Dr. Bob Lemieux was appointed Interim Dean of Arts and Science at Queen’s University on August 1, 2024, for a two-year term.
Bob recently completed eight years as Dean of Science at the University Waterloo, where he championed teaching and learning initiatives, and established the Dean’s Teaching Innovation Fund to help transform the Science educational experience at Waterloo. He was well known for his focus on the importance of fundamental science and its intersection with innovation, entrepreneurship, and social impact, which included the expansion of Velocity Science, a campus satellite of the Waterloo incubator Velocity, for student-led startup companies that provides physical workspace, technical resources and advising, and business development mentorship.
During his tenure as Dean of Science, Bob oversaw the creation of a master plan for the modernization of three science buildings, with phase 1 due to be completed in early 2025. This plan will advance Waterloo’s sustainability goals and provide modern research and office space for faculty, staff, and graduate students. Under his leadership, the Faculty of Science established the Centre for Eye and Vision Research (CEVR) in Hong Kong Science Park in partnership with the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. CEVR is a global centre for translational research and commercialization that focuses on myopia and other age-related vision impairments, using the eye as a drug delivery vehicle, and using the eye as a window to the brain for early diagnoses of neurodegenerative diseases.
In response to Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action, Bob created the new staff position of Manager, Science Indigenous Initiatives, to advise the Dean on Indigenous issues in the Faculty of Science, advise researchers on Indigenous Ways of Knowing and on Indigenous methodologies and practices, act as liaison with Indigenous communities, and assist in the indigenization of the Science curriculum. Resources were allocated to create a Science Indigenous Centre in a central location in the Science core to provide a welcoming space for Indigenous students and staff; the Centre is due to open in November 2024.
Prior to joining Waterloo, Bob was a longtime faculty member at Queen’s in the Department of Chemistry from 1992 to 2015. He served as Department Head from 2007 to 2011 and was Associate Dean in the Faculty of Arts and Science from 2011 to 2014. During his time at Queen’s, he received awards for his teaching, including the Chemistry Graduating Class Award for Teaching Excellence in 1997 and 2007, and the W. J. Barnes Teaching Excellence Award in 2005, and for his research, including the Samsung Mid-Career Award of the International Liquid Crystal Society in 2012, the Ontario Premier’s Research Excellence Award in 2000, and the Chancellor’s Research Award in 1999. His research bridges the fields of organic synthesis, physical organic chemistry and condensed matter physics to create new liquid crystal materials used in fast-switching ferroelectric LCD applications. He has co-authored 110 peer-reviewed publications, and supervised 35 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, 8 of whom have become university faculty members.
He obtained his BA with high honors from Colgate University in 1984 and his PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989.