2022 CSBBCS Mid-Career Award Winner: Dr. Jean Saint-Aubin

Dr. Saint-Aubin is an internationally recognized researcher in the field of human memory with a long and successful record of student mentorship and disciplinary leadership. He completed his PhD in 1998 at Université Laval. Since that time, he has published 94 articles and 7 book chapters in top journals (e.g., Psychological Bulletin, Psychological Science, Journal of Experiment Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, Journal of Memory and Language).  His H-factor is 29 and he been cited more than 3,000 times. His research program is in the bedrock of Canadian Cognitive Psychology, a fact recognized by over 20 years of NSERC Discovery Grant funding. His work is also recognized as innovative; signaled by a 2010 NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplement that is given to “…researchers who have an established, superior research program that is highly rated in terms of originality and innovation, and who show strong potential to become international leaders within their field.”  He is an Elected Fellow of CSBBCS, APS, and CPA.

Dr. Saint-Aubin’s research program is empirically rigorous, analytically precise, and intellectually deep. His work in the domain of memory is particularly compelling, especially his analysis of semantics and interactions between language and memory in the context of fundamentals like serial recall.  However, he is also well known for his work on language and reading development where he leveraged his bilingualism to open opportunities for understanding language development in novel ways.  He has also published work on the relationship between memory and eye movements.

Dr. Saint-Aubin is an impressive mentor who has supervised 29 NSERC Summer Undergraduate Students, 34 Honours Students, and 30 Graduate Students/Postdocs.  His students appear as first authors on his papers and go on to success in academia, industry, and practice. All this hard work was rewarded at his institution with a 2019 Award for Best Supervisor at Université de Moncton and nationally by CSBBCS with the 2020 Richard C. Tees Leadership Award. As an aside, Dr. Saint-Aubin is an exceptionally generous mentor outside the lab who opens doors, issues invitations, and creates opportunities for young faculty around the country.  

Dr. Saint-Aubin is a generous leader and effective spokesperson for our discipline.  He is Associate Editor of Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology and a member of Editorial Boards to four other journals (e.g., Memory & Cognition).  He served as CSBBCS President as well as Science Director on the CPA Board of Directors. He has also served at NSERC several times including as Section Chair of the NSERC Discovery Grants Selection Committee. He uses his leadership opportunities to organize and create opportunities for students and faculty.