The Geoffrey L. Hammond Lectureship recognizes investigators at BC Children’s Hospital who have made a significant impact on improving the health and well-being of children and families, served as a role model and mentor to junior researchers, trainees and students over the last 10 years, and provided leadership to the community on the Oak Street Campus.
BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute is pleased to congratulate the 2018 recipient of the Geoffrey L. Hammond Lectureship: Dr. Stuart Turvey.
Over the course of his outstanding career in child health, Dr. Stuart Turvey has distinguished himself not only as an international research leader, but also as dedicated and compassionate clinician and as a highly valued colleague and mentor.
He is a well-known presence on the Oak Street campus, where he has changed the lives of numerous children through his clinical care and research and helped shepherd the next generation of doctors and scientists into careers in child health.
Dr. Turvey is an Investigator and Pediatric Immunologist at BC Children’s Hospital and the Aubrey J. Tingle Professor of Pediatric Immunology at the University of British Columbia. He was honoured with a named chair in recognition of his excellence in immunology research for children.
From 2012-2018, Dr. Turvey served as the Director of Clinical Research at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. In this role, Dr. Turvey achieved tremendous success by implementing initiatives to build capacity for clinical research across the site, developing specialized research support in the areas of health informatics and data management, and strengthening the Research Institute’s relationship with hospital leadership.
As both a practicing clinician and an internationally recognized research leader, Dr. Turvey has committed his life to improving the health and well-being of children and their families. His experiences with patients drive his research program, as he endeavors to answer questions from the clinic through his work in the lab. This approach has led to scientific discoveries that directly impact and improve care for children here at BC Children’s and around the world.
Dr. Turvey has researched new ways to reduce lung inflammation in patients with cystic fibrosis, asthma, and allergies. He has also explored the connection between gut bacteria early in life and the development of asthma and allergies. A 2015 study co-led by Dr. Turvey that showed the presence of four gut bacteria in the first few months of life can protect against asthma garnered international media attention from outlets including the BBC, Time Magazine and CBC.
He has also worked to identify the underlying cause of disease in children with unexplained primary immune deficiencies.
Through this research, Dr. Turvey has identified new rare diseases, and in some cases been able to provide treatments or cures for affected children. This has changed the lives of children living with these rare diseases and their families.
Along with his own research program, Dr. Turvey is the leader of two national health research programs, the CHILD study and a study on the interrelationship between genes, the environment and chronic disease. Throughout his research career, he has published more than 150 papers, including papers in top international journals.
Dr. Turvey is also known as a wonderful colleague and collaborator. He has co-authored research papers with dozens of other clinicians and scientists at BC Children’s Hospital and the University of British Columbia, as well as national and international colleagues. He supports his junior colleagues by enabling them to do similar patient-oriented research and providing them with guidance on writing research papers and grant applications.
Dr. Turvey also offers exceptional support to trainees, who learn to do research in his laboratory. He has trained and mentored many clinicians, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. A number of his trainees have gone on to careers in medicine and research; three of his post-doctoral trainees are now professors, who run their own research laboratories in Qatar and China.
Dr. Turvey’s dedication and excellence as a researcher, clinician, colleague and teacher truly makes him a role model and inspiration. He has proven himself a leader both here on the Oak Street campus and in the international research community. Every day at BC Children’s Hospital, he is contributing to a better future for children by pursuing scientific discovery, treating patients and training the next generation of doctors and scientists.
