Chris Dambrowitz is the Associate Vice-President of Research & Innovation at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT). He previously worked at the BCN where he helped principal investigators and collaborators to enhance the Network’s research and industrial connectivity through innovative alliances among research institutions, industrial partners and regional stakeholders. Chris acted as a liaison between BCN and the nanoAccelerator partnership (including NINT and the Faculties of Engineering, Science, ALES and Medicine) in developing innovative initiatives focused on novel bioproducts and bioprocesses. He also coordinated an initiative to establish an industry-facing biofabrication center, utilizing synthetic biology and bioanalytical platforms to address economically-important opportunities within Alberta’s resources-based industrial sectors.
Having been the Director – Planning & Development with the Alberta Research & Innovation Authority (ARIA) Secretariat, Chris also served as Director of Alberta Ingenuity’s Accelerators Program and was the founding Program Director of the Alberta Prion Research Institute. This complements his project management and technology development experience in the bioanalytical and biotechnology industries, including positions with MDS Sciex and Genome Prairie (Concord ON), Blue Heron Biotechnology (Bothell WA), Visible Genetics (Toronto ON) and Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (Chalk River ON). Chris received his PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Alberta, performing his doctoral research in the bioanalytical instrumentation laboratory of Dr. Norm Dovichi.