Presenter

Catherine M. Burns is a Professor in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo, Canada, and the Director of the Advanced Interface Design Lab. In her past administrative roles, she served as Associate Vice President, Health Initiatives at the Office of Research at the University of Waterloo and has been engaged with institutional and tri-agency funding programs, research partnerships, Waterloo’s equity in research action plan, and research computing.

Dr. Burns was the founder of the Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology at Waterloo and led the centre from a faculty to an institutional centre over 8 years. In 2020, she chaired Waterloo’s Health Initiatives Task Force to develop a health strategy in response to Waterloo’s 2025 Strategic Plan. In her role as AVP, Health Initiatives, she was responsible for advancing Waterloo research in health and health technology.

Dr. Burns holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Human Factors and Healthcare Systems, has contributed over 300 publications, and is the co-author of seven books and the PI on an NSERC CREATE Training program in biomedical technology and entrepreneurship, which has trained over 40 graduate students from various faculties across campus.