Western University Appoints Three New Distinguished Professors
Three renowned Western faculty members have been named Distinguished University Professors in recognition of their leadership, research excellence and community service.
All three 2024 recipients are longtime Western professors who have made wide-ranging contributions through their academic work, mentorship of young researchers and dedication to building a vibrant campus community.
The Distinguished University Professor Award and the Faculty Scholar Award, this year recognizing 20 mid-career faculty members, are part of the President’s Honour Roll. The new Distinguished University Professors will give public talks at an event on April 25 at 3 p.m. in the Great Hall.
Frank Beier
Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Bone and Joint Institute
Chair, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology
Mentoring the next generation of scientists keeps Frank Beier motivated through the ups and downs of a career as a leading researcher in bone and joint diseases.
“The best part of this profession is getting to work with young researchers, in particular PhD students, to see them grow and flourish and become strong scientists on their own. The inspiration from playing a role in this process is a constant motivator,” he said.
Beier is an internationally renowned expert in musculoskeletal health. He was named the Canada Research Chair in Musculoskeletal Research in 2001 and has since renewed or upgraded that chair three times.
He has supplemented research excellence with success in teaching over his decades at Western, developing new courses and supervising nearly 50 PhD and master’s candidates.
The Beier Lab studies the ways cartilage and bones develop and the pathways that can lead to bone and joint diseases.
“I did my PhD and postdoctoral training in the area of bone growth and development. Extending this research into the function of the skeleton – bones and joints – during aging and associated diseases, such as osteoarthritis, was a logical step when I started my own lab at Western,” Beier said.
Beier’s work has been cited more than 10,000 times and he has secured over $16 million in funding as a principal investigator during his career at Western.
“I gain a lot of satisfaction from the progress we’re making towards understanding the mechanisms that drive osteoarthritis. On the other hand, it’s clear we have a lot of work to do still to gain a handle on this devastating disease,” he said. – Frank Beier, Distinguished University Professor
Beier’s research has positioned him as a “universally trusted scientist with impeccable judgment” who is “sought out, read and cited as the benchmark,” according to his nominators.
“One of the major characteristics of Dr. Beier’s research is his exceptional collaborative spirit and generosity with his time and knowledge,” one supporter wrote.
Many experts stressed Beier’s work has also positioned Western as an international centre of excellence for osteoarthritic research.
Within the Western community, he has a long history of service, including as a member of Senate. Beyond campus he’s acted as a scientific board member, fundraiser and advocate to help patients and charities.
Though health research is a long game, Beier said he’s hopeful.
“We are really trying to move our research from the lab to the general population,” he said. “We can do something about these challenges.”
Carolyn McLeod
Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Chair, Department of Philosophy
Carolyn McLeod knows it’s a bit unusual for philosophers to help directly change policy.
It hasn’t stopped her.
The professor and chair of Western’s philosophy department can map the line from her research to larger societal changes, including a new employment insurance benefit to ensure equal treatment for adoptive parents, announced last fall.
McLeod studies ethics from a feminist perspective, often with a focus on health care. She’s a global expert in the ethics of reproduction and adoption, on conscientious objection and on trust.
Her research goals include ethically analyzing social problems and proposing solutions, using her skills as a philosopher.
“I’ve always loved philosophy. Thinking about things philosophically is just something I have always done,” McLeod said.
She was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2021.
“She is laser-focused on the real-life implications of abstract values and principles: the way freedom is actually realized,” one nominator wrote.
With questions as broad as the ones McLeod tackles – ethical complexities in parenthood, reproductive medicine, and moral concepts like trust and autonomy – collaborating with experts across multiple fields is essential.
She’s a “champion” of interdisciplinary work, participating in many interdisciplinary teams, including the latest on artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine. The team includes doctors, lawyers and other experts who hope to uncover opportunities for AI to solve health-care crises in Canada.
McLeod’s main project now is to study distrust of public institutions, including health care and child welfare, particularly among marginalized populations. Again, it’s a multi-pronged effort, partnering with other philosophers, a social psychologist and a social worker.
“The goal is to develop a theoretical framework for understanding that distrust and how to respond to it ethically. We want to understand the nature of that attitude and likely causes of it among marginalized people.” – Carolyn McLeod, Distinguished University Professor
McLeod is highly motivated by her commitment to social justice, one nominator wrote. Another called her a “strong, principled voice for marginalized groups.”
Her accomplishments are extensive and diverse, from acquiring multiple highly competitive grants since she arrived at Western in 2002, to authoring two books published by top academic presses – what one letter of support called “truly a mark of distinction.”
“Dr. McLeod has been a model of what we owe to Western and to our profession,” the nominator wrote.
Michelle Mottola
Faculty of Health Sciences, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Director, R. Samuel McLaughlin Foundation – Exercise and Pregnancy Laboratory
Division Chair, Maternal, Fetal and Newborn Health, Children’s Health Research Institute
Healthy moms, healthy babies, healthy communities.
It’s a motto for Michelle Mottola, an embryologist and exercise physiologist who’s dedicated her research to preventing disease – specifically, gestational diabetes – in pregnancy.
“Helping pregnant individuals lead healthy lives is key, because by having a healthy maternal environment, there’s a healthy fetal environment,” Mottola said.
“If we can prevent chronic disease from happening during pregnancy, that’s a really important factor for both mother and future baby.” – Michelle Mottola, Distinguished University Professor
Jointly appointed in the School of Kinesiology in Health Sciences and the department of anatomy and cell biology at Schulich, Mottola studies the role of lifestyle changes – nutrition and activity – to make a difference for parents and their future children.
She was one of the lead authors on the national guidelines for exercise in pregnancy, published in 2019, and has delivered nearly 200 lectures around the world, her nominators noted.
It’s been a lifetime commitment.
When Mottola first began studying the role of exercise in pregnancy, there wasn’t much information about its impact on the fetus. She even studied the role of exercise during her own two pregnancies.
“I wouldn’t want somebody to do something that I didn’t want to do myself,” Mottola said.
Later, she developed the Nutrition and Exercise Lifestyle Intervention Program (NELIP) to help prevent excessive weight gain in pregnancy and, in turn, reduce gestational diabetes risk.
Now, she hopes to build a culturally sensitive version for the Arab community in London, Ont., which is at high risk for gestational diabetes.
“We want to co-design, with the Arab Muslim community, a program that is sensitive to culture and religion,” she said.
Mottola and her team received a four-year special priority operating grant in diabetes, psychosocial health, prevention and self-management from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to develop it. She hopes the new version of NELIP will provide a template to reach other high-risk populations.
“We know that it works, which is exciting, but one size does not fit all.”
Now recognized for decades of research and impact, Mottola is humble about the Distinguished University Professor award, saying she shares it with hundreds of research participants who donated their time and energy and the team of other researchers and students with whom she worked. (Anyone who is newly pregnant and wants to participate in the studies done by Mottola’s lab is encouraged to review active studies and reach out here.)
For Mottola, the field has always presented incredible opportunities.
“When we can help prevent disease by helping pregnant individuals lead a healthy lifestyle, we help not just one person, but two.”
Faculty Scholars recognized with 2024 awards
Kyle Gervais, Faculty of Arts and Humanities
WG Pearson, Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Frank Boers, Faculty of Education
Abdallah Shami, Faculty of Engineering
Arghya Paul, Faculty of Engineering
Ana Luisa Trejos, Faculty of Engineering
Abram Oudshoorn, Faculty of Health Sciences
Marie Savundranayagam, Faculty of Health Sciences
Tim Blackmore, Faculty of Information and Media Studies
Bissan Ghaddar, Ivey Business School
Jury Gualandris, Ivey Business School
Sophie Roland, Don Wright Faculty of Music
David Hess, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Murray Junop, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Naveen Poonai, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Johanna Blacquiere, Faculty of Science
Christopher Alcantara, Faculty of Social Science
Samantha Joel, Faculty of Social Science
Agnieszka Leszczynski, Faculty of Social Science
Bonnie Simpson, Faculty of Social Science