McMaster’s OIA and Faculty of Health Sciences welcome delegates from UGA’s Faculty of Pharmacy

On January 23 and 24, 2025, McMaster’s Office of International Affairs (OIA) welcomed delegates from Université Grenoble Alpes’ Faculty of Pharmacy, including: Dean Prof. Michel Sève; Vice-Dean of Pedagogy, Prof. Pierre Cavaillès; Academic Coordinator for International Relations, Prof. Valérie Guieu; and Professor and Head of Teaching (PhD/Internship Program) Prof. Raphaële Germi.  

The UGA delegates held a broad range of meetings over two day which included the Faculty of Health Sciences’ senior leadership team and leaders from the Biomedical Discovery & Commercialization program, Biomedical Innovation program, and the Institute for Infectious Disease Research.  A meeting was also held with a range of McMaster leaders representing medical education at McMaster in several aspects, including Alan Neville, Education Special Advisor; Lawrence Grierson, Assistant Dean, Health Sciences Education Graduate Program (HSED); Parveen Wasi, Assistant Dean, Postgraduate Medical Education; and Jonathan Sussman, Chair of Department of Oncology. The UGA delegation also met with the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging’s (MIRA) leadership team, and leaders of the Biomedical Engineering program from both the faculties of Engineering and Health Science, as well as the international exchange student experience office in the Student Success Centre. 

Dr. James Leung, Assistant Dean, Centre for Simulation-Based Learning (CSBL), led Prof. Sève, Prof. Cavaillès, Prof. Guieu, and Prof. Germi through a private tour of McMaster’s CSBL. The delegation discussed interests in potential collaboration related to simulation-based learning within UGA’s Faculties of Pharmacy and Medicine.

The delegates from UGA also met with St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton’s leadership team to discuss potential for research collaboration, intern hosting and staff exchange.

The goal of the visit was to explore areas of aligned interest, especially within medical and hospital education, innovation and commercialization in health sciences, biomedical engineering, and research in aging. 

This visit marked an exciting development in McMaster and UGA’s long-standing history of cooperation. Research collaborations between both universities’ faculties of Engineering and Science date as far back as 40 years, however collaborations involving other faculties are more recent. Establishing these connections between McMaster’s Faculty of Health Sciences and UGA’s Faculty of Pharmacy is the first step in creating further opportunities for faculty and student mobility, exchange of best practices, and research collaborations.