Frederick Lowy

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Frederick Hans Lowy is a respected Canadian medical educator and former President and Vice-Chancellor of Concordia University.

Born in Großpetersdorf, Austria in 1933, Lowy moved to downtown Montreal at age 13. Lowy studied medicine at McGill University, graduating in 1959. As an undergraduate, he was a volunteer at the McGill Daily student newspaper. He was a psychiatric consultant at the Royal Victoria Hospital and Neurological Institute in the late 1960s.

Dr. Lowy moved to Toronto in 1974 to become Psychiatrist-in-Chief and Director of the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry and professor at, and chair of, the University of Toronto’s Department of Psychiatry. He became Dean of the Faculty of Medicine (1980 to 1987). He was the founder and first Director of the University's Centre for Bioethics (now University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics).

In 1995 he returned to Montreal to become the 4th Rector and Vice-Chancellor of Concordia University. (In 2004 the English title of the position was changed to "President and Vice-Chancellor".) He held this post until August 1, 2005.

Dr. Lowy was the first Chair of Canada's Tri-Council (Medical Research Council, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) Working Group on Ethics of Research on Human subjects (1994-1995) and Vice-Chair, Hospital Restructuring Committee, Metro Toronto District Health Council (1994-1995).

He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, a Life Member of the Canadian and American Psychiatric Associations and the American College of Psychiatrists. He is also a member of the Canadian Medical Association and the International Psychoanalytical Association. Dr. Lowy's previous medical appointments include positions at the Cincinnati General Hospital, the Ottawa Civic Hospital and the Toronto Hospital. He also served for many years as a consultant to numerous research foundations and hospitals.

Dr. Lowy has lectured and published widely. His most recent publications grapple with new ethical issues that face modern physicians and health science researchers.

Dr. Lowy was a member of the Board of Directors of the Montreal Board of Trade and of Centraide (Montreal); Vice-President of the Conference of Rectors and Principals of Quebec; and a former board member of the National Ballet of Canada. Dr. Lowy has been a trustee at Ontario's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, the Mount Sinai, St. Michael's, and Toronto Hospitals, and the Ontario Cancer Institute. He chaired an Ontario Government inquiry into the pharmaceutical industry (1988-1990) and held numerous professional editorial posts, including Editor of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.

Dr. Lowy sits on the board of directors of two Canadian public companies, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and Montreal's Jewish General Hospital.

In 2000 he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada.

He has received honorary degrees from the University of Toronto (1998) and McGill University (2001).

Dr. Lowy is married to Mary Kay Lowy (Dr. M.K. O'Neil). He has four children, David, Eric, Adam, and Sarah, and seven grandchildren.

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