November 5, 2008 - Mr. Richard Ivey, a long-time supporter of Robarts Research Institute, has made a leadership gift of $500,000 towards a key Robarts fundraising priority the Kathleen & Dr. Henry Barnett Chair in Stroke Research.
The announcement was made at the 22nd Annual Robarts Dinner as friends and family of Robarts scientific community celebrated the lifes work of two of the worlds leading researchers and now J. Allyn Taylor International Prize in Medicine recipients Michael E. Greenberg, PhD, and Dr. Roger Nicoll.
Mr. Richard Ivey, who attended the Annual Dinner, and his Late Wife, Beryl Ivey, have always been strong supporters of the work of Robarts scientists. In fact, Mr. Ivey played a key role in the founding of the Institute in 1986 as a financial sponsor, and the couples generosity allowed Robarts to establish the Beryl and Richard Ivey Centre for Cardiovascular Imaging in 2003. Beryls foresight to include this Centre in her will has ensured its continued success.
This Chair honours Dr. Henry Barnett, co-founder and first Scientific Director of the Institute, and his late wife Kay Barnett. Dr. Barnett is a skilled neurologist, whose extraordinary contributions to stroke research have recently earned him the prestigious Karolinska Stroke Award for Excellence in Stroke Research. The Karolinska Institute also awards the Nobel Prize in Medicine each year.
Kay Barnett was a registered nurse and a steadfast supporter of not only Dr. Barnetts work, but that of the countless medical students and researchers she hosted and encouraged throughout her lifetime.
In addition to honouring this dynamic and generous couple, the Chair will attract an outstanding clinician-scientist of international stature to the Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Robarts. It will also boost our distinctive research strengths, while expanding the scope of our national and international influence on the prevention and treatment of stroke.
This Chair will continue the legacy of evidence-based medicine exemplified by Dr. Barnett and will ultimately lead to advances in the prevention and treatment of stroke, while translating that research into clinical application.
Mr. Richard Ivey