At this time next year, the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto will be celebrating its 100th anniversary with a symposium and a party. Everyone is invited!Our department was the first biochemistry department in Canada and one of the first in the world [Biochemistry at the University of Toronto - A Short History]. Readers are invited to submit examples of older biochemistry departments if you can find them
The first chair of the department, Archibald Byron Macallum, was appointed in 1907 for the 1907-08 academic year. We've decided to celebrate at the end of the 2007-2008 academic year.
Former students, staff, faculty, post-docs and anyone else who has ever been associated with the department will meet here for several days in May 2008. We expect to play host to guests from every biochemistry department in Canada and from many other places throughout the rest of the world.
Congratulations to U of T for a century of Biochemistry!
ReplyDeleteUm... getting off-topic, a commenter going by the name "John Pieret" used you as an example of someone who could apparently seriously damage a scientist's career by throwing around accusations of being the same as an Intelligent Design Creationist, presumably on websites such as this blog.
If this is true, could you please go over to Panda's Thumb (where all of the evolutionary biogists hang out) and say some nice things about me? I'll be sure to mention you when I win the Nobel prize as a result. And if it's not too much trouble, could you go to my PhD advisor's blog and say some good things about my work habits? Thanks!
Yes, congratulations!
ReplyDeleteI must admit that I am sporting a long nose now, because I was certain that my own alma mater Uppsala University would have a comparatively old history of a biochemistry department. AFAIK Sweden has been proficient early on in biology and chemistry, not least in Uppsala, and Uppsala biochemistry industry is fairly large.
But it turns out that the huge inertia of history and bureaucracy spoiled that. Natural sciences was still housed under philosophy until a reorganization in the middle of the last century. Drat! :-)
[That may explain why my optional molecular biology course was done at the newer BioMedical Center. I remember one strong incentive for the course was courting the girls over there...]