Dr. Vivek Goel, a distinguished scholar with extensive achievements in research, teaching and leadership across both public and private sectors, will become the seventh president and vice-chancellor of the University of Waterloo.
Goel is recognized in Canada and around the world as a leading public-health researcher, health-services evaluation expert, and champion for the use of research evidence in health policy making.
Goel has held a number of senior leadership roles at the University of Toronto including as Vice-President and Provost and most recently as Vice-President Research and Innovation.
He served as founding President and CEO of Public Health Ontario from 2008 until 2014 and also as a founding scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), where he continues as an Adjunct Senior Scientist. Goel has served as Chief Academic Strategist with Coursera, a global platform that connects universities and learners with online courses.
He has extensive experience in governance and serves on the boards of the Vector Institute, Canada Health Labs (Vice-Chair) the Canadian Institute for Health Information (Vice-Chair) and the POST Promise.
Goel is a member of the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, Chair of the Expert Advisory Group on the development of a Pan-Canadian Health Data Strategy, and Scientific Advisor for CanCOVID, the national research platform for COVID-19 research.
He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and a Member of the Order of Canada.
Goel obtained his medical degree from McGill University and completed post-graduate medical training in Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Goel obtained a master’s degree (MSc) in Community Health from U of T and a master’s degree (MS) in Biostatistics from Harvard University School of Public Health.
