Head of AllerGen’s CIC named new Dean of McMaster’s Faculty of Health Sciences

Head of AllerGen’s CIC named new Dean of McMaster’s Faculty of Health Sciences
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Dr. Paul O’Byrne

Dr. Paul O’Byrne, an AllerGen Research Leader, has been named the new Dean and Vice-President of the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University.

Dr. O’Byrne was selected after an international search for a leader with “imagination,” “boldness,” “impeccable credentials,” and “a powerful vision.” He will assume the role on July 1, 2016.

Dr. O’Byrne, a respirologist, is Director of the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton, Ontario, and has been Chair of McMaster’s Department of Medicine since 2002. He also leads AllerGen’s Clinical Investigator Collaborative, a multi-centre Phase II clinical trials consortium enhancing drug discovery for allergic diseases from proof-of-concept to use in patient populations.

“Paul O’Byrne is a world-renowned expert in asthma and respiratory diseases, a consummate scholar and statesman, and a prime mover of AllerGen’s research, as leader of its Clinical Investigator Collaborative,” says Dr. Judah Denburg, Scientific Director of AllerGen, and Professor of Medicine at McMaster University.

“Paul is the ideal person to take on the position of Dean & VP of our research-intensive Faculty. He will follow in the footsteps of Dr. John Kelton in continuing to focus attention and bring much well-deserved recognition to McMaster University as a major, national and global, contributor to the understanding and management of health and disease.”

Dr. O’Byrne is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, was inducted into the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2015—one of the highest honours for Canadians in the health sciences community—and was named a Distinguished University Professor by McMaster University.

Read the articles in McMaster Daily News and the Hamilton Spectator