Dr. Mark Wainberg and AA Bronson at the Royal Ontario Museum unveiling of the AIDS sculpture by the Canadian arts collective General Idea (2006).
Photo Credit : McGill Reporter
Dr. Mark Wainberg, 2009.
Photo Credit : The 2016 Merigan Lecture
1945 - 2017
Dr. Mark Wainberg
Dr. Mark Wainberg was an award-winning HIV/AIDS researcher and humanitarian activist whose discoveries have enabled work on AIDS therapies and infectious disease prevention.
A graduate of McGill and Columbia Universities, Wainberg completed his post-doctoral research at Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem. He is best known for the use of antiretroviral therapy in fighting HIV/AIDS and the subsequent popularization of this therapy.
Besides his medical ingenuity, Wainberg is well-known for his humanitarian activism on behalf of those who suffer from these diseases, dedicated to humanizing the HIV/AIDS crisis. In particular, he has focused on the crisis in Africa and the developing world, and the need to provide low-cost medications – much of which he advocated for while serving as President of the International AIDS Society.
In 2012, Wainberg received a Killam Prize in Health Sciences and in 2013, he was one of five recipients of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Canadian Medical Association Journal Top Canadian Achievements in Health Research Awards. In 2016, he was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. He holds the Order of Canada, Order of Quebec and French Legion of Honour. He is a member of the Royal Society of Canada, as well as an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada
Wainberg was head of AIDS research at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Director of the McGill University AIDS Centre and Professor of Medicine and of Microbiology and Immunology at McGill University. He was also an active member of the Montreal Jewish community.
