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His talk, entitled 'What you are and who you are in the era of genome projects,' will take place in the Regis and Joan Duffy Research Centre's lecture theatre from 3 to 4 p.m. The lecture is open to the public.

Scherer is Director of The Centre for Applied Genomics at The Hospital for Sick Children at the University of Toronto. His research examines the composition of the human genome for studies of genetic disease. His recent work characterizes structural variation in the human genome, and examines the role of genetics in autism. Long-standing endeavours include the study of human chromosome 7 as a model of the chromosomal basis of disease, and building genomics infrastructure to facilitate biomedical research. He has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles (cited >12,000 times) and won numerous awards including the 2004 Steacie Prize in the Natural Sciences and an international Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scholarship. He holds the GlaxoSmithKline-Canadian Institutes of Health Research Endowed Chair in Genetics and Genomics and chairs Genome Canada's Science Advisory Board. He is a Scholar of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.

The Gairdner Foundation was created in 1957 by James Arthur Gairdner to recognize and reward the achievements of medical researchers whose work contributes significantly to improving the quality of human life. Since the first awards were made in 1959, the Gairdner Awards have become Canada's foremost international award. They hold up the pinnacle of achievement as a mirror to Canadians, and in so doing, play a role in helping Canada achieve its goals of excellence.

The Foundation's core mandate is to select the annual Canada Gairdner International Awardees. Over the past 50 years, the Foundation has gained a superb international reputation for recognizing and rewarding the work of the world's leading scientists. An external measure of their stature is the fact that of the 298 individuals from 13 countries, including 42 Canadians, who have received Gairdner Awards, 73 have subsequently gone on to win the Nobel Prize.