About
James Orbinski
Senior fellow, Massey College, University of Toronto Munk Centre for International Studies, Canada; past president of the International Council of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders
Canadian physician James Orbinski has worked with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)-the world's largest independent medical humanitarian organization, with more that 400 projects in 80 different countries-since 1990, when he was a founding member of MSF Canada. He has led MSF humanitarian assistance efforts in Somalia, Afghanistan, Rwanda, and Zaire and in 1998 received the Governor General's Meritorious Service Cross for his work as MSF chef de mission to Rwanda during the 1994 civil war. He served as president of the MSF International Council from 1998 through 2000, accepting the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the organization.
A psychology graduate of Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario (1984), Orbinski was awarded his M.D. from McMaster University in 1990. He was a founder of the McMaster University Health Reach Program that investigates and promotes the health of children in war zones and spent his final year of medical school in Rwanda doing pediatric AIDS research. In 1998 he earned an M.A. in international relations from the University of Toronto, where he now is a professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and active in the university's Centre for International Health. As a senior fellow at Massey College and the Munk Centre for International Studies, he writes on humanitarian and other global health issues. He sits on MSF Canada's Board of Directors and continues to work with MSF to ensure that pharmaceutical companies provide drugs to people in developing countries at affordable costs.