Dr. Stephanie Borgland named new associate vice-president (research)

Dr. Stephanie Borgland, PhD, has been named a new associate vice-president (research), effective January 1, 2025, for a two-year term (renewable).

Borgland, professor in the departments of Physiology and Pharmacology and Psychiatry in the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM), is an internationally recognized leader in the neurobiology of motivated behaviour. She is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in the Molecular Physiology of Addiction, member of the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, and member of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI), and Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research & Education at the HBI.

“I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Borgland to the Office of the Vice-President (Research),” says Dr. William Ghali, vice-president (research). “Her experience in medical research and academic processes, and stellar service and training record will be valuable assets in her leadership of the UCalgary research community in her role as AVPR.”

Borgland joined the University of Calgary in 2013, following five years as an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia. She is looking forward to applying her experience to her new role, and working with the VPR team.

“This position will be an excellent opportunity to work behind the scenes to advance research at the University of Calgary, and build research capacity,” says Borgland. “We can have a positive impact on the research community to advance strategic initiatives that will increase both the community and global impact of the research done in Calgary.”

Borgland’s AVPR portfolio will include animal care, regulatory bodies, research stations, and other VPR initiatives.

“As a researcher, I am aware of the administrative burden impeding getting work done,” she says. “I would love to streamline this for researchers while maintaining strict compliance with our federal bodies providing research guidelines. In an ideal scenario, I would like to give researchers more time to focus on the important research problems that matter.”

Borgland will continue to conduct research in her lab in the CSM. Her research focuses on understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of aberrant motivation related to addiction and obesity. Her lab uses a combination of techniques to explore how areas of the brain involved in reward valuation and motivated behaviour are rewired by consumption of palatable foods, obesogenic diets or drugs of abuse.

Borgland and team have made exciting discoveries on how satiety-promoting hormones modulate brain plasticity, how palatable food induces plasticity to prime food seeking, and how obesity or drugs of abuse rewire circuits involved in reward-motivated behaviour. Her innovative research is illuminating the neurobiological factors underlying disordered eating or addiction. 

AVPR Andre Buret’s term concludes after 12 years of service

Borgland will take over the role of associate vice-president (research) previously held by Dr. Andre Buret, PhD. Buret has been a member of the Office of the Vice-President (Research) executive team since 2012, including 14 months as interim vice-president (research) from 2019-2020.

“On behalf of the University of Calgary, I would like to thank Dr. Buret for his 12 years of service in the Office of the VPR,” says Ghali. “We are grateful for his innumerable contributions to the research community and wish him all the best.”