Kenza Dufourmantelle

Director, Research, Conservation and Scientific Services Directorate

Biography

Kenza Dufourmantelle, native of Edmonton, Alberta, holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry (minor in art history) from McGill University and an M.Sc. in Science and Conservation of Materials of Cultural Heritage from the University of Bologna. She studied Art History and Museology at the Louvre School, Paris, and obtained her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Perugia. Her thesis was on non-invasive methodologies applied to the study of 20th-century synthetic painting materials. During her postgraduate studies, she carried out research internships at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles. From 2006 to 2009, Kenza had the opportunity to work on several conservation projects in situ as part of the MoLab (mobile laboratory) team, sponsored by the European Commission.

In 2009, Kenza returned to Canada as a post-doctoral fellow at the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI). Shortly thereafter, she was hired at Parks Canada to manage the Conservation Science Division, where she built capacity in preventive conservation for the National Historic Sites of Canada. Since March 2017, Kenza has worked at CCI as the Director of Research, Conservation and Scientific Services. Although Kenza refers to this as her dream job, she also enjoys playing with her two young children and dancing the tango.