Alan Bernstein is the president and CEO of CIFAR. In that capacity, he leads Canada's premier research organization bringing together some of the world's top scientists to address questions of importance to the world. Prior to that he was the Executive Director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise. Before that, he was the inaugural President of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Canada’s lead agency for the support of health research. An internationally respected researcher, mentor and scientific leader, he has made key contributions to our understanding of embryonic development, blood cells development and cancer. Prior to his appointment at CIHR in 2000, he was Director of Research at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital from 1994-2000 and Professor in the Department of Molecular and Medical Genetics at the University of Toronto, where he is a Senior Fellow, Massey College. Dr. Bernstein has received numerous awards and honourary degrees including induction as an Officer into the Order of Canada (2002) and the Canadian Medical hall of Fame (2015).