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It is with great pleasure that the MUHC announces that Dr. Eric Fombonne, Director of the Psychiatry Department at the Montreal Children's Hospital, has been awarded the Career Scientist Award of Excellence 2006 by the Foundation for Research into Children's Diseases in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of child health research. The award will be officially presented tomorrow at the Foundation's Bal des enfants du monde at the Fairmont-Queen Elizabeth Hotel, in Montreal.

Dr. Fombonne is originally from France. He gained his medical degree and graduate degrees in Paris. In 1993 he joined London's (UK) Maudsley Hospital and the world famous Institute of Child Psychiatry, where he developed an international reputation for his research into autism and depression. In 2001 he became head of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Montreal Children's Hospital of the MUHC, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ, and a Canada Research Chair in Child Psychiatry.

Dr. Fombonne is considered a leading authority on pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), such as autism and Asperger Syndrome. His recent research examining the suggested link between vaccinations and autism is internationally recognized. Dr. Fombonne's research has provided solid evidence clearing the Measles Mumps Rubella (MMR) vaccine of any link to the rise in PDDs documented over the past few decades, and helped maintain public confidence in child immunization programs. Dr. Fombonne has also played a major role in establishing the Autism Spectrum Disorders Clinic at the Montreal Children's Hospital, and has developed a program contributing to improved measures of diagnosis, assessment and tools for the early detection of autism, as well as knowledge of its etiology.

The Montreal Children's Hospital is the pediatric teaching hospital of the Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Health Centre (MUHC). The institution is a leader in the care and treatment of sick infants, children and adolescents from across Quebec. The Montreal Children's Hospital provides a high level and broad scope of health care services, and provides ultra specialized care in many fields including: cardiology and cardiac surgery; neurology and neurosurgery, traumatology; genetic research; psychiatry and child development and musculoskeletal conditions, including orthopedics and rheumatology. Fully bilingual and multicultural, the institution respectfully serves an increasingly diverse community in more than 50 languages.

The Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Health Centre (MUHC) is a comprehensive academic health institution with an international reputation for excellence in clinical programs, research and teaching. The MUHC is a merger of five teaching hospitals affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University — the Montreal Children's, Montreal General, Royal Victoria, and Montreal Neurological Hospitals, as well as the Montreal Chest Institute. Building on the tradition of medical leadership of the founding hospitals, the goal of the MUHC is to provide patient care based on the most advanced knowledge in the health care field, and to contribute to the development of new knowledge.

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