Professor Abdallah Daar
Professor Of Public Health Sciences & Professor Of Surgery, University Of Toronto
About
Abdallah Daar, OC, FRS (C), D. Phil (Oxon), FRCP (Lon), FRCS, FRCSC, is based at the University of Toronto, Canada, but has many international commitments and affiliations. In 2017 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. His academic work has been in the fields of surgery; organ transplantation (he holds the world record for performing the youngest kidney transplant); bioethics; and global health.
His positions/affiliations in the recent past include the following:
- Professor of Clinical Public Health; Global Health; and Surgery at the University of Toronto; with Senior Scientist positions at the Research Institutes of University Health Network and the Hospital for Sick Kids.
- Member of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board
- Member of UNESCO’s International Bioethics Committee
- Member of the Governing Boards of Genome Canada; the World Diabetes Foundation; and Grand Challenges Canada, including being Chief Scientific and Ethics Officer, and Chair of its International Scientific Advisory Board
- Member of the inaugural Scientific Advisory Board of the Islamic Development Bank Group
- Permanent Fellow of the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (convenor of the Health in Transition Strategic Theme)
- Founding (Executive) Chair of the Global Alliance of Chronic Diseases
- Founding Chair of the Board, United Nations International Institute for Global Health
- Fellow of: The Royal Society (Canada); Islamic World Academy of Sciences; African Academy of Sciences; TWAS, The World Academy of Sciences; the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences; and the Hastings Centre
- Member of the African Union High Level Panel on Emerging Technologies
- Chair of the Independent Strategic and Scientific Advisory Board of the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA)
Professor Daar’s publications include: 320 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals; 85 chapters in various academic books; and 6 books. His latest book, Garment of Destiny was published in Canada in September 2018 and internationally in October 2018. He is now working on a multi-authored book on Developmental Origins of Health and Disease and SDGs: Towards Early Implementation in Africa. He has received several million of dollars of research grants, including form the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with his colleagues at the University of Toronto.
His international awards/prizes include Professorship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England; The Patey Prize of the Surgical Research Society of Great Britain; The Hunterian Professorship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England; The UNESCO Avicenna Prize for Ethics of Science; The Anthony Miller Award for Research Excellence, University of Toronto; and the Ontario Genomics Institute’s Societal Impact of Genomics Prize.
He has helped to start two medical schools (in the UAE, where he also founded the Emirates Institute for Medical Research and a clinical transplant programme: and in Oman, where he was the Chair of Surgery for 10 years before moving to Canada in 2000). He has been an expert advisor to the World Health Organization; UNESCO; the United Nations; and various governments.