Lowy has lectured and published widely. His most recent publications examine ethical issues that face modern physicians and health science researchers. Lowy was a member of the Board of Directors of the Montreal Board of Trade and of Centraide (Montreal); Vice-President of the Conference of Rectors and Principals of Quebec; and a former board member of the National Ballet of Canada. Lowy has been a trustee at Ontario's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, the Mount Sinai, St. Michael's, and Toronto Hospitals, and the Ontario Cancer Institute. He chaired an Ontario Government inquiry into the pharmaceutical industry (1988–1990) and held numerous professional editorial posts, including Editor of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.
In 2000 he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada. He has received honorary degrees from the University of Toronto (1998), McGill University (2001), and Concordia University (2008). Lowy is married to Mary Kay Lowy (Dr. M.K. O'Neil). He has four children, David, Eric, Adam, and Sarah, and nine grandchildren.[3]
He served as Interim Executive Director of the Sauve Scholars Foundation (2007–2008) and was elected to the Board of Directors of the Sauvé_Foundation in May 2008. He is Senior Advisor to the President of the Trudeau Foundation.
On January 21, 2011 he returned to the position of President of Concordia University on an interim basis, following the controversial departure of Judith Woodsworth.[4]