Réjean Plamondon

Timeline

1. 1973–1978

   Laval degrees, then Polytechnique

   As a child, he dreams of becoming an astronaut. He earns a B.Sc. in physics in 1973, an M.Sc.A. in 1975 and a Ph.D. in 1978 in electrical engineering, all at Université Laval, and in 1978 he joins the faculty of École Polytechnique in Montréal.

2. 1985–2007

   Graphonomics Society and TC-11

   He co-founds the International Graphonomics Society in 1985 and serves as its president from 1995 to 2007. Elected chair of TC-11 in 1988, he helps coordinate the launch of the IWFHR conference in 1990 and ICDAR in 1991.

3. 1994

   Named an IAPR Fellow

   In 1994, he is named a Fellow of the IAPR, with a citation for contributions to handwriting and document recognition and service to the IAPR. From 1994 to 1998, he also chairs the IAPR conferences and meetings committee.

4. 1995–1998

   A kinematic theory of movement

   His idea of fitting a pen with an accelerometer to model the kinematics of handwriting gives rise to Laboratoire Scribens, the research group he founds at Polytechnique. There, he publishes the three-part "A kinematic theory of rapid human movements" in Biological Cybernetics, with parts I and II in 1995 and part III in 1998. The theory describes rapid movements, such as handwriting strokes, with a family of lognormal equations.

5. 1996–2002

   Polytechnique department head and president

   He is head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 1996 to 1998 and president of École Polytechnique from 1998 to 2002. The school is one of the largest engineering schools in Canada.

6. 2000

   A handwriting survey and IEEE Fellowship

   He and S. Srihari publish "On-Line and Off-Line Handwriting Recognition: A Comprehensive Survey" in IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence in 2000. He also becomes a Fellow of the IEEE in 2000.

7. 2013

   Outstanding Achievements Award

   The IAPR/ICDAR Outstanding Achievements Award goes to him in 2013 for theoretical contributions to the understanding of human movement and its applications to signature verification, handwriting recognition, instruction, and health assessment.

8. 2021–2026

   Lognormality book and Graphonomics 2025

   In 2021, he co-edits The Lognormality Principle and its Applications in e-Security, e-Learning and e-Health with Angelo Marcelli and Miguel Angel Ferrer. Polytechnique Montréal hosts the 22nd conference of the International Graphonomics Society in June 2025, and he edits its proceedings, published in 2026. In January 2025, he is a full professor at Polytechnique and director of Laboratoire Scribens, where he works on neuromotor tests run on an iPad Pro, and in November 2024 his fifth poetry collection, Autemps Printomnes, appears with Écrits des Forges.