All but nanometric leadership for Delphine Bouilly

Delphine Bouilly, Assistant Professor Physics Department at UdeM and Director of IRIC's Design and Application of Electronic Nanobiosensors Research Unit, has been on a roll in recent months. Appointed head of three strategic networks, she has also seen her Canada Research Chair in Bionoelectronics renewed and won a prestigious award from the Electrochemical Society. Here's a look back at her record of achievement.

Professor Bouilly devotes her energies to the design of ultra-miniaturized electronic circuits and sensors capable of detecting and analyzing biological macromolecules. As soon as she was recruited by IRIC in 2017, she was awarded the Canada Research Chair in Bionoelectronics, as an outstanding emerging researcher considered a future leader in her field. Seven years later, this prediction is proving true.

Renewed funding for ultra-miniaturized electronic circuit design

Last March, Canada's Transport Minister and Quebec Lieutenant Pablo Rodriguez announced the renewal of Professor Bouilly's Canada Research Chair in Bionoelectronics. This 5-year funding will support the work of the Bouilly laboratory at a level of $100,000 per year.

“The Canada Research Chair provides invaluable support for our young laboratory,” says Bouilly. “It enables us to explore innovative biosensor designs and initiate creative collaborations, particularly for cancer applications with several IRIC colleagues.”

Appointments to three strategic networks

In January 2024, Delphine Bouilly took over as Associate Director of the Institut Courtois in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) at the Université de Montréal. Founded in 2021 with the support of the Courtois Foundation, the Institut aspires to accelerate discoveries in materials through undirected basic research and the exploitation of advances in artificial intelligence. Bringing together research teams from the FAS Departments of Chemistry, Computer Science and Physics, the Institut Courtois creates a multidisciplinary community of exchange on the properties of matter.

In recent months, Delphine Bouilly has also become co-director of the Groupe de recherche en physique et technologie des couches minces (GCM). The GCM is a multidisciplinary research center (physics, chemistry, engineering) established jointly by the Université de Montréal and Polytechnique Montréal 40 years ago. The center is renowned for its expert staff and state-of-the-art technology platforms for materials growth, surface analysis and microfabrication. As co-director, Delphine Bouilly will ensure that the various technology platforms are supported, and that the 35 members of the group and their respective teams benefit from a dynamic scientific life.

With this new role at the GCM, Delphine Bouilly becomes de facto the Université de Montréal representative on the board of the Regroupement québécois sur les matériaux de pointe (RQMP). A strategic grouping of the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Nature and Technologies sector, the RQMP brings together the GCM and its counterparts at McGill University and Université de Sherbrooke. Within the group, which includes over 80 research units, Delphine Bouilly is co-leader of the Nano/Bio research axis on nanomaterials and biologically inspired materials. She will contribute to the networking between members and the generation of scientific collaborations.

“Materials are at the heart of virtually all new technologies, whether they be processors to handle massive data, compounds for greener, more sustainable infrastructures, or instruments for tomorrow's medicine,” recalls Professor Bouilly, “This contributes to the very stimulating effervescence that characterizes our research community currently, particularly with the emergence of interfaces between artificial intelligence, robotics and materials.”

“Through these networks, my main aim is to stimulate and support collaborations between colleagues,” she continues. “Modernizing student training paths, supporting technology platforms and creating connections with user communities, in industry or the medical field, are also aspects on which I intend to focus my efforts.”

Contributions praised by her peers

At the latest annual meeting of the Electrochemical Society in San Francisco, Delphine Bouilly received the ECS Nanocarbons Division SES Research Young Investigator Award for her pioneering work in understanding and applying nanocarbon circuits. Awarded since 2007, the prize recognizes outstanding contributions by young researchers in the field of graphitic nanomaterials.

“I am particularly honoured by this award from the most expert community of scientists in my field, the one that has followed my work so closely over the years,” says Professor Bouilly. “It's very inspiring to receive this mark of confidence, especially from the researchers who have inspired me most in my research.”

Stepping forward to add her own perspective

Through these multiple distinctions, Delphine Bouilly is gradually carving out her own path and increasingly expressing her voice in her research community. As a young researcher, mother and physicist with a taste for biology, how does she see her career path and the years to come?

 “Helping to create creative, ambitious and welcoming environments is what motivates me most,” she says. “I particularly enjoy bringing people together and building teams that can achieve more than each individual person can. That's what I do in my lab, bringing together people with complementary expertise; it's a great motivation to now do it on a larger stage.”