Donald E. Brooks, FCAHS

Dr. Donald Brooks is a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and of Chemistry, at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Brooks has brought a new culture of service and support to the health research community at UBC as Associate Vice-president Research & International (2001 to 2011) and Founding Director of their Support Programs to Advance Research Capacity (SPARC) Office (2011 to 2013).

Dr. Brooks holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University of British Columbia, and a PhD from the University of Oregon. He completed his postdoctoral work at the Weizmann Institute and Cambridge University. Dr. Brooks has led the development of a program of mentorship, review and financial assistance to that research community that has helped elevate them to a leading position in Canada. He has also played a central advisory role in the large number of successful major CFI projects in the health sciences at UBC, both on campus and at the affiliated teaching hospitals, and is active in promoting health research provincially and federally. Dr. Brooks currently represents UBC on the Board of Directors of TRIUMF, the Provincial Health Services Authority, and the BC Emergency Health Services. He has been heavily involved in developing ACURA (the Association of Canadian University for Research in Astronomy) which is a federal not-for-profit corporation owned by the 20 Canadian universities engaged in astronomy research. He was the Founding Chair of the Board of Directors and has acted in executive roles since the organization’s inception in 2002. ACURA’s major achievement, in which Dr. Brooks played a lead role, has been to obtain in Budget 2015 federal funding of $243M to support Canada’s partnership in the international Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project. He was recently appointed to the Board of the corporation formed by the partners to construct the TMT. In June 2016, Dr. Brooks was appointed Executive Director of ACURA.

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