Three new members appointed to CIHR’s governing council

Ottawa, ON – Three new members have been appointed to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) governing council. The appointments were announced by Ujjal Dosanjh, federal minister of health. The new appointees are Dr Bill Thomlinson, Dr Patrick John McGrath, and H Arnold Steinberg.

Dr Thomlinson is the executive director of the Canadian Light Source Synchrotron facility in Saskatoon, SK. A globally renowned expert in synchrotron medical imaging, he was formerly the head of the Medical Research Group at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, where he led a highly successful medical beamline group, helped start lung and mammography imaging, and led the first human blood vessel imaging studies at the facility. He received his doctorate from Yale in 1970.

Dr McGrath, a professor of psychology, pediatrics and psychiatry at Dalhousie University and a psychologist at the IWK Health Centre is a renowned expert in the diagnosis and treatment of pain in children and the innovative delivery of mental health care. As a CIHR distinguished investigator and a Canada research chair at Dalhousie University/IWK Health Centre, he focuses on the measurement and treatment of pain and innovative service delivery using technology. He received his undergraduate education at the University of Ottawa and the University of Saskatchewan and his doctorate from Queen’s University.

Mr Steinberg is a principal of Cleman Ludmer Steinberg, an investment holding company, and a director of Provigo, the McGill University Health Centre Foundation, and the MUHC Research Institute. He has a strong knowledge of the healthcare sector and is the advisory board chairman of McGill’s Faculty of Medicine and the chair of the board of directors of Canada’s Health Infoway, an independent organization established to accelerate the development and adoption of electronic health information systems in Canada. A graduate of McGill and Harvard, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from McGill.