Quebec folk rocker Jérôme Dupras named province’s chief scientist
Quebec made Cowboys Fringants bassist Jérôme Dupras its chief scientist, putting an ecological economist at the center of research and environmental policy.
Quebec put Jérôme Dupras, bassist and founding member of The Cowboys Fringants, in one of the province’s most visible science posts, giving a public figure with deep academic credentials a central role in research policy. The Fonds de recherche du Québec says Dupras has been in office as Québec’s chief scientist since June 2026, serving in an advisory role and as chief executive of the FRQ. In that job, he represents the interests of science and research in Quebec, Canada and around the world.
Dupras arrives with a career built far beyond the stage. NSERC ResNet lists him as an associate professor of ecological economics in the Department for Natural Sciences at the Université du Québec en Outaouais, a researcher at ISFORT, the Institute of Temperate Forests Science, and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Ecological Economics. The same profile says he has a PhD in geography and a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the Université de Montréal, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Biology at McGill University.
His academic work is centered on ecological economics, biodiversity and the assessment of ecosystem services, a background that could shape how Quebec weighs environmental protection against development pressure. Dupras’s expertise in ecosystem-services modeling and valuation places him in a field that translates forests, wetlands and other natural assets into terms governments can use when setting policy. That matters in Quebec, where land use, biodiversity and natural heritage remain politically sensitive issues.
The public profile that comes with his music career gives the appointment another layer. RRECQ, the Québec Circular Economy Research Network, describes Dupras as a bassist and founding member of The Cowboys Fringants, passionate about the forest, the environment and music, and committed to safeguarding natural heritage through awareness and financing projects. That visibility could help carry research into conversations that usually stay inside universities and ministries, while also raising the question of how much celebrity should shape the public face of science.
The Chief Scientist of Québec website includes a nomination page for Jérôme Dupras, underscoring the formal weight of the post. The FRQ biography says he has received numerous awards, adding to a résumé that now places a musician, professor and ecological economist at the center of Quebec’s science and environmental policy apparatus.
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