Dr. Philip E. Branton, 1943-2024
Last night, Dr. Philip Branton died after a series of medical complications at the Hôpital Charles-Le Moyne. Phil, a cancer virologist (PhD, 1972), who worked at the Université de Sherbrooke, McMaster University, and McGill University, went on to become the inaugural Scientific Director of the Institute of Cancer Research at the newly minted Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) led by Dr. Alan Bernstein in 2000. In this role, he founded the CCRA, building on the initial work of Drs. Victor Ling and Gerry Johnston. In his own words, “I think my major accomplishment also reflected my major strategy to achieve our goals. I enjoy interacting with people and cooperating in a group. And so I decided that what Canada needed was a coordinated effort among the more than two dozen federal, provincial and private agencies that invested in cancer research.” Through the pan-Canadian consultative approach he led with Drs. Judy Bray and Benoît Lussier, the establishment of a pan-Canadian cohort, CanPath, and a translational research stream by the Terry Fox Research Institute became the two major foci for the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer’s research investment once it was established in 2007.
Phil’s approachability, sense of humour, and extraordinary ability to transcend his own discipline, connect with and listen to others, identify gaps, and act to advance Canada’s cancer research community whether at the institutional, national or international levels were key to his many accomplishments. In his own words, “In the end I received quite a few awards, mostly for my leadership efforts. These came from the CCS (R.M. Taylor Medal, 2005), the CCRA (Award for Exceptional Leadership in Cancer Research, 2011), the McGill Department of Oncology (Lifetime Achievement Award, 2014), and I was awarded the McGill Medal in 2015. I was the Gilman Cheney Professor of Biochemistry at McGill (1996-2016, now Emeritus), received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2013), and was named a Member of the Royal Society of Canada (2002) and an Officer of the Order of Canada (2014). I name all these awards not to brag but to leave a record that what I did may have meant something. It certainly did to me.” He will be greatly missed.