.^[2] Her appointment to Professor in the Geography department was a first for a woman at the university.^[3] Although she retired in September 2010 she remains an honorary member of the Centre for Northern Studies and has been designated professor emeritus.

Dr. Filion has northern research experience, particularly in ecology and paleoecology of northern Quebec.^[2] She has published hundreds of articles, chapters of books and written at least 60 research papers. She has presented her work at 140 national and international conferences in her specialty area of global polar science issues from 1987 to 1992 Dr. Filion directed the Centre for Northern Studies; she was President of the Research Commission from 1992 to 1995 and became Vice-Rector for Research at University Laval from 1997 to 2002. From 2004 to 2008 she was Director of Research in the Department of Geography and became Vice Dean of Research in the Faculty of Forestry, Geography and Geomatics from 2007 to 2009. In 1990 Dr. Filion became Vice President of the Canadian Polar Commission where she assumed the fonctions of member of evaluation committees and research committees.