About Us > Governance > Bob Sutherland

Bob Sutherland, PhD

Senior Investment Officer, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto, Ontario

Dr. Sutherland was recently appointed Senior Investment Officer of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) in October 2009. Since March 2007 he was Vice President, Commercialization of OCIR. In these positions he is developing OCIR's commercialization proggram including intellectual property management, identification of projects for early stage development and the engagement of market receptors and investor groups.

Most recently, Dr. Sutherland was President of Varian Biosynergy, a subsidiary of Varian Medical Systems in Palo Alto, California from 1995 to 2006. He has held other senior positions in biomedical research and management. He was previously Vice-President and Executive Director, Life Sciences, at SRI International from 1988 to 1995.

As a member of the faculty of the University of Rochester from 1976 to 1988, Dr. Sutherland was the Associate Director of the Cancer Center for Experimental Therapeutics and was a member of the Departments of Biophysics and of Radiation Oncology. From 1967 to 1976 he was on the faculty of the University of Western Ontario Cancer Treatment and Research Foundation.

The focus of Dr. Sutherland's research career has been on the design of cancer therapies and the mechanisms of resistance of cancer therapy. He has autjored many publications on various themes: radiation biology, tumor microenvironments, malignant progression, gene expression in response to hypoxia, growth factor signal transduction, cancer diagnostic/imaging, and experimental therapeutics.

During his career he has served as a consultant/reviewer for many national and international government research agencies, universities, industry, and scientific journals. He was recently a Consulting Professor of Radiation Oncology at Stanford University and is currently a member of several academic advisory groups and industry boards. He is also a member of many professional associations including, among others, the Rasiation Research Society, American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, and the American Association for Cancer Research. Some of his honors include the Radiation Research Award (1977) of the Radiation Research Society, National Cancer Institute MERIT Award (1987), Doctor of Science honoris causa (1985) Acadia University, and Senior U.S. Scientist Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Fuoundation (1983).

Dr. Sutherland holds a B.Sc. (Hons. Biology) from Acadia University (1961) and a PhD in Biophysics from the University or Rochester (1966).