John Root received his PhD from the University of Guelph in 1986, after developing a way to measure quantum effects in the structure of water and other liquids.  He joined Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), where he helped to develop a method to map stresses inside materials using a beam of neutrons from the NRU reactor at Chalk River Laboratories.  This method has been copied at neutron-beam laboratories around the world, and is now applied to help industries improve their products, and expand their businesses.  Dr. Root has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, generated over 75 proprietary reports for industry clients, and delivered more than 100 invited presentations.

In 2003, Dr. Root was appointed as Director of the Canadian Neutron Beam Centre (CNBC), which was comprised of six neutron spectrometers, supported by a team of expert researchers and technicians, and managed as an international user facility.  By the time the NRU reactor was closed, in 2018, the CNBC was supporting a community of more than 800 research participants from more than 20 universities across Canada and over 100 foreign institutions.  (http://cins.ca/resources/cnbc/).  CNBC users generated knowledge of materials at the molecular and nano-scale, for applications such as transportation safety, lifetime management of infrastructure, market development, fundamental scientific understanding and education (www.cins.ca/discover)

In 2011, Dr. Root established the Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation Inc (Fedoruk Centre), a not-for-profit corporation with the purpose of placing Saskatchewan among global leaders of nuclear research, development and training through investment in partnerships with universities and industries for maximum societal and economic benefit.  Since 2017, Dr. Root has served as Executive Director of the Fedoruk Centre, to accomplish impacts in three key areas:  (1) Nuclear imaging tools and methods to advance life sciences, agri-biotechnologies and medicine; (2) Material sciences, through nuclear techniques, such as neutron scattering, to improve energy, health, and transportation; and (3) Understanding the practical and social aspects of nuclear energy, to inform decision-making towards a clean, sustainable future.

Mr. Donald Deranger is a member of the Fond du Lac Denesuline First Nations in Northern Saskatchewan and a Residential School survivor. For more than 25 years he has been actively involved with employment, training and economic development initiatives for First Nations people in the Athabasca region of Northern Saskatchewan. From May 2003 to October 2012, Mr. Deranger served as Athabasca Vice-Chief of the Prince Albert Grand Council, in portfolios that included Justice, Lands and Resources, Health and Community Development. Throughout his career he has been committed to working towards the protection, preservation and implementation of the Treaties and to maintain the protection of First Nations’ traditional territories and resources. He brings insight and understanding of the culture and perspectives of the peoples of Saskatchewan’s north.

Mr. Deranger is chairman of Points Athabasca Contracting and an advisor to the Athabasca Basin Development Corporation. He is the past-president of Learning Together, a non-profit organization that works to build relations between aboriginal people and the mining industry. Mr. Deranger has served on the Board of Directors of Cameco Corporation since 2009, and also serves as director of Northern Resource Trucking Limited Partnership, on the Mackenzie River Basin Board and the Keepers of the Athabasca Watershed board of directors.

Greg Fowler was appointed Vice-President Finance and Resources at the University of Saskatchewan in June 2013 after an extensive and active career at the university in a number of areas related to finance, business administration and human resources, before being appointed as Acting Vice-President of Finance and Resources in April 2012.

Originally from Saskatoon, Mr. Fowler has been engaged with the University of Saskatchewan for nearly 25 years.  He received his Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration and Economics in 1988 and Masters of Business Administration in 1992 from the University of Saskatchewan.  In 1994 he returned to the university as an administrator.

Mr. Fowler joined the University of Saskatchewan as assistant controller of St. Thomas More College in 1994, and in 1998 became the controller, which included serving as the director of human resources, physical plant, information technology services, Choices Food Services, and ancillary services.  He was in this position until 2006 when he became director of operations for the University of Saskatchewan College of Nursing.  In 2007 he was appointed director of consumer services, prior to taking up the position of acting vice-president finance and resources.

Working on many diverse cross-campus initiatives, Mr. Fowler has extensive experience working among many areas of the university.  He served as the representative for the four Saskatchewan federated colleges on the Working Group and Standing Committee for University Funding formed to reach agreement on the implementation and continued development of the Saskatchewan University Funding Model. Within Consumer Services, Mr. Fowler was project lead for the undergraduate and graduate student housing projects, oversaw significant reorganizations to printing, parking, and residence services, and a reorganization of food services that included major renovations to Marquis Hall Food Court.  He was also project lead for phases 1 and 2 of the Service and Process Enhancement Project, which was established to develop recommendations for service and process enhancement while ensuring the most effective and efficient use of resources.

Outside of work, Mr. Fowler is very engaged with the community.  He serves on the provincial advisory board  of the Saskatchewan Children’s Wish Foundation, and is a member of the Friendship Inn Board of Directors. Having served on the Board in an acting capacity since January 2013, Mr. Fowler holds the University of Saskatchewan’s second seat on the Board.

Iain Harry is a Senior Business Advisor in Generation Asset Planning with SaskPower. In that capacity, Iain has led SaskPower’s evaluation of many emerging clean energy generation technologies including the feasibility of nuclear power from small modular reactors (SMRs). Iain led the Government of Saskatchewan’s evaluation of nuclear power from 2008 to 2012 and has led the SaskPower team responsible for advancing SMR development and deployment in Saskatchewan since 2013.  Prior to joining SaskPower, Iain served as a Senior Advisor to the Premier of Saskatchewan and Vice President of Crown Sector Initiatives with Crown Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan. In that capacity, Iain played a lead role the development of a number of major innovation projects including Saskatchewan’s Uranium Development Partnership, the establishment of the Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation, the establishment of the Saskatchewan Centre for Cyclotron Sciences and the development of SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage Project – the first and largest commercial demonstration of carbon capture technology on coal fired power generation in the world.  Iain holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies from the University of Saskatchewan and has more than 30 years of experience in public and crown sector management and public policy development at the federal, provincial and municipal levels.

David Katz was one of the principals and founders of Saskatchewan’s first storefront computer store in 1978.  Then, after completing a master’s degree in Computer Sciences, he worked as Director of IT for Develcon Electronics Inc. in Saskatoon for eight years and then for the Government of Saskatchewan for nearly 30 years in the area of innovation and technology commercialization.  During that time, he wrote numerous policy recommendations including a framework document on provincial support for innovation and the economy.  David also represented the Province of Saskatchewan at Federal-Provincial-Territorial discussions.  Among these was the committee responsible for formation of the national research network.

David served as the provincial representative on the Boards of Directors of The Canadian Light Source, the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation, and the Fedoruk Centre.  He also served on the boards of several industry organizations.

Since retiring in 2017 from his position as Chief Science and Policy Officer at Innovation Saskatchewan, David has returned to university to study ethics with a particular interest in the ethics of technology.

Tom started his career in the field of heavy industrial equipment manufacturing for power generation at a then brand new company, Hitachi Canadian Industries Ltd.  Over the next 26 years, Tom worked in many roles to support the needs of a growing business and in 2006, Tom was appointed as the first Canadian President and CEO of the Canadian operations.

Tom was appointed Vice-President Operational Support for Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL) in 2015 where he led the Health and Safety, Logistics, Facilities Design and Development, and Growth and Business Development teams.  Tom started his consulting business, TPK Management Consulting Inc. in 2020 to continue supporting organizations in their growth and improvement journeys.

Through his work, Tom has had the opportunity to conduct business in many countries and cultures, primarily those in Asia, Europe and North America.  He has extensive Board experience in the corporate, co-operative and not-for-profit sectors and is currently Chair of the University of Saskatchewan, College of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Board.  Recent past board director appointments have included the Saskatchewan Health Quality Council, Safe Saskatchewan, Saskatoon Community Foundation and the national board of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters.

Tom has a BSc and MSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan, and completed the Ivey Executive Program at the Richard Ivey School of Business.

Danya Kordan, Director, responsible for research institutes and clusters at Innovation Saskatchewan. Within that role, she provides leadership for the agency and provincial government as it relates to matters affecting innovation at the funded research institutes. This also involves participation in senior official committees involving other provincial and federal jurisdictions. Danya focuses on nurturing an environment that supports the research community to ensure Saskatchewan research and commercialization interests are maximized.

Danya has worked in economic development for the province of Saskatchewan for the past 25 years.  For many of those years she was Sector Manager responsible for the growth of the Life Sciences Sector. Danya is currently a board member for the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation.

Danya holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA).

Mr. Engin Özberk is the Senior Technical Advisor with the International Minerals Innovation Institute. He joined IMII in June 2013, after retiring from Cameco Corporation in March 2013 where he was the Vice President, Technology and Innovation. He joined Cameco in February 1997. He previously worked as Consulting Metallurgist for Sherritt International Corporation, Alberta (1988-97); as Senior Project Manager and Senior Process Engineer for The SNC Group, (1979-88); as Research Engineer for Noranda Technology Centre, Quebec, (1974-76); and as Project Engineer for Etibank, Turkey, (1973). He has more than 40 years of research and development and project management experience in light metals, base metals and nuclear industries. He has lead or participated in numerous major metallurgical and chemical engineering projects in practically every continent. He obtained his Master of Eng., Metallurgical Engineering (1979) and Post Graduate Diploma in Management (1978), both from McGill University, Montreal, Quebec.

Mr. Özberk has authored or coauthored more than 45 papers and is a Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (CIM) Fellow (1994). He is a recipient of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (CIM) Distinguished Lecturer Award (2009), and CIM's Silver Medal (1997), The Airey Award (Xstrata) (2011), and the Alcan Award (2006) from the Metallurgical Society of CIM. He has also received the Communication and Education Award (2007) from the Canadian Nuclear Society and the Extractive Metallurgy Science Award (1988) from the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society of AIME of USA.

In addition to serving on the Fedoruk Centre's Board of Directors, Mr. Özberk also serves on numerous Boards and advisory committees, including: the Board of Directors, Canada Mining Innovation Council, where he served as the President and Chairman (2008-2012) and is one of the 3 founding members; CANMET-MMSL Green Mining Initiative Board of Directors (since 2009), currently as Co-Chair; the NSERC Research Partnerships Program Advisory Committee on University-Industry Grants (ACUIG) (appointed in 2011); the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences Board of Directors, (PIMS) (since 2009, serving second 3 year term); the Advisory Board of the University of Saskatchewan's Toxicology Centre (since 2008); The Business Development Advisory Committee (BDAC) for the Canadian Light Source (since 2008); and as a member of the Mining Association of Canada's Science Committee (since 2008). He was the co-chair of the steering committee for IMII (2009-13) and is one of the three founding members. He also served as the co-chair of the Technical Advisory Committee of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology Cameco Chair for Nuclear Fuel (2007-12) and as a member of the University Network of Excellence in Nuclear Engineering (UNENE) executive committee (2006-12).

Mr. Özberk has served on the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (CIM) board of directors, as President of the Metallurgical Society of CIM (1991), and member of the executive team and board of directors of the Metallurgical Society of CIM for many years. He has also chaired numerous international conferences, symposia, and professional development courses in Canada and abroad, as well as being the guest/invited speaker or lecturer at conferences and numerous universities.

Dr. Paul Schaffer is the Associate Lab Director, Life Sciences Division at TRIUMF in Vancouver, BC. Before joining TRIUMF in 2009, Schaffer worked in the private sector as a Lead Scientist at General Electric Global Research in upstate New York where he was responsible for developing novel radiotracers for GE Healthcare. He graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1998 with a B.Sc. in both chemistry and biochemistry. He earned his Ph.D. at McMaster University in 2003, with his doctoral work focused on the design and synthesis of technetium and rhenium chelates as potential new radio-imaging or radiotherapy agents. Dr. Schaffer then became a Research Scientist at the McMaster Nuclear Reactor until joining the private sector.

In response to the 2007-2009 technetium-99m radioisotope supply crises, Dr. Schaffer and his collaborators spearheaded one of four successful efforts to establish proof of concept commercial-scale production of technetium-99,. This effort saw four institutions come together with funding from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) to demonstrate direct production of this isotope using Canada’s existing medical cyclotron infrastructure. For his leadership on the NRCan effort, Schaffer was recently recognized by Business in Vancouver as one of British Columbia’s Top Forty under 40 individuals. The NRCan-ITAP team was also recently awarded the 2015 NSERC Brockhouse Prize for Interdisciplinary Research.

Dr. Schaffer continues to redefine the TRIUMF Life Sciences program by focusing on its core competencies to deliver specific outcomes, and continues to connect the TRIUMF program with industrial and commercial interests.

Dr. Baljit Singh is a highly accomplished researcher, educator and administrator in the field of veterinary medicine, with specific expertise in lung biology and anatomy. He began his role as Vice-President Research at the University of Saskatchewan in 2021, after serving as Dean of the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (2016 – 2021), and serving as Associate Dean of Research at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan (2011 – 2016).

Dr. Singh’s formal education includes a Bachelor of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry (BVSc and AH) and Master of Veterinary Science (MVSc) from Punjab Agricultural University in Punjab; a PhD from the University of Guelph; post-doctoral training at Texas A&M University and Columbia University, New York; and he completed licensing requirements set by the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) and American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) for foreign veterinary graduates.

Dr. Singh has received the 3M National Teaching Fellowship, the University of Saskatchewan’s Provost’s Prize for Innovative Practice of Teaching and Learning, University of Saskatchewan Master Teacher Award, and the Carl J. Norden Distinguished Teacher Award. He has also received the Outstanding Veterinary Anatomist Award from the American Association of Veterinary Anatomists, as well as the Pfizer Award for Research Excellence. In 2013 he was named a fellow of the American Association of Anatomists.

Dr. Singh’s research has focused on cell and molecular biology of lung inflammation. He is the author or co-author of more than ninety peer-reviewed journal articles and books, and has supervised the research training of more than eighty undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students.

Dr. Wilson is a Nuclear Medicine Physician and Radiation Oncologist at the British Columbia Cancer Agency (BCCA) where he has served as Medical Director of the Functional Imaging Program since 2005.  In this role Don has overseen implementation of the province’s first Positron Emission Tomography/Computerized Tomography (PET/CT) scanner at the BCCA’s Vancouver Centre.  Under his medical leadership the Functional Imaging Program has expanded to include two state of the art PET/CT scanners, a cyclotron facility as well as clinical and research radiopharmaceutical laboratories.  In addition to providing diagnostic imaging services for oncology patients across BC, the Program includes leading clinical, preclinical and scientific research components with local, national and international academic collaborations. 

Dr. Wilson is a native of Saskatoon and graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 1989 with degrees in Biochemistry and Medicine.  He did post-graduate training in Internal Medicine at the University of British Columbia and went on to complete specialty training in Nuclear Medicine at the University of Western Ontario, and Radiation Oncology at the University of British Columbia, followed by a fellowship in PET imaging and radiobiology at the University of Washington Medical Center.

Dr. Wilson joined the BC Cancer Agency as a staff Radiation Oncologist in 1998.  He is a member of the Agency’s Radiation Safety Committee, the Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine, the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, the Canadian Association of Radiation Oncologists and is actively involved in medical teaching at the undergraduate, post-graduate and fellowship levels.

Dr. Katherine Zukotynski is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Radiology at McMaster University and an Associate Member of the School of Biomedical Engineering at McMaster University. She is affiliated with several hospitals including Children’s Hospital Boston.

After completing an undergraduate degree in Engineering Science at the University of Toronto, Dr. Zukotynski completed medical training followed by a residency in radiology, also at the University of Toronto. In 2009, she completed nuclear medicine training through the Joint Program in Nuclear Medicine at Harvard. She was a staff radiologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital from 2009 through 2012, and Instructor at Harvard Medical School. Subsequently, Dr. Zukotynski was a staff radiologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre from 2012 through 2015, an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. She is board certified in nuclear cardiology, as well as in nuclear medicine and radiology, in both the United States and Canada.

Dr. Zukotynski is involved in medical imaging research. Her main areas of research are in PET/CT, particularly as it relates to oncology, neurodegenerative disease and machine learning. She received the RSNA Research and Education Foundation Roentgen Resident/ Fellow Research Award first as a radiology resident and then as a nuclear medicine resident. She held an RSNA Research Scholar Grant from 2012-2014, and currently holds approximately $5M in funding for molecular imaging, predominantly in prostate cancer research.

Dr. Zukotynski is also actively involved in the leadership of several imaging societies. She is Chair of the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) Nuclear Medicine Section Instructional Courses, Chair of the Radiologic Society of North America (RSNA) Nuclear Medicine Refresher Course Committee Track, as well as the Research and Education Public Relations Committee. She is also Secretary of the American College of Nuclear Medicine (ACNM) and immediate past Treasurer/Secretary of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), as well as immediate past president of the SNMMI PET Center of Excellence and Eastern Great Lakes Chapter.