Queen's Remembers Dr. Victor Snieckus
It is with a profound sense of sadness and deep regret that the Chemistry Department and Queen’s University in Kingston inform you of the passing of 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. Victor will be missed by family, friends, students and colleagues, but his legacy will live on.
Morgan Lehtinen was accepted into the 2021 cohort of Next Canada's Next36 program. This highly prestigious program chooses the 36 most promising and high impact entrepreneurial minds across Canada drawing from an applicant pool of 1000+ students and recent graduates from all disciplines of study. The goal of the program is to build a more ambitious and competitive Canada, providing each of the 36 participants with training, mentorship, and access to resources/funding from Canada's top entrepreneurial leaders and investment sources.
Queen's Chemistry is proud to announce that Dr. Graeme Howe is one of 5 young Ontario investigators to win the John C. Polanyi Prize! These prestigious prizes are awarded in honour of Ontario’s Nobel Prize winner John C. Polanyi, to recognize outstanding researchers in the early stages of their careers; to read more about the prize, please visit the 
Congratulations to Heather Drouillard for receiving a 2020 Special Recognition Staff award. This award recognizes staff members who consistently provide outstanding contributions during their workday, directly or indirectly, to the learning and working environment at Queen's University at a level significantly beyond what is usually expected (e.g. improving the workplace efficiency, quality of work life, customer service, problem-solving, etc.). 
Jevon Marsh, MSc student in the Petitjean Group, has earned a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to pursue a PhD at the University of Oxford. The scholarship was featured in the 
The Department of Chemistry wishes to congratulate its spring and fall graduates for 2020! This is a tremendous achievement and we celebrate your continued success. The undergraduate class photo is available for download 
Dr. Oleschuk and group has been featured on the cover for the Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry for their Article: “Detection of Opioids on Mail/Packages using Open Port Interface Mass Spectrometry (OPI-MS)”. Article contributors: Haidy Metwally, Prashant Agrawal, Rachael Smith, Chang Liu, Yves LeBlanc, Thomas R. Covey and Richard Oleschuk. The work stems from a collaboration and NSERC strategic project grant with SCIEX, a Canadian mass spectrometry equipment manufacturer and was published on November 4, 2020 on the Journals website.
A new book, CO2-Switchable Materials, written by Philip Jessop and Michael Cunningham, has now been published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Queen’s Chemistry is proud to announce that Prof. Cathleen Crudden has been elected to the Royal Society of Canada (RSC)! Only Canada’s top scientists achieve such recognition. The RSC states Prof. Crudden has made “lasting contributions to organic chemistry and materials science. She has employed the principles of organometallic chemistry to develop catalytic transformations of importance to pharmaceutical research and to develop novel techniques for the formation of organic monolayers on metal surfaces. The latter work has resulted in the most robust organic monolayers to date, high stability nanoparticles and novel metal nanoclusters.” Details on the RSC class of 2020 can be found here: