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Memorial Tribute – Donald Duke Patterson (1927-2016)
It is with great sadness that we announce the untimely passing of Emeritus Professor Donald Patterson at age 89. Donald Patterson was born on October 13, 1927, in Montreal where he excelled at school, first at Selwyn House and then at Westmount High. In 1944, he placed first in the province in the Quebec high school final exams. He went on to study Mathematics and Physics at McGill University (B.Sc. ’48 ; M.Sc.
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Published: 7 Feb 2017
Grad Student Cristina Mottillo receives a national thesis award
Dr. Cristina Mottillo is the recipient of the prestigious 2017 CCUCC Chemistry Doctoral Award from the Canadian Institute of Chemistry (CIC). The Award, sponsored by the Canadian Council of University Chemistry Chairs (CCUCC), recognizes a recent Ph.D. graduate for their outstanding achievement and potential in research. Cristina performed her Ph.D.
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Published: 7 Feb 2017
The Tsantrizos and Berghuis groups unravel important mechanistic insight into metabolic regulation/dysregulation with important implications for the treatment of cancer
Human farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase (hFPPS) plays a key role in the prenylation of small GTPases, such as RAS and RAP 1A, which are intimately involved in oncogenesis. An allosteric pocket of the enzyme has been of particular interest as a therapeutic target, however, its natural biological function has been (until now) unknown.
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Published: 21 Jan 2017
Mittermaier and Moores secure funding for two major instruments via CFI-John R. Evans Leaders Fund
Prof. Tony Mittermaier was awarded a CFI-John R. Evans Leaders Fund to acquire a 800 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) magnet. Most human diseases are caused by malfunctions in the fundamental molecules of life: proteins, DNA, and RNA. Studying the structure and flexibility of the molecules at the atomic level therefore helps us to understand diseases and find cures, much in the same way that the blueprint of an engine can help us to fix it when it is broken.
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Published: 24 Dec 2016
Janine Mauzeroll becomes Technical Editor for Journal of The Electrochemical Society
ECS recently announced the appointment of Janine Mauzeroll to the position of Technical Editor for the Organic & Bioelectrochemistry area for the Journal of The Electrochemical Society (JES). Read more about Dr. Mauzeroll’s research areas and her plans for growing this area of JES.
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Published: 22 Dec 2016
Congratulations: Ashok Kakkar becomes full professor
On December 2016, Prof. Ashok Kakkar was promoted full professor.
Published: 12 Dec 2016
CJ Li is named fellow of the World Academy of Sciences, for the advancement of science in developing countries
Professor Chao-Jun Li, Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) at McGill University has been elected during the Academy’s 27th Annual General Meeting in Kigali Rwanda, as one of the 40 new fellows of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). Established in 1983, the TWAS is an academy of the world's most accomplished scientists and engineers, constituted of 2004 elected Fellows in more than 90 countries. Prof.
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Published: 1 Dec 2016
The Ariya group develops a green method to recycle mercury
McGill University researchers led by Professor Parisa A. Ariya in Montreal-Canada developed an innovative two-step green technique to remove and recycle mercury from spent compact fluorescent lamps, using a near zero-energy system. The new findings by Hu et al. (2016) appear in the journal of ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.
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Published: 29 Nov 2016
Spinoff Anomera winner of the GreenCentre Canada Innovation House Chemistry Countering Climate Change (IHC4) Competition
Anomera can now count itself as an award winning McGill Chemistry spinoff! The company is a recent winner of the GreenCentre Canada Innovation House Chemistry Countering Climate Change (IHC4) Competition. Anomera joins a prestigious history of innovation from the Department.
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Published: 29 Nov 2016
McGill Startup Team Selected as One of the Ten Incredible Semi-finalists for the 2016 Skolar Award
Co-founders of the start-up ACSYNAM, Inc., a spin-off venture from the McGill University Department of Chemistry, have been selected as one of the ten incredible semi-finalists to compete for a €100,000 prize in the 2016 Skolar Award competition. Dr.
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Published: 26 Nov 2016
Money coming to the Auclair Lab from the other end of the world!
Professor Auclair was recently awarded funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia. The two co-applicants involved in this application, Prof. Auclair and Prof. K. J. Saliba from The Australian National University, will share approximately $185,000 per year for 3 years to work on "Understanding and targeting coenzyme A biosynthesis and utilization in Plasmodium falciparum".
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Published: 24 Nov 2016
Palladium(II) Dithiocarbamates - Anticancer Metallodrugs of the Future?
Most chemistry students are well aware of the anticancer properties of cisplatin, cis-Pt(NH3)2Cl2, as a result of the pioneering work of Professor Barnett Rosenberg and his colleagues at the Michigan State University in the late 1960s. Over the years, this simple Pt(II) coordination complex and some structurally closely related ones have become the FDA-approved drugs of choice for cancer treatment, especially ovarian and testicular cancers.
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Published: 23 Nov 2016
2016 McGill Chemistry Outreach Awards
Congratulations to Justin Chang (Auclair group), Pierre-Olivier Ferko (Moores group - Photo), Samantha Gateman (Mauzeroll group), Igor Huskic (Friscic group), Victoria Jackiewicz (Arndsten group) and Siting Ni (Lennox group) for winning the first McGill University Chemistry Outreach Awards.
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Published: 26 Oct 2016
Anna Albertson wins the 2016 Udho Parsini Diwan Award
The Udho Parsini Diwan Award rewards the graduate student in the McGill Chemistry program who has written the best research article published the year before. Here is how Anna Alberston presents her winning article.
Published: 17 Aug 2016
Dr. Manish K. Mishra is a finalist for the 2016 Reaxys PhD Prize
We would like to congratulate Dr. Manish K. Mishra, currently working in the Department of Chemistry as a Postdoctoral Fellow with Prof. Robin Rogers, who has been selected to be among the 45 finalists for the 2016 Reaxys PhD Prize.
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Published: 30 Jun 2016