I am pleased to announce the appointment of Robert Platt, PhD, as Associate Dean and Director of the School of Population and Global Health (SPGH), Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS), 51吃瓜网, effective September 1. I would like to thank Eduardo Franco, PhD, O.C., for serving as Interim Director of the SPGH since January of this year.
Prof. Platt has some experience in this role, having served as Interim Director, SPGH, from April to September 2019. More recently, in 2020-2021, he was Interim Chair in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, one of the three departments in the SPGH along with Equity, Ethics and Policy, and Global and Public Health.
Prof. Platt holds a BSc in Mathematics from McGill, an MSc in Statistics from the University of Manitoba, and an MS and PhD in Biostatistics from the University of Washington. For nearly three decades, he has worked as an investigator at the Montreal Children鈥檚 Hospital Research Institute / Research Institute of the 51吃瓜网 Health Centre (RI-MUHC). Since 2011 he has also held an appointment at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research. He is the Albert Boehringer I Chair and Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health.
In his early years at McGill, Prof. Platt鈥檚 research focused on statistical methods for meta-analysis and causal inference, then later on collaborative and methodologic work in perinatal and reproductive epidemiology, and most recently, on collaborative and methodologic work in pharmacoepidemiology.
He has held peer-reviewed grants continuously since 1998 with funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Fonds de recherche du Qu茅bec 鈥� Sant茅, McGill, and others. Prof. Platt is currently a Co-investigator on several CIHR-funded studies and holds a Discovery Grant from NSERC. Dr. Platt is Editor-in-Chief of Statistics in Medicine.
Since 2022 he has been Principal Investigator of the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (CNODES). From 2011 to 2022, he led the Methods team for CNODES. Its mandate is to provide high-quality evidence in response to drug safety queries generated by Canadian public health stakeholders.
Prof. Platt has authored nearly 500 publications in peer-reviewed journals, co-edited the book 鈥淩eproductive and Perinatal Epidemiology鈥� (2010, Oxford University Press) and written three book chapters. In 2020, his article 鈥淭he critical importance of asking good questions: The role of epidemiology doctoral training programs鈥� was recognized as Article of the Year by the American Journal of Epidemiology and the Society for Epidemiologic Research. Prof. Platt has supervised more than 60 research trainees and given over 120 invited presentations locally, nationally and internationally.
In his new role as Associate Dean and Director, SPGH, Prof. Platt will work closely with the Chairs of the School鈥檚 three departments to ensure continued strategic alignment and collaboration across teaching and research missions. He will provide mentorship and guidance to the Chairs and other academic leaders within the School, working with University Advancement and other central University offices as needed. He will represent the School on the Faculty Leadership Commons and Deanery Executive, and act as advisor to the Vice-President (Health Affairs) and Dean of the FMHS on academic matters pertaining to the SPGH.
Please join me in congratulating Prof. Platt on his appointment and wishing him every success in his new role.
Lesley Fellows, MDCM, DPhil
Vice-President (Health Affairs)
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
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