Fields Notes, Winter/Spring 2019 Fields_Notes_19.1 | Page 21

CIHR STAGE International Speaker Seminar Series July 1, 2018-June 30, 2019 • Fields Institute Organizers: Shelley Bull and Jennifer Brooks (University of Toronto) The CIHR STAGE International Speaker Seminar Series (ISSS) comprises eight international seminars and group discussions annually. These one-hour long seminars are lead by some of the world’s most distinguished researchers in the fields of statistical genetics and genetic epidemiology. Each seminar attracts, on average, 60-70 people from the Toronto area, and an additional 15-20 remote participants. The seminars are two hours in length, open to all, and they aim to • expose trainees to high-calibre international research, • further interdisciplinary research innovation, discovery, and learning, • foster a cohesive research community of genetic epidemiologists and statistical geneticists in Canada, and • enable new networks of collaborative research. The ISSS was created when Toronto-based researchers capitalized on a high concentration of statistical geneticists, genetic epidemiologists, and biomedical researchers at the University of Toronto and nearby institutions to pioneer a cross‑disciplinary, multi-activity training program at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. The training program, best known as CIHR STAGE, launched in 2010 and is excited to host its ISSS at the Fields Institute.  Great turnout at the International Speaker Seminar Series 19