Benoit-Antoine Bacon

Universities Canada board director

Biography

Benoit-Antoine Bacon was appointed as the 17th president and vice-chancellor of The University of British Columbia on November 1, 2023. He joined UBC from Carleton University in Ottawa where he served as president and vice-chancellor since 2018. For the past several years, he has also been serving on the board of directors of Universities Canada and on the council of the Council of Ontario Universities.

He joined Carleton from Queen’s University where he served as provost and vice-principal, academic.

He previously served as provost and vice-president academic affairs at Concordia University in his hometown of Montreal where he was recognized with an award as Concordia University’s Sustainability Champion.

His first academic appointment was at Bishop’s University, where he served in a number of leadership roles including dean of Arts and Science, associate vice-principal for research, chair of the psychology department and chief negotiator for the association of Bishop’s professors. He is a three-time recipient of Bishop’s Merit Award for exceptional performance in teaching and research.

Dr. Bacon holds a PhD in neuropsychology from the Université de Montréal, after which he undertook an NSERC-funded post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

His research in the field of cognitive neuroscience focuses on the links between brain activity and perception in the visual and auditory systems, as well as on multisensory integration. He remains associated with the Montreal-based Neuropsychology and Cognition Research Centre (CERNEC), which is funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé.

Dr. Bacon is a director on the board of Universities Canada.