Professor Stephen Lye Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the Fraser Mustard Institute for Human Development, University of Toronto.  Dr. Lye is a world-expert in women’s and infant’s health and pioneered investigations into the mechanisms underlying preterm birth.  His research has integrated discovery, clinical and translational studies including the commercialization of discoveries in partnership with industry.  Dr. Lye has established international research consortia focused on identifying interactions between an individual’s genetic make-up and their environment during the first 2000 days of life that underlie obesity and cardio-metabolic disorders.  He has published over 180 research papers on pregnancy and maternal-child health and holds a Canada Research Chair in Improved Health and Function.  Dr. Lye has received numerous awards and honours, including the President’s Scientific Achievement Award from the Society for Gynecologic Investigation and the Excellence in Research Award from the Association of Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.  Dr. Lye has led numerous large-scale, peer-review funded, research programs at the local national and international level.  He is a Professor of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Physiology and Medicine at the University of Toronto and Associate Director of the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital.                        

University Professor Marla B. Sokolowski, BSc (1977, U. Toronto), PhD (1981, U. Toronto), FRSC (1998), Canada Research Chair (2001) is in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, U. Toronto. Her innovative work is esteemed worldwide as a clear, integrative mechanistic paragon of the manner in which genes can interact with the environment, thus impacting behaviour. She has trail-blazed the development of a branch of Behaviour Genetics that addresses the genetic and molecular bases of natural individual differences in behaviour and is best known for her discovery of the foraging gene. She has published well over 130 publications and 160 invited lectures. Prof. Sokolowski is an award winning teacher and highly accomplished lecturer. She has supervised over 20 postdoctoral fellows and 30 graduate students with many of her trainees ascending to prestigious national and international academic positions. She has received Distinguished Visiting Professorships in the US and Europe where she contributes regularly to graduate education. She became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1998 for her pioneering work in the field of Behavioural Genetics and received a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Genetics and Behavioural Neurology in 2001. In 2004 she became a Fellow of Massey College and in 2007 she received the Genetics Society of Canada’s Award of Excellence. She co-directs the Experience Based Brain and Biological Development Programme of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research where she is the Weston Fellow. She was appointed the Director of the Life Sciences Division of the Academy of Sciences of the Royal Society of Canada in 2009, named a University Professor at University of Toronto in 2010 and accepted the position of Academic Director of the Fraser Mustard Institute for Human Development at University of Toronto in 2012.  Her research group recently joined the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in the Faculty of Arts and Science on the St George campus at the University of Toronto. As Academic Director, Professor Marla B. Sokolowski will be responsible for education and training programs within the IHD as well as contributing to strategic research and planning for the Institute.