Dec 18, 2019

Appointment of Scott Heximer as Chair

Professor Scott Heximer

This message is being sent to members of the Department of Physiology on behalf of Dr. Trevor Young, Dean, Faculty of Medicine and Vice-Provost, Relations with Health Care Institutions.

I am pleased to announce that the Agenda Committee of Academic Board has approved the appointment of Professor Scott Heximer as Chair and Graduate Chair of the Department of Physiology, for a five- year term effective January 1, 2020. Professor Heximer has also been appointed as the Ernest B. and Leonard B. Smith Chair in Physiology.

Scott Heximer is Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology and has served as Interim Chair since May 2019. He is also a principal investigator for the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, and holds a Canada Research Chair in Cardiovascular Physiology, Tier II. In addition to his CRC, Dr. Heximer has received the Canadian Hypertension Society New Investigator Award, and the American Heart Association and Lucille P. Markey Special Emphasis Pathway in Pathobiology postdoctoral fellowships.

Heximer is President of the Canadian Society for Atherosclerosis Thrombosis and Vascular Biology where he was also Chair of the Organizing Committee for the 2018 International Symposium of Atherosclerosis. He has published more than 55 peer-reviewed publications, including in top-ranked journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and The Journal of Clinical Investigation, among many others. His work has over 2600 cumulative citations.

Professor Heximer’s research focuses on understanding the signaling pathways and phenotypic variation in cardiac fibroblasts. His work investigates the roles and mechanisms of heterotrimeric G-protein signaling in the cardiovascular system. He was part of the research team that discovered a novel G-protein signaling regulator, RGS2, and created a research program to characterize its role in cardiovascular physiology. To date his work in pre-clinical models has uncovered the importance of these pathways in the pathogenesis of numerous cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, including hypertension, asthma, atrial fibrillation, and heart failure.

Please join me in congratulating Professor Heximer on his appointment as Chair.

Sincerely,

L. Trevor Young MD, PhD, FRCPC
Dean, Faculty of Medicine
Vice-Provost, Relations with Health Care Institutions