Gairdner connects the next generation with laureates through annual Student Networking Lunch
The annual Gairdner Science Week Student Networking Lunch took place on October 26.
Following the highly anticipated and powerfully inspirational Laureate Lectures on Thursday, October 26, about 90 students eagerly headed to lunch with current and past Canada Gairdner Awards laureates. Hosted by the Gairdner Foundation, this annual Student Networking Lunch brought together high school, undergraduate and doctoral students along with trainees through our partners at the University of Toronto, Lotus STEMM, Let’s Talk Science, Canadian Association for Girls in Science (CAGIS) and The Knowledge Society.
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90 students attended the lunch and learn with Canada Gairdner Award laureates.
This lunch was a rare and rewarding opportunity for students to have empowering conversations with a Gairdner Award recipient at their table. The students were joined by all of the 2023 laureates, Drs. Demis Hassabis, John Jumper, E Peter Greenberg, Bonnie Bassler, Michael Silverman, Gelareh Zadeh, Christopher Mushquash and José Belizán, as well as past laureates Drs. Cesar Victora and Alan Bernstein. Drs. Artem Babaian and Abiola Olaitan, winners of the 2023 Early Career Investigator competition, also joined the lunch to chat with and mentor students.
Dr. Bonnie Bassler,2023 Canada Gairdner International Award laureate, speaking with students.
Dr. Peter Greenberg, 2023 Canada Gairdner International Award laureate, meets with students.
Gairdner laureates took the time to provide career and scientific advice and mentorship, and answer the many questions the students had for them, whether it be about their life or their work. After lunch, many of the students were taken on tours of the world-class labs at MaRS Discovery District or the campus of University of Toronto.
Dr. Demis Hassabis, 2023 Canada Gairdner International Award laureate, meets with students.
Dr. Abiola Olaitan, 2023 Early Career Investigator, meets with students.
Thank you to our partners for helping us make the lunch happen and all the students who came with such enthusiasm and who will undoubtedly be the future of scientific research and innovation. Students were given booklets from the Frontiers for Young Minds 2023 Canada Gairdner Awards Collection, which explains the work of the 2023 laureates.
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Related Winners
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Bonnie L. Bassler
PhD Bonnie Bassler is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and the Squibb Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. Bonnie received a BS in Biochemistry from the University of California at Davis and a PhD in Biochemistry from the Johns Hopkins University. She performed postdoctoral work with Michael Silverman in Genetics at the Agouron Institute. Her research focuses on molecular mechanisms that bacteria use for intercellular communication; a process called quorum sensing. -
José Belizán
José Belizán is an obstetrician, doctor in Biology of Reproduction from Salvador University (Buenos Aires) and doctor in Medicine from Rosario University. He currently works as principal investigator in the Department of Research in Maternal and Child Health, Institute for Clinical Effectiveness in Argentina. He is an associate professor at Tulane University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA) and Senior Researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research of Argentina (CONICET). -
Alan Bernstein
OC PHD -
E Peter Greenberg
PhDDr. Everett Peter Greenberg received his PhD in Microbiology in 1977 from the University of Massachusetts. After finishing his postdoctoral at Harvard University (1977-1978), he joined the faculty at Cornell University Microbiology (1978-1984). He later moved to the University of Iowa as Professor of Microbiology (1988-2000) and Shepperd Professor of Microbiology (2000-2005), finally joining the University of Washington in 2005 where he currently is the Nester Professor of Microbiology. Dr. Greenberg has studied quorum sensing since the late 1970s and is widely considered the father of the field of microbial quorum sensing. The term “quorum sensing” originates in a 1994 Journal of Bacteriology article on which he was senior author.
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Demis Hassabis
PhD CBE FRS FREngDemis Hassabis is the Founder and CEO of DeepMind, the world’s leading AI research company, and now a part of Alphabet. Founded in 2010, DeepMind has been at the forefront of the field ever since, producing landmark research breakthroughs such as AlphaGo, the first program to beat the world champion at the complex game of Go, and AlphaFold, which was heralded as a solution to the 50-year grand challenge of protein folding.
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John Jumper
PhD, MPhil John Jumper received his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Chicago, where he developed machine learning methods to simulate protein dynamics. Prior to that, he worked at D.E. Shaw Research on molecular dynamics simulations of protein dynamics and supercooled liquids. He also holds an MPhil in Physics from the University of Cambridge and a B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from Vanderbilt University. At DeepMind, John is leading the development of new methods to apply machine learning to protein biology. -
Christopher Mushquash
Ph.D., C.PsychChristopher Mushquash, Ph.D., C.Psych., is Anishinawbe (Ojibway), and a member of Pawgwasheeng (Pays Plat First Nation). He is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Lakehead University, and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine University, Clinical Psychologist at Dilico Anishinabek Family Care, Vice President Research at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, and Chief Scientist at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute. -
Michael R. Silverman
PhDMike was born October 7, 1943 in Fort Collins Colorado. He was the son of a rural veterinarian who practiced in western Nebraska, USA. In high school, Mike studied vocational agriculture and later worked on an experimental farm where he developed an interest in plant diseases and bacteriology. He received BS (1966) and MS (1968) degrees in Bacteriology from the University of Nebraska. In 1972, Mike completed a PhD from the University of California, San Diego studying the molecular genetics of motility and chemotaxis in Escherichia coli. -
Cesar Victora
MD, PhD -
Gelareh Zadeh
MD, PhD, FRCS(C), FAANSDr. Gelareh Zadeh, MD, PhD, FRCS(C), FAANS, is the Dan Family Chair and Professor of Neurosurgery, University of Toronto. This role makes her the first Canadian Chair of Neurosurgery. She is Head of the Department of Neurosurgery at Toronto Western Hospital and Medical Director for the Krembil Brain Institute at University Health Network. Dr. Zadeh is a Senior Scientist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre where she runs a translational research program at MacFeeters-Hamilton Neuro-oncology Program and holds the Wilkins Family Brain Tumor Research Chair.
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Guest Speakers
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Artem Babaian
PhD Assistant Professor, Molecular Genetics / Donnelly Centre, University of TorontoArtem Babaian, PhD is a University of Toronto Assistant Prof... -
Abiola Olaitan
PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, University of WaterlooAbiola Olaitan is an assistant professor in the Department o...
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