Professor Stephen Scherer, PhD DSc FRSC is Chief of Research and holds the Northbridge Chair in Paediatric Research at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and University of Toronto (UofT) and he is Director of the UofT McLaughlin Centre, as well as The Centre for Applied Genomics at SickKids. His team contributed to the landmark discovery of global gene copy number variation (CNV) as a common form of genetic variation in human DNA. His team also identified CNV of specific genes involved in brain development to contribute to Autism Spectrum Disorder, demonstrating this complex human behavioral condition can have a biological basis. His research is documented in over 750 scholarly publications and patents. Dr. Scherer has won numerous honors such as the Steacie Prize, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scholarship, the Premier’s Summit Award for Medical Research, the Killam Prize, and multiple Honorary degrees. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Royal Society of Canada.