Dr Margaret E Brosnan 
Professor Emerita
Memorial University of Newfoundland

Margaret Brosnan has an extensive history of service to CNS. For the past five years she has served as a member of CNS’s Ethics Committee. She served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Institute of Nutrition from 1985-91 and on the Board Executive from 1988-91. She was a member of the CFBS (Canadian Federation of Biological Sciences) Science Policy Committee from 1978-91 and a director of CFBS from 1981-85. In both situations she was the nominee of CSNS. She was elected Vice-president (1983-84) and President (1984-85) of CFBS. As President she instituted the CFBS-MRC liaison committee which greatly facilitated communication between the two bodies. From 1979-1987 she served on the editorial board of the Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology while the CJPP was the “house journal” for CSNS. She has served on many grants committees. Most relevant to the CNS are CIHR’s grant’s committee for Metabolism/Nutrition: Member (1982-87); Scientific Officer 1990-91); Chair (1991-1995), Member (2000-2003). This committee eventually became the CIHR committee for Research in Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes. She and her students regularly present at CNS events. She has also organized CNS symposia such as the highly successful symposium “One-carbon metabolism: perspectives from Newfoundland and Ireland”, at the 2014 annual meeting of CNS.

Dr. Brosnan has enjoyed MRC/CIHR funding almost continuously from 1975 to the present. She has also been funded by such organizations as Banting Research Foundation, Medical Research Fund (Oxford), Canadian Diabetes Association, Kidney Foundation of Canada, Janeway Children’s (St. John’s) and the Vitamin Research Fund (St. John’s). Her publication record is very strong, with over 120 peer-reviewed articles. These publications have invariably dealt with nutrition topics, from amino acid metabolism, to creatine synthesis to one-carbon metabolism (particularly relating to folate and vitamin B12). She is an international authority on the involvement of formic acid in one-carbon metabolism in fetal animals.

Dr. Brosnan has many appointments and achievements that attest to her national and international standing within the nutrition community and more widely. She has been appointed Visiting Professor in the Department of Animal Science at Texas A&M University in College Station (2016-2018). She has been Visiting Professor, Dept. of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston (2004-2005). She has also been appointed Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics (Nutrition) at Baylor College of Medicine (2006 to the present). She has been a Visiting Scientist at the Metabolic Research Laboratory, Oxford University (Directo:r Professor Sir Hans Krebs) from 1980-81.  She has received the Distinguished Nutrition Leadership Award (jointly with Dr. J.T. Brosnan) from the Danone Institute of Canada (2013). She has been invited to give symposium lectures at national and international meetings (e.g. Histidine Metabolism and Function, ICAAS meeting, Tokyo, 2019); New insights into formate metabolism and utilization (One-carbon metabolism meeting, Montbrio, Spain, 2019) , FASEB Summer Research Conference: The role of mitochondria and their bacterial forebears in formate metabolism ( Western Shore, Nova Scotia), and many others.