It is with mixed emotions that I announce today Dr. Vassilios Papadopoulos’ decision to leave Montreal this autumn in order to tackle a new challenge in Los Angeles, USA. On October 1, 2016, Dr. Papadopoulos will resign from his position at the RI-MUHC and assume the mandate of Dean of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Southern California.
In September 2006, Dr. Papadopoulos joined the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC)/McGill community, assuming the roles of Associate Executive Director of Research at the MUHC, Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer of the Research Institute of the MUHC (RI-MUHC) and Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University.
An internationally respected scholar and visionary leader, Dr. Papadopoulos has been a tremendous friend to our community. In advance of the start of his official appointment, he came to Montreal to kick-start a platform for the RI-MUHC that would capture everyone’s imagination, not least of which government and granting agencies. Understanding how high the stakes were for all parties, he galvanized stakeholders to collaborate on a historic, and ultimately successful, proposal entitled “Translational Research and Intervention Across the Lifespan”. With landmark funding, savoir-faire and persistence, the state-of-the-art biomedical and research facilities at the Glen site of the MUHC are now redefining the way that researchers, post-doctoral fellows and students are conducting cutting-edge research.
Passionate about our collective potential to do great things, over the last decade Dr. Papadopoulos has stewarded the RI-MUHC to become one of the top three research centres nationwide while helping our organization establish powerful ties in 46 countries. Named the first Phil Gold Chair in Medicine and a recipient of a number of distinguished awards, he has also held a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Pharmacology and served as a board member of the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec, the Quebec Consortium for Drug Discovery, and Montreal InVivo. Thanks to his dedication, year over year, the RI-MUHC’s sphere of influence has grown exponentially. Operations have been streamlined while knowledge transfer and commercialization have been bolstered. Our current output is remarkable and our future in fundamental, clinical and evaluative research at both the Glen and Montreal General Hospital sites is certainly bright.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Papadopoulos for his many contributions and friendship, and ask that you join me in wishing him the very best in his future endeavours. Dr. Papadopoulos may be leaving Montreal, but I have no doubt that he will be collaborating with our researchers for years to come.
As per the RI-MUHC’s by-laws, the Board of Directors of the MUHC will launch a search for Dr. Papadopoulos’ successor. At the same time, the Board of Directors of the RI-MUHC will hold a special meeting to confirm the Acting Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer of the RI-MUHC as of October 1.
August 3, 2016