Dr. Meslin has had a 35-year long career spanning clinical, academic, government and not-for-profit settings, a common thread through which has been a focus on ethical, social and policy implications of health, science, and technology. He recently stepped down after eight years as President and CEO of the Council of Canadian Academies, an organisation that undertakes assessments of evidence for the Government of Canada on climate, science and technology, innovation, health care, and energy policy.
Dr. Meslin is currently Senior Fellow of the PHG Foundation, Distinguished Research Scholar at University of Miami, Adjunct Professor at University Toronto, Visiting Scholar at Centre of Genomics and Policy McGill University and a Partner at LDMH Partners, a life sciences consultancy.
His academic career includes many “firsts” including establishing Canada’s first comprehensive clinical ethics centre at Sunnybrook Health Science Centre; helping build the University of Toronto Centre for Bioethics (now the Joint Centre for Bioethics); and for 15 years as Founding Director of the Indiana University Center for Bioethics and Indiana’s first Endowed Chair in Bioethics.
Dr. Meslin’s leadership roles included Bioethics Research Director of the Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) program in the early years of the Human Genome Project, and Executive Director of the U.S. National Bioethics Advisory Commission, advising the White House on stem cell science, cloning, international clinical trials, and genomics. Trained in philosophy and bioethics from York University in Toronto and Georgetown University in Washington DC, he has published more than 200 articles, book chapters, and two co-edited books, and continues to advise many organisations including OECD, WHO, ELIXIR, and the Standards Council of Canada. Dr. Meslin is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and The Hastings Center. He is also a Chevalier de l’Ordre Nationale du Mérite (Knight of the National Order of Merit) for contributions to French bioethics policy.
