Message from Norman Rosenblum, INMD Scientific Director
December 2025

During the past several months, it has been most gratifying to have hosted mid- and end-of-grant meetings for researchers funded through various components of the 100 Years of Insulin initiative. I have viewed my principal function as a Scientific Director is to find ways to unleash the brilliance of our investigator community by identifying areas for investment in research and generating the resources needed to create these investments. While the passage of time will tell the impact of INMD’s major investments in diabetes, nutritional, and metabolic health and capacity development, there are many early signals from these recent meetings that bode well for future impact.

I consider it to have been the opportunity of a lifetime to have worked for CIHR to shape our federal health research landscape and, thereby, contribute to the country to which I owe so much. In this, my last newsletter as INMD Scientific Director, I wish to offer my appreciation to the many colleagues I have met during the last eight years – colleagues in fields of research, clinical medicine and policy totally distinct from my own field of developmental and paediatric nephrology, who I would most probably have never met. Our interactions have greatly broadened my horizons. Thank you for your collaboration and collegiality and for your leadership.

None of what INMD does would be possible without our fantastic Institute Advisory Board (IAB). The IAB members, all scholars in their own respective fields, lift themselves above their field-specific interests and work on the big picture of INMD. Their advice has been pivotal to our work. The work at INMD and, in collaboration with other CIHR Institutes, is dependent on our staff team – our Assistant Director, Project Coordinator and Managers, Knowledge Mobilization Specialist, and Business Officer and Event Planner. Over these eight years, we have worked as a small team with complementary skills and responsibilities driven by a shared vision. I am very appreciative and proud of all that our staff have contributed and accomplished. It is only with a team that one can achieve one’s objectives as a Scientific Director.

When I meet colleagues around the country, they say, “I read the INMD newsletter and look for at least two things - funding opportunities and ‘What’s Norm Reading (WNR)’”. This brings a smile to my face. It is important for me to transmit the idea that as Scientific Director, our focus is on science and its impact, and WNR is a signal that we are doing that.

My career has been all about the interface of science and medicine. I am most grateful for this opportunity to work on the ‘big picture’ of science and health and give it ‘my best shot’. I know you will offer my successor, Dr. Mary Jung, a very warm welcome as she assumes her new role as the next INMD Scientific Director, and I wish her great success. I wish all of you good health, happiness, success and personal fulfilment.

Dr. Norman Rosenblum, MD, FRCPC, FCAHS
Scientific Director
CIHR Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes

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