Sponsored by the CIC
The Montréal Medal/Médaille de Montréal is presented as a mark of distinction and honour to a resident of Canada who has shown significant leadership in or has made an outstanding contribution to the profession of chemistry or chemical engineering in Canada.
View the Terms of Reference and list of Past Winners
The 2025 winner of the Montréal Medal/Médaille de Montréal is:
Paul F. Smith, MCIC
Perimeter Institute
Paul received his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Bath, England in 1991, and an MBA from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto in 2001. From 1992 – 1995 he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Guillet lab at the University of Toronto.
From 2011–2021, Paul was a member of the Xerox Senior Leadership Team and Vice President and Director of Xerox Global Materials Research Centre.
In partnership with the National Research Council of Canada, Dr. Smith helped create the Canadian Campus for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing, a partnership between government and industry for world-class research and development focused on commercialization of devices for the Internet of Everything and CleanTech.
Paul served as Chair of the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) from 2019-2020 and from 2020–2021, due to the pandemic and changes at the CIC, Paul took on the role of Interim Executive Director.
In the fall of 2021, Dr. Smith joined Perimeter Institute as the Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer.
Paul is a Director of the Board of Mitacs, is a member of the Executive Advisory Council of C2MCI and is a member of the Governing Council of the HIBAR Alliance. He was the inaugural Chairman of IntelliFLEX, the Canadian Printed Electronics Industry Association, a former Director of the Board of NGen Canada, and a past Chair of the Conference Board of Canada’s Council for Innovation and Commercialization. From 2014-2018, Paul served on Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Councils Committee on Research Partnerships.
Dr. Smith has given Plenary and Keynote talks at international conferences including InnoLAE and SEMICON. He is a named inventor on 78 U.S, patents and has 15 publications. Paul was the 2023 recipient of the Canada Medal from the Society of the Chemical Industry (SCI).