CEO & Director
Andrew Potter, PhD
Senior NSERC/Bioniche Industrial Research Chair in Food Safety
Dr. Potter is internationally recognized for his visionary research into how bacteria cause disease and for his groundbreaking projects at VIDO that have generated "world firsts" in disease prevention and over 50 patents for animal vaccine development and therapeutics.
Dr. Potter completed his undergraduate studies at Carleton University and received his PhD in microbiology from the University of Otago (New Zealand) in 1981. Recruited from Health Canada in Ottawa, Dr. Potter joined VIDO in 1985 as a research scientist. He was subsequently appointed as VIDO's Associate Director (Research) in 1994 and then the new CEO and Directory in 2007.
During his tenure as a scientist at VIDO, he initiated VIDO's partnership with the University of British Columbia in developing the world's first vaccine to protect food and water from E. coli O157:H7, and was the first to develop a licensed animal vaccine through the use of biotechnology.
He currently runs a successful research program well-funded by competitive grants at the national level. Recently, he has been working on the application of genomics to the animal health field and is forging links between the animal and human infectious disease research communities to ensure that technologies common to both fields can be leveraged to their greatest benefit.
He has mentored more than 30 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows who currently hold positions in industry, academia and government worldwide.
Dr. Potter has served on a number of public and private sector committees, and has been instrumental in transferring technology from the VIDO laboratories to the private sector. He interacts frequently with major animal health companies and serves as a consultant to numerous smaller ones.
