Réjean Tessier

Réjean Tessier has been a key figure in the development of Québec social sciences and has played an important role in teaching about the development of premature babies and internationally adopted children. His clinical research has done much to make Université Laval a recognized leader in the field.

Knowledge sharing

Professor Tessier spent much of his career developing new courses, such as his course on human and social ecology theory. The methodology he introduced has had far-reaching impacts, serving as the base for numerous research protocols that have integrated children’s development with that of their immediate families and their physical and social environments.

He developed a course on social epidemiology together with professors in social and preventive medicine, and an intercultural awareness practicum in psychology together with the Université Laval International Office.

Réjean Tessier has been a dedicated teacher, logging over 250,000 hours in the undergraduate classroom and some 3,500 hours teaching graduate students. He supervised 62 Master of Psychology theses and 29 doctoral dissertations, many leading to high-level academic or clinical positions. He also refereed numerous theses from other Canadian and international universities.

To promote French-language access to the results of national and international research, he established a book series, the D’Enfance collection. It has been widely used in courses in Québec and abroad. There have been 21 issues published to date.

Driving research forward

Professor Tessier has been a leader in national and international multidisciplinary research, through which he has developed a broad network of colleagues in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States. He has received 21 individual and group research grants totalling more than $18 million. He has been supported by major organizations including the FRQSC (Québec’s society and culture research fund), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. His groundbreaking work been the subject of more than 125 articles in leading journals.

Réjean Tessier’s clinical research on the development of premature babies has been influential worldwide, contributing to important changes in childcare practices. He directed the Kangaroo Mother Care Program, a multimodal baby development program coupled with a parent support program. To assess the approach, 1,000 families were tracked from the child’s birth till age 20. The program is recognized by the World Health Organization and operates in more than 70 countries.

Professor Tessier’s expertise has been featured at more than 260 lectures at national and international conferences. He has also participated in, and often directed, peer committees for national-level research organizations, including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Fonds de recherche du Québec.

He cofounded RSDE – Réseau de recherche sur le développement, la santé et le bien-être de l’enfant (Child Development, Health and Wellness Research Network). He helped put a new research protocol in place providing secure access to administrative databases for tracking children’s development over long periods of time. The protocol is still active at Institut national de santé publique du Québec.

Réjean Tessier has headed up numerous committees for the School of Psychology, in admission and in program management and evaluation. He has been a member of the University’s Research Board and of various ethics committees for Université Laval and for two hospitals.