Professor Pierre Chastenay of the Department of Didactics is one of the 83 individuals who were appointed to the Order of Canada on June 27. Created in 1967, the Order of Canada is one of the most prestigious civilian honours in the country. It recognizes exceptional achievements, a person’s remarkable dedication to the community or an extraordinary contribution to the nation.
Pierre Chastenay is a key figure in scientific communication in Quebec. He first became known to the general public as a host of television shows, including Le code Chastenaya popular science magazine on Télé-Québec. An astronomer by training, he brought his expertise to the Montreal Planetarium for decades, in addition to publishing several books that introduce astronomy to younger generations.
In 2014, Pierre Chastenay received the Raymond-Charrette Prize, awarded by the Conseil supérieur de la langue française for the quality of his interventions in the media; in 2015, the rank of Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Pléiade, awarded by the International Organization of La Francophonie; in 2017, the Qilak Prize for communication, education and public awareness in astronomy, awarded by the Canadian Astronomical Society; in 2020, the Thérèse-Patry Prize, awarded by the Association des communicateurs scientifiques. His book A guided tour of the solar system (Courteéchelle, 2021) earned him the Hubert-Reeves Youth Prize.
