December 21, 2011 - NEWSLETTER SPOTLIGHT ON FCIHR

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November 29, 2011 - Shirley M. Tilghman (2010 Friesen Prizewinner) will Co-Chair the next Canada Excellence Research Chairs Competition

Government of Canada launches new competition for 10 Canada Excellence Research Chairs

Announcement builds on early successes of flagship Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC) Program

(WATERLOO, ONTARIO, November 28, 2011)—The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Science and Technology), today announced the launch of a competition to fund 10 new Canada Excellence Research Chairs.

The Government of Canada recognizes the importance of supporting leading-edge research and world-class researchers,” said Minister Goodyear. “Canada Excellence Research Chairholders are some of the world’s leading minds, and their presence in our universities will create jobs and long-term economic growth, as well as enable Canada to be at the cutting edge of innovative research.”

The federal government is committing $53.5 million over five years for the creation of the 10 new chairs. Their work will enable Canada to be at the leading edge of research breakthroughs that are expected to generate significant social and economic benefits for all Canadians.

Launched in 2008, the CERC program was designed to attract and retain the world’s best researchers. The first group of chairholders was announced in May 2010, and they have each demonstrated exceptional leadership in their fields of research at institutions across the country.

“The focus on the digital economy as a key area of research will help put Canada at the forefront of a field that is of vital importance to our future prosperity,” said Chad Gaffield, president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and chair of the program’s steering committee. “The Canada Excellence Research Chairs Program helps Canadian universities compete in the global market for research talent, and this new competition will further strengthen Canada’s hand.”

Chairholders will be selected through a highly competitive and rigorous two-stage process. In Phase 1, Canadian universities will compete for the opportunity to establish chairs at their institution. In Phase 2, short-listed universities will nominate leading researchers to a limited number of positions. An independent selection board recommends the appointment of chairholders to the program steering committee, based on the highest standards of research excellence. Derek Burney, senior strategic advisor to Norton Rose OR LLP, and Shirley Tilghman, president of Princeton University, have been appointed chair and co-chair of the selection board, respectively.

“This announcement is very good news for the Canadian research community,” said Suzanne Fortier, president of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). “The presence in our universities of the Canada Excellence Research Chairs significantly strengthens Canada’s research capacity and enables Canada to be at the cutting edge of innovative research.”

“The new competition shows that Canada is serious about research,” said Alain Beaudet, president of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). “The Canada Excellence Research Chairs Program is part of a powerful suite of funding programs that supports researchers at every stage of their career and enhances Canada’s standing as a global centre of excellence in research, innovation and higher learning.”

Further details about the competition are available at www.cerc.gc.ca.

For more information, please contact:

Stephanie Thomas
Special Assistant (Communications)
Office of the Honourable Gary Goodyear
Minister of State (Science and Technology)
Tel.: 613-960-7728

Michael Adams
Communications Advisor
Canada Excellence Research Chairs Program
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
Email: michael.adams@sshrc-crsh.gc.ca
Tel.: 613-944-1758
Cell: 613-219-7523

November 17, 2011 - TRIBUTE TO DR. FRASER MUSTARD

Dear Friends,

I am saddened to let you know that Dr. Fraser Mustard, a founding member of our Board, has passed away.  He suffered from cancer and died yesterday. 

He was an enthusiastic and insightful supporter of our efforts and a pleasure to work with.  He had a very distinguished career in science having demonstrated the role of Aspirin in cardiovascular protection.   More recently, he focused on the importance of Early Childhood Development which has garnered international acclaim.

I would like to draw your attention to Dr. Mustard’s brief interview with Professor Michael Bliss explaining the discovery of aspirin’s effect on platelet survival.  The video clip can be found on our web site/Facebook/Twitter.  This video was developed as part of the FCIHR Video History of Medicine in Canada Project:  

http://www.fcihr.ca/video-history-of-canadian-medicine/video-history-of-medicine-in-canada-7

(Kindly scroll down to the bottom of the web page.  It takes ~40 sec for it to appear.)

We send our deepest regrets to Dr. Mustard’s family and close friends.  Dr. Cam Mustard, Fraser’s son, was also a member of our Board.

Regards,

Aubie Angel, MD, FRCPC, FCAHS

President of Friends of CIHR

Senior Fellow

Massey College

4 Devonshire Place

Toronto, ON   M5S 2E1

Tel./Fax #:  (416) 506-1597

December 7, 2010 - SPOTLIGHT ON FCIHR

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September 21, 2010 - Ottawa, Ontario

The Friends of CIHR Founders’ Lecture was established to mark the 10th anniversary of FCIHR to honour our prescient leaders who created this organization.

The Inaugural Lecture of the FCIHR Founders’ Award will be given by Dr. Duncan Stewart, CEO & Scientific Director of the Ottawa Health Research Institute:

“Challenges in translating innovative therapeutics to the clinic”

Venue:  Crowne Plaza Hotel, 101 rue Lyon Street, Ottawa

Time: 4:30 to 5:40 pm

For full biographical details on Dr.Duncan Stewart, click here.

 

 

July 8, 2010

Dear Friends,

Please join me in acknowledging 2 members of FCIHR included in last week’s Governor General’s list of Order of Canada Awards.

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Michel G. Bergeron, C.M.
Québec, Quebec
Member of the Order of Canada

For his contributions to the area of microbiology, especially for his for research on infectious diseases and for his development of ultra-fast diagnostic testing for bacterial infections.

 

Mladen Vranic, O.C., O.Ont.
Toronto, Ontario
Officer of the Order of Canada

For his long-term contributions to the understanding, treatment and prevention of diabetes.

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Our heartiest congratulations for their contributions to health research in Canada and the future health of untold numbers of people worldwide. 

Sincerely,

Dr. Aubie Angel

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June 14, 2010

Dear Friends,

I am pleased to announce the 2010 Friesen International Prizewinner, Shirley M. Tilghman, President of Princeton University.  

 

She will be in Ottawa on September 28-30^th, 2010 with featured events on September 29^th.  On October 1^st, she will be at Queen’s University as a featured speaker.

Program details to follow and all are welcome to attend as we celebrate the 10^th anniversary of FCIHR and the 5^th anniversary of the Friesen International Prize.

For President Tilghman’s bio, click here.

Sincerely,

Dr. Aubie Angel

President of FCIHR

 

May 12, 2010

It is with great sorrow that we relay this notice of Dr. Robert (Bob) Salter’s passing.  He was a longstanding supporter and advocate of Friends of CIHR.  He had a brilliant career as an orthopaedic specialist, scientist and humanitarian.  He was a model of integrity, social conscience and charitable work.  As a founding member of Friends and Alumni of MRC, the predecessor organization of Friends of CIHR, he was a staunch promoter of these organizations despite his failing health.  He stands as a model to emulate.

His obituary appeared in today’s Globe & Mail at the link below:

http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/Deaths.20100512.93231145/BDAStory/BDA/deaths

September 22, 2009

A Public Forum featuring Prof. Sir John Bell will take place in Ottawa on September 22, 2009 and in Montreal on September 23, 2009.

July 21, 2009 - Dr. Roderick R. McInnes Awarded Order of Canada

Friends of CIHR would like to congratulate our colleague, Dr. Roderick McInnes, on being awarded the prestigious Order of Canada.

 

August 5, 2009

Dr. Jacques de Champlain

It is with great sadness that we note the passing of Dr. Jacques de Champlain, one of our founding members.  Jacques was a strong advocate of health research and contributed enormously to our public efforts to increase awareness on the importance of health research to society as a whole.  Jacques was also a founding member of the Alumni and Friends of MRC and the Canadian Institute of Academic Medicine (predecessor organizations to FCIHR and CAHS) when these organizations were first created to increase awareness of the need to support health research when funding and public interest were very limited.  We extend our sympathies to his family and friends. The link below provides details about his brilliant academic career.

http://www.ircm.qc.ca/en/recherche/statique/unite60.html

 

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May 21-23, 2009

CIHR/ICRH - YI Forum

FCIHR will have a Symposium on “Global Heart and Lung Health:  The Challenges, Opportunities and Contributions for Health Researchers” on Friday, May 22, 2009 in Ottawa.

For more details, visit:  http://www.f2fe.com/YIForum/

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April 22, 2009

Dr. Charles Tator and Dr. Mladen Vranic
Induction into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame

Congratulations to Dr. Charles Tator and Dr. Mladen Vranic, longstanding members of FCIHR.

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ANNOUNCEMENT

Professor Sir John Bell, Regius Prof. of Medicine, Oxford University and President of the Academy of Medical Sciences, has been selected as the 2009 Friesen International Prizewinner.

To access a profile on Sir John Bell, click here.

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January 2009

We are delighted to acknowledge the addition of 4 new Board members:  Mr. Michael Cloutier, Dr. Juliette “Archie” Cooper, Dr. Alex Mackenzie and Dr. Anita Palepu.  Their pictures and brief bios are shown below.  They will certainly add much to the vitality of our efforts. 

 

We acknowledge the dedicated service of Board members who have completed their terms and who have now retired from our ranks.  Thank you to Dr. Barry McLennan, Dr. Cam Mustard, Dr. Henry Dinsdale and Mr. Glenn Brimacombe.  We will acknowledge their contributions more tangibly at our next public event.

 

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Mr. Michael Clouter:

http://canadatech.info/modules/news/index.php?page=article&storyid=2268

 

Cloutier has more than 26 years of pharmaceutical industry experience having held a number of senior management roles in Canada and internationally. He has previously held the roles VP of Human Resources Global Marketing at AstraZeneca in the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2008, President & CEO of AstraZeneca Canada Inc. from 2003 to 2007, President & CEO of Pharmacia Canada from 2000 to 2003, President of Searle Canada from 1998 to 2000, Senior Director of Operations for Searle in Latin America/Canada.

Cloutier currently serves as the Chair of the Canadian Stroke Network and is the Vice Chair of the Canadian Orthopaedic Foundation. He also sits on a number of other philanthropic boards including Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning and the Canadian Obesity Network. Cloutier has also been engaged in a number of academic roles as the chair of the University of Toronto at Mississauga (UTM) Hazel McCallion Academic Learning Centre project, the Humber College Curriculum Advisory Board and the Principal’s Advisory Committee at UTM. Mr. Cloutier was elected to the Sheridan College Marketing Hall of Fame and the Pharmaceutical Marketers Hall of Fame.

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Dr. Juliette “Archie” Cooper:

http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/medicine/units/medrehab/cooper.html

 

Professor Emeritus
Department of Occupational Therapy

Juliette Cooper, MSc, PhD is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Medical Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba.  Dr. Cooper is the immediate past Director of the School of Medical Rehabilitation and served 15 years on the University of Manitoba Senate.  She was twice elected by Senate to the Board of Governors of the University.

Dr. Cooper has conducted research in the broad area of musculoskeletal disorders with primary emphasis on work-related low back pain. She is a mentor and collaborator in the Work Disability Prevention program, a Strategic Training Initiative in Health Research of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Her current areas of research interest are the determinants of evidence-based practice in occupational therapy, the factors that contribute to stress in occupational therapy students, the integration of foundation subjects into an entry-level professional curriculum and the evolution of professionalization.  Dr. Cooper led an interdisciplinary team that investigated the optimum spatial and functional design requirements for patient, examination/assessment and therapy rooms for a specialized rehabilitation facility. In partnership with Riverview Health Centre and GBR Architects Ltd., a full-scale mock-up of the spaces was built; consumers, care partners and health-care workers then evaluated the functionality of the spaces with a standardized assessment tool.

At a national level Dr. Cooper chaired the Advisory Board of the Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis of CIHR for six years and is currently Board Member and Chair of the Membership Committee of Research Canada, a national advocacy organization for health research.

 

 

Dr. Alex Mackenzie:

 

 

BIOGRAPHY

Alexander Euan MacKenzie

 

Dr. MacKenzie received his MD in 1983 and his PhD in Medical Biophysics in 1986, both from the University of Toronto. He is currently with the Departments of Pediatrics and Biochemistry at the University of Ottawa,  is CEO and Scientific Director, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute and is Vice-President of Research at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario.  He was VP of Research at Genome Canada from July 2003 to July 2004.  He received his pediatric certification in 1989 from the University of Ottawa and is a member of the attending staff at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa where he serves as an attending pediatrician.  As a post-doctoral fellow, he studied the molecular genetics of muscular dystrophy.  Dr. MacKenzie continues to work on the molecular genetics of pediatric disease with current research focus on the molecular genetics of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).  In 1995, Dr. MacKenzie’s laboratory cloned the SMA related Neuronal Apoptosis Inhibitory Protein gene.  Dr. MacKenzie is the recipient of Medical Research Council Scientist and Burroughs Wellcome Clinical Scientist awards.   In 1999 he was awarded the Researcher of the Year award by the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Canada.

 

 

Dr. Anita Palepu:

http://www.cheos.ubc.ca/aboutus/popup.php?id=115

 

Anita Palepu, MD, MPH, FRCPC Research Scientist, CHÉOS Professor of Medicine, Division of Internal Medicine, UBC Michael Smith Foundation for Health Reseach Senior Scholar Research Interests ·         Urban Health ·         Addiction treatment ·         HIV/AIDS ·         Housing and homelessness ·         Quality of life Dr. Anita Palepu is a Full Professor, Division of Internal Medicine, UBC. She conducts her research at the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences and has many collaborations with her colleagues at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. Her research program falls under the broad umbrella of urban health research with particular interest in vulnerable populations such as drug users, HIV-infected persons, and homeless persons. She also is part of a network of Canadian researchers examining issues pertaining to housing, homelessness and health and is the site PI for the Health and Housing in Transition Study, which is a 2008 CIHR-funded, four-year longitudinal study of 400 homeless and vulnerably housed persons being conducted in Vancouver, Toronto, and Ottawa. In 2004, she assumed co-directorship of the UBC Department of Medicine Clinical Investigator Program and was awarded a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Senior Scholar. As an Internal Medicine specialist at St. Paul’s Hospital, Dr. Palepu is active in teaching residents and medical students in both the inpatient and clinic setting. She has been actively involved with the launch of an independent, open access general medical journal Open Medicine and is the co-editor. She is also President of the International Society of Urban Health and the Organizing Chair of the 7th International Conference on Urban Health scheduled for October 29 - 31, 2008, in Vancouver, B.C. Search publications on PubMed Awards, Fellowships 2006 Boston University School of Public Health Distinguished Alumni Related websites Faculty of Medicine, UBC Open Medicine International Conference of Urban Health 2008 Contact Info cheos@cheos.ubc.ca

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2008 Henry G. Friesen International Prize in Health Research

PRIZEWINNER & SPEAKER:

Dr. Harold Varmus
President and CEO, Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NY & Nobel Prize (1989)

DATE: Wednesday, September 24, 2008
TIME: 4:30 pm
LOCATION:  MaRS Discovery District Auditorium - 101 College St., Toronto.
TITLE:  “Advancing Global Health by Encouraging Medical Science Worldwide”
RECEPTION & AWARD PRESENTATION: 5:30 PM

Simulcast to York University

For more information, visit:

http://www.yorku.ca/yuevents/index.asp?Event=14699&Category=0&ShowCal=Y&TimeSame=Sep&Month=9&Year=2008

***For more information: (416)  506-1597 and aubie.angel@utoronto.ca

 The Henry G. Friesen International Prize

Lectures 1 and 2

 

Friends of CIHR is proud to announce the publication of the Friesen Prize Lectures 1 and  2 featuring Dr. Joseph B. Martin, the inaugural Prizewinner (2006) and Dr. John R. Evan, the 2007 Prize Laureate.

For your copy of the book, please contact:  fcihr@fcihr.ca or (416) 506-1597.

December 19, 2007 - Dr. Roderick R. McInnes Awarded Order of Ontario

Friends of CIHR would like to congratulate our colleague, Dr. Roderick McInnes, on being awarded the prestigious Order of Ontario. Media Release

November 29, 2007 - Submission to the Department of Finance, Government of Canada

On November 29, 2007, Friends of CIHR submitted a proposal to improve tax incentives for Scientific Research & Experimental Development (SRED) to the Department of Finance. This document elaborates on a novel concept, developed by Mr. Pat Lafferty, in collaboration with colleagues at Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

Download the report: SRED submission

September 20, 2007 – Montréal, Quebec

FCIHR Annual General Meeting (7:45am)
Open Meeting of the Board of Directors
Delta Montréal (475 President Kennedy Avenue)

Once again, the Annual meeting of the membership was conveniently scheduled to ensure participation at the Public Forum of The Henry G. Friesen International Prize in Health Research and other related activities.