James Fraser Mustard



Dr. James Fraser Mustard, CC, O.Ont , MD , Ph.D , LL.D , FRSC, (born 1927) is a Canadian physician and scientist.

Born in Toronto, Ontario, he attended Whitney Public School and the University of Toronto Schools graduating in 1946. He received a MD from the University of Toronto in 1953. He interned at the Toronto General Hospital and spent two years of postgraduate study at the Department of Medicine, Cambridge University, where he earned his Ph.D

Upon returning to Canada, he was a senior intern at Sunnybrook Hospital and then a senior research associate with the Department of Veterans Affairs and a fellow in the Department of Medicine, University of Toronto. In 1958, Mustard received a Medal of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada for an essay entitled, "A Study of the Relationship Between Lipids, Blood Coagulation and Atherosclerosis."

From 1960 to 1961, he was a research associate with the National Heart Foundation of Canada, and from 1962 to 1963 a research associate with the Department of Medicine, University of Toronto and a senior research associate with the Canadian Heart Foundation. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 1965.

In 1966, he was a founding member of the McMaster University Faculty of Medicine in Hamilton, Ontario and the first chairman of the Department of Pathology. In 1972, he became Dean and Vice-President of the Faculty of Health Sciences.

In 1982, he took on the task of creating and establishing a unique Canadian institute, The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and became its founding president. In 1996 he became the head of The Founders' Network, which is an international collection of people interested in promoting the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIAR), science and technology, early childhood, economic issues, determinants of health and human development.

He has been a leader in Canada about the socioeconomic determinants of human development and health. A particular emphasis has been on early childhood and the role of communities. He co-chaired a report for the Government of Ontario on early learning with specific community recommendations [The Early Years Study - Reversing the Real Brain Drain] in 1999. Recognition of this has led Dr. Mustard and his colleagues to emphasize to all sectors of society the crucial nature of the early years to provide a healthy and competent population. He is involved with governments in Canada, Australia, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, UNICEF and the Aga Khan University in Pakistan in emphasizing the enormous importance to society of early childhood development.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the winner of the 1993 Sir John William Dawson Medal. In 1985 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Companion in 1993. He is a recipient of the Order of Ontario.

In 2003 he was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. He is a member of the board of PENCE [Protein Engineering Network Centre of Excellence], the Centre of Excellence of Early Child Development, the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan, Beatrice House [a residential program for homeless mothers and their children] and is Chairman Emeritus of the newly incorporated Council for Early Child Development.

He is the Past Chairman of Ballard Power Systems.

Mustard has been the recipient of fifteen Honorary Degrees.

Up until March 2007, he was a "Thinker in Residence", a program in Adelaide, South Australia which brings leaders in their fields to work with the South Australian community and government in developing new ideas and approaches to problem solving.