Scientific Day

We are thrilled to be welcoming Dr. Sonia Anand, MD, PhD who will be speaking on "Bridging the Gap: Integrating OMICS and Classical Epidemiology in Dietary Intake and Chronic Disease Research”.

Dr. Sonia Anand is a Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at McMaster University, is the Director of the Chanchlani Research Centre focused on Health Equity Research and is a Senior Scientist at the Population Health Research Institute.

Dr. Anand received a Doctor of Medicine from McMaster in 1992, Internal Medicine Training at McMaster and a Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 1996. After additional clinical training in thrombosis and in vascular medicine at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dr. Anand works as a vascular medicine specialist at Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster University. Dr. Anand further received her Master’s in Clinical Epidemiology at McMaster in 1996 and Ph.D. in Health Research Methodology at McMaster in 2002.

She holds the Canada Research Chair in Ethnic Diversity and Cardiovascular Disease and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario/Michael G. DeGroote Chair in Population Health Research. Her present research focuses upon the environmental and genetic determinants of vascular disease in populations of varying ancestral origin, women and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Anand’s work is widely published amongst academic journals with over 475 scientific publications, and in 2019 she was inducted as a Fellow to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

In 2020 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Diabetes from the South Asian Health Foundation, UK. In 2021, Dr. Anand joined the National Heart and Stroke Foundation as a Board member. In 2022, Dr. Anand received the Margolese National Heart Disorders Prize and was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2023, she was awarded the YWCA Women of Distinction award. As of July 2023, Dr. Anand has taken on the role of Associate Vice-President, Global Health. In 2024, Dr. Anand was awarded the Jack Hirsh Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement from the Department of Medicine at McMaster University and the Robert Beamish Leadership Award at the 26th Annual Naranjan Dhalla Cardiovascular Awards Day.