C'est à deux principaux titres que nous présentons Roger A. Blais : 1 - accomplissements en recherche scientifique : son C.V. compte 33 titres dont la moitié sont de recherche fondamentale; 2 - accomplissements en administration de la recherche : à ce titre il compte des accomplissements très importants : 2.1 présidence de la Commission Sciences de la Terre pour le Conseil des Sciences du Canada (1968). 2.2 directeur de la recherche à I'Ecole Polytechnique : il a énormément contribué à I'émergence de l'École Polytechnique en recherche fondamentale. 2.3 étude pour le C.N.R.C. sur l'implantation d'un laboratoire des matériaux au Québec (1978).

The Honourable Allan E. Blakeney has had a rich and varied public career, as a member of the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly (1960-1988), in various cabinet portfolios (1960-1964), as Premier of Saskatchewan (1971-1982) and Leader of the Opposition (1970-71 and 1982-87). As Premier, Blakeney was deeply involved in federal and constitutional politics. He consistently stood out for his mastery of the issues, and his capacity to integrate principles and pragmatism. He has gone out of his way to communicate his experience-based knowledge to a wider public in lectures, in journal articles, as textbook co-author, and as University professor. He has been an advisor on federalism both to Russian legislators and to the new Republic of South Africa.

Bliss' contributions to Canadian historical scholarship are outstanding for originality, analytical pcwer and narrative force. In "A Living Profit" (1974) he examined the beliefs and motives of businessmen in the age of Canada's industrialization and in his biography of Sir Joseph Flavelle (1978) he brilliantly assessed a turn of the century capitalist, the cultural matrix in which he lived, and the complex -and often surprising - interplay of religion, success and social obligation. This is one of the finest of Canadian biographies and was awarded the Macdonald prize of the Canadian Historical Association and the University of British Columbia medal for biography. In "The Discovery of Insulin" (1982), which won the Royal Society's Hannah Medal, Bliss reconstructed the complicated inner history of the research that led to a remedy for diabetes: this is a brilliant book in the history of medicine; it is no less compelling as a study of human ambitions and conflicts within science. He has continued to make scholarly contributions with such works as "Northern Enterprise" (1987), "Plague" (1991), "Right Honourable Men" (1994), and "William Osler" (1999). He is a Member of the Order of Canada.

Myer Bloom's name is well-known to everybody in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance. He was the first to prodict the possibility of observing spin echoes in pure quadrupole resonance, and (in collaboration with Norberg) to actually observe them. He was also the first to observe the coexistence of paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases near the Néel Temperature. Possibly his main achievement is, however, to have established, by a systematical theoretical and experimental study in collaboration with his associates, the essential identy of the spin-lattice relaxation mechanism in the solid, liquid, and gas phases of substances forming molecular crystals.

Pierre Bois a contribué par des observations importantes à plusieurs champs de la médecine expérimentale et, en particulier, à celui de l'endocrinologie. Ses premières recherches portèrent sur les multiples interactions entre glucocorticoïdes et minéralocorticoïdes, et sur les activités pharmacologiques des corticoïdes halogénés qui avaient été synthésisés alors qu'il était candidat au doctorat. Plus tard, il a fait des recherches très intéressantes sur des sujets aussi variés que le lathyrisme, la pharmacologie de la sérotonine, la dystrophie musculaire et la déficience en magnésium. C'est au cours de ces dernières investigations qu'il a fait la découverte pour laquelle il est le mieux connu à travers le monde, soit l'induction de thymome par carence en magnésium.

Joseph Bonenfant, du Département des lettres et communications de l'Université de Sherbrooke, est un littéraire qui a formé, au cours de trente ans de carrière, des disciples qui marquent aujourd'hui les lettres québécoises. Il a lui-même signé de nombreux articles sur la poésie comme genre littéraire ou sur l'oeuvre de poètes français ou québécois. Il est l'auteur d'un essai, « Passions du poétique », qui lui a valu deux prix littéraires. Sa contribution au rayonnement des lettres et de la culture est reconnue au niveau national et international.