The Department of Chemistry and Queen's University remembers those who have come and gone.
Professor Emeritus Walter A. Szarek
The Department of Chemistry at Queen’s University is saddened by the loss of Professor Emeritus Walter A. Szarek on February 6th, 2021, at the age of 82. Dr. Szarek was one of Canada’s leading carbohydrate and medicinal chemists. Despite his fame, Dr. Szarek was a humble, warm, and approachable person. He was also an outstanding colleague, always willing to go the extra mile for his Department, colleagues, and students.
Dr. Szarek received his BSc and MSc degrees from McMaster University (the latter with D.B. MacLean), followed by a PhD from Queen’s University in organic and carbohydrate chemistry, with J.K.N. Jones as his supervisor. Following postdoctoral work at Ohio State University with M.L. Wolfrom, Dr. Szarek began his independent career as an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at Rutgers University. Dr. Szarek returned to the Department of Chemistry at Queen’s University in 1967 and became a Full Professor in 1976. He was appointed Professor Emeritus in 2003 and maintained an active research program until very recently.
Dr. Szarek blazed a path in the fields of carbohydrate and medicinal chemistry. He is the author of over 350 publications and 30 patents, the latter covering drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, malaria, bacterial infection, and pain. His innovations led to successful drugs such as KiactaTM, for treatment of renal amyloidosis; AlzhemedTM for treatment of Alzheimer’s, and the nutraceutical VIVIMIND™, for alleviating memory decline. His research led to the establishment of Neurochem, which was renamed BELLUS Health Inc. in 2008, and Neuroceptor Inc., which merged with Antalium Inc. to become PainCeptor. Among his research awards are the American Chemical Society’s Claude S. Hudson Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry and the Melville L. Wolfrom Award of the Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry of the American Chemical Society.
His contributions had a lasting impact on the Canadian carbohydrate chemistry and chemical biology community. Renowned glycobiologist Prof. Stephen Withers, a Canada Research Chair in Chemical Biology at UBC, says of Dr. Szarek, “Walter Szarek’s quiet and kind approach belied his substantial impact on carbohydrate science. In my early career, on several occasions, when I thought I had a great new idea, I would find that Walter had done that very thing a decade before! He will be missed.”
During his distinguished academic career, Dr. Szarek also served as Director of the Carbohydrate Research Institute at Queen’s (1976 to 1985) and was a member of several scientific advisory and review boards, including PanCeptor Pharma Corporation, Osta Biotechnologies Inc., and the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation.
Dr. Szarek also led a distinguished teaching career at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, counting the eminent chemical biologist B. Mario Pinto (Deputy Vice Chancellor of the Gold Coast Campus, Griffith University, Australia) as his first graduate student. He has won numerous awards for his teaching, a level of excellence that continued to his last years in front of a class, when Walter won the graduating class teaching award two years in a row.
The Walter A. Szarek endowed lectureship series was established in 2018 to celebrate his accomplishments, with the inaugural lecture delivered by Walter’s life-long friend, and Nobel prize winner, Sir Fraser Stoddart.
Walter will be sorely missed.
Professor Emeritus Victor Algirdas Snieckus
It is with a profound sense of sadness and deep regret that the Chemistry Department and Queen’s University in Kingston has lost Dr. Victor Algirdas Snieckus on December 18, 2020. As one of the most internationally respected synthetic organic chemists in the world, Victor most recently held the position of Emeritus Bader Chair of Chemistry at Queen’s University. Victor was born in1937 in Kaunas, Lithuania, and spent his childhood in Germany during World War II before immigrating to Alberta Canada with his parents in 1948. He obtained a B.Sc. in chemistry at the University of Alberta in1959 followed by an M.Sc. from the University of California, Berkeley (1961) and a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon (1965). Following a post-doctoral position at the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa (1965-1966), Victor joined the University of Waterloo as an assistant professor in 1967. rising through the ranks to become Professor of Chemistry (1979-1992) and then the Monsanto/NRC Industrial, Research Chair (1992-1998). In 1998 Victor joined Queens University as the inaugural holder of the prestigious Bader Chair of Chemistry. Victor Snieckus became a house-hold name among chemists world-wide due to his fundamental contributions to organo-lithium chemistry and the DOM (directed ortho-metalation) reactions that he and his group pioneered. Research conducted in his laboratories and his consulting with various pharmaceutical industries led to the commercially important anti-inflammatory drug CelebrexTM and to SilthiofamTM, a unique fungicide for eradication of the TAKE-ALL fungus which is in use worldwide. That work, and other contributions, led to nearly 300 highly cited publications, 58 international and national fellowships and awards, 249 special and plenary lectureships, and 446 invited presentations around the world. Victor’s lasting enthusiasm for discovery and chemistry is best observed in the hundreds of undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral researchers who have been mentored in his labs, many of whom have gone on to significant careers of their own in academia and industry. Victor was predeceased by his wife, Anne Cecilia, and leaves behind daughter Naomi, son Darius, and two grandchildren.
On January 6, 2021, the late Professor Victor Snieckus was celebrated on the CBC Radio show ‘All in a Day’. Professors Cathleen Crudden and Andrew Evans were interviewed by the host Alan Neal on Victor's legacy.
Victor will be missed by family, friends, students and colleagues, but his legacy will live on.
Professor Suning Wang
With great sadness Dr. Suning Wang, 61, passed away on Monday, April 27, 2020 after a long illness. Dr. Suning Wang was a well-known, highly respected, distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry. Beloved wife of Kai Salomaa, dear daughter of Shulan Wu and the late Zhongye Wang, loving sister of Zhugang Wang and Zhude Wang. Suning will be sadly missed and dearly remembered by her extended family, colleagues, numerous students and the international Chemistry community. Dr. Wang was dedicated to her graduate students, she received numerous major awards and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Please view the Queen’s Gazette to read about the exceptional achievements of Dr. Wang.
Professor Natalie Cann
It is with great sadness that Dr. Natalie (nee Goudreau) Cann, 51, passed away on Sunday, December 15th, 2019. Flags will be lowered to half-mast on campus Friday, December 20 for our former faculty member in the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Arts and Science, Dr. Natalie Cann, who served as department head from July 1, 2012 until June 30, 2016. Natalie will be sadly missed by her husband Brian and her two children, Alexander and Jennifer; sisters Carol Lévesque (Léo-James), Joanne Thomas (Allan) and Janet Cormier (Gérard); many nieces and nephews and extended family members. Natalie’s family express their deepest gratitude to all the staff and personnel at Kingston General Hospital as well as other health professionals that cared for Natalie.