Marie-Josée Fortin (born October 21, 1958) is an ecologist and Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

. Fortin holds the Tier 1

Canada Research Chair Canada Research Chair (CRC) is a title given to certain Canadian university research professors by the Canada Research Chairs Program. Program goals The Canada Research Chair program was established in 2000 as a part of the Government of Canada ...

Spatial Ecology Spatial ecology studies the ultimate distributional or spatial unit occupied by a species. In a particular habitat shared by several species, each of the species is usually confined to its own microhabitat or spatial niche because two species in ...

at the

. In 2016, she was elected as a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; , SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bilingual council of distinguishe ...

Education and career

Fortin completed her BSc in biological sciences (1983) and her MSc in numerical ecology (1986) at the

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (; UdeM; ) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce on M ...

, where she conducted research under Pierre Legendre. In 1992 she received a PhD in ecology and evolution from the

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

, where she was

Robert Sokal Robert Reuven Sokal (January 13, 1926, in Vienna, Austria – April 9, 2012, in Stony Brook, New York) was an Austrian– American biostatistician and entomologist. Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Stony Brook University, Sokal was a memb ...

's last doctoral student. She then went on to do a Postdoctoral Fellowship (1992-1994) at

Université Laval (; English: ''Laval University)'' is a public research university in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The university traces its roots to the Séminaire de Québec, founded by François de Montmorency-Laval in 1663, making it the oldest institutio ...

, where she worked under Serge Payette. Fortin joined

Université de Sherbrooke The Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS; Quebec English, English: ''University of Sherbrooke'') is a French-language Public university, public research university in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, with a second campus in Longueuil, a suburb on the Mont ...

in 1994 as an assistant professor in biology, and moved on to

in 1997 for a professorship in geography. She briefly worked at

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a Public university, public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It maintains three campuses in Greater Vancouver, respectively located in Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, British Columbia, Surrey, and ...

between 2000 and 2001, before joining

as an associated professor. She became full professor at

in 2006 and university professor in 2020.

Research

Fortin focuses her current research on four subject areas: spatial ecology, spatial and landscape statistics, conservation, as well as disturbance ecology. These subjects include disciplines such as spatially-explicit modeling, spatial epidemiology, forest ecology, network theory, landscape genetics and geography. This research focuses on the maintenance of biodiversity within ecosystems and appropriate conservation strategies for species affected by land use and climate change. This includes the analyses of how environmental factors and ecological processes affect the movement, persistence, and range dynamics of species at the landscape and geographical range in both forested and aquatic environments.

Publications

Since 1987, Fortin has contributed to a large number of publications in books as well as scientific journals involving ecology and conservation. This includes over 160 peer-reviewed papers and the co-authoring of the book ''Spatial Analysis: A Guide for Ecologists'', which included the 1st and 2nd editions published in 2005 and 2014. * * *

Select awards and honours

* 2016 –

Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Canada judges to have "made remarkable contributions in the arts, the humanities and the sciences, as well as in Canadian public life" ...

* 2015: Outstanding Scientific Achievements Award from the International Association for Landscape Ecology. * 2014 –

ISI Highly Cited Researcher The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) was an academic publishing service, founded by Eugene Garfield in Philadelphia in 1956. ISI offered scientometric and bibliographic database services. Its specialty was citation indexing and analysis ...

in Ecology/Environment,

Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational corporation, multinational content-driven technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and maintains its headquarters at 1 ...

* 2013: Distinguished Landscape Ecologist Award (US Regional Association of the International Association for Landscape Ecology). * 2002-2007: Premier's Research Excellence Award, Ontario (PREA). * 2002–2007, 2009, 2010, 2012–2014, 2016, 2017: Dean's Excellence Award, Faculty Arts and Science, University of Toronto. *2001: Women in Geomatics Mentor Award. GEOIDE 3rd Annual Meeting, Fredericton.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fortin, Marie-Josée Canada Research Chairs Canadian ecologists Canadian women ecologists Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Living people Academic staff of the University of Toronto Université de Montréal alumni 1958 births 21st-century Canadian women scientists Stony Brook University alumni Academic staff of the Université de Sherbrooke Academic staff of the Université de Montréal Academic staff of Simon Fraser University Mathematical ecologists Spatial statisticians