Dr. Jonathan Van Hamme (Chair)

Dr. Van Hamme is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Thompson Rivers University. His research field is applied and environmental microbiology, with a focus on deploying genomic, proteomic and analytical tools for environmental and agricultural applications. He is a member of the Canadian Society of Microbiologists and the American Society for Microbiology.

Dr. H.-B. (Bernie) Kraatz, FRSC

A graduate in chemistry from the University of Calgary, Dr. Kraatz carried out post-doctoral research at the University of Maryland in College Park and the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot. He is a professor of chemistry at the University of Toronto Scarborough, where he carries out research in the areas of surface chemistry, bioconjugates and the development of electroanalytical tools for the detection of pathogens. He is a member of the Canadian Society for Chemistry and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Dr. Christine Vande Velde

Dr Vande Velde obtained her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Manitoba and subsequently pursued post-doctoral studies at the University of California, San Diego/Ludwig Institute. She is currently a professor in the Department of Neurosciences at the Université de Montréal and Université de Montréal Hospital Research Centre. Her research interests are centered on the fatal neurodegenerative diseases amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia. Dr. Vande Velde is a member of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience and is the newly appointed Scientific Director of the Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.