Leadership

Evict Radon is a volunteer-led non-profit organization that combines grassroots science engagement and citizen science-based research in a way perhaps never seen before in Canada for preventing cancers. Evict Radon is led by Dr. Aaron Goodarzi of the University of Calgary, who is the federally-appointed Canada Research Chair for Radiation Exposure Disease.

All of our volunteer efforts and funding are designed to encourage as many Canadians to test their home for radon through our National Evict Radon research study. Everything we do strictly adheres to national research ethics standards, as well as best practices for controlled studies that will pass academic peer-review and, ultimately, very close scrutiny from the public and experts. Achieving a radon risk-free future for Canada is very possible and, if successful, prevent literally thousands of new, mostly high lethality lung cancers each year.

Dr. Goodarzi is the Canada Research Chair for Radiation Exposure Disease. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Calgary in 2005 and trained as a post-doctoral scholar at the Genome Damage and Stability Centre at the University of Sussex (UK) until 2010. In 2011, he opened his own laboratory at the University of Calgary’s School of Medicine. In 2015, he was named one of Calgary’s Top 40 Under 40; in 2016, he was made a University of Calgary “Peak Scholar” for innovation in radon gas and lung cancer knowledge engagement; in 2018, he was selected as a TEDx speaker and, in 2019, received one of the School of Medicine’s Education Awards for innovation in graduate training.

Dr. Goodarzi is the Chair of the Board and research lead of Evict Radon, a Canadian non-profit organization whose goal is to solve Canada’s substantial and worsening radon-gas exposure problem through interdisciplinary research for the benefit of all Canadians.

Aaron Goodarzi, PhD

Chair of the Board & Research Lead

Weston is the Director of Communications for Evict Radon. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications Studies from the University of Calgary and a Master of Arts in Professional Communication from Royal Roads University. Weston has a wealth of communications experience in non-profit, health awareness, arts, and telecommunications, with specific expertise in crafting thought-provoking awareness campaigns.

As a master of both traditional and digital media, his goal is to reach as many people as possible, educate them on the harmful effects of radon gas, and encourage them to test their home and join the research study.

“It is an honour to lead this new organization into the future as we tackle Canada’s radon problem,” says Jacques. “With support from the Alberta Real Estate Foundation and Health Canada, we are on the right path towards educating Canadians about the harmful effects of radon gas, putting an end to radon-induced lung cancer.”

Weston Jacques, MAPC

Director of Communications

Dr. Dustin Pearson is one of the senior scientists and in the Goodarzi laboratory and is the research operations manager for the Evict Radon project. His work focuses on the biology of alpha particle exposure, as well as the study of the real-time indoor air dynamics of radon within the residential built environment. Dustin’s work is currently supported by the Canadian Cancer Society. In this project, Dr. Pearson serves as the primary manager for all radon databases, masterminding the security, annotation and analysis of our complex datasets relating to radon exposures, participant demographics, building metrics and more.

Dustin Pearson, PhD

Research Operations Manager