Dr John Challis

Dr John Challis has been appointed as the Univ of Toronto’s VP research and associate provost for a seven-year term. He replaces Dr Heather Munroe-Blum, who left last year to become president and vice-chancellor of McGill Univ. Challis is a professor of medicine and former chair of the physiology department. He is also scientific director of the Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health (one of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research), holds an appointment at the Samuel Lunenfeld Institute and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Challis received his undergraduate education at the Univ of Nottingham and a PhD from the Univ of Cambridge. Post-doctoral work was conducted at the Univ of California and Harvard Medical School. He moved to Canada in 1976 as a medical research scholar at McMaster Univ and joined the U of T in 1995. Challis’ area of research expertise includes hormone mechanisms during pregnancy and fetal development. The new title of VP research and associate provost replaces that of VP research and international relations, although there are no changes to the position’s function