Dr. Steve Smith

Vice President, Health Sciences Research, CEO KGHRI

Dr. Smith is Vice President, Health Sciences Research at KHSC. He is also President and CEO of the  Kingston General Health Research Institute (KGHRI) and Vice-Dean Research for the Faculty of Health Sciences, Queen’s University.

Dr. Smith completed his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry at Western University, where he also earned his PhD in 1998. Before joining Queen’s Department of Biochemistry in 2001, Dr. Smith completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Oxford as a Burroughs Wellcome Hitchings-Elion fellow and McGill University as CIHR postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Smith has taken on a number of leadership positions while at Queen’s, including acting Director of Queen’s Protein Function Discovery Group & Facility and Director of Research for the Faculty of Health Sciences. He previously served as Associate Head for the Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, and acted as Chair for the Undergraduate Biochemistry Program from 2007-2011 and again from 2014-2017.

As an expert in biochemistry, Dr. Smith has made remarkable contributions to Queen’s and the wider intellectual community through his research. In 2009 he was recognized for his research excellence with the Chancellor’s Research Award. He is the recipient of the Faculty of Health Science’s Mihran & Mary Basmajian Research Award and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator Award. He has published extensively and has presented his work nationally and internationally, including in the U.S., Portugal, France, and Israel.

During his time at Queen’s, Dr. Smith has demonstrated his commitment to students’ learning as an exceptional educator. His numerous awards include the Faculty of Health Sciences Education Award and Life Science Student Choice Teaching Award, and he has regularly received the Biochemistry 3rd Year Teaching Award since 2004. These awards are a testament to his excellence in teaching and mentorship and speak to Dr. Smith’s reputation as a dedicated professor who is deeply invested in the classroom experience.