Dr. Julio Montaner is the Executive Director and Physician-in-Chief, BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS; Head, HIV/AIDS Program, St. Paul’s Hospital, Providence Health Care; UBC and St. Paul's Foundation Chair in AIDS Research and UBC-Killam Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia. In 2014, Dr. Montaner was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition of his contributions to the establishment of a global standard of care in the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS.
- Julio S. G. Montaner, OC, OBC, MD, DSc (Hon), FRCPC, FCCP, FACP, FRSC Killam Professor of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia;
- UBC and St. Paul’s Foundation Chair in AIDS Research;
- Executive Director and Physician-in-Chief, BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Providence Health Care;
- Head, HIV/AIDS Program, St. Paul’s Hospital, Providence Health Care;
- Past-President, International AIDS Society (2008-2010);
- UNAIDS Special Advisor on HIV Therapeutics (2014-2017)
Dr. Julio Montaner is originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is a graduate of the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires (1973) and received his Medical Degree with Honors from the University of Buenos Aires (1979). In 1981, Dr. Montaner joined the University of British Columbia (UBC) at St. Paul’s Hospital (SPH) where he completed his training in Internal Medicine and Respiratory Medicine. While in training, he led several clinical studies that demonstrated the role of adjunctive corticosteroids in Pneumocystis-related respiratory failure in the setting of AIDS. In 1988, he became the Director of the AIDS Research Program and the Immunodeficiency Clinic at SPH/UBC.
In the mid 90’s, as the PI of the INCAS Trial, he played a key role in establishing the efficacy of NNRTI based highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), which emerged as the new global Standard of Care at the 1996 Vancouver International AIDS Conference, of which he was a co-organizer. He then focused his attention to HAART access to hard to reach populations, including injection drug users, and the treatment of multiple drug resistant HIV infection with great success. Since the late 90’s he also pioneered the concept of Treatment as Prevention® (TasP®). He was the first to advocate for the expansion of HAART coverage to curb the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, in terms of decreasing progression to AIDS and death, as well as decreasing HIV transmission. Largely through his efforts, TasP® has now been implemented with great success in BC, and progressively embraced by UNAIDS, China, PEPfAR, the US Government, and France, among others. In 2013 TasP® was fully incorporated in the WHO Consolidated ARV Guidelines.
Dr. Montaner has authored over 850 scientific publications on HIV/AIDS. in November 2009, he was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada - The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences (RSC). Founded in 1882, the RSC, consisting of distinguished Canadian scholars, artists and scientists, is Canada’s senior and most prestigious scholarly organization. In 2010, he received the Prix Galien Award, the Order of BC as well as the Albert Einstein World of Science Award. In 2012, he was the recipient of the Grand Decoration of Honour for Services to Austria, the Hope is a Vaccine Award from the Global Alliance to Immunize against AIDS, and The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for contributions to the field of HIV/AIDS. In 2013, he received the award “Senador Domingo Faustino Sarmiento” from the Argentina Senate of the Nation presented to him by the Honorable Amado Boudou, Vice President of Argentina, and the Honorable Maria Laura Leguizamon, Senator of Buenos Aires. From May 2014 to 2017, he held the position of Global Advisor on HIV Therapeutics to the Executive Director of the United Nations AIDS Programme. In 2015, he received the David Barry DART Achievement Award that is given in recognition of invaluable contributions to the field of HIV drug discovery and he is a Canadian Medical Hall of Fame Laureate and Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2016, he was recognized with the Profile Award-Argentinian Intelligence, Science and Technology category and one of the 10 most influential Hispanic Canadians by the Canadian Hispanic Business Alliance. He is the recipient of the Killam Prize in Health Sciences by the Canada Council for the Arts, one of five scholars awarded the prize which honours Canadian researchers and scientists whose lifetime of work has impacted Canadians and citizens around the world, and the CIHR Gold Leaf Prize for Impact on behalf of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS for the organization’s 25 years of providing care and treatment for those living with HIV, education health professions, and promoting evidence-based policy to protect people from the virus. In 2019, he received the Senate 150th Anniversary Medal for his exemplary leadership and lifelong contributions to improving the health and lives of British Columbians.
In September 2020, Dr. Montaner was included, along with Drs. James Till and Ernest McCulloch, Dr. Bruce Chown, Dr. M. Vera Peters and Dr. Balfour Mount, in Canada Post’s “Medical Groundbreakers” five-stamp set to honour the life-saving contributions of some of Canada’s most respected health care researchers.
