Dr. Arvind Gupta

Dr. Arvind Gupta is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Toronto. He has served as President and Vice-Chancellor of UBC, as the CEO and Scientific Director of Mitacs Inc., and as CEO of Palette Skills Inc. He has published extensively on theoretical computer science, computational genomics and national innovation strategies.

Dr. Gupta has a record of accomplishment for initiatives that improve Canada’s productivity and competitiveness by successfully enhancing workforce skills through industry-academic partnerships. As the founder of Mitacs, he achieved success in interweaving graduate education with socio-economic needs by bringing together 60 universities and over 1,000 civil society partners. Significant service includes acting as an Innovation leader for the Federal Innovation Agenda, serving on the Federal Government’s blue-ribbon innovation panel (Jenkins panel), serving on the national Science, Technology, and Innovation Council (STIC), and serving on the BC’s Food Security Task Force.

Dr. Gupta was instrumental in creating the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS), the Banff International Research Station (BIRS), and Palette Skills Inc. He is a Senior Fellow of the Brookfield Institute and of Massey College. He serves on the Boards of the India-Canada Research Centre of Excellence (IC-IMPACTS), BIRS, and Digital Health Circle. Past service includes serving on the Boards of the Fields Institute (as Chair), the Canadian Statistical Sciences Institute (as Chair), Great Northern Way Trust, Canadian Mining Innovation Council, Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute, PIMS, Mitacs, the Grand-NCE (International Scientific Advisory Council), and the campaign cabinet for United Way.

Dr. Rickey Yada

Dr. Rickey Yada is the Dean and professor at Faculty of Land and Food Systems in UBC. Dr. Yada’s Current research interests include: the structure-function relationships of food and non-food related enzymes using molecular biology and various physico-chemical techniques (eg. circular dichroism spectroscopy, micro-calorimeter, small angle neutron scattering, ultracentrifugation, enzyme kinetics, etc.), carbohydrate metabolism in potatoes as it related to process quality as well as various applications of food-related nanoscale science and technology.

Dr. Yada is the Canada Research Chair in Food Protein Structure, Scientific Director of the Advanced Foods and Materials Network (Networks of Centres of Excellence), and Founding Member of the Food Institute. He is, currently, the North American Editor of Trends in Food Science and Technology as well as serving on the editorial board of several journals. Dr. Yada is the author of over 230 refereed journal publications as well as numerous book chapters and books. His areas of research include: the structure – function relationships of enzymes (aspartic proteases) and carbohydrate biochemistry as related to nutrition.

Awards & Honours

Tier 1 Canada Research Chair, Food Protein Structure, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 2003-2014

Fellow, International Academy, International Union of Food Science and Technology , 2006

President’s Award, Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology , 2006
Fellow, Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology , 1997

W.J. Eva Award, Outstanding Research and Contribution, Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology , 1993

Dr. Nemkumar Banthia

Dr. Nemkumar (Nemy) Banthia is a Professor and Senior Canada Research Chair at University of British Columbia. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Canadian Academy of Engineering. (https://www.civil.ubc.ca/faculty/nemkumar-banthia)

In 2012, Dr. Banthia established the Canada-India Research Center of Excellence (IC-IMPACTS) and has been serving as its Scientific Director and CEO since inception. More details are here http://www.nce-rce.gc.ca/NetworksCentres-CentresReseaux/CIRCE-CERCI/ICIMPACTS_eng.asp and https://ic-impacts.com/about/people/ The Centre is currently the largest academic research undertaking between the Canada and India and has supported more than 250 researchers and 500 post-graduate students. With 70 industrial partners in Canada and India, IC-IMPACTS has filed for 27 patents and invention disclosures and has produced 7 start-ups.

The scientific team of IC-IMPACTS has one of the major themes as Public Health: Disease Prevention and Treatment led by Dr. Stewart Aitchison, and major theme of Food Security led by Dr. Pratap Kumar Pati from Biotechnology.