Peter Liu, MD was named the ​2024 HFSA Pioneer Award winner.

Peter Liu is the Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Research at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, and also Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa and University of Toronto. He was the former Scientific Director of the Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (the federal agency funding heath research in Canada).   

Professor Liu’s research focuses on the pathophysiology and clinical outcomes of heart failure from bench to bedside, and system biology approaches to understanding heart diseases. His team also helps to unravel the role of inflammation in heart disease, including the recent COVID-19 and vaccine induced myocarditis.  Insights from the above led to the new efforts in research on the link between the brain and heart in chronic cardiovascular diseases. 

He has published over 450 peer-reviewed articles in high impact journals, and received numerous awards in recognition of his research and scientific accomplishments. The latter includes the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, Extramural Distinguished Achievement Award of the American College of Cardiology and Order of Ontario, amongst others.  

Professor Liu was most recently the Scientific Program Co-Chair of the Heart Failure Society of America, and previously for International Society of Heart Research and Human Proteomic Organization (HUPO). He is also the lead principal investigator of several research networks including Canadian Biomarker Translation Network (funded by Genome Canada), Brain-Heart Impact Network (Heart & Stroke Foundation/Brain Canada), COVID & Vaccine Induced Myocarditis Network (funded by CIHR and Public Health Agency of Canada), and most recently a Brain-Heart Interactome Special Centre of Research Excellence based at uOttawa with partners of McGill and University of Toronto ($109M by federal ministries of health and innovation).