Marcello Tonelli

Dr. Tonelli is a nephrologist, professor and clinician-scientist at the University of Calgary. Dr. Tonelli’s research focuses on improving the care of people with chronic kidney disease, hearing loss or other noncommunicable diseases. Dr. Tonelli is chair emeritus of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, a past President of the Canadian Society of Nephrology. He is a past member of the Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and the past chair of the CIHR’s Standing Committee on Ethics. He established and is the inaugural Director of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for the Prevention and Control of Chronic Kidney Disease. Dr. Tonelli received the 2013 United States National Kidney Foundation Medal for Distinguished Service and the Kidney Foundation of Canada’s 2013 Medal for Research Excellence for changing nephrology practice in Canada and beyond. He received a Killam Professorship in 2023 and the King Charles III Coronation Medal in 2025. Dr. Tonelli was elected as a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2012, as a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2014, and as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2023. He has been named a “Highly Cited” researcher each year since 2015 by Thomson-Reuters Web of Science, corresponding to a rank in the top 0.1% by citations of all researchers worldwide. Dr. Tonelli is President of the International Society of Nephrology (2023-2025). The Society builds capacity worldwide for the care of people with or at risk for kidney disease, especially in low- and middle-income countries.