Faculty
Interview
By: Anne Fard
D
r. Jonathon Maguire is currently working as a clinical
epidemiologist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s
Hospital, and is a practicing pediatrician at St. Michael’s Hospital and
the Hospital for Sick Children. He is an assistant professor of
Pediatrics at the University of Toronto. His core research interest
includes clinical trials involving nutrition and development in young
children as well as the creation of tools to improve child health
practice. With Dr. Catherine Birken, he co-leads the largest practicebased research network for children in Canada called TARGet Kids!
Dr. Maguire kindly agreed to be interviewed for this edition of
NutriNews.
I understand that you got your MD at U of T, and completed your
residency at SickKids. Briefly, please share what was your one
greatest learning from your experience?
It is important to plan your career and it helps to do so as early as
possible. Education takes a long time and when you finish it is
important to end up where you want to be. People ask me how you
get from here to there, but a better question is where is ‘there’ for
you?
How did you know that you wanted to be a doctor and a
researcher?
I have been passionate about children for a long time and that
guided my thinking. Children are incredibly important in our
society and it is important to know how to make them as happy
and healthy and wise as possible so that our country can be that
too. Early on I felt as though not many people seemed to
appreciate this, and so I wanted to change that. Fortunately, I had
fantastic people around me who pointed me in the right
direction. One of the key ingredients for success for a young
investigator is having successful mentors. Mentors know how to
maximally apply your skills to achieve what you want. These
are difficult things to manage on your own.
Photo from: http://ihpme.utoronto.ca/faculty/jonathon-maguire/
and Alberto Seveso
Q
A
SPRING 2016 | From Prescription to Nutrition | 32