Mona Nemer

Mona Nemer is Canada's Chief Science Advisor. She is also the former Vice-President, Research, at the University of Ottawa and Director of its Molecular Genetics and Cardiac Regeneration Laboratory. Born in Lebanon, Dr. Nemer grew up in Beirut. As a young student, she advocated to expand her school’s curriculum so girls could study science at higher levels, and went on to complete a PhD in chemistry at McGill University in 1982. The author of over 200 scientific journal articles, Dr. Nemer has contributed to the development of diagnostic tests for heart failure and the genetics of cardiac birth defects through her research. Prior to her position at the University of Ottawa, she was a professor of pharmacology at Université de Montréal and Director of the Cardiac Genetics Unit at the Montréal Clinical Research Institute. Dr. Nemer is the recipient of numerous honours and awards, including Member of the Order of Canada and Fellow of the Academy of Science of the Royal Society of Canada.

"The public doesn't understand what scientists really do. There's this stereotype of the lonely scientist in their lab and that's just so far from reality…Each one of us makes decisions every day that incorporates science without knowing it, so the more we understand science the better it is."