Appointments & Awards: September 2026

Appointments

Antonio Strafella appointed President-Elect of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences

Jennie Johnstone elected as a 2026 Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS)

Niall Ferguson elected as a 2026 Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS)

Brian Levine elected as a 2026 Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS)

Samir Sinha appointed a Member of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on the Future of Older Adults and Long-Term Care Plan for the New Brunswick Ministry of Seniors and a Member of the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel on Supporting the Use of Technologies for Aging in Place

Joanna Schaafsma appointed the inaugural Irene Frances Breen Chair in Hemorrhagic Stroke

Sara Mitchell appointed the Professorship in Dementia Care Transformation for Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Shoba Sujana Kumar appointed the F.M. Hill Chair in Ambulatory Care Education, Department of Medicine at Women's College Hospital

Igor Novitzky-Basso appointed Director of the Orsino Cell Processing Facility at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre

Marcus Butler appointed Medical Director, Solid Tumour Cellular Therapy at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre

Aaron Schimmer appointed President and Scientific Director of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR)

Awards

Division of Cardiology

Husam Abdel-Qadir, CIHR Project Grant: Spring 2026

Division of Critical Care

Shelly Dev, elected by the graduating 2T6 medical school class at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine to receive the Class of 8T9 Medical Alumni Award

Shaurya Taran, successfully defended his PhD in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research and received the Claire Bombardier Award (Platinum) from the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME), University of Toronto

Maria Jogova, earned her Master of Medical Education degree

Alberto Goffi, 2026 Award for Excellence in Postgraduate Medical Education in the category of Teaching Performance, Mentorship and Advocacy

Division of Endocrinology & Metabolism

Lorraine Lipscombe, Women's College Hospital Department of Medicine's 2026 QUiRC (Quality Improvement Research) Award for the project “Factors Associated with Loss to Follow-Up After Transition to Adult Care at Women’s College Hospital Young Adult Diabetes Clinic”

Division of General Internal Medicine

Emily Hughes, Dr. E. Mary Hollington Teaching Award for 2025, MD Program, University of Toronto

• This award is presented to faculty members for excellence in teaching during Foundations, year 1 & 2

Division of Geriatric Medicine

Christina Reppas, 2026 American Delirium Society Junior Investigator Award and the 2026 Jack V. Tu Memorial Award for Excellence from the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto

Peter Hoang, 2026 Esta Wall Award of Excellence in Gerontology from the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto

Mercedes Lupo, FitzGerald Academy Teaching Award for Clinical Skills

Michael Gordon, Bridge Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Dundee

Division of Hematology

Steven Chan, 2026 Scholar-Innovator Award, Harrington Discovery Institute

Steven Chan, CIHR grant for the project, "Using Intravital Imaging to Understand how Acute Myeloid Leukemia Remodels the Bone Marrow Microenvironment In Vivo and how this Impacts Therapeutic Response"

Christine Chen, CIHR grant for the project, "A randomized controlled trial of early outpatient palliative care for patients with multiple myeloma"

Keith Stewart and Suzanne Trudel, CIHR grant for the project, "PIKfyve as a Novel Therapeutic Target for Multiple Myeloma"

Robert Kridel, 2026 Challenge Grant from Canadian Cancer Society for the project, "Detecting lymphoma recurrence faster and more accurately"

Aaron Schimmer, 2026 Challenge Grant from Canadian Cancer Society for the project, "Treating aggressive leukemia without harsh side effects"

Division of Infectious Diseases

Mona Loutfy, CIHR Project Grant: Spring 2026

Division of Medical Oncology

Steven Narod, CIHR Project Grant: Spring 2026

Frances Shepherd, UHN Global Impact Award

Geoff Watson, Distinguished Educator Award and nominated for 2025/26 Sinai Health Excellence in Education Award

Erica Tsang, Conquer Cancer Foundation Career Development Award

Amit Oza, 2026 International Gynecologic Cancer Society (IGCS) Lifetime Achievement Award and CIHR grant for the project, "A randomized controlled trial of early outpatient palliative care for patients with multiple myeloma"

Kevin Wang, 2026 Agnico Eagle Grand Challenge for his project, “A Phase II Study Evaluating the Safety, Efficacy, and Intracranial Activity of Tarlatamab in Recurrent/Refractory Gliomas with IDH Mutation (TARGID)” 

Eitan Amir, CIHR grant for the project, "Two Brief Interventions for Cancer-related Cognitive Impairment after Breast Cancer: A Randomized Trial"

Michelle Nadler, Christine Brezden-Masley and Geoffrey Watson, CIHR grant for the project, "A type 1 hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial of a virtual exercise-based rehabilitation intervention for persistent chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy (EX-CIPN)"

Dave Cescon, CIHR grant for the project, Rebooting Sensitivity to Checkpoint Blockade Therapy in TNBC (RESETT)

Division of Neurology

David Chan, Region 3 representative on the Specialty Committee in Neurology, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada

Aleksandra Pikula, Highly Cited Author Award for the article “Promise of Lifestyle Medicine for Heart Disease, Diabetes Mellitus, and Cerebrovascular Diseases”, Mayo Clinic

Anthony Lang, Inaugural Mark Hallett Award, International Functional Neurological Disorder Society

Nardin Samuel, Tarek K. Rajji Award in Brain Stimulation Research, University of Toronto

Nathaniel Bendahan, Young Member Paper of the Month for June 2026 for the paper “The Spectrum of Abnormal Tongue Movements: Review of Phenomenology, Etiology, and Differential Diagnosis”, Movement Disorders Society Young Members Group

Division of Rheumatology

Dana Jerome, Women's College Hospital Department of Medicine's 2026 QUiRC (Quality Improvement Research) Award for the project “Advancing Preventative Care for people with Inflammatory Arthritis”.  Both projects have been awarded $5,000 to support and advance their work

Lihi Eder, discovery grant for her research on gut microbiome and diet in psoriatic arthritis from the National Psoriasis Foundation