Olga Kovalchuk
University of Lethbridge, Canada
Dr. Kovalchuk received her B. Med. (Honors, 1992) and M.D. (Stomatology, 1994) degrees at the Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University in Ukraine. In 1994 she began a career at the Medical University and the Chernobyl Research Centre studying consequences of the Chernobyl accident, and in 1998 received a PhD (Medical Genetics).
Dr. Kovalchuk conducted extensive postdoctoral training at the Friedrich Miescher Institute and in Novartis/Syngenta (Switzerland).
Currently Dr. Olga Kovalchuk is a Professor at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta. In 2008-2018 she held the Canadian Institutes for Health Research – Institute of Gender and Health (CIHR-IGH) Chairs in Gender and Health, and in Gender, Work and Health. In 2007-2022 she held the Board of Governors’ Research Chair in Epigenetics of Health and Disease.
Dr. Kovalchuk was a recipient of the Speaker Research Medal, Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Award, and the YWCA Women of Distinction Award, Community Leader Category. Twice she was named one of Canada’s Top 25 Women of Influence.
Dr. Kovalchuk is an expert in epigenetics and epigenomics of health and disease, environmental epigenomics, and radiation biology and oncology. She is studying mechanisms of disease, epigenetics, novel precision medicine approaches and novel medical cannabis and cannabinoid-based disease therapies.
Dr. Kovalchuk published 189 research manuscripts and numerous abstracts and book chapters. She is a co-editor of three books, a co-author of a textbook “Epigenetics of Health and Disease”, and a co-inventor on numerous patent applications.
