Distinguished University Professor, Chair, Department of Cell Biology, University of Alberta

After receiving a Ph.D. in cell biology from McGill University in 1980, he pursued postdoctoral research at McGill and at the Rockefeller University in New York. He was Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at McMaster University before assuming his current position at the University of Alberta in 1993. In 2001, he was named Canada Research Chair in Cell Biology and Senior Investigator of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. In 2002, he was appointed a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He has been an International Research Scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1997. He is a leader in cell biology in the areas of protein targeting and organelle biogenesis. He has redefined our views of the formation of cell membranes and the movement of proteins across them. His studies on the peroxisome, an organelle essential for lipid homeostasis, have led to the identification of numerous mutations causing lethal genetic disorders, collectively called the peroxisome biogenesis disorders. He has helped to bring together within the Department of Cell Biology a group of outstanding biologists investigating the assembly of the varied membrane compartments making up the cell.