Noralou Roos, OC, PhD

Dr. Noralou Roos is a professor emerita in the College of Community and Global Health and a founding director of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy.

She received funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to create Canada’s first data laboratory, which houses population-based data on health, education, and social services, and held a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair.

Citations of Roos’s work place her among the top 100 Canadian scientists, according to the Institute for Scientific Information. She was recently named a top scholar by ScholarGPS.

Roos was a member of the Prime Minister’s National Forum on Health and the Interim Governing Council, which set up the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. She has received the Order of Canada and was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

She has collaborated with Health Canada and groups across the country to fund and implement a research network monitoring post-market drug safety and effectiveness, with a $31-million commitment from the Minister of Health in 2009, and ongoing funding of $10 million annually.

Roos worked on a Canadian Institutes of Health Research-funded project with the media to ensure evidence on high-profile health policy issues was accurately communicated. The project involved over 80 academics and researchers from across Canada and internationally, resulting in more than 2,800 commentaries published in Canadian newspapers.

She was co-director of the Winnipeg Foundation-supported Get Your Benefits project, which worked with health care providers and community groups to ensure poverty is diagnosed and treated by helping people access eligible benefits. This work led to an invitation from the Canada Revenue Agency to join its Disability Advisory Committee Secretariat.

Education

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1968)

Bachelor of Arts (BA) with distinction and departmental honors, Stanford University (1963)

Awards

2021

• 150 Manitoba Women Trailblazer Award
• Inductee of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame

2020

• Vanier Medal from the Institute of Public Administration (IPAC)

2016

• Biomedical Science Ambassador Award, Partners in Research (PIR) National Award (May)

2011

• Election to Fellowship in the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS) (May)

2001 - 2007

• Canada Research Chair in Population Health, Tier 1, $1,400,000

1988 - 2002

• Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Associate Award, $361,000

1973 - 1998

• National Health Research Scientist (NHRDP), $1,224,342

1972

• Sears-Roebuck Foundation Federal Faculty Fellow, National Centre for Health Services Research and Development

1966 - 1967

• Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellow

1964

• NDFL Language Fellow, University of California (Summer)

1963 - 1964

• Woodrow Wilson Fellow