Canadian graduate student François-René Lachapelle is the recipient of the 2013 QS Academic Excellence Scholarship. As its name suggests, this scholarship aims to support a grad school student who illustrates the potential to make a valuable contribution to the academic community. Like the QS Leadership Scholarship, it provides $10,000 towards course fees.
So, how did François-René impress the QS Academic Excellence Scholarship panel? Well, he’s about to start a PhD project that will make him one of the first people in the world to see an extrasolar moon (exomoon) – a moon orbiting a planet outside of the Solar System. Even if you know nothing about astrophysics, that’s definitely impressive!
The project, which involves developing the first camera capable of capturing images of exomoons, is certainly ambitious. But the Université de Montréal team François-René is joining already has significant experience in this field, having developed the world’s first camera capable of imaging extrasolar planet systems.
A grad school opportunity too good to miss
In fact, having already spent five years studying at the Université de Montréal, François-René had originally intended to travel overseas for his PhD. “I was looking at universities around the world, particularly in Europe, as I wanted to see different points of view on research,” he says. During his research, he consulted the QS World University Rankings, and while browsing TopUniversities.com he noticed the World Grad School Tour was coming to Montréal the very same week.
“I went along and it was fun, it was very interesting,” he recalls. Shortly afterwards, he received an email reminder about the QS Scholarships he was eligible for, and decided to apply for the Academic Excellence Scholarship – though he says he didn’t really expect to be selected. “It’s really an honor to be chosen for this international competition,” he says.
Though still keen to gain international experience, François-René has no regrets about deciding to stay on in Montréal for the time being. First, he says he loves the research group he’s working with, and second, the exomoon project was simply too exciting to turn down. “I decided this was an opportunity I couldn’t skip!”
