In August 2001, Gilles G. Patry became the University of Ottawa's fourth President since a 1965 reorganisation allowed it to join the ranks of Ontario's provincially assisted universities. Not only is he the first locally born and educated CEO of the 157-year-old institution, he is also the first to have extensive private-sector experience.
That experience proved invaluable when Dr. Patry spearheaded efforts to create the School of Information Technology and Engineering (SITE), an interdisciplinary initiative designed to provide leading-edge information technology research and education at the University of Ottawa.
• Gilles Patry is a proud alumnus of the University of Ottawa, where he earned BASc and MASc degrees in civil engineering in 1971 and 1973, respectively.
• In 1971, Dr. Patry began his professional life as a consulting engineer prior to becoming a civil engineering professor at l'École Polytechnique de Montréal (1978) and at McMaster University (1983-1993).
• In 1983, he added a PhD in civil engineering from the University of California, Davis.
• In 1985, he founded Hydromantis Inc., an international consulting firm specializing in the modelling and simulation of water and wastewater treatment facilities.
• In 1993, he returned to the University of Ottawa as the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering.
• He was appointed Vice-President, Academic in 1997, and President and Vice-Chancellor in August 2001.
• In 2002, he was elected Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering.
• Gilles Patry was Associate Editor of the Journal of Environmental Engineering and Science from 2001 to 2005.
• Gilles Patry specialises in the field of modelling, simulation and control of environmental systems, in general, and of wastewater treatment plants, in particular. He is the author of more than 125 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers.
• His paper entitled “Dynamic Modelling of the Clarification-Thickening Process” co-authored with I. Takács and D. Nolasco, published in 1991, was recently recognized (March 2006) as one of the 10 most significant groundbreaking papers in the 40 year publication history of Water Research - the premier scientific journal in water research.
• Gilles Patry is a member of a number of Boards, including the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI), the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), the Ontario Reseach Innovation Council (ORIC), and the National Research Council of Canada.
