Top Researchers
Top Neuroscience Researchers at University of Calgary for 2026
Research in Neuroscience at the University of Calgary has been especially active over the past year, with work spanning stroke, cognitive health, neuroimaging, and psychiatric research. Across a large sample of recent publications, researchers at the institution are connecting basic mechanisms with clinical questions that matter in patient care.
Below, you’ll find a closer look at several investigators whose recent work reflects that range, along with the themes that appear most often across the broader research community.
Featured Researchers
Michael D. Hill
Michael D. Hill’s recent neuroscience work at the University of Calgary centers on epidemiology, pulmonary and respiratory medicine, and rehabilitation, with a strong focus on acute ischemic stroke and long-term stroke risk.
Activity over the last year: 18 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Efficacy and safety of nerinetide in acute ischaemic stroke in patients undergoing endovascular thrombectomy without previous thrombolysis (ESCAPE-NEXT): a multicentre, double-blind, randomised controlled trial (Feb 2025)
- Safety and efficacy of nerinetide in patients with acute ischaemic stroke enrolled in the early window: a post-hoc meta-analysis of individual patient data from three randomised trials (Feb 2025)
- Long-Term Risk of Stroke After Transient Ischemic Attack or Minor Stroke (Mar 2025)
Zahinoor Ismail
Zahinoor Ismail’s recent publications link psychiatry and mental health with cognitive neuroscience and physiology, especially through studies of neuropsychiatric symptoms, mild cognitive impairment, and early neurodegeneration.
Activity over the last year: 15 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- A Cross Sectional and Longitudinal Assessment of Neuropsychiatric Symptoms and Brain Functional Connectivity in Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment, Cerebrovascular Disease and Parkinson Disease (Apr 2025)
- Enhancing Alzheimer Disease Detection Using Neuropsychiatric Symptoms: The Role of Mild Behavioural Impairment in the Revised NIA-AA Research Framework (Aug 2025)
- Mild Behavioral Impairment and Cortical Thinning: Biomarkers of Early Neurodegeneration (Jul 2025)
Eric E. Smith
Eric E. Smith has been working across epidemiology, neurology, and psychiatry and mental health, with recent attention to vascular cognitive impairment and dementia guidelines and diagnostic criteria.
Activity over the last year: 16 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Vascular Contributions to Cognitive Impairment and Dementia in the United States: Prevalence and Incidence: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association (Aug 2025)
- Revised Diagnostic Criteria for Vascular Cognitive Impairment and Dementia—The VasCog-2-WSO Criteria (Sep 2025)
- Canadian Stroke Best Practice Recommendations: Vascular cognitive impairment, 7th edition practice guidelines update, 2024 (Jan 2025)
V. Wee Yong
V. Wee Yong’s recent work spans neurology, pathology and forensic medicine, and developmental neuroscience, with publications on neuroinflammation, hemorrhagic transformation, and recovery after intracerebral hemorrhage.
Activity over the last year: 11 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Neuroinflammation across neurological diseases (Jun 2025)
- Matrix metalloproteinase‑9 in hemorrhagic transformation after acute ischemic stroke (Review) (Jun 2025)
- Therapeutic reduction of neurocan in murine intracerebral hemorrhage lesions promotes oligodendrogenesis and functional recovery (Jan 2025)
Alexander McGirr
Alexander McGirr’s recent neuroscience output connects neurology, pharmacology, and clinical psychology, including clinical trials of intermittent theta burst stimulation and related recovery-focused stroke research.
Activity over the last year: 11 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Intermittent Theta Burst Stimulation With Adjunctive D-Cycloserine for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial (Feb 2025)
- Serum levels of D-cycloserine predict antidepressant effects in pharmacologically enhanced intermittent theta-burst stimulation (Feb 2025)
- Contralesional hippocampal spreading depolarization promotes functional recovery after stroke (Apr 2025)
Aravind Ganesh
Aravind Ganesh’s recent work at the University of Calgary emphasizes epidemiology and rehabilitation, with studies on long-term stroke risk and vascular cognitive impairment practice recommendations.
Activity over the last year: 12 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Long-Term Risk of Stroke After Transient Ischemic Attack or Minor Stroke (Mar 2025)
- Canadian Stroke Best Practice Recommendations: Vascular cognitive impairment, 7th edition practice guidelines update, 2024 (Jan 2025)
- Abstract WP270: Prognostic Factors Associated with Long-Term Risk of Stroke After Transient Ischemic Attack or Minor Stroke: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (Jan 2025)
Nils D. Forkert
Nils D. Forkert’s recent publications combine epidemiology with radiology, nuclear medicine and imaging, including work on disease progression simulation and self-supervised medical image analysis.
Activity over the last year: 8 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Towards realistic simulation of disease progression in the visual cortex with CNNs (Feb 2025)
- Self-supervised identification and elimination of harmful datasets in distributed machine learning for medical image analysis (Feb 2025)
- Altered tryptophan metabolism and gut immune crosstalk in hypertensive middle-aged women (Oct 2025)
Jean Addington
Jean Addington’s recent research draws together psychiatry and mental health with cognitive neuroscience, focusing on psychosis risk, neighborhood social fragmentation, and schizophrenia research harmonization.
Activity over the last year: 12 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Relations of temporoparietal connectivity with neighborhood social fragmentation in youth at clinical high-risk for psychosis (Mar 2025)
- Cognitive assessment in the Accelerating Medicines Partnership® Schizophrenia Program: harmonization priorities and strategies in a diverse international sample (Mar 2025)
- The MR neuroimaging protocol for the Accelerating Medicines Partnership® Schizophrenia Program (Apr 2025)
What University of Calgary's Neuroscience Community Is Working On
The most common subfields point to a community working at the intersection of epidemiology, neurology, psychiatry and mental health, and rehabilitation. That mix suggests a strong emphasis on understanding how brain disorders develop, how they are diagnosed and measured, and how patients recover or adapt over time. Pulmonary and respiratory medicine also appears repeatedly, underscoring the way neurological research at the University of Calgary often connects with broader medical and systemic health questions.- Epidemiology - seen across 4 of the featured researchers
- Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine - seen across 3 of the featured researchers
- Psychiatry and Mental health - seen across 3 of the featured researchers
- Neurology - seen across 3 of the featured researchers
- Rehabilitation - seen across 2 of the featured researchers
From stroke recovery and vascular cognitive impairment to psychosis risk, neuroinflammation, and imaging methods, the University of Calgary’s neuroscience community is pursuing questions that link brain health across specialties. Explore the researchers below to see how these threads come together, and consider using Resub to streamline citation discovery, manuscript formatting, and submission preparation for your own work.
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