Research Awards
In 2021, Dr. Pollak was elected to be a Member of both the Inaugural AACR Cancer Prevention Working Group Steering Committee and the Cancer Research UK’s Prevention and Population Research Committee (PPRC).
The Cancer Research Society (CRS) confirmed that in review of their archives, the CRS awarded Dr. Shyamala Gopalan, Dr. Norman Kalant, and Dr. Michael Pollak $25,000 in 1986 and $32,250 in 1987 for their research work involving mechanisms of diet restriction-related reduction of carcinogen-induced breast cancer in rats. Dr. Shyamala Gopalan is the U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris' late mother.
Under Dr. Pollak's mentorship since 2017, Dr. Stephanie Wong received the FRQS Chercheurs-Boursiers Cliniciens Junior 1 Award in 2021 for her proposal “Optimizing decision making and prevention strategies in women at high risk for developing breast cancer”.
Under Dr. Pollak's mentorship since 2018, Dr. Sonia del Rincon received the Canadian Cancer Society Emerging Scholar Award in 2021 for her proposal “Examining the MNK1/2-eIF4E axis in cancer associated fibroblasts as a driver of oncogenic progression”.
In 2019, Dr. Pollak was elected to be a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC). He is also Co-Leader of the Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) Canada Metastatic Breast Cancer Dream Team.
In 2013, Dr. Pollak was elected to be a Member of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS).
Dr. Pollak was awarded the 2012 Harold Warwick Award by the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute.
Dr. Pollak was awarded the 2012 Aisenstadt award for academic achievement by the Jewish General Hospital / McGill faculty.
Dr. Pollak was chosen by the Lancet and the European School of Oncology to attend a special meeting of 100 international cancer control experts that was held in Lugano Switzerland in October 2012.
Congratulations to Carolyn Algire, PhD., who was awarded the very prestigious "Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship" for Doctoral studies worth $90,000 from CIHR.
Invited Presentations
Future and past few years:
2024
American Association for Cancer Research AACR Annual Meeting 2024 Major Symposium SY28 “Shared Risk Factors and Mitigation Strategies for Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease, and Metabolic Diseases: What Can We Learn?”: “Addressing shared risk factors for cancer, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disease”, San Diego, CA, USA
Chair and Speaker
2023
American Association for Cancer Research 2023 AACR Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida, USA
VIP status
National Institutes of Health NIH 2-part webinar: Obesity and prostate cancer risk: Gaps in our current understanding, and thoughts on how to close the gaps: “Prostate cancer and host energy balance”
Invited Presenter
2022
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Pathways to Prevention (P2P) workshop: Nutrition as Prevention for Improved Cancer Health Outcome: “Medical Comorbidities; Clinical Trials” | Virtual event due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
Invited Speaker
American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting TM03 - Cancer Prevention Working Group (CPWG) Town Hall Meeting and Networking Reception: “Cancer Prevention and Metabolism”, New Orleans, LA, USA
Invited Speaker
2021
Mildred-Scheel-Nachwuchszentrum (MSNZ) Metabolism-based Cancer Therapy Symposium | Virtual event due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
Invited Speaker
Division of Cancer Prevention of the National Cancer Institute: Immunomodulatory Agents for Cancer Prevention | Virtual event due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
Invited Speaker
Northwestern University Remote Symposium on Cancer and Obesity | Virtual event due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
Invited Speaker
2021 Russell Klein Nutrition Symposium: “Macronutrients and Cancer” | Virtual event due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
Keynote Speaker
2021 AACR Annual Meeting 2021: Advances in Prevention‚ Early Detection‚ and Interception Session entitled, “Radiation-Induced Cancers and Cancer Survivorship”: “Radiation-Induced Cancers – Risks and strategies to minimize” | Virtual event due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
Chair and Organizer
2020
2020 AACR Annual Meeting Program Committee, San Diego, CA, USA, April
Invited Co-Chair
2019
25th AICR Research Conference: Diet, Obesity, Physical Activity and Cancer - Beyond the Blueprint, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, May
Invited Keynote Speaker
AACR Annual Meeting 2019, Atlanta, GA, USA, March
Program Committee Member
2018
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Insulin and Cancer Workshop, Lyon, France, December
Invited Speaker
2018 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research Meet-the-Expert Session: “Obesity and Cancer”, Chicago, IL, USA, April
Invited Speaker
NIH-NCI Special Emphasis Panel Review Committee "NCI Program Project V (P01) Review", Washington, DC, USA, February
Invited to review multimillion dollar program grants
AACR Obesity and Cancer, Austin, Texas, USA, January
Invited Conference Co-chair
2017
2017 Canadian Cancer Research Conference (CCRC), Vancouver, BC, November
Invited Session Chair/Speaker
Prostate Cancer Foundation PCF's 24th Annual Scientific Retreat, Washington, DC, USA, October
Invited Guest
Banbury Center of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Meeting: “Metformin: Translating biology into the clinic”, New York, USA, September
Invited Speaker
European Association for the Study of Diabetes’ (EASD) 53rd Annual Meeting, Lisbon, Portugal, September
Invited Speaker
Cancer Research UK’s Beatson International Conference, Glasgow, Scotland, July
Invited Speaker
European Society of Endocrinology’s (ECE) 19th European Congress of Endocrinology, Lisbon, Portugal, May
Invited Speaker
Fusion Conferences Limited - Cell Death, Cell Stress and Metabolism Conference: From Basic Mechanisms to Novel Treatment Options, Cancun, Mexico, March
Invited Speaker
University of Michigan Forbes-Taubman Symposium on Cancer Research, Michigan, USA, March
Invited Keynote Speaker
2016
Banbury Center of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Meeting: “Making Oxidative Chemotherapy Less Toxic”, New York, USA, September
Invited Speaker
BACR and ECMC Joint Meeting, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom, July
Invited Keynote Speaker “Metformin in cancer prevention”
American Diabetes Association’s 76th Scientific Sessions, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, June
Invited Speaker
Cornell University and the Strang Cancer Prevention Centre, New York City, USA, March
Visiting Professor and Daniel Miller Memorial lecturer
NYU Center for Skeletal & Craniofacial Biology Department of Basic Science & Craniofacial Biology’s Seminar Series, New York, NY, USA, March
Invited Speaker
AACR Cancer Prevention Summit “Shaping the Future of Cancer Prevention: A Roadmap for Integrative Cancer Science and Public Health” at the Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg, VA, USA, February
Invited Speaker
Keystone Meeting “Cancer + Metabolism” in Banff, Alberta, February
Invited Plenary Speaker
2015
World Oncology Forum of European School of Oncology, Milan, Italy, October
Invited participant
2nd ISCaM meeting –Metabolism and Microenvironment in Cancer Plasticity, Venice, Italy, September
Invited Plenary Speaker
FDA Meeting: Presentation regarding new clinical trials of metformin, Washington, DC, June
Invited Speaker
Mayo Clinic Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging, Santa Barbara, California, June
Invited Speaker
American Association for Cancer Research, Philadelphia, April
Invited plenary speaker
Boehringer Ingleheim, Vienna, Austria, March
Invited Speaker
Keystone symposium on “Cancer Metabolism”, Vancouver, British Columbia, January
Plenary Speaker
2014
International Symposium on “Advances in treatment of digestive cancers”, Barcelona, Spain, December
Invited Speaker
University of Leuven, Belgium, November
Visiting Professor and Invited Speaker
American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Working group on obesity and cancer, Washington, DC, November
Invited delegate
Vermont Regional Cancer Centre, Burlington, November
Visiting Professor and Invited speaker
Webinar lecture on Energy Balance and cancer for NCI (USA) funded Transdisciplinary Research on Energetics and Cancer (TREC) program, November
Invited Speaker
“Growth Hormone and Cancer” Symposium, Manchester UK, November
Invited Speaker
Annual meeting of Society of Medical Oncology of Mexico, Ixatapa, October
Keynote Speaker
“20th Annual Prostate Cancer Foundation Scientific Retreat”, Carlsbad, California, October
Invited Delegate
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, October
Visiting Professor and Invited Speaker
“13th Annual AACR Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research”, New Orleans, September
Invited Speaker
“Cancer Energetics” Symposium, University of Nice, France, September
Invited Speaker (delegated to post-doc)
Endocrine Society Annual Meeting, Chicago, June
Invited Speaker
Metabolism Diet and Disease 2014: Cancer and Metabolism, Washington, DC, May
Organizer and Invited Speaker
Charles University, Prague and Czech Diabetes Society, Luhačovice, Czech Republic, April
Visiting Professor and Invited Speaker
Cambridge Health Tech Institute, Boston, April
Invited Speaker
Nobel Forum, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, March
Invited Keynote Speaker
Gilead Pharma, San Francisco, February
Invited speaker
Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute, Toronto, January
Invited participant, Cancer Prevention workshop
AACR prostate cancer symposium, San Diego, January
Invited Speaker
Other important meetings
On March 13, 2014, more than 300 members of the McGill community attended Bravo, the University’s annual celebration of award-winning research and scholarship from the previous calendar year. Guests included prizewinners and their families, colleagues, staff, and senior administrators. This year, Bravo introduced a new format that emphasized dialogue and showcasing the award-winning research – with excellent results! See this photo of Dr. Pollak with Suzanne Fortier, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University.
Dr. Pollak organized and lectured at the 2013 Banbury Center Meeting on Biguanides and Neoplasia at the Cold Spring Harbor in New York, which was held in October 2013.
Dr. Pollak was among the 100 world experts invited to attend the October 26-October 27, 2012 “think tank” on global cancer control held in Lugano, Switzerland, in order to prepare a consensus statement for World Cancer Day on February 4, 2013. For further information, please visit the World Oncology Forum.
Dr. Pollak together with Dr. Craig Thompson, President of the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City hosted an international small group meeting on metabolism and cancer that was arranged by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory during October 30 to November 2, 2011.