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Gary Slater: CSSN Speaker

Gary Slater

Ottawa

Position: Professor | Professeur

Organization: University of Ottawa

After completing his PhD at the Université de Sherbrooke, Gary Slater worked at the Xerox Research Centre of Canada in Mississauga (1984-1990) before joining the Department of Physics of the University of Ottawa. From 1997 to 2018, he was twice Vice-Dean, then Dean, then Associate Vice-President. A Fellow of both the American Physical Society and the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), he was Secretary of the RSC Academy of Science 2016-2020. He is currently the Secretary of the RSC. He has been Researcher-in-Residence in the office of Canada’s Chief Scientific Advisor since December 2020. Professor Slater is known internationally for his numerous contributions to our understanding of the methods used to separate and analyze DNA molecules, and for proposing (and patenting) novel ideas for the development of novel methodologies. He has served on several boards of directors and written several hundred science columns for French-language newspapers.

Areas of Expertise:

+ Polymer Science
+ Analytical Chemistry
+ Public policies on science and on post-secondary education

Language(s):

+ English
+ French

My Work

What I do:

I use physics tools to model biomolecular systems such as DNA, proteins, diagnostic systems, drug delivery systems. I also work on science policies with various organizations and government departments.

Ask me about:

Modelling systems of interest at the interface between biophysics, chemistry and the biomedical sciences. Popular science. University education. Graduate education. Public policy and science. Disinformation. UFOs, junk science and pseudo-science.

Why me:

I connect physics, chemistry, the biomedical sciences, and modelling. But I also work beyond the lab, e.g. in public policy.

Fun facts:

Despite my name, I’m a francophone! Je peux donner des présentations dans les deux langues officielles du pays.

About Me

Sector: Academia (Post Secondary)

English proficiency: Read, Write, Speak

French proficiency: Read, Write, Speak

Title: Dr.

Pronouns: He/Him/His

Gender: Male

Demographic: Adopted child. Unknown genetics.

Awards: The Royal Society of Canada, Researcher of the Year Award, University of Ottawa

Recent Publications

Title Year
Imperfect single-file diffusion of polymer chains: A phase diagram2025
Field-driven polyelectrolyte–polymer collisions in nanochannels2024
Estimating the asymptotic characteristic time scales for diffusion-controlled drug release systems using partially sampled data2023
Ratcheting Charged Polymers through Symmetric Nanopores Using Pulsed Fields: Designing a Low Pass Filter for Concentrating Polyelectrolytes2023
Methods for separation of polymeric compounds2023
Measurement of proton-carbon forward scattering in a proof-of-principle test of the EMPHATIC spectrometer2022
Diffusivity interfaces in lattice Monte Carlo simulations: Modeling inhomogeneous delivery and release systems2022
A Lattice Kinetic Monte Carlo method to study drug release from swelling porous delivery systems2022
An empirical method to characterize displacement distribution functions for anomalous and transient diffusion2022
Capture and translocation of a rod-like molecule by a nanopore: orientation, charge distribution and hydrodynamics2022
An Empirical Method to Characterize Displacement Distribution Functions for Anomalous and Transient Diffusion2022
A Kinetic Lattice Monte Carlo Method to Study Drug Release from Swelling Porous Delivery Systems2022
Capture of semi-flexible polyelectrolytes by a Nanopore: A Lattice Boltzmann Simulation Study2021
How to use fitting functions to estimate the diffusion coefficient of molecules in diffusion-controlled drug release systems2021
A Kinetic Monte Carlo algorithm for swelling drug delivery systems2021
Using fitting functions to estimate the diffusion coefficient of drug molecules in diffusion-controlled release systems2020
Capture and Translocation of a Rod-like dsDNA by a Nanopore:~A Lattice Boltzmann Simulation Study2020
Voltage-driven translocation: Defining a capture radius2019
Electrophoretic ratcheting of spherical particles in well/channel microfluidic devices: Making particles move against the net field2019
Diffusion in an array of immobile anisotropic obstacles: The influence of local orientation, bottlenecks, and free volume in absence of dead-ends2019
Diffusion-controlled drug delivery: Dealing with the Stochastic Dilemma in Lattice Monte Carlo (LMC) simulations2019
Voltage-Driven Translocation through a Nanopore: How can we define a/the Capture Radius?2019
Capture and translocation of a stiff oligomer by a nanopore2019
Reducing the variance in the translocation times by prestretching the polymer2018
Thermal stiffening of hydrophobic association hydrogels2018