Dr. Charu Kaushic

Charu Kaushic is the scientific director of the Institute of Infection and Immunity of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and a professor at the Immunology Research Centre of the Department of Medicine at McMaster University. She represented the Government of Canada at numerous national and international forums on infectious diseases and currently serves as Chair of the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, she has been serving on Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force and the Variants of Concern Leadership Group. Dr. Kaushic was born in India and completed a PhD at the National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi and a post-doctoral degree in mucosal immunology at the Dartmouth Medical School in the United States. In the past 20 years at McMaster, she has been building an interdisciplinary translational research program in women’s reproductive health and examined the susceptibility and immune responses to sexually transmitted viruses. She trained more than 70 people in her lab and received multiple grants and awards for her research. Dr. Kaushic has built close collaboration with African, Caribbean, and Black communities in the past 15 years and is a strong advocate for the involvement of communities in research. She is also a passionate supporter of women in STEM, their careers and leadership roles. She supports increasing equity, diversity, and inclusion in research.

“We need to expand our research environment to include a diverse workforce and communities, and bring more women in leadership roles to empower new ideas and voices that will enable Canada to contribute uniquely to 21st century innovations.”