Preparing for a Career as a Principal Investigator

Event Date: December 11, 2025
Event Time: 12 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Location: Virtual

Register here

Thinking about a career in academia?  The Stem Cell Network is hosting a candid and practical webinar and panel discussion on how to navigate the path to an academic position. Gain insights on building the right experience during your Ph.D. or postdoctoral training, understanding the academic job search process, and developing  effective strategies for finding and applying to faculty positions.

Who Should Attend?

Research trainees who are considering career paths in academia (faculty positions) are encouraged to attend.

Learning Objectives:

• Prepare to effectively position yourself for success in today’s academic landscape during your time as a trainee.
• Learn about the day-to-day activities and responsibilities in an academic position to help decide if it’s the right career for you.
• Understand how to craft competitive faculty application packages, including research proposals, and tailoring your application package to the call.
• Gain insight on the typical steps of the faculty hiring process, standard elements of a faculty contract, and tips for negotiating your contract.

 Speakers:

Marian Hettiaratchi
Associate Professor, Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact, Department of Bioengineering, University of Oregon

Marian Hettiaratchi officially joined the Knight Campus in January 2020. Prior to that, she was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Toronto where her research focused on combining chemical and biomedical engineering approaches to create effective biomaterials that can precisely deliver proteins for tissue repair. She holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering with a biomedical specialization from University of Calgary and a doctorate in biomedical engineering jointly from Georgia Tech and Emory University. Her work involves developing protein delivery vehicles for regenerative medicine by integrating cutting-edge techniques in protein engineering, polymer chemistry, and computational modeling to design versatile, clinically-relevant biomaterials. As an educator, Hettiaratchi said she enjoys bridging the gap between fundamental and translational knowledge to develop innovative healthcare technologies and educating the next generation of engineers and scientists to do the same. She is committed to developing initiatives to make science, engineering and math more accessible to students from underrepresented groups, by fostering inclusivity in the classroom and diversity in research.

Michael Kallos
Department Head and Professor, Schulich School of Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Calgary

Dr. Kallos is a Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering and Inaugural Department Head, as well as an Adjunct in the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy in the Cumming School of Medicine, and the Associate Director of the Pharmaceutical Production Research Facility (PPRF), all at the University of Calgary. Since 2016, he has been the Director of the Biomedical Engineering (BME) Calgary Initiative, as he is also a full a member of the McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health. He is a Professional Engineer registered with APEGA. A chemical engineer by training, he performs research in stem cell bioprocess engineering – a key element in the clinical implementation of regenerative medicine and cell therapies. His lab is NSERC and CIHR funded, and over the last 22 years at the University of Calgary, he has brought in over $20.6 million in research funding, from local, national and international funding agencies and industry. Dr. Kallos was the Director of the multi-faculty BME Graduate Program for 12 years and was also Associate Director of the Center for Bioengineering Research and Education (CBRE), in the Schulich School of Engineering. BME research, graduate and undergraduate activities are now co-led out of the new Department of Biomedical Engineering, of which Dr. Kallos is the inaugural Department Head. Dr. Kallos co-led the development of the new Department over the past several years and played a large role in the development and launch of the new Biomedical Engineering BSc in Fall 2021.

Ian Tobias
Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Guelph

Ian Tobias is an assistant professor in biomedical science at The University of Guelph. He is a member of the Neyaashiinigmiing Anishinabek First Nation from the Bruce Peninsula region. He obtained a B.M.Sc. in Physiology and Pharmacology from the University of Western Ontario. Following a Ph.D. in Dean Betts’ early embryo and pluripotent stem cell laboratory, he undertook postdoctoral training at The University of Toronto with Jennifer Mitchell as a Provost’s Fellow. Here, he studied the roles of distal gene regulatory elements in the fidelity of transcriptional regulatory networks in embryonic and neural stem cells. In 2024, he established his own research group in comparative neurodevelopmental genomics to study genome organization in mammalian lineages and the regulatory mechanisms that exist in stem cells that ensure accurate specification of the neural cell types. To understand these processes, his lab uses a range of experimental and computational techniques. These are applied to model systems, including human, mouse, and dog stem cells and organoids. At Guelph, Ian Tobias is the course instructor for Critical Thinking in the Health Sciences.

For further information on this event or for registration related enquiries, please email trainingSCN@stemcellnetwork.ca.