Maydianne Andrade appointed Chair of CCA Scientific Advisory Committee

Committee also welcomes five new members, with backgrounds in engineering, digital communication, health administration, medicine, and photonics.

The Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) is pleased to announce that Maydianne C. B. Andrade has been named incoming Chair of its Scientific Advisory Committee. Dr. Andrade will succeed David Castle whose term as Chair ends December 31, 2024. The Committee also welcomes five new members: Bing Chen, Jaigris Hodson, Catherine L. Mah, Nicole Redvers, and Madison Rilling.

“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Andrade into this role, and I thank Dr. Castle for his years of stewardship and support as chair,” said Sue Molloy, Chair of CCA’s Board of Directors. “Dr. Andrade’s extensive expertise and leadership will be an asset to the CCA and I look forward to her insight and guidance.”

Maydianne C. B. Andrade is a Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough. An internationally recognized expert on widow spiders, she has received exemplar awards from the Animal Behavior Society and from the Centre for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior for her long-term research contributions to the field. Dr. Andrade is Chair of the National Killam Selection Committee, an incoming member of the Advisory Committee on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Policy for the Tri-council Institutional Program Secretariat, and co-founder and the inaugural President of the Canadian Black Scientists Network. She has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee since 2021.

New committee members:

Bing Chen, Professor of Civil Engineering, UArctic Chair in Marine and Coastal Environmental Engineering, and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Jaigris Hodson, Canada Research Chair (Tier 2), Digital Communication for the Public Interest and Associate Professor, College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Royal Roads University

Catherine L. Mah, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Promoting Healthy Populations, School of Health Administration, Faculty of Health, Healthy Populations Institute, Dalhousie University

Nicole Redvers, Associate Professor and Western Research Chair, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University; VP Research, Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada

Madison Rilling, Executive Director, Optonique

The role of the Scientific Advisory Committee is to advise the CCA’s Board on assessment topics, expert panel composition, and peer review.