Professor Tremblay received his Doctoral degree from the Case Institute of Technology in 1969. He has been associated with the Department of Computational Science since the 1970-71 academic year. He was tenured in the Department in 1971 and promoted to Full Professor in 1974.
In over twenty years of teaching at the University of Saskatchewan, Professor Tremblay has established a reputation for giving classes that are challenging and rigorous but at the same time fair. A natural communicator, he is described as a "born" story teller whose many anecdotes, both those related and unrelated to course material, serve to keep his classes interesting and lively. The aspect of his teaching role that is most unique and noteworthy is his dedicated, prolific authorship of major textbooks in the field. He has published 15 textbooks in areas covered in the Computational Science undergraduate curriculum. These books have been translated into a number of languages and have brought international recognition to both the Department and the University. In recognition of his major contributions as an author, McGraw-Hill created a special J.P. Tremblay McGraw-Hill Book Prize in 1988 which is awarded annually to the top student in the second year of a program leading to a degree in Computational Science.
As a teacher, Professor Tremblay presents his course material in a straightforward yet comprehensive manner, from many different perspectives, which often helps to clarify any misconceptions or misunderstandings in his students. His teaching style makes intimidating topics friendly and turns complex ideas into common-sense ones. His keen sense of judgment of his students' capabilities results in high quality efforts by most, if not all, students studying under him. Professor Tremblay constantly interacts with his students both inside and outside the classroom and makes a genuine effort to get to know them as individuals. Not surprisingly, "How's Tremblay doing?" is one of the first questions asked by alumni.