Connie Eaves

Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia

Dr. Connie Eaves (BA & MSc, Queens University, Canada; PhD University of Manchester, UK) was a co-founder of the Terry Fox Laboratory in 1981, and has served both as its Deputy Director and Director.  She has received numerous scholarships and awards, including election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, receipt of the NCI (Canada) Robert L. Noble Prize for Excellence in Cancer Research, the American Society of Hematology Henry Stratton Medal for Lifetime Achievement and the 2013 Rowley Prize of the International CML Foundation.  During her PhD studies in the late 1960’s, she discovered that two cell populations contribute to the generation of antibody responses, heralding the subsequent recognition of B and T cells.  She has since contributed many seminal advances to our understanding of progenitors and stem cells involved in blood formation and their regulation in both normal and perturbed states, with a particular emphasis on chronic myeloid leukemia.  Over the last decade, she has also become an expert in breast stem cells and has worked with human embryonic stem cells. She has published more than 440 papers and continues to direct a dynamic research group.  She is a major protagonist of excellence in training, having personally supervised 80 graduate students and post-MD and post-PhD fellows.  She has also previously served in many senior leadership positions (including President of the International Society for Experimental Hematology, President of the former National Cancer Institute of Canada, Vice-President of Research at the BC Cancer Agency and Board of Genome Canada), and she continues to be active in promoting and advising several collaborative translational and interdisciplinary research programs and networks.