Dr. John Dirks is a Senior Fellow of Massey College and Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the University of Toronto. He received his BSc (Med), MD from the University of Manitoba in 1957, a Fellowship in Medicine in 1963 from the Royal College of Physicians and is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Canada (1982). He trained in nephrology research at the NIH in 1963-1965, was an MRC Canada grantee from 1965-1987 for his work in renal pathophysiology and has published 155 peer-reviewed papers. He has held a number of major Professorships at McGill University, UBC, and the University of Toronto, and has held major academic administrative positions as Director of Nephrology at McGill (1965-1976), Head Department of Medicine at UBC (1976-1987), Dean of Medicine University of Toronto (1987-1991) and Dean-Rector of Aga Khan University in Pakistan (1994-1996). He Chaired the International Society of Nephrology Commission for the Global Advancement of Nephrology (COMGAN) from 1994 to 2005. A major educational-clinical outreach program in over 100 countries, ISN COMGAN sponsors 50 - 55 postgraduate programs each year, attended by over 15,000 physicians worldwide. A major mission of ISN to prevent chronic kidney disease has been launched and is now a major educational research endeavour with major regional meetings and linkages to numerous international agencies.

Since 1993 he has been President of the Gairdner Foundation in Toronto, which awards major international prizes in biomedicine. He had previously been on the MAB (1983 - 1993). During the last 15 years the GA have received increasing international recognition. The MAB become a more national and international board. He began annual fundraising and sponsorships in 1997 to support the growing National Program, now nation wide. Special events were the 1999 40th Anniversary and the 2002 Genome Year. He initiated the High School Lectures in 1999.

In 2005 Dr. Dirks was awarded the NFK International Medal by the National Kidney Foundation (USA) and the Roscoe Robinson Award by the International Society of Nephrology for his contribution to nephrology education. He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2006.