Russ Greiner named recipient of the 2024 Brockhouse Canada Prize

The award celebrates multidisciplinary research collaborations and their outstanding significance in the field of natural sciences and engineering

Amii Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair Russ Greiner and University of Alberta (biological sciences) researcher and collaborator David Wishart were awarded the Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). The annual prize recognizes outstanding Canadian research teams from different disciplines who have combined their expertise to produce achievements of exceptional international significance in natural sciences and engineering.

Since 2001, Greiner and Wishart have conducted trailblazing research applying machine learning in metabolomics and cheminformatics such as the Human Metabolome Project (HMP), and the Human Metabolome Database (HMDB). One of their most notable achievements is the development of CFM-ID, a groundbreaking algorithm for predicting spectra and identifying metabolites with unprecedented accuracy. Their tool has significantly enhanced the analysis of complex biological samples and has paved the way for new discoveries in natural product research.

“This collaboration gave us the chance to be among the very first teams to use machine learning to address a wide range of metabolomics tasks: from interpreting Mass Spec and NMR spectra to characterizing these molecules, and in general modelling the chemical reactions and transformations," says Greiner. "We could produce tools that are now widely used for many applications, including ones that help us understand medical conditions. And now that our labs are jointly honoured to receive this amazing award—this is the icing on the cake!”

By combining Greiner’s AI and data modelling expertise with Wishart’s deep knowledge in bioinformatics and metabolomics, their impactful research continues to play a transformative role in shaping the future of personalized medicine and biomarker identification — unlocking powerful new pathways in personalized healthcare, environmental monitoring, and drug development.

Read more about the NSERC prize here.