Gairdner Foundation

The Gairdner Foundation is a non-profit organization devoted to the recognition of outstanding achievement in biomedical research worldwide. It was created in 1957 by James Arthur Gairdner to recognize and reward the achievements of medical researchers whose work contributes significantly to improving the quality of human life. Since the first awards were made in 1959, the Gairdner Awards have become Canada's most prestigious medical award recognizing and celebrating the research of the world’s best and brightest biomedical researchers.

Since 1959, more than 320 Canada Gairdner International Awards have been given to scientists from 15 countries; of these recipients, 84 have subsequently won the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Each year, Gairdner honors seven awardees in three different categories: Canada Gairdner International Awards (five laureates per year), Canada Gairdner Wightman Award (one laureate per year) and the John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award (one laureate per year).

Laureates are announced every March and this is followed by receptions in each of their home cities to celebrate alongside their colleagues and family. In October current and past awardees visit Canada to speak with students and faculty at more than 20 universities across the country. The Gairdner Foundation strives to inspire the next generation of students to consider a career in the health sciences.

The Canada Gairdner Awards are supported by the governments of Canada, Alberta and Ontario.

In February 2008 the Federal Government announced a $20 million allocation to the Gairdner Foundation to increase the prizes to $100,000 each, and institute a new individual prize in Global Health. Commencing in 2009, the Awards have been renamed the Canada Gairdner International Awards.

J. A. Gairdner (known as Big Jim to his grandchildren) was, indeed, a larger than life figure. Described by his friends as a talented maverick and visionary, he was a colourful personality who lived large. He was, by turns, an athlete, a soldier, a stockbroker, a businessman, a philanthropist and a landscape painter. (When he died, he left his house to the town of Oakville as an art gallery.) While he had always had an interest in medicine, it was the onset of severe arthritis in his early 50s that led Gairdner to become involved with the newly created Canadian Arthritis and Rheumatism Society. In 1957 he donated $500,000 to establish a foundation to recognize major research contributions in the conquest of disease and human suffering. This was to be his most lasting legacy.

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