Peter A Singer

Peter Alexander Singer, OC, MD, MPH, FRSC, is Chief Executive Officer of Grand Challenges Canada and Director at the Sandra Rotman Centre, University Health Network and University of Toronto. He is also Professor of Medicine at University of Toronto.

Dr. Singer is the Foreign Secretary of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and chaired the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences’ assessment on Canada's Strategic Role in Global Health. In 2014, he was named Co-Chair of Every Woman Every Child’s Innovation Working Group, which is aimed at harnessing the power of innovation to accelerate progress towards achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals. He has advised the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UN Secretary General’s office, the Government of Canada, PepsiCo, BioVeda China Venture Capital Fund, and several African governments on global health.

In 2007, Singer received the Michael Smith Prize as Canada's Health Researcher of the Year in Population Health and Health Services. On June 30, 2011, Singer was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada for his contributions to health research and bioethics, and for his dedication to improving the health of people in developing countries. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the U.S. Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, and The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS). He co-authored, along with Dr. Abdallah Daar, The Grandest Challenge: Taking Life-Saving Science from Lab to Village.

Singer has published over 300 research articles, received over $50 million in research grants, and mentored hundreds of university students. He studied internal medicine at University of Toronto, medical ethics at University of Chicago, public health at Yale University, and management at Harvard Business School. He has served his community as Board Chair of Branksome Hall, an internationally minded school for girls.