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Genomics Impact Awards

To mark the 25th anniversary of the Canadian Genomics Enterprise, Genome Canada launched new Genomics Impact Awards program in 2025 to celebrate Canadian excellence and impact in genomics.

Canadian genomics: A community built to take on big challenges

Lifetime Achievement Award

Dr. Ford Doolittle,
Professor Emeritus, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University
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Societal Impact Award

Dr. Kim TallBear,
Professor, Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta
See More

Industry Collaboration Award

Dr. Filippo Miglior,
Senior Advisor, Genetic Strategic Initiatives, Lactanet and Adjunct Professor at University of Guelph
See More

Early Career Achievement Award

Dr. Adi Steif,
Scientist, Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Research Institute, Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Genetics, The University of British Columbia
See More

Celebrating 25 years of genomics impact in style

The inaugural Genomics Impact Awards were handed out at the Canadian Genomics Summit reception on Feb. 5, 2025, emceed by The Globe and Mail’s renowned health columnist André Picard and sponsored by Illumina.

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Lifetime Achievement Award

Dr. Ford Doolittle,
Professor Emeritus, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

Dr. Ford Doolittle has an insatiable appetite for interacting with ideas. For more than half a century, the molecular biologist has been searching for answers to some of the most significant evolutionary questions. He is a visionary whose research on lateral gene transfer, genome evolution, and the concept of “selfish DNA” has redefined our understanding of the evolutionary process.

When Dr. Doolittle started out as a graduate student at Stanford in the mid-1960s, very little was known about genes. His pioneering research has helped to shed light on the how and why of the building blocks of life, offering profound insights into how genetic material shapes life’s diversity. Throughout his illustrious career, Dr. Doolittle has consistently pushed the boundaries of science and challenged long-standing theories. For instance, he sparked debate with his controversial paper in 1999 suggesting that Darwin’s evolutionary tree was an inadequate model for understanding two-thirds of life on Earth. His alternate theory that gene-swapping is common among miniscule life forms like bacteria is now accepted as one of the major forces driving microbial genome evolution.

For more than three decades, Dr. Doolittle also inspired the next generation of scientists as a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Dalhousie University. Although he retired from full-time teaching in 2008, he continues to be driven by a desire to learn and explore ideas about the philosophy of biology, focusing on function and natural selection. In 2024, he completed his first solo book, Darwinizing Gaia. 

Dr. Doolittle was nominated for a Genomics Impact Award by Genome Atlantic for his outstanding contribution to genomic research over the past 60 years.

“What drives me is a feeling of responsibility to understand the journey that brought us here and to uncover the very essence of what defines us.”

Dr. Ford Doolittle

Societal Impact Award

Dr. Kim TallBear,
Professor, Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta

Dr. Kim TallBear has spent much of her academic career working to elevate Indigenous voices in science. A social scientist who studies the politics of science and technology, she’s an unwavering advocate for decolonizing science, promoting ethical engagement with genomics and Indigenous self-governance.

Dr. TallBear works tirelessly to promote inclusion and reduce biases in mainstream science and technology research. Her aim is to ensure that members of marginalized communities, such as Indigenous people, women, people of colour, and queer people, feel they belong and can make valuable contributions to these fields. 

Through collaboration with non-Indigenous scholars and institutions, she has worked to build new knowledge about scientific self-governance and Indigenous well-being and to elevate Indigenous scholars’ voices and work. For example, Dr. TallBear has helped to bridge gaps in STEM education by supporting the participation of more than 450 Indigenous students from around the world in the Summer Internship for Indigenous Peoples in Genomics program. 

Although she originally trained and worked as an environmental planner, Dr. TallBear realized her real interest lay in studying the culture and politics of science and technology. In 2005, she returned to graduate school, completing a Ph.D. in the History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Today, she is a professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta and a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience, and Society.

She was nominated for a Genomics Impact Award by Genome Alberta for her outstanding social, cultural and academic contributions to the field.

“My goal is to diversify science and train Indigenous people to take control of our own science. Coming from an Indigenous community, it was always clear to me that science and technology are part of Indigenous governance.”

Dr. Kim TallBear

Industry Collaboration Award

Dr. Filippo Miglior,
Senior Advisor, Genetic Strategic Initiatives, Lactanet and Adjunct Professor at University of Guelph

To call Dr. Filippo Miglior a team player is an understatement. A highly committed dairy cattle geneticist, Dr. Miglior considers working with others the best part of his job—and the key to his success. Dr. Miglior has spent more than three decades spearheading large, collaborative projects with academia, government and industry establishing Canada as a global leader in dairy cattle genetics.

His innovative thinking and strategic approach have revolutionized dairy farming, bridging the gap between genomic research and practical applications. In particular, he has worked with partners across Canada as well as in Australia, Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States to pioneer genomic solutions that have improved the way dairy cows digest their feed, while maximizing milk production and herd health and welfare. These innovations are accelerating sustainability and addressing the environmental impacts of the dairy industry through significant methane emissions reduction.

Dr. Miglior grew up in Milan, Italy, and while having no farming experience, he discovered a passion for cattle genetics as a graduate student doing field work in the Italian Alps. That interest led him to pursue a PhD at University of Guelph, where today, he is inspiring the next generation as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Animal Biosciences. For more than a decade, Dr. Miglior also worked as researcher with the federal government, and led sector innovation and programs as CSO at Ontario Genomics before taking on his current leadership role at Lactanet, a nonprofit organization run by Canada’s dairy producers. 

Dr. Filippo Miglior was nominated for a Genomics Impact Award by Genome Alberta and Ontario Genomics for his innovative and collaborative research.

“I have a passion for applied research and through collaboration, we have secured Canadian leadership in dairy cattle genetics. This has been possible through the hard work of high-performance teams that I had the privilege to lead throughout my career. The scale of industry uptake and tangible benefits to the sector has been tremendously rewarding.”

Dr. Filippo Miglior

Early Career Achievement Award

Dr. Adi Steif,
Scientist, Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Research Institute, Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Genetics, The University of British Columbia

Sometimes it’s obvious when someone is destined for great things—and Adi Steif is unquestionably one of those people. In her relatively short career as a computational biologist, Dr. Steif’s research has already led to world-leading insights into how genetic diversity within tumours allows them to evolve and develop resistance to treatment.

Dr. Steif completed her PhD at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 2018, where she established herself as a promising cancer researcher and contributed to the development of methods that allow scientists to identify genetic differences between individual cancer cells. For her postdoctoral training, Dr. Steif was awarded a Schmidt Science Fellowship and Junior Research Fellowship at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, where she focused on understanding how genes associated with hereditary breast cancer susceptibility impact normal tissue. 

In 2021, Dr. Steif returned to UBC to start her own lab at the Genome Sciences Centre where her interdisciplinary group develops and applies computational methods to generate new insights into cancer development and progression at the single-cell level. Collaborating with molecular biologists, engineers and clinicians, her group aims to understand the molecular mechanisms that cause some tumours to be more aggressive than others. 

The computational methods that her research team is developing are meeting the critical need to find patterns in the huge data sets being generated in genomics today. Ultimately, this knowledge will improve cancer patients’ lives by leading to better treatments.

Dr. Steif was nominated for a Genomics Impact Award by Genome British Columbia.

“As a trainee, I was driven by a passion for discovery, which made a career in science a natural fit. Focusing on cancer allows me to contribute to improving understanding of a devastating disease and bring hope for better outcomes to patients and their families.”

Dr. Adi Steif