Radio-Canada awards 2020 Scientist of the Year to four researchers creating data modelling for COVID-19

Four research scientists working at Canadian universities have been co-awarded 2020’s Scientist of the Year prize by Radio-Canada for their work in data modelling related to the spread of COVID-19. The four winners are Julien Arino (University of Manitoba), Marc Brisson (Université Laval), Caroline Colijn (Simon Fraser University), and Mathieu Maheu-Giroux (McGill University).

The mathematical models developed by these researchers have enabled public health officials and governments across Canada to create forecasts and potential scenarios for the spread of COVID-19, which in turn helps them plan more effective responses to those scenarios and hopefully prevent things like hospital overcrowding and high mortality rates. Radio-Canada’s Executive Vice-President Michel Bisonnette says the work being done by these four scientists “is enriching both science and society.”

Source: McGill Reporter, Radio-Canada