Karen Davis, PhD, FCAHS, FRSC

Karen Davis Ph.D., FCAHS, FRSC is the Canada Research Chair in Acute and Chronic Pain Research. She is a Senior Scientist and Division Head at the Krembil Brain Institute of the University Health Network and a Professor in the Department of Surgery and Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto. Dr. Davis obtained her PhD in Physiology at the University of Toronto and did a post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Davis has pioneered electrophysiological and brain imaging approaches to investigate mechanisms underlying pain, delineate brain plasticity associated with chronic pain, individual factors and sex differences that contribute to pain sensitivity and chronic pain treatment outcomes. Her concept of a “dynamic pain connectome” is being used to understand mechanisms of pain and analgesia and identify neuromarkers to develop personalized approaches to pain management. She has over 225 publications, 34,000 + citations, and her H-index=98. Dr. Davis is also active in neuroethics and EDI (equity, diversity, and inclusion) initiatives, co-edited the book Pain Neuroethics and Bioethics, and co-published international guideline recommendations for the inclusion and study of sex and gender in research (Nature Neuroscience 2025). She is currently the Editor-in-Chief of PAIN, the flagship journal of the IASP.