Subscribe to the OSS Weekly Newsletter!

Register for the OSS 25th Anniversary Event

Lorne Trottier - Consultant

Lorne Trottier - Consultant
Biography: 

Lorne M. Trottier is co-founder of Matrox, a privately held group of companies known around the world for its innovative computer graphics, video and imaging products. Dr. Trottier earned a Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from McGill University in 1970, when he was also the recipient of the British Association Gold Medal for outstanding academic achievement. In 1973 he earned a Master's degree in electrical engineering from McGill, and in 2006 was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the same university. He is a Governor Emeritus of the university as well as an emeritus member of the advisory boards of the Faculties of Engineering and Science.

In December 2003, Dr. Trottier received the prestigious Prix Lionel-Boulet, the Government of Quebec's highest honour for economic development in the area of applied technology. The same year, he was honoured by the Fédération de l'informatique du Québec as one of the 25 "Bâtisseurs des technologies de l'information et des communications (TIC)." In 2007, Dr. Trottier was named a Member of the Order of Canada and in 2016 he was promoted to the level of Officer. n 2011, 2013, and 2016 he received honorary doctorates from l’Université de Montréal, from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), and from UQAM respectively. In 2018 he and his wife Louise Rousselle Trottier were bestowed with joint honorary doctorates from Concordia University.

Dr. Trottier and the Trottier Family Foundation have also been extremely generous benefactors of McGill University over the years. The Lorne M. Trottier Building, dedicated in 2004, was the product of a $10 million gift to the university. In 2006, that was followed by a second generous donation of $12 million to establish the Lorne Trottier Chair in Astrophysics and Cosmology in the Faculty of Science, the Lorne Trottier Chair in Aerospace Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering, and associated fellowships for graduate students in both faculties.

Dr. Trottier and his family also support the Mini-Science Series as well as the Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium Series – a series of annual lectures organized by the McGill Office for Science & Society, featuring outstanding speakers from around the world and designed "to inform, inspire debate and raise public awareness on contemporary issues confronting society today.” More recently, Dr. Trottier donated $5.5 million to the Office for Science & Society to ensure that their efforts in separating the sense from the nonsense can continue, like the Symposium, in perpetuity. In 2012 an additional gift totaling $14.5 million was announced to fund the establishment of the Trottier Institute for Science and Public Policy (“TISPP”) in the Faculty of Science and the Trottier Institute for Sustainability in Engineering and Design (“TISED”) in the Faculty of Engineering.

The Trottier Family Foundation was established in 2000 and has made numerous gifts to other organizations outside of McGill in the areas of health care, science education and research, and climate change mitigation.

Back to top