Technology

Christiane Ayotte, the first woman to receive the highest distinction of Ordre des chimistes du Québec

Published

2 years ago

November 1, 2024

Retired INRS professor named member of Société honorifique des Compagnons de Lavoisier

LAVAL, QC, Nov. 1, 2024 /CNW/ – A leading figure in the fight against doping in sport, Christiane Ayotte, retired professor at Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), has recently been recognized by Ordre des chimistes du Québec (OCQ) with the honorary title of Compagnon de Lavoisier.

Professor Ayotte thus becomes the first woman in Québec to receive this eminent distinction and joins the 25 other emeritus members who collectively form Société honorifique des Compagnons de Lavoisier.

This distinction, the highest bestowed by the Order, is awarded on an ad hoc basis to recognize a member’s valuable contribution to society and their notable involvement in promoting the discipline of chemistry during their career.

This nomination echoes Professor Ayotte’s exceptional career path, as she has previously confided that she pursued a career in science out of a desire for emancipation, in a sector where women were still under-represented.

“I am delighted and honoured to receive this distinction from my peers, and to highlight the essential contribution of Ordre des chimistes to Québec. Before guillotining Antoine Lavoisier, the court declared that the ‘republic has no need of scientists or chemists.’ Today, 230 years later and at a time when every opinion, no matter how unfounded, carries equal weight and spreads throughout society, the voice of chemists and biochemists must be heard. I’ve always been very proud to be a woman and a chemist. I hope that by speaking out, I’ve inspired young Quebecers to take an interest in science and make it their career,” says Christiane Ayotte, retired INRS professor, world expert in doping control.

“The contributions of Ms. Christiane Ayotte extend far beyond the world of sports. Her work and research have had positive impacts in several other health-related professions. Her ability to simplify complex concepts has helped educate the public on the risks associated with doping, as well as the importance of ethical rules in all areas of life. Ms. Ayotte is an ambassador for the profession, but also for the entire professional system,” proudly emphasizes Mr. Michel Alsayegh, president of the Ordre des chimistes du Québec.

The awards ceremony took place at the Gala de reconnaissance des membres émérites as part of the Grand RDV des chimistes et des biochimistes 2024, held on October 17.

A world-class career

Throughout her career, Professor Ayotte has distinguished herself as a world expert in doping control. Her dedication to the integrity of sport, the protection of athletes, and the advancement of scientific knowledge in this ever-evolving field has been applauded the world over.

For more than 30 years, Professor Ayotte headed the INRS Doping Control Laboratory based at the INRS Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie Research Centre in Laval and served as a scientific expert on the International Olympic Committee’s Medical Commission at the Salt Lake City, Beijing, London, Sochi, and Rio Olympic Games. Under her leadership, the laboratory team achieved international recognition, carrying out analyses for several major competitions such as the Pan-American Games, the Central American Games, the Vancouver Olympics, and other Olympic Games.

She has also served on a number of World Anti-Doping Agency committees and working groups, contributing to the drafting of standards and technical documents governing analyses carried out in accredited laboratories. She has not hesitated to defend the science of doping control when challenged in international courts.

Her scientific expertise and vast experience have made her a key figure in the sports media landscape, with several thousand interviews to her credit. She is called upon by national and international media as an authority in the field when cases of doping in sport occur.

“Professor Ayotte’s contribution to our establishment is invaluable: thanks to the immense scope of her work, our laboratories are now among the most recognized infrastructures in the fight against doping in Quebec and around the world. This distinction is a magnificent recognition of all that she has accomplished for her profession and her field of research, but also for society and for the next generation of scientists,” adds Luc-Alain Giraldeau, Executive Director of INRS.

Regularly recognized for her research work, Professor Ayotte has received numerous awards and distinctions. In 2018, she was awarded the insignia of Officer of the Order of Canada “for her relentless fight against doping in sport,” as well as a 50th Anniversary Tribute Medal from Ministère des Relations internationales et de la Francophonie. She was also the first chemist to receive the Prix René Dussault 2024, awarded by Conseil interprofessionnel du Québec (CIQ), for her prestigious career.

About INRS

INRS is an academic institution dedicated exclusively to graduate research and training in strategic sectors in Quebec. For the past 55 years, it has actively contributed to Quebec’s economic, social, and cultural development. INRS is first in Canada in research intensity. It is made up of four interdisciplinary research and training centres located in Quebec City, Montreal, Laval, and Varennes, which focus their efforts on strategic sectors: water, earth, and environment (Eau Terre Environnement Research Centre); energy, materials, and telecommunications (Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre); urbanization, culture, and society (Urbanisation Culture Société Research Centre); and health and biotechnology (Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie Research Centre). The INRS community includes over 1,500 students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty and staff members. inrs.ca

SOURCE Institut National de la recherche scientifique (INRS)

Technology

Bloomberg Introduces Spread-to-Benchmark Quoting for EUR and GBP Portfolio Trading Baskets

Published

16 hours ago

June 2, 2026

LONDON, June 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Bloomberg today announced the launch of Spread-to-Benchmark quoting and trading for Euro (EUR) and Sterling (GBP) denominated portfolio trades through its Portfolio Trading Basket Builder (PTBB). The new functionality expands the range of quoting protocols available for European credit portfolio trading and reflects growing client demand for spread-based execution workflows, alongside increased dealer support for the convention across EUR and GBP markets.

Spread-to-Benchmark quoting is a well-established protocol for USD credit portfolio trades and is used by market participants to evaluate and execute portfolio trades. By extending this workflow to EUR and GBP portfolio trades, Bloomberg enables clients and dealers to transact using a familiar spread-based methodology across additional credit markets.

The introduction of Spread-to-Benchmark quoting for EUR and GBP baskets reflects increased client interest in evaluating portfolio trades through a spread-based lens and the growing adoption of spread-based execution workflows in European credit markets. The workflow provides market participants with an additional framework for assessing the relationship between credit spread risk and underlying government bond yields when pricing and executing portfolio trades.

Additional Workflow Flexibility 
The workflow complements Bloomberg’s existing portfolio trading capabilities, which support the full range of market-standard quoting conventions, including Price, Yield, Spread-to-Benchmark and Spread based workflows that reference Bloomberg’s evaluated pricing service (BVAL). This gives clients flexibility to compare and execute portfolio trades using the quoting methodology that best aligns with their investment objectives, execution preferences and internal risk management processes.

“European credit clients continue to look for execution workflows that reflect how they evaluate risk and monitor portfolio trading outcomes,” said Harry Street, Global Head of Credit and Equities Trading Product at Bloomberg. “By expanding dealer support for Spread-to-Benchmark quoting for EUR and GBP baskets, Bloomberg is broadening the range of workflow options available to clients trading European credit portfolios.”

“Portfolio trading workflows in fixed income continue to become more sophisticated as institutional investors look for ways to evaluate execution quality in changing market conditions,” said Kevin McPartland, Head of Market Structure & Technology Research at Crisil Coalition Greenwich. “Spread-based quoting helps market participants more clearly distinguish between the impacts of credit spread and underlying rates movements when determining how best to execute a portfolio trade.”

Bloomberg’s Electronic Markets solutions are used by leading financial institutions to trade efficiently in over 175 markets around the world. More than 9,000 client firms use Bloomberg Electronic Markets to access industry-leading depth and breadth of liquidity across asset classes from over 800 dealers globally. Bloomberg Electronic Markets provides market participants with comprehensive solutions across the trading lifecycle, including robust price transparency, analytics, automation and execution, powered by Bloomberg’s high-quality, multi-asset class data and tools.

About Bloomberg
Bloomberg is a global leader in business and financial information, delivering trusted data, news, and insights that bring transparency, efficiency, and fairness to markets. The company helps connect influential communities across the global financial ecosystem via reliable technology solutions that enable our customers to make more informed decisions and foster better collaboration. For more information, visit Bloomberg.com/company or request a demo.

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SOURCE Bloomberg L.P.

Technology

Dr. Sunho Kang, a senior battery-technology executive with leadership experience at major global battery and EV manufacturers, joins TeraWatt Technology as Head of Product and Technology

Published

16 hours ago

June 2, 2026

SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — TeraWatt Technology Inc. (Headquartered in California, USA) is pleased to announce that Dr. Sunho Kang has joined the company as Head of Product and Technology.

Dr. Kang is a globally recognized battery-technology executive with more than 25 years of leadership experience spanning the United States, Asia, and Europe, and a distinguished track record of advancing innovations from laboratory research through gigafactory-scale production. He has held senior executive positions at world-leading organizations including Samsung SDI, Apple, and Volkswagen Group of America, and brings deep expertise in lithium-ion battery materials, cell engineering, and product industrialization across a broad range of applications, including electric vehicles and energy storage systems.

At TeraWatt, Dr. Kang will lead global product development and the commercialization of TeraWatt’s battery technology platform, aiming to accelerate the delivery of TeraWatt’s competitive products as well as the technology and commercialization roadmap including manufacturing scale-up.

Dr. Kang commented:

“I am thrilled to join TeraWatt Technology as Head of Product and Technology. TeraWatt’s innovative battery platform presents a tremendous opportunity to push the boundaries of lithium-ion technology, and I look forward to working with the team to accelerate product development and commercialization to deliver meaningful impact.”

TeraWatt Technology founder CEO Ken Ogata, Ph.D. commented:

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Kang as our Head of Product and Technology. His deep expertise in battery materials, cell engineering, and productization will be instrumental in accelerating TeraWatt’s product roadmap and technology leadership. Together with Dr. Kang, we will continue to drive our mission forward.”

About TeraWatt Technology Inc.
TeraWatt Technology Inc. is a California-based company that produces lightweight, high-power, and safe next-generation lithium-ion batteries.

Company Overview
Name: TeraWatt Technology Inc.
Representative: Co-founder and CEO Ken Ogata
Headquarters: 28 Geary St, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94108, United States
Founded: January 2020
Established: December 2019
URL: https://www.terawatt-technology.com/

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SOURCE TeraWatt Technology Inc.

Technology

Tencent Cloud and Soniox Announce Strategic Partnership: Combining Advanced Speech-to-Text (STT) Technology with Global Real-Time Infrastructure

Published

16 hours ago

June 2, 2026

HONG KONG, June 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Tencent Cloud, the cloud business of global technology company Tencent, today announced a strategic partnership with Soniox, a San Francisco-based speech AI company that specializes in developing high-accuracy, low-latency speech AI solutions. The collaboration integrates Soniox’s speech-to-text (STT) technology with Tencent Cloud’s Real-Time Communication (TRTC) enterprise-grade global infrastructure, enabling enterprises to build and deploy multilingual voice AI applications across 200+ countries and regions.

Elevating Enterprise Voice AI at a Global Scale

In enterprise voice AI deployments, latency directly affects user experience and application reliability. The integration of Soniox’s high-accuracy, low-latency STT with TRTC’s global transmission infrastructure reduces latency across the entire pipeline, creating a comprehensive end-to-end solution for enterprises deploying conversational AI applications worldwide.

Soniox is the voice platform for every language. Unlike legacy speech AI, which was built primarily for English-speakers, Soniox delivers native-speaker accuracy across 60+ languages. Its technology can handle mid-sentence language switching — a user can switch between English and Chinese in a single utterance, and Soniox will capture every word with complete accuracy. All of this works through a single API that works for both speech-to-text and text-to-speech.

By integrating TRTC, the partnership leverages an enterprise-grade real-time communication backbone featuring more than 3,200 global nodes, sub-300 ms worldwide latency, and advanced capabilities such as AI noise suppression and weak-network resilience. These capabilities enable conversational AI applications to operate reliably across diverse network environments, including regions such as Southeast Asia and Africa.

With the roll out of this partnership, developers can integrate the Soniox STT API directly within the Tencent Cloud console. Whether targeting English-speaking markets or supporting languages such as Arabic, Hindi, and Malay, enterprises can build global voice applications — including intelligent customer service, voice assistants, real-time translation, and meeting transcription — to address the demands of expansion into emerging markets and multilingual scenarios.

Wison Xie, Head of Product at Tencent RTC, stated: “Tencent RTC has always been committed to providing reliable real-time communication infrastructure for global enterprises. Our partnership with Soniox brings together our strengths in enterprise-grade audio transmission and Soniox’s advanced speech recognition technology. Together, we are making it easier for businesses to deploy accurate, low-latency voice AI applications across any language and any market.”

Klemen Simonic, CEO at Soniox Inc., stated “At Soniox, our mission is to help businesses understand every word, in any language, with native speaker accuracy and exceptional speed. Partnering with Tencent Cloud combines our speech AI with world-class real-time infrastructure, enabling enterprises to build voice AI experiences that scale globally with low latency and reliability.”

About Tencent Cloud:

Tencent Cloud, one of the world’s leading cloud companies, is committed to creating innovative solutions to resolve real-world issues and enabling digital transformation for smart industries. Through our extensive global infrastructure, Tencent Cloud provides businesses across the globe with stable and secure industry-leading cloud products and services, leveraging technological advancements such as cloud computing, Big Data analytics, AI, IoT, and network security. It is our constant mission to meet the needs of industries across the board, including the fields of gaming, media and entertainment, finance, healthcare, property, retail, travel, and transportation.

About Tencent RTC:

Tencent RTC provides real-time communication solutions, including audio/video calling, live streaming, and in-game voice. With enterprise-grade security, AI-powered enhancements, and a global network of over 3,200 nodes, Tencent RTC powers mission-critical communication for customers worldwide.

About Soniox:

Soniox is a next-generation voice AI company bringing about the end of English-first speech AI. Most people on the planet did not grow up speaking English and often mix languages mid-sentence; and yet legacy speech AI was built for just English. Soniox is different: native-speaker accuracy across 60+ languages, true mid-sentence language switching, and flawless alphanumeric recognition that legacy providers still can’t match. For developers building global apps, Soniox is the only option. Try it for yourself at soniox.com.

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SOURCE Tencent Cloud