Brett Finlay inducted to Canadian Medical Hall of Fame

Today, Peter Wall Distinguished Professor Dr. B. Brett Finlay will be inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. Dr. Finlay and five other inductees will celebrate this important recognition at a ceremony held in association with Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University at the London Convention Centre in London, Ontario.

Canadian Medical Hall of Fame Laureates are individuals whose contributions to medicine and the health sciences have led to extraordinary improvements in human health. Their work may be a single meritorious contribution or a lifetime of superior accomplishments. Pioneers in their field, they are role models for Canadians and an inspiration to our youth to pursue careers in the health sciences.

“It is quite an honour, especially when you look at the Canadian medical giants and heroes that are in the Hall already,” said Dr. Finlay.

“The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame is proud to welcome these six individuals whose outstanding contributions to health have made Canada, and the world, a better place,” said Dr. Taylor. “Their impact is well documented and they have earned their place alongside the current 125 Laureates of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.”

Dr. Finlay, Peter Wall Distinguished Professor at the Michael Smith Laboratories at the University of British Columbia, is extending our understanding of how microbes interact with humans in both health and disease, uncovering their role in asthma, malnutrition and enteric diseases, with implications for prevention, treatment and cure. His research in the field of cellular microbiology has led to human and animal vaccines and treatments for drug-resistant infections. Dr. Finlay is also known to a broader public as the co-author of the provocative best-seller, Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Your Child from An Oversanitized World, which presents scientific evidence concerning possible dangers of excessive sanitation in childhood environments. This public application of his profound research into the mechanisms of microbes at the molecular level has revealed their positive contributions to human wellness in addition to their role in infectious disease.

Researcher, author, teacher, lecturer, co-founder of companies devoted to microbiome modification of the immune system, Dr. Finlay is one of a small number of scientists advancing our fundamental knowledge of life processes while providing understandable guidance and advice to parents concerned with the care and well-being of children.