Aida Bairam

A world leader in neonatal pharmacology and neonatal respiratory physiology, Professor Aida Bairam has helped transform neonatal medicine worldwide and improve the life trajectories of premature infants. An influential figure in her field, she founded the prestigious Société Legallois pour l’étude du contrôle respiratoire, which brings together leading specialists from Quebec and abroad.

Major advances in respiratory research and neonatology

Trained in Syria, France and Quebec, Professor Bairam began conducting research in 1984 on the respiratory stimulant doxapram. She joined Université Laval in 1993 and quickly established herself as a leading researcher through her comparative studies of theophylline and caffeine in the treatment of apnea in premature infants.

A pioneer in neonatal respiratory control, she later expanded her research to examine the long-term effects of neonatal intermittent hypoxia in adults. She has conducted innovative studies to better understand respiratory, cardiovascular, and metabolic morbidity in adults born prematurely. 

As the principal investigator at Université Laval for major international multicentre clinical trials—including the Caffeine for Apnea of Prematurity Trial—she helped position the Department of Pediatrics as an important centre for respiratory physiology research. Because part of her work involves animal models, Professor Bairam also leaves the university a lasting legacy: a specialized animal facility that she personally established.

The author of more than 130 peer-reviewed scientific publications and three book chapters, she has also been invited to speak at numerous international conferences. She has served on the editorial boards of specialized journals and helped organize some 20 conferences. Highly respected by her peers, she successfully rallied them in 2003 to establish the Société Legallois pour l’étude du contrôle respiratoire, which she chaired for seven years. The society continues to host a renowned annual conference, helping strengthen respiratory research networks in Quebec and abroad.

A career defined by commitment

Professor Bairam has shared her passion through a wide range of teaching activities, from undergraduate courses to the training of residents in pediatrics and other specialties. She has supervised, with both rigour and kindness, 32 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, many of whom have received prestigious awards. To highlight her outstanding contributions to teaching and research, an award bearing her name is presented each year to one pediatric resident.

She has also been active in university governance, notably as chair of the Dean’s Scholarship Committee in the Faculty of Medicine, and has played key roles on high-level ethics committees, including the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of the CHU de Québec – Université Laval, and the Central Research Ethics Committee of the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux.

A committed philanthropist, she has contributed to the Fonds du Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec in support of underprivileged youth and created the Fonds de bourses Aida-Bairam to assist students of Arab origin. All proceeds from the sale of her books—her autobiography Elle et elles, her collection of reflections Carnet d’Aida, and her novel Le testament de Tante Mimi, published between 2020 and 2025—are donated to this fund. Most recently, thanks to her generosity, the Faculty of Medicine was able to acquire two 3D anatomy and dissection tables.

Through her leadership, intellectual rigour, and deep humanism, Professor Bairam has left a remarkable legacy in medical science, the advancement of research ethics, and philanthropy.