Moderators

Doug Barber, Founder and former CEO and President, Gennum Inc.

M.W. Luke Chan, Associate Vice-President, International Affairs, McMaster University

Lorna Jean Edmonds, Executive Director (International Relations), University of Western Ontario

Justin Gammage, Chief Scientist, General Motors Canada

Jennifer Jackman, Director, CANMET, Natural Resources Canada

John Lavis, Professor, Canada Research Chair in Knowledge Transfer and Exchange, McMaster University

Peter Mascher, Associate Dean of External Relations, Faculty of Engineering, McMaster University

The Honourable Tony Valeri, VP, Corporate Communications & Public Affairs, ArcelorMittal Dofasco Inc.

Gerard Wright, Professor, Canada Research Chair in Molecular Studies of Antibiotics, and Director, Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research , McMaster University

Biographies

 H. Douglas Barber, O.C, Ph.D., D.Scl, FCAE, P.Eng. is Distinguished Professor-in-Residence in the Engineering Faculty of McMaster University.  He has been a dynamic player in the Canadian Microelectronics industry for 46 years.  For most of that time he has also played strongly in the education and the national research related to that industry.  As an engineer and entrepreneur he is a co-founder and former CEO of Gennum Corporation.  He is an innovator, entrepreneur and successful leader.  He has received many honors including the Order of Canada, the 1999 Technology Entrepreneur of the Year and three Honorary Doctorates.  He has served and continues to serve on many boards and advisory councils in industry, academic research and government ministries and initiatives.  Over the past ten years Dr. Barber has devoted much time to understanding Canada’s poor performance in the knowledge-based economy.  He believes strongly that we could do better.

Luke Chan came to Canada in 1970 as an undergraduate student and has been associated with academic pursuit ever since.  He started his teaching career at the University of Toronto in 1977 and is now a Professor of Finance and Business Economics and the Associate Vice-President, International Affairs at McMaster University.  Dr. Chan is very involved in management education and training in both Canada and China.  He is an Honorary Professor and Honorary Advisory Professor of nine universities in China, including Tsinghua University, University of Science and Technology-Beijing, Nankai University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Fudan University. He is also a recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from the Beijing Language and Culture University. Dr. Chan was also honoured by both of his alma maters (University of Prince Edward Island and McMaster University) as Distinguished Alumni and the McMaster Alumni Gallery, respectively.  His biography and his achievements are also listed in the Who’s Who in Canada. He was inducted to the Hamilton Gallery of Distinction for his community services.   He consults widely including many companies in the Fortune 500.

Lorna Jean Edmonds, Ph.D. assumed the position of Executive Director, International Relations at the University of Western Ontario, effective May 9, 2011 where she is responsible for partnership relations and the development ofan integrated internationalization strategy for research, alumni and advancement. Previous positions include the Assistant Vice President, International Relations, University of Toronto, and at Queen’s University at Kingston she served as the Director of the Office of Research Services, the Director of Queen’s International Centre for the Advancement of Community Based Rehabilitation (ICACBR) and Assistant Professor, School of Rehabilitation Therapy. She has led international research, education, development assistance and relations projects in many regions of the world for over two decades. She holds a PhD from the School of Development Studies at the University of East Anglia, UK, a Master of Health Administration at the University of Ottawa and a Bachelor of Arts at Queen’s University

Justin Gammage is the Chief Scientist for General Motors of Canada and is responsible for leading GM’s collaborative research activities across Canada.  Prior to transitioning the role of Chief Scientist, Justin was the R & D Program Manager for General Motors of Canada and in addition to his program administration responsibilities, he supported the development of a large number of new collaborative research programs in areas that include lightweight materials, energy storage, vehicle control systems, manufacturing and vehicle electrification.  Justin began his career at GM Canada as a materials engineer, where he worked in the product development organization based at GM’s Canadian Regional Engineering Center in Oshawa, Ontario.

Justin holds Ph.D. in Material Science from McMaster University and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario.

Dr. Jennifer Jackman is presently the Director-General of the CANMET Materials Technology Laboratory (MTL) within Natural Resources Canada.

Dr. Jackman obtained her PhD in Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Guelph in 1983, and has been with the Public Service since 1986. She has been active in the development of automotive materials research in Canada, and has been involved in numerous national and international collaborations involving industry, other governments and universities. The Canmet Materials Laboratory is Canada’s principal federal R&D laboratory for metals research, and is well known for its pilot scale facilities for metallurgy - which has supported innovation in steel, aluminum, magnesium and other structural metals for nearly 70 years. The laboratory recently relocated from Ottawa to Hamilton to support stronger collaborations for innovation manufacturing.

John N. Lavis, MD PhD, is the Director of the McMaster Health Forum (www.mcmasterhealthforum.org), a Professor (in both the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the Department of Political Science), and a Member of the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis at McMaster University. He is President of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Advisory Committee on Health Research and a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Advisory Committee on Health Research. He is Co-Editor of the Policy Briefs series co-published by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and the WHO-sponsored Health Evidence Network. He is a member of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (AHSPR) Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee, the Cochrane Collaboration’s Effective Practice and Organization of Care (EPOC) Review Group, and the WHO-sponsored Evidence-Informed Policy Network (EVIPNet) Resource Group.  He is President of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Advisory Committee on Health Research and a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Advisory Committee on Health Research. He is Co-Editor of the Policy Briefs series co-published by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and the WHO-sponsored Health Evidence Network. He is a member of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (AHSPR) Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee, the Cochrane Collaboration’s Effective Practice and Organization of Care (EPOC) Review Group, and the WHO-sponsored Evidence-Informed Policy Network (EVIPNet) Resource Group. John holds an MD from Queen's University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a PhD from Harvard University.

Peter Mascher obtained a PhD in Engineering Physics in 1984 from the Graz University of Technology (TUG) in Austria and spent about four years as a post-doctoral fellow and research associate at the University of Winnipeg. He joined McMaster University in 1989 in a position initially funded by the Ontario Centre for Materials Research. He is a professional engineer and a professor in the Department of Engineering Physics, was Chair of the Department from 1995 to 2001, and since 2003 serves as the Associate Dean (Research and External Relations) of the Faculty of Engineering, with responsibilities for coordinating major research initiatives and collaborations of the Faculty. He also holds the prestigious William Sinclair Chair in Optoelectronics that was created by William Sinclair, one of the co-founders of JDS-Fitel, now part of JDS-Uniphase.

Dr. Mascher leads active research groups involved in the fabrication and characterization of thin films for optoelectronic applications, the development and application of silicon-based nanostructures, and the characterization of defects in solids by positron annihilation spectroscopy. His research work is funded by NSERC, CFI, and several federal and provincial Centres of Excellence, as well as industry. He has supervised more than 40 Ph.D. and master’s degree students, has authored or coauthored more than 200 publications in refereed journals and conference proceedings, and has presented many invited lectures at international conferences and workshops. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the bi-annual Canadian Semiconductor Technology Conference (CSTC) and was the Conference Chair for the 14th CSTC and the 4thInternational Forum on Nano and Giga Challenges in Electronics, Photonics and Renewable Energy held jointly at McMaster University in Hamilton in August 2009. In 2009, Dr. Mascher led a successful multi-university CFI large-scale New Initiatives Fund application to transform the McMaster Research Reactor into one of the world’s brightest positron sources for materials and fundamental research.

Tony Valeri joined ArcelorMittal Dofasco in June 2011 from his own firm, Ridge Strategy Group, a public affairs and management consulting company. Tony was also a Member of Parliament for four consecutive terms, beginning in 1993.

During his terms in office, he served as Minister of Transport and subsequently led the Government's legislative program as Leader of the Government in the House of Commons. Prior to assuming public office he was principal of a life and health benefits practice.

Tony is a graduate of McMaster University and is actively involved in the community, most recently serving on the Board of Trustees of St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, holding the position of Board Chair from 2009 to 2011.

Gerry Wright is the Director of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, an Associate member in the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine.  He was Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences from 2001 to 2007 and is the founding director of the McMaster Antimicrobial Research Centre.  He received his BSc in Biochemistry (1986) and his PhD in Chemistry (1990) from the University of Waterloo.  He followed this up with 2 years of post doctoral research at Harvard Medical School in Boston and joined the Department of Biochemistry at McMaster in 1993.  He holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Antibiotic Biochemistry and has received the Killam Research Fellowship (2011), Canadian Institutes of Health Research Scientist (2000-2005) and Medical Research Council of Canada Scholar (1995-2000), Premiers’ Research Excellence (1999) and Polanyi Prize (1993) awards.  He is the director of the American Chemical Society Short Course on Antibiotics and Antibacterial Agents.  Dr. Wright is co-founder, with Dr. Eric Brown, of the McMaster High Throughput Screening Facility.  He is a member of the editorial boards of the scientific peer-reviewed journals Chemistry and Biology and the Journal of Antibiotics.

Dr. Wright’s laboratory conducts research on the Chemical Biology of antibiotic resistance including resistance to aminoglycoside, glycopeptide and streptogramin families of antibiotics, on the mechanisms of antibiotic biosynthesis, and on the discovery of new antimicrobial targets, in particular antifungal agents.  He is the author of over 150 published papers and book chapters.