2026 Award Winners

Dr. Marie-Elise Parent is professor at Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) in Montreal, Quebec. Her research focuses on occupational and environmental causes of prostate cancer. She holds a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Environmental Epidemiology of Cancer. She received the 2023 Geoffrey R. Howe Outstanding Contribution Award from the Canadian Society for Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the 2025 Acfas award for inter-order collaborations.

Dr. Parent has authored over 200 publications, sits on three editorial boards, has served on numerous national and international advisory committees and panels. She trained 46 graduate students. In 2021-2025, she was a member of the Scientific Council of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization.

Dr. Darren Brenner is a Professor in the Departments of Oncology and Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary. He leads the Cancer Screening, Detection, and Risk Reduction Program at the Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute and serves as Director of Research at the Forzani & MacPhail Colon Cancer Screening Centre. Since 2019 Darren has served as the Co-Chair of the Canadian Cancer Statistics Advisory Committee and an Advisor for the OncoSim All-Cancers Microsimulation Model. He holds the Armstrong Investigatorship in Molecular Epidemiology at the Cumming School of Medicine where his research program focuses on advancing cancer prevention, screening and improving outcomes through population-based studies and innovative modeling approaches.

Vasily Giannakeas, PhD, is a Scientist at Women’s College Hospital Research and Innovation Institute, and Assistant Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. His research uses population-based health data and advanced epidemiologic methods to address critical questions related to cancer early detection, treatment, and survivorship. He has published widely in leading medical journals and pursues research that generates evidence to inform clinical practice and health policy.

Dr. Rui (Ray) Fu is an Assistant Professor at the Departments of Community Health Sciences, Surgery and Oncology at the University of Calgary. She is the quantitative methodologist of the Ohlson Research Initiative, a Calgary-based clinical and translational research group focusing on cancers of the head and neck. Prior to joining UCalgary in Oct 2024, Ray was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Evaluative Clinical Sciences at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Having trained as a health economist in her MSc and PhD at University of Toronto, Ray is also a Professional Statistician (P.Stat) specialized in machine learning/advanced biostatistics methods applied to real-world data.