Dr Peter Dirks is a Professor of Surgery and Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto, where he holds a Harold Hoffman/Shopper Drug Mart Chair in Pediatric Neurosurgery at the Hospital for Sick Children.

He is currently Chief of Neurosurgery and a Senior Scientist in the Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Program. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Dr Dirks received his MD from Queen’s University (1989) followed by a Ph.D. at the University of Toronto (1997). He completed neurosurgery training at the University of Toronto (1998) and a pediatric neurosurgery fellowship at Necker Enfants Malades in Paris (1998). Dr Dirks joined the neurosurgery staff at SickKids in 1998, developing a clinical focus in surgical neuro-oncology and neurovascular disorders.

In 1999, he established his research laboratory in the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre at SickKids where in 2004 he was the first to prospectively identify cancer stem cells in human brain tumours, contributing to a paradigm shift in understanding solid cancer growth, and putting emphasis on stemness properties both experimentally and conceptually in the study of primary brain tumours.

His research interests continue to lie at the intersection of cancer biology with stem cell and developmental biology, with a focus on uncovering the origins and mechanisms of growth and evolution of glioblastoma and medulloblastoma.

He has published nearly 250 papers with 53,000 citations and an h-index of 90. Over his career he has directly mentored over 23 graduate students and 14 postdoctoral fellows.