Dr.  Naweed Imam Syed Professor Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Hotchkiss Brain Institute Cumming School of Medicine University of Calgary, Canada   Email: nisyed@ucalgary.ca Phone: +1- 403 220 5479 Address: 3330-Hospital Drive, North West, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 4N1 Download CV

Biography

Dr. Naweed Syed is a professor and the Scientific Director of Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. Dr. Syed held the administrative position of the Postdoctoral Program Director – Office of the Vice-President (Research) from 2012 – 2016. In addition, Dr. Syed worked as a special advisor to the Vice-President for Research and a chief scientist at the Constructive Destructive Lab (Global). He is currently the Peak Scholar at the University of Calgary.

Dr. Syed obtained his Master's degree from the University of Karachi, Pakistan in 1984, and his Ph.D. in Neurophysiology from the University of Leeds, UK (1988). After a three-year postdoctoral training at the University of Calgary (1988-1991), he was subsequently appointed as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Medicine, the University of Calgary. Dr. Syed has served as the Head of the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy for the past 10 years and simultaneously worked as the Research Director for Hotchkiss Brain Institute. Dr. Syed has led several major research and academic initiatives for the University – ranging from Biomedical Engineering to Genome Sequencing, etc.

Dr. Syed has received many international and national awards during his career including: Alfred P.Sloan Fellowship (USA), Parker B. Francis Fellowship (USA), Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Scholar, Senior Scholar and Scientist Awards, Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) Investigator Award, and the Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. In 2016, the Government of Pakistan awarded Dr. Syed the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (Medal of Excellence – the highest civilian award for research and innovation). Dr. Syed is recognized amongst 150 Canadian Innovations/Innovators on the occasion of Canada’s 150 Birthday this year and has received the Canada-150 Medal by the Senate of Canada.

Dr. Syed and his team are the first to develop a bionic hybrid which enables direct dialogue between brain cells and silicon chip. This study is highlighted in Time Magazine and on the Discovery Channel, Global and Mail, etc.  Dr. Syed has published more than 140 papers in prestigious peer-reviewed scientific journals including Nature, Science, Neuron, and the Journal of Neuroscience. He is the receiver and the holder of multiple research grants from the Canadian Institute of Health Research and the Natural Science and Engineering Council of Canada.  He has also been a co-PI on CIHR and CFI team grants.  Dr. Syed also serves on several national and international grant panels and is a member of several scientific advisory boards. Dr. Syed has trained over 57 Ph.D. and M.Sc. students and 20 postdoctoral scholars and has given several hundred invited lectures around the world, up to now.

Research Priorities

• Neuroscience
• Neurodevelopment
• Neurodegeneration
• Synapse formation
• Neurotoxicity
• Synaptic Plasticity
• Brain-chip interfacing

Number and the Duration of Previous Visits to SUMS

A two-day visit in December 2019