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The Bernard Belleau Award is presented to a scientist residing in Canada who has made a distinguished contribution to the field of medicinal chemistry through research involving biochemical or organic chemical mechanisms.
View the Terms of Reference and list of Past Winners

The 2022 winner of the Bernard Belleau Award is:
Gonzalo Cosa, MCIC
McGill University
Gonzalo Cosa received his Licentiate in Chemistry from Universidad Nacional de Rio Cuarto, Argentina in 1996. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Ottawa under the direction of Tito Scaiano in 2002, working on photochemistry of NSAIDs. Following postdoctoral work on single molecule spectroscopy at the University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Cosa joined the Department of Chemistry at McGill University in 2005 under the supervision of Paul F. Barbara as Assistant Professor. In 2016 he was promoted to Professor.
Dr. Cosa’s research centers on designing, synthesizing, and using fluorescent molecular probes, as well as on developing fluorescence microscopy methods. These methods provide an unprecedented degree of detail of chemically- and biologically relevant processes with unsurpassed spatial-temporal resolution and sensitivity. His work has shed light on the mechanical workings of single macromolecules, notably including key enzymes associated with viral genome replication. It has also enabled the real-time mapping and tracking of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in living cells, providing key insights into these elusive cellular species associated with homeostasis, disease, and aging.
Past Winners
John Paul Pezacki
Frederick G. West
David Perrin
David Vocadlo
Jeffrey W. Keillor
Patrick T. Gunning
Andrei K. Yudin
John Honek
William D. Lubell
View the list of Past Winners.