Mark your calendar for the 2025 EPIC Symposium on October 16. We will be returning to the Toronto Reference Library for a day of research talks and panel discussions from experts in infectious diseases and public health. The 2025 EPIC Symposium will feature invited guest speakers and faculty who are leaders in the fields of infectious disease research and public health. This year, we are excited to partner with the Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases (CVPD) to present a day centred on the theme of “Immunizations: sustaining progress and impact in a changing landscape”.
Like last year, there will also be a trainee lightening round where graduate students in related fields will share their research in five minutes! Finally, our invited experts will hold a panel discussion and audience members will have the chance to ask questions directly to our keynote speakers. Our invited speakers, trainees, and professors will then get the chance to cross-connect during our networking reception which will round off the day! You can find the symposium agenda here: 2025 EPIC Symposium Agenda.
Learn a bit about our keynote speaker and panel chair below.
We are also happy to announce that, like last year, trainees will have the opportunity to register to have lunch with one of our keynote speakers, panel chair, or industry representatives during the symposium. Trainees can sign up for a networking lunch table here!
Where: Toronto Reference Library, Appel Salon, 789 Yonge St, Toronto, ON M4W 2G8
When: October 16th, 8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Registration cost: The event is free for anyone with a primary affiliation at one of EPIC’s partner institutes (The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Unity Health Toronto, University Health Network and University of Toronto). Ticket fees apply to external academics and industry representatives.
Keynote Speakers:
Natasha Crowcroft, MA(Cantab), MSc, MD(PhD), MRCP, FFPH
Natasha S. Crowcroft is Vice President of the Infectious Diseases and Vaccination Programs Branch of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). With more than 30 years experience practising public health and preventive medicine and over 300 scientific publications, she is an Adjunct Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Inaugural Director of the Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases, and Senior Fellow, Massey College at the University of Toronto. From 2020 to 2025 she served as the Senior Technical Adviser for Measles and Rubella at the World Health Organization, Geneva, and before that as Chief Scientist and Chief of Infectious Diseases at Public Health Ontario, Professor in Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto, Adjunct Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, and a member of Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization.
Trina Racine, PhD
Trina Racine is Director of Vaccine Development at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) which operates from the University of Saskatchewan. At VIDO, she is responsible for guiding the development, manufacturing, and clinical/field testing of VIDO’s products. She is also responsible for the Vaccine Development Centre at VIDO, which is a pilot scale, containment level 3, GMP biomanufacturing facility. Prior to joining VIDO, Racine worked for the Special Pathogens Program at the National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) where she contributed to the development of vaccines and therapeutics for various infectious diseases including Ebola, Zika, and MERS. She also coordinated clinical trials and provided diagnostic support during the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Racine also acts as a consultant for scientific and regulatory affairs and clinical trials. She completed her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at Dalhousie University.
Maxwell Smith, PhD, MSc
Maxwell Smith is a bioethicist, Associate Professor, and CIHR Applied Public Health Chair in Ethics and Health Emergencies in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Western University. Smith also serves as the Director of Western’s Centre for Bioethics, Associate Director of Western’s Rotman Institute of Philosophy, and has appointments in the Department of Philosophy, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Schulich Interfaculty Program in Public Health. His research is in the area of public health ethics, with a focus on infectious disease ethics and the ethical demands that health equity and social justice place on governments and institutions to protect and promote the public’s health. He presently serves as the Co-Chair of the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Public Health Ethics Consultative Group and is a member of the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Advisory Committee on Science, the Ontario Public Health Emergencies Science Advisory Committee, and World Health Organization Ethics and Governance of Infectious Disease Outbreaks Working Group.
Panel Chair:
Shelly Bolotin, PhD, MScPH, MSc
Shelly Bolotin is the Director of the Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases, and an Associate Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, at the University of Toronto. She is also a Scientist at Public Health Ontario. Her research program utilizes a multi-disciplinary approach to evaluate whether our population is adequately protected from vaccine-preventable diseases. Applying a public health lens, her studies combine epidemiological and microbiological methods to answer questions related to population immunity and vaccine effectiveness.