Sheena Josselyn, PhD
Senior Scientist, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids)

Dr. Sheena Josselyn is a senior scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and a professor in the departments of Psychology and Physiology at the University of Toronto. She holds a Canada Research Chair in Brain Mechanisms underlying Memory and is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the National Academy of Medicine (US). Her undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Life Sciences and a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology were granted by Queen’s University in Kingston (Canada). Dr. Josselyn received a PhD in Neuroscience/Psychology from the University of Toronto with Dr. Franco Vaccarino as her supervisor. She conducted post-doctoral work with Dr. Mike Davis (Yale University) and Dr. Alcino Silva (UCLA). Dr. Josselyn received numerous awards, including the Innovations in Psychopharmacology Award from the Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CCNP), the Effron Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), the Hughlings Jackson Award from McGill University, and the Andrew Carnegie Prize in Mind and Brain Sciences. Dr. Josselyn is interested in understanding how the brain encodes, stores and uses information. Her primary model organism is mice. However, several human disorders (ranging from autism spectrum disorder to Alzheimer’s disease) may stem from disrupted information processing. Therefore, this basic knowledge in mice is not only critical for understanding normal brain function, but also vital for the development of new treatment strategies for these disorders.

Lisa A. Robinson, MD, FRCPC, FASN, FCAHS
Dean of Medicine, Vice-Provost Relations with Health Care Institutions, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

Dr. Lisa Robinson began her service as Dean of the Temerty Faculty of Medicine (Temerty Medicine) and the Vice Provost, Relations with Health Care Institutions at the University of Toronto (U of T) on July 1, 2024. She is a professor in the departments of paediatrics, biochemistry, and the Institute of Medical Science at U of T. She is also a staff physician and former head of the Division of Nephrology at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and a senior scientist in the program in Cell Biology at the SickKids Research Institute. Dr. Robinson holds a Canada Research Chair (CRC) Tier 1 in Vascular Inflammation and Kidney Injury. She is the founder and former director of Kids Science, a SickKids Research Institute program that provides opportunities for middle- and high-school students to improve their understanding of science and technology. In 2014, she launched the Student Advancement Research (StAR) Program, a SickKids summer research program for high school students.

Nicole (Nikki) Woods, PhD
Senior Scientist, The Institute for Education Research (TIER) and Director, Research Institute, TIER

Dr. Nikki Woods holds the Richard and Elizabeth Currie Chair for Research in Health Professions Education at the University Health Network (UHN). She is the director and senior scientist at the Institute for Education Research (TIER) at UHN and a professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Woods leads an internationally recognized research program that applies principles and methods from cognitive psychology to enhance medical education theory and practice. Her research has important implications for education across the developmental continuum and in various health disciplines. Dr. Woods is a Fellow of the Karolinska Institute Prize for Medical Education Research (2019) and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2024). In 2021, she was named one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women by WXN.

Fei-Fei Liu, MD, FRCPC
Senior Scientist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Scientific Director, Institute of Cancer Research (ICR)

Dr. Fei-Fei Liu is the current scientific director of the Institute of Cancer Research at the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR). Her mandate is to define cancer research priorities whilst advancing the health for all Canadians, in collaboration with many national and international partners. Dr. Liu has held many leadership roles including Head of the Radiation Medicine Program at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto (2012-2022). She continues as a practising radiation oncologist and senior scientist at the Princess Margaret, investigating novel molecular therapeutic strategies in conjunction with radiation therapy; novel biomarkers for human malignancies; as well as understanding the biological mechanisms underlying cancer treatment toxicities. Dr. Liu has published over 200 peer-reviewed publications on these topics and has filed three patents. She is also the founding director of a CIHR/Terry Fox Foundation Research Training Initiative, with the objective to train the next generation of trans-disciplinary scientists in Radiation Medicine.

Anne-Claude Gingras, PhD, FRSC
Director, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute and Vice President, Research Sinai Health

Dr. Anne-Claude Gingras is the Vice President of Research at Sinai Health and Director of the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute in Toronto. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Functional Proteomics and the inaugural Lou Siminovitch Chair. A full professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto, she is the co-Director of the Network Biology Collaborative Centre at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, where she is also a senior investigator. Her laboratory studies signalling pathways and dynamic cellular organization in health and disease using systematic approaches and developing quantitative proteomics technologies. She has developed computational tools that enable better analysis and visualization of proteomics results, and she contributes to training the next generation of proteomics researchers. Using the tools she developed, her group has identified new protein complexes and signalling components that better understand perturbations associated with cancer and rare diseases. She also contributed to Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic by developing high-throughput and functional serology assays. Dr. Gingras has published over 300 research articles and review articles already cited over 60,000 times. She has been recognized through election to the Royal Society of Canada (2015) and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO, 2020), in addition to being awarded for her proteomics discoveries (Molecular and Cellular Proteomics Lectureship Award, 2018; Human Proteome Organization, HUPO, Discovery in Proteomics Science Award, 2019; Canadian National Proteomics Network Tony Pawson Award, 2020) and multiple named lectures.

Shiz Aoki
Co-Founder and CEO, BioRender 

Shiz Aoki is the co-founder and CEO of BioRender (also known as the Figma or Canva for science), a tool that enables scientists to quickly and accurately create and collaborate on scientific visualizations. Prior to starting BioRender, she studied at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in medical illustration, was the lead science illustrator at National Geographic Magazine for 8 years, and founded the award-winning graphics company, Anatomize Studios. Her passion lies in democratizing science communication via innovative and accessible tools in order to accelerate scientific research and discovery.