Michel G Bergeron “MGB” – a true success

and has been director since then. He has now decided to pass the torch as director, but will remain a researcher at the IDRC. As a way to express their sincere gratitude toward all that Dr Bergeron has achieved throughout the years, some of his closest collaborators have written a tribute to their colleague, mentor and friend. Dr Michel G. Bergeron a fondé, il y a plus de 40 ans, le Centre de recherche en infectiologie (CRI) dans la ville de Québec, et a été directeur depuis. Il a maintenant décidé de passer le flambeau en tant que directeur, mais restera comme chercheur au CRI. Dans le but d'exprimer leur sincère gratitude envers tout ce que le Dr Bergeron a fait au fil des ans, certains de ses plus proches collaborateurs ont écrit un hommage à leur collègue, mentor et ami. In 1963, Michel faced his first important career dilemma. After graduating from the Académie de Québec, while studying music (trumpet) at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec, in Quebec, he had to choose between his two passions: music and medicine. After discussion with his music professor, Michel decided to attend medical school, but music has always remained very important in his life. In his early work as a young MD, after tending to a hospital patient who had a heart infection and was successfully treated, Michel had to review the literature on cardiac infections all night to present the case to rounds the next morning. He was so moved by this field that he decided to specialize in infectious diseases, which became his priority over the next 40 years. Dr Bergeron received training in infectious diseases and was stimulated by the passion of two great sci-The passionate and enthusiastic Michel came back to Quebec from Boston and created the Infectious Diseases Research Center (IDRC) at Université Laval (Quebec City, Quebec). He collaborated with and was mentored by Dr Léo Gauvreau. Over the years, Michel established critical research projects to tackle infectious diseases on three main fronts: prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Today, the IDRC is one of Canada's biggest research centres in infectious diseases, and is renowned internationally for its excellence. It has 12 fundamental researchers (PhD), 12 clinical researchers (MD), 13 project managers (PhD), 41 research professionals and 55 graduate students (MSc and PhD students), in addition to summer students and research administrative staff, all totaling close to 200 …