Mining Magnate Pierre Lassonde Donates $50 Million To Establish Deep Tech Institute At Polytechnique Montréal

Engineering-focused university Polytechnique Montréal has received a $50-million donation from the family foundation of Québec businessman Pierre Lassonde to establish an institute dedicated to deep technology, or deep tech. 

A relatively new term, deep tech refers to technological innovation that requires surmounting scientific or engineering hurdles. Lassonde, who graduated from Polytechnique in 1971 and now chairs its board of directors, sees the development of new types of semiconductors and photonic devices as an opportunity to strengthen the socio-economic impacts of academic research, the Université de Montréal-associated school said in a statement. 

The donation is the largest single gift in the history of Polytechnique Montréal.

Lassonde is best known for co-founding the Franco-Nevada Corporation, an early publicly traded gold royalty company, in 1982 alongside his business partner Seymour Schulich.

“Québec and Canada have everything they need to make their mark on the global high-tech stage, and I hope this donation will act as a catalyst to help us do exactly that,” Lassonde said in a statement. 

The donation is the largest single gift in the history of Polytechnique Montréal, according to the university’s president, Maud Cohen, and will be used to assemble research teams with the aim of establishing the school as a complementary partner for major tech initiatives in Bromont, Québec City, and Ottawa. 

Bromont is home to Technum Québec, one of the province’s three government-designated innovation zones. Semiconductor players such as IBM, Teledyne, and Nord Quantique are stationed there.

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The new institute’s initial efforts will go towards developing mid-infrared emission and detection devices to help autonomous vehicles see through fog and snow, as well as ultrasensitive imaging systems for the early diagnosis of cancers. The research teams also hope to develop quantum technologies that aim to reduce the energy footprint of digital tech. 

In 2011, Lassonde donated $25 million to York University to establish the Lassonde School of Engineering, which is also the largest single gift in York University’s history.

Lassonde’s donation towers above other academic donations from the business sector so far this year. Last month, the University of British Columbia and the University of Waterloo received much smaller donations to respectively support entrepreneur hubs and a new laboratory for artificial intelligence and blockchain research on their campuses.

Feature image by Thierry du Bois, courtesy Polytechnique Montréal via its website.

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