New Dean of Medicine named

Tom Marrie is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta.

Dr. Tom Marrie, a leading Canadian medical researcher, professor and clinician—and a familiar face around this campus—is returning to Dalhousie as the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine.

Originally from Newfoundland, Dr. Marrie graduated from the Dalhousie Medical School and joined the Faculty in 1977. While at Dalhousie as a professor of medicine and microbiology, he established the Division of Infectious Diseases.

Well known across the country as an infectious diseases specialist, he is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta. Under his leadership, the Faculty engaged in a major capital expansion with the construction of two health research buildings. He also developed an alternate funding plan that offered a new method to support faculty, enabling greater academic activity and more innovative patient care. During this time, he maintained an active research program, focusing on community-acquired pneumonia.

“I am confident that the Faculty of Medicine will be well served by Dr. Marrie’s great experience and ability at this very important juncture in its development,” says President Tom Traves.

The new appointment as Dean is effective Sept. 1, 2009. Dr. Traves also offered thanks to the outgoing dean for his service over the past five years. “Harold Cook became dean in 2004 and during his term the Faculty has moved from strength to strength.”

“I’m really delighted and honoured to have been chosen by the selection committee,” says Dr. Marrie. “I’m looking forward to the next five years at Dalhousie. There are a lot of amazing things going on at the medical school right now, including the expansion of the medical education program into New Brunswick and the construction of the Life Sciences Research Institute. It will be great to be a part of it all.”

Among other recognition, Dr. Marrie has been honoured with an Excellence in Leadership Award (University of Alberta); a Master Clinician Lecturer Award (Department of Medicine, Dalhousie University); a Lifetime Achievement Award (Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases of Canada); an Eagle Feather award (Aboriginal MD Program, University of Alberta) and an honourary doctorate (University of Mediterranean, Marseille France).

“Dr. Marrie has been a visionary educator as long as I’ve known him. As a researcher he delighted in creating new knowledge; as a clinician he clearly and respectfully informed patients about their condition; as an educator he delighted conveying old and new knowledge to students at every level; and as a policy maker he made convincing arguments by using data from clinical research and pertinent literature,” says Dr. David Zitner, professor and director of medical informatics at Dalhousie. 

Dr. Ron Stewart was one the new dean’s classmates during his studies at the Dalhousie Medical School. “He is one of the most capable, intelligent, compassionate, and just plain decent people I’ve ever met in my career. We are celebrating his return ‘home’,”  says Dr. Stewart.

“Our new dean will make a substantial contribution not only to academic life at Dalhousie but also to the communities around us,” says Dr. Zitner.