Charu Kaushic is a tenured Full Professor in the Department of Medicine in McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. She joined as faculty in McMaster University in 2002, where she has done extensive teaching and training and built an interdisciplinary research program for last 20 years. Her research interest is women’s reproductive health, specifically basic, clinical, and translational research examining susceptibility and immune responses to sexually transmitted viruses, HIV-1 and HSV-2. Charu’s research has been funded by CIHR, CFI, CANFAR and OHTN and she has received numerous national and international awards. She is serving as the Scientific Director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)-Institute of Infection and Immunity since 2018. In this role, she is responsible for making decisions for CIHR strategic investments in infection and immunity, nationally and internationally. She also represents CIHR and Government of Canada at various national and international forums related to infectious diseases, including COVID-19. Charu has special interest in public education, especially on women’s reproductive health issues and has long term collaborations with women’s community research organizations. In her current leadership role, her personal passion is to work with young women to encourage them to make careers in STEM fields and increase women in leadership roles.
