Appointment of Professor Reinhart Reithmeier as Special Advisor on the Healthy Labs Initiative

From: Joshua Barker, Vice-Provost, Graduate Research & Education and Dean, School of Graduate Studies
Date: December 11, 2019
Re: Appointment of Professor Reinhart Reithmeier as Special Advisor on the Healthy Labs Initiative

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Reinhart Reithmeier as Special Advisor to the Dean, Healthy Labs Initiative, from November 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020. In this role, Professor Reithmeier will provide advice and recommendations to the Dean, School of Graduate Studies and Vice-President, Research and Innovation, and Strategic Initiatives.

The University of Toronto recognizes the vital importance of healthy laboratory environments for student and faculty success, and for the quality of research that stems from our laboratories. In his role as Special Advisor to the Dean, Healthy Labs Initiative, Professor Reithmeier will provide advice and recommendations in three main areas:

1. Identifying global and local best practices in lab management;
2. Developing a Healthy Lab ‘Charter’, which individual laboratories at the University could adopt;
3. Outlining a strategy for delivering Healthy Lab programming to researchers across the University’s three campuses and in affiliated research institutes.

In the new year, Professor Reithmeier will begin a series of consultations with key stakeholders on local best practices and challenges within the U of T lab ecosystem, including graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, lab assistants, faculty members, chairs and senior administrators.

Dr. Reithmeier is known internationally for his research on anion transport membrane proteins in human health and disease. An award-winning lecturer, Dr. Reithmeier enjoys teaching introductory biochemistry to 1,000 undergraduate students every year, as well as upper level and graduate courses. A former Chair of Biochemistry, Dr. Reithmeier was also Special Advisor to the Dean, School of Graduate Studies on graduate professional and leadership development.  In this role he lead the 10,000 PhDs Project, which determined the current employment status of the 10,866 PhDs who graduated from UofT between 2000 and 2015. Through professional development activities, Dr. Reithmeier is dedicated to ensuring that graduate students have the skill set and network to be fully prepared to take advantage of the diverse job opportunities available to them in today’s global marketplace. His leadership was recognized in 2012 by election to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.  He currently serves as Chair of the Royal Canadian Institute for Science, a venerable organization whose mission is to bring science to the public.

I thank Professor Reithmeier for his willingness to serve the University in improving the graduate lab experience. I am sure that you will join me in supporting him in this important task.