Ian Bowmer

Professor of Medicine B.Sc., M.D., C.M. McGill, FRCPC.

Professor Emeritus Infectious diseases


Dr. M. Ian Bowmer has been a faculty member at Memorial for about 30 years, serving as Assistant Dean for Postgraduate Medical Education from 1985-88, Chair of the Discipline of Medicine from 1988-95 and Dean of Medicine from 1996-2003.
Dr. Bowmer is a graduate of McGill University (B.Sc. 1965; MD 1969), and completed residencies in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the Royal Victoria Hospital and McGill University . He worked from 1973 to 1975 at McGill's Department of Microbiology and Immunology as a Medical Research Council Fellow and joined Memorial in 1975.
Dr. Bowmer's research expertise is concentrated in the area of AIDS and HIV disease. In 1993-94 he was chair of College of Family Physicians of Canada's National Working Group for Comprehensive Care for Persons with HIV. He also chaired the college's National Working Group on HIV Therapies for Infants, Youth and Children. He is co-editor of the college's publication A Comprehensive Guide for the Care of Persons with HIV Disease, Adult and Pediatric Module.
Dr. Bowmer's professional activities also include serving as chair of the Board of Community Health – St. John's Region. Nationally, he has been president of the Medical Council of Canada and was a member of the council and chair of the accreditation committee of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
Dr. Bowmer has received a number prominent awards for his work in medical education. In 2003 he was elected and inducted to the Royal College of Physicians of London ; although he is not a member of the college, he was proposed for election because of his contribution to medicine and medical education. In the fall of 2003 the Medical Council of Canada awarded him the Dr. Louis Levasseur Award for outstanding contributions towards the vision and mission of the MCC. In 2004 he received the Canadian Professors of Medicine Christie Award, awarded to a former chair of medicine who has made an outstanding contribution to academic medicine in Canada
Most recently he was appointed to the new federal Health Council. There are 25 councilors on the new Health Council and an independent chair; Dr. Bowmer is one of 13 non government organization representatives and one of three physicians on the council.