A night of distinction: recognizing the world’s scientific leaders at the Gairdner Awards Gala

On October 23, the Royal Ontario Museum’s artefacts stood watch as 500 guests swept in for the black-tie Gairdner Awards Gala—Canada’s premier celebration of science, and among the most prestigious scientific awards in the world.

Under the angular glass of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, field-defining scientists traded their lab coats for gowns and tuxedos, joined by cabinet ministers, philanthropists, university leaders and business innovators.

The gala marked the finale of Gairdner Science Week, a four-day series that sent this year’s laureates to more than 20 universities for panels, symposia and public conversations. From October 20 to 23, students filled lecture halls to meet the scientific giants whose discoveries shape their textbooks. Across the country, public events covering gene therapy, global health, pediatric pain and cancer therapy drew large crowds from both the science community and the general public.

Each year, the Gairdner Foundation awards eight prizes: five Canada Gairdner International Awards for groundbreaking biomedical research, one John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award for work with worldwide impact and two Peter Gilgan Canada Gairdner Momentum Awards for mid-career researchers working in Canada.

Since 1957, the Gairdner Awards have honoured 434 laureates from more than 40 countries, about one in four of whom later received a Nobel Prize. This year’s Gairdner Award winners—Drs. Paul Negulescu, Michael J. Welsh, Spyros Artavanis-Tsakonas, Iva Greenwald, Gary Struhl, André Briend, Jennifer Stinson and Daniel De Carvalho—join this distinguished community of scientists.

Celebrating the laureates

Welsh and Negulescu were recognized for their decades-long work on cystic fibrosis, a once-fatal genetic disease that now, for many patients, can be managed with targeted therapies. Welsh’s early discoveries in the 1990s reshaped the understanding of how the disease develops, paving the way for new approaches to treatment. Meanwhile, Negulescu led the Vertex Pharmaceuticals team that turned those insights into the breakthrough drugs Trikafta, which extended both quality and length of life for thousands of patients.

Artavanis-Tsakonas, Greenwald and Struhl were honoured for their pioneering work on the Notch signaling pathway, a fundamental communication system between cells. Their research defined how this pathway guides cell fate and tissue development—and how disruptions can trigger developmental disorders, cancer and neurodegenerative disease. By researching the mechanics of Notch signaling, they opened new approaches to understanding—and eventually treating—conditions that arise when cellular communication breaks down.

Briend, the 2025 John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award recipient, changed how the world tackles childhood malnutrition. His development of ready-to-use therapeutic foods—shelf-stable, nutrient-dense pastes that need no refrigeration—shifted treatment from hospitals to homes and communities. Combined with his championing of mid-upper arm circumference as a simple diagnostic tool, his work has saved millions of children’s lives and made malnutrition care scalable in some of the world’s most resource-limited settings.

Meanwhile, the Peter Gilgan Momentum Awards—renamed in 2025 following a $5 million commitment from the Peter Gilgan Foundation to enhance the value of the Canada Gairdner Momentum Awards—spotlight Canadian leadership on the global stage. De Carvalho, a senior scientist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, advanced understanding of how “jumping genes” influence cancer and is pioneering blood-based tests for early detection and therapy monitoring. His work is already reshaping how clinicians approach cancer treatment and tracking. Stinson, a nurse clinician-scientist at SickKids, is the first in this role to receive a Gairdner Award. She was recognized for her leadership in using digital tools to help children manage pain from such chronic illnesses as arthritis, sickle cell disease and cancer. Her work combines technology with patient-centred care, training hundreds of clinicians worldwide to better manage pediatric pain.

The Gairdner Gala is sometimes called Canada’s Oscars of science, but while the parallel captures the spectacle of the evening, it doesn’t quite capture the weight of the awards. The Gairdner Awards routinely anticipate Nobel recognition and chart the direction of future groundbreaking research. With a mix of prestige and purpose, the Gairdner Awards have earned their place in the highest tiers of Canada’s cultural calendar.

The event makes the case that science belongs not only in labs and journals, but in the centre of the country’s public life—and that its breakthroughs are worthy of the same kind of national attention as art, film or literature.

To explore the full story of the Gairdner Awards, including this year’s laureates, past winners and the week of events that surround the gala, visit gairdner.org.