Dr. Brooks is the Associate Vice President Research and International at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and a Physical Biochemist and Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. He is also the Director of Support Programs to Advance Research Capacity (SPARC) at UBC.
Dr. Brooks plays a leadership role in promoting research, both federally and provincially, building research excellence, capacity and competitiveness at UBC, in developing institutional strategies for new initiatives and in encouraging and enhancing international research collaborations and partnerships with highly ranked research groups and institutions. His activities have particular emphasis on new funding initiatives from CIHR, MSFHR, SSHRC, NSERC, CFI and Genome BC. The CFI/BCKDF Resource Office, the Health Research Resource Office and the four Coordinators for SSHRC, CIHR/MSFHR, NSERC and CFI report directly to him. Dr. Brooks assists faculty to take full advantage of new funding initiatives and also promotes and coordinates interdisciplinary research. Dr. Brooks represents the University as a member of the Boards of Directors of TRIUMF (committees: Finance & Audit (chair); Technology Transfer and CFO Search Committee (chair)), the Canadian Light Source Inc. (Finance and Audit Committee), the Child & Family Research Institute of the BC Children’s Hospital (chair), and RES’EAU – WaterNet, an NSERC Network. He is Chair of the Institutional Council of the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy and a member of the Coalition for Astronomy that represents the needs of this community to government. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and a Faculty Member of Green College.
Dr. Brooks’ major current research interests are in surface and polymer chemistry, particularly in developing polymer constructs for biomedical applications in which his group is a world leader. He is currently active in developing new biomaterials for blood contacting applications and developing nano-scale hyper-branched polymers as synthetic blood elements, drug delivery vehicles and for manipulation of cardiac metabolism, He has published over 150 research scientific papers, has edited four books and holds four US patents, two of which form the scientific basis for and are licensed by a successful point-of-care diagnostic company in Vancouver. He received the 2002 Golden Jubilee Medal, the 2000 UBC Alumni Award for Research, and has received recognition from NASA and the American Chemical Society for his research.
