Faculty Spotlight: Adam Komorowski

Dr. Adam Komorowski is a medical microbiologist joining the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine as a part-time Assistant Professor with a cross-appointment to the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine. Adam completed his medical training in Ireland and is a recent graduate of the medical microbiology residency program at McMaster.

Adam has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers, including guidelines co-authored with the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. He was the inaugural recipient of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada’s national Fiona Smaill Award, named after PMM Professor Emerita Dr. Smaill. Current research interests include clinical trials of vaccines and cardiac surgery antimicrobial prophylaxis, diagnostic test meta-analysis techniques, and diagnostic test utilization. He is completing a master’s degree focused on whole genome sequencing in the Department of Health Research Methodology through a Ministry of Health-funded Clinician-Investigator Program fellowship under the supervision of Drs. Dominik Mertz and Marek Smieja. He was recently named a 2024-2025 editorial fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, and is completing a two-year research fellowship in non-pharmacologic pandemic interventions at Kellogg College, University of Oxford.

Q. What is your specialty and why did you choose it?

A. “I am a medical microbiologist, which is a specialty concerned with the laboratory diagnosis of infection, with complementary roles in treatment and prevention. I was drawn to the field because it has a significant impact on individual patients and healthcare systems, and allows me to wear multiple “hats” at the same time: those of a diagnostician, bedside clinician, researcher, and epidemiologist. Microbiology diagnostics are in the midst of explosive technological growth and rapid change, which helps make the field so captivating.”

Q. What advice would you provide to someone interested in your field?

A. “Medical microbiology is such a varied discipline, so one can easily make a career out of either having one niche interest or disparate and broad ones. Find something that keeps you curious and motivated and the path – even if difficult – will work itself out.”