Michael W Salter (MD, PhD FRSC) is an internationally recognized pain researcher, a Senior Scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children and the founding Director of the University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain (UTCSP). He is a pioneer in studies on molecular and cellular mechanisms of neuroplasticity. His landmark work has led to new models of neuroplasticity and how synaptic transmission in the central nervous system is regulated by biochemical processes within neurons and by glial-neuronal interactions. The findings of Dr. Salter’s research regularly appear in elite journals including Nature, Science, Cell and Neuron. Dr. Salter has received numerous awards, most notably he holds a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Neuroplasticity and Pain, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and an International Research Scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Dr. Salter has a long track record of scientific/research leadership including serving as President of the Southern Ontario Neurosciences Association. As Director of the UTCSP –an initiative which spans the Faculties of Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry and Pharmacy –he has brought together a diverse group of more than 40 pain researchers and academics in the University of Toronto community. In addition, Dr. Salter is the leader of the CIHR Strategic Training Program Centre on Pain Research from Molecules to Community and he is the leader of a multi-centre research program Transforming Research on Chronic Pain in Canada, funded by Neuroscience Canada. At the federal level Dr. Salter has recently completed his term as an inaugural member of the Institute Advisory Board of the CIHR Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction.