Professor Leah Cowen, PhD, FRSC, FCAHS, FAAM, FAAAS, is Vice-President, Research and Innovation, and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Toronto (U of T). She leads the University's research and innovation enterprise, representing U of T with government, industry, healthcare, and community partners. In this role, she oversees the development and implementation of policies, programs, and strategic initiatives that strengthen research excellence, foster innovation, and advance collaboration across the University and its affiliated hospitals.
A professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics, Professor Cowen is an internationally recognized scientist whose research focuses on the biology and evolution of fungal pathogens. Her laboratory develops innovative strategies to combat antimicrobial resistance and treat life-threatening infections through an interdisciplinary approach that integrates chemical and functional genomics, experimental evolution, host-pathogen interaction models, patient microbiome analysis, and structure-guided drug design.
Professor Cowen is Canada Research Chair in Microbial Genomics & Infectious Disease, co-Director of CIFAR’s Fungal Kingdom: Threats & Opportunities program, and co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Bright Angel Therapeutics, a biotechnology company advancing novel antifungal therapies. She also serves as Chair of the U15 Canada Research Committee.
She has received numerous distinctions, including the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences, the Merck Irving S. Sigal Memorial Award, the NSERC E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, the Ontario Early Researcher Award, and the Grand Challenges Canada Star in Global Health Award. She is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
As Vice-President, Professor Cowen has advanced U of T’s global research leadership by expanding the University’s Institutional Strategic Initiatives, which foster interdisciplinary collaboration to address complex global challenges. She played a central role in securing a landmark $200 million Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) grant to establish the Acceleration Consortium, which uses autonomous laboratories and artificial intelligence to accelerate the discovery of sustainable materials and molecules. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she championed funding initiatives that enabled U of T researchers to make significant contributions to diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines, and health policy. Under her leadership, U of T’s entrepreneurship ecosystem has grown to rank among the world’s leading university startup incubators, supporting more than 1,800 venture-backed companies that have raised over $27 billion and created over 27,000 jobs.
