• lewis.challis@gmail.com

Areas of interest

Developmental Trajectories/fetus, pregnancy, development, DOHaD; Health research networks, organisations and funding processes

Biography

Professor John Challis is University Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, and Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University and at Murdoch University, WA. He is Principal of LHC Life Health Consulting. John was previously the Executive Director of the Western Australian Health Translation Network and Pro Vice-Chancellor for Health and Medical Research at the University of Western Australia.

John completed his training at the Universities of Cambridge, University of California, San Diego and Harvard Medical School and held a Junior Research Fellowship at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, before moving to McGill University, Montreal, Canada. More recently he served as Chair of the Department of Physiology and later as Vice President Research and Associate Provost of the University of Toronto. He was the inaugural Scientific Director of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health and served as President and CEO of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research in Vancouver BC.

He has published more than 500 peer review papers and chapters in his research areas of pregnancy, preterm birth and developmental aspects of health and disease (H-index, 82, citations, >26000) , trained more than 100 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, and held in excess of $25 million peer reviewed research funding. He was appointed Officer in the Order of Canada in 2020.