Four internationally recognized researchers from St. Joe’s have been elected to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS). Drs. Mehran Anvari, Richard Austin, James MacKillop, and Parameswaran Nair have joined the Academy as Fellows.
Established in 2004, CAHS brings together Canada’s top-ranked health and biomedical scientists and scholars to make a positive impact on the urgent health concerns of Canadians. CAHS Fellows, drawn from all disciplines across Canada’s universities, healthcare and research institutes, evaluate the nation’s most complex health challenges and recommend strategic, actionable solutions.
“Election to the Academy as a Fellow is a great honour,” said Dr. Lehana Thabane, Vice President, Research, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. “That not one, but four St. Joe’s researchers were elected this year is further proof that our Hospital is home to world class research programs that are changing lives.”
Fellows were selected based on key nomination categories. These include their local, national, and international recognition; their leadership qualities at their home institution and elsewhere; the creativity in their scholarship and innovative ideas; their distinctive competencies and backgrounds that contribute to the body of expertise of the CAHS; and their commitment to advance academic health sciences, teaching, and public service.
Mehran Anvari
Dr. Mehran Anvari, O.C., O.Ont, is a pioneer in robotics, telerobotics and minimally invasive surgery in Canada. His leadership and contributions in these fields have been recognized by his appointments to the Order of Canada and Order of Ontario. Dr. Anvari is a tenured Professor of Surgery at McMaster University and an Adjunct Scientist for the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). He is the founding director of the Centre for Minimal Access Surgery (CMAS) and Scientific Director and CEO of the Centre for Surgical Invention and Innovation (CSii), which recently partnered with MDA to create Insight Medbotics – a start-up to commercialize a new generation of intelligent robotic systems.
Richard Austin
Dr. Richard Austin is a Professor of Medicine, Amgen Canada Research Chair in Nephrology and Career Investigator of the Heart and Stroke. As Director of the Hamilton Centre for Kidney Research, he combines biomedical and genetic research strategies to better understand how cellular stress pathways drive cardiovascular and kidney disease. With >150 publications in high-impact scientific journals, Dr. Austin’s seminal discoveries have contributed to the development of new medicines for these diseases. As a passionate scientist, he serves on numerous grant panels and is a celebrated mentor of >70 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, many of whom are now productive researchers.
James MacKillop
Dr. James MacKillop is internationally recognized for his major contributions to the scientific study of addiction. In community and clinical populations, his work has elucidated the psychological determinants of addiction, including the roles of drug reinforcing value, self-regulatory capacity, alternative reinforcers, and social networks. Concurrent with his behavioural research, he has advanced the field by characterizing the underlying neural and genomic foundations of these processes. Critically, his work has pioneered the translation of insights and methods from basic research into real-world clinical innovations to advance patient care. These diverse contributions have made Dr. MacKillop a global leader in addiction research.
Parameswaran Nair
Dr. Parameswaran Nair is the Frederick E. Hargreave Teva Innovation Chair in Airway Diseases and Professor of Medicine at McMaster University, and an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at McGill University. At the Firestone Institute of Respiratory Health of St Joseph’s healthcare Hamilton, over two decades, he has directed a patient-centred translational research program that directly benefits patients with severe asthma and other complex airway diseases. As an internationally recognized researcher in the use of biologics to treat asthma, and as a caring clinician and educator, his research has brought relief and hope to patients from across Canada and elsewhere.
St. Joe’s also congratulates Dr. Eric Brown, Dr. Anthony Chan, Dr. David Earn, Dr. Charu Kaushic, Dr. Sheila Singh, and Dr. David Streiner – newly elected Fellows from McMaster University.
Learn more by accessing the CAHS media release here.