My scientific genealogy and the Toronto ACDC Laboratory, 1988–2022

Abstract

There is a saying that as people get older, they prefer to speak more about the past and less about the future. As I go through the last chapter of my scientific career, which spans from 1988–2022, I traced my scientific genealogy and the most important scientific achievements of my laboratory. By examining close to 1,000 PubMed-indexed papers published, I found out that none of them describes best our most important contributions. Also, by realizing that our contributions in science would have likely been discovered by others shortly afterwards, I focused my attention to other metrics. I suggest here that the best metric of success is the number of people that have been trained in my lab, and found their own way in their professional and other endeavors. Over the years, I trained over 250 individuals, of which 49 obtained a PhD, 19 an MSc, 37 were post-doctoral fellows, 5 were clinical fellows and about 150 were co-op/undergraduates and summer students. Many of these individuals now hold important positions in Academia, Government and Industry. My graduates, who have now created their own genealogy and many more individuals with roots to my laboratory, are now serving the society. In conclusion, I consider the development of young trainees as my most important career contribution.

Keywords

• scientific genealogy
• mentorship
• acdc laboratory
• most important scientific contributions
• training