The recipient of several awards, Professor Sawan was, among other distinctions, elected as one of the youngest-ever Fellows of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), in January 2004. This prestigious international-level recognition for researchers working in the fields of electrical and computer engineering was awarded for Professor Sawan's contributions to the development of implantable medical devices. In 2002, he was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and in 2003 was acknowledged for his work on bone marrow with a Barbara Turnbull Award from the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR).

Dr. Sawan devoted the first eight years of his research career at Polytechnique to urinary implants, then began focusing on the brain, more specifically doing work on visual implants and artificial limbs, both of which have connections to bone marrow.

"The greatest reward would be to see, sometime during my career, people benefiting directly from the results of my work," he says.

A man of commitment
"In our day, some people may think the natural sciences are something of a miracle, but they should think again. They represent years and years of research," the professor explains. Advances in microelectronics are today enabling us to create microsystems of increasing complexity. Huge strides have been taken in biocompatibility of these devices with the human body: it is now possible, for example, to capture electrical impulses from the nervous system and process them electronically so that they can control other functions. For example, the urinary implant created by the Polytechnique Neurotechnology Lab (PolySTIM) team under the direction of Professor Sawan is capable of producing electrical signals that replace the stimuli generated by the organism, to help bladder control in paraplegics and quadriplegics.

In addition to research, Professor Sawan's teaching and thesis directing activities take up a great deal of his time. He is currently directing over 30 students; the Canadian average is around five students per professor. "My students and I are motivated, because we sense the coming advances in knowledge in this area of multidisciplinary science," he says.

Ratification
A decade's work has led to Professor Sawan and his team holding patents on several medical devices, most notably the world distribution rights for a neuroelectronic implant with the potential to treat urinary dysfunction.

Professor Sawan completed his bachelor's degree in Engineering at Université Laval in 1984, then did a master's in Applied Sciences (1986) and a PhD (1990) at Université de Sherbrooke, both in Electrical Engineering. He then completed post-doctorate training in the field of Biomedicine at McGill University before joining École Polytechnique in 1991 as a full professor. Since 1994, he has headed PolySTIM, which he founded. He has also headed the Regroupement stratégique en microélectronique de Québec (ReSMiQ), which includes some 30 microelectronics researchers from six Québec universities, since 1999. Professor Sawan is the current holder of the Canada Research Chair in Intelligent Medical Devices. He is the founder of several conferences (such as IEEE-NEWCAS) and other  international-scale scientific gatherings (e.g., BIOCAS). He also sits on several scientific committees and is the co-founder and a coordination committee member of Prompt-Québec (Partnerships for Research on Microelectronics, Photonics and Telecommunications).
 

"With the difficulties facing the world today,
we are fortunate that there are strong and intelligent people
around to help advance the causes of science and humanity."
Mohamad Sawan, Professor of Microelectronics