2023 Inductee

 

Logan Banadyga grew up in Wadena, Saskatchewan, where he began his scientific career inventing time machines, constructing submersible vehicles for insects, and attempting to calculate the melting point of dirt. Despite the sterling education he received at Wadena Elementary School and Wadena Composite School, Logan was (regrettably) unable to bend the space-time continuum, revolutionize underwater bug travel, or re-write the science on Saskatchewan soil. Nevertheless, thanks to some truly exceptional teachers, Logan completed his education in Wadena with a true sense of wonder for the mysteries of the world and the ways in which science might solve them.

Despite the calling of a career in his family 's retail hardware business, Logan left the nuts and bolts behind when he moved to Edmonton in 2001 to attend the University of Alberta. With a hypochondriac 's eye towards understanding the germs that make us sick, Logan completed a Bachelor of Science (First Class Honours) in Immunology and Infection in 2005, for which he received the Dean 's Silver Medal in Science. Logan remained at the University of Alberta to complete his Ph.D. in Virology in 2011, and then moved to the United States, where he undertook a postdoctoral fellowship with National Institutes of Health. It was in the unique and unlikely setting of small-town Montana where Logan began working with some of the world 's deadliest pathogens, including Ebola virus.

Logan returned to Canada in 2017 to work at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he currently runs his own research group dedicated to studying Ebola virus and its many cousins. Logan is regarded as a national and international expert in these viruses, and his research has not only improved our understanding of these pathogens but also advanced our ability to diagnose, treat, and prevent the diseases they cause. Additionally, Logan serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Manitoba, and he never wastes an opportunity to share his love for viruses.

Logan is the son of Perry and Cindy Banadyga of Strathmore, Alberta. He lives with his husband, Jackson Dooley, in Winnipeg, Manitoba.