Charmaine Dean was appointed Vice-President, Research at the University of Waterloo in July 2017. In her role as Vice-President Research, Dr. Dean is responsible for strategic leadership and oversight of research and innovation at Waterloo as well as Waterloo’s research linkages externally, and for the management of the Office of Research. Dr. Dean’s initial focus will be to build upon foundational strengths to heighten the emphasis on collaborations, and link related external portfolios in a systematic approach to industrial partners and entrepreneurship. She will also lead in the identification of strategic internationalization efforts, enhance government connections and efforts toward Canadian priorities, and strengthen synergy in research across undergraduate and graduate training.

Dr. Dean received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Waterloo in 1988. She was 2007 President of the Statistical Society of Canada, 2002 President of the International Biometrics Society, Western North American Region, has served as President of the Biostatistics Section of the Statistical Society of Canada, and has given fourteen years of service to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, including two as Chair of the Statistical Sciences Grant Selection Committee and one as Chair of the Discovery Accelerator Supplement Committee for the Mathematical and Physical Sciences, as well as serving as a member of NSERC’s Budget Allocation Panel. She has served as Chair of the NIH Biostatistics Grant Review Panel; on the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Advisory Council and on selection panels for that foundation; on the Board of Directors of the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences; on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Banff International Research Station and currently serves on the NIH, Infectious, Reproductive, Asthma and Pulmonary Conditions Study Section. She is a member of the College of Reviewers of the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the CIHR College of Reviewers, the MITACS College of Reviewers and of College of Reviewers of the Canada Research Chairs Program. She is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Canada Statistical Sciences Institute. Among her awards, in 2003, Dr. Dean was awarded the CRM-SSC prize in recognition of outstanding contributions to the discipline during the recipient’s first 15 years after earning a doctorate; in 2007 she was named Fellow of the American Statistical Association; in 2007 awarded the University of Waterloo Mathematics Alumni Achievement Medal; in 2010 named Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; in 2012 awarded a Trinidad & Tobago Canadian High Commission Award, and in 2016 elected to the International Statistical Institute.