Dr. Bhagirath Singh appointed Acting Chair, Department of Microbiology and Immunology

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Bhagirath Singh has been appointed as Acting Chair, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University effective from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2014.

Dr. Singh graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics in 1963 and a Master's of Science with a specialization in Medicinal Chemistry in 1965, from Rajasthan University, Jaipur, India. He received his PhD in Chemical Investigation of Medicinal Plants in 1969, Agra University, Agra, India. Following post-doctoral training at Liverpool University in England he joined the Department of Immunology at the University of Alberta, Edmonton in 1973 and became full Professor in 1986. In 1992, he was recruited as Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and co-director of the Immunology group at the Robarts Research Institute at Western University. Dr. Singh is currently the founding Director of the Centre for Human Immunology, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Scientist, Robarts Research Institute at Western.

From 2000-2009 he served as the inaugural Scientific Director of the Institute of Infection and Immunity of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). He served on numerous national and international peer review committees and scientific advisory boards in Canada and abroad including the CIHR, NIH, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation(JDRF) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He has also served on the Boards of two Networks of Centres of Excellence: PrioNet and CANVAC. In 2010 he was appointed co-chair of Canada's HIV Vaccine Initiative (CHVI) by the federal Minister of Health. He is founding member of the International Human Microbiome Consortium (IHMC) and served as its co-chair. His laboratory has done seminal work in the regulation of autoimmune responses and autoantigens involved in Type 1 diabetes and he has authored more than 200 research papers. Dr. Singh was the recipient of John D. Reynolds award of the Canadian Society for Immunology (2010), Bernhard Cinader Award Lectureship (2001), the Banting and Best Memorial Lectureship of the International Diabetes Federation (2000), and is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Singh on his appointment.

Dr. Michael J. Strong, Dean
Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry