“I am a part of all that I have met”

Dr. Friesen received his MD from the University of Manitoba in 1958. He began his career in research in endocrinology with a fellowship at the New England Medical Center, Boston. His initial academic appointment was at McGill University (1965–1973), followed by appointment as Professor and Head of the Department of Phys-iology and Professor of Medicine at the University of Manitoba (1973–1992). His re-search resulted in the discovery of the human pituitary hormone prolactin, defining its role in health and disease.He served as the President of the Medical Research Council (1991–2000) where he was both architect and champion for a bold new vision for Health Research in Canada that led to the creation of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in 2000. He was the founding Chair of Genome Canada (2000–2005), an agency established to position Canada to be a world leader in selected areas of genomics, and Chair of the Board of the Gairdner Foundation (2006–2009).