2024 Contribution to Science Award Recipient
Dr. Michael Kerr
BSc '85, Honours Applied Chemistry
Michael was born in Metz, France in 1961 to Canadian parents working at the RCAF base there. In 1963, he returned to begin Canadian life in Niagara Falls, Ontario before eventually moving to what would be the family homestead on 125 acres of woodland outside of North Bay, Ontario. He attended the University of Waterloo, graduating in 1985 with his BSc (Hons), performing his undergraduate research under the supervision of Professor Victor Snieckus. After a summer with Professor Derrick Clive (NSERC USRA), he proceeded to graduate school at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, studying under Professor Marcus Tius. After completing at total synthesis of morphine and obtaining his PhD in 1991, he took up a post-doctoral position under Professor K.C. Nicolaou where he worked toward the total synthesis of dynemicn A as well as developing pro-drugs of Taxol. In 1993, he took up a position at Acadia University as an Assistant Professor. Working entirely with undergraduates, he built a strong research program gaining tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 1998. In 1999, he moved to the University of Western Ontario (now Western University) to take up a position as Assistant Professor and gained tenure (for a second time!) in 2000. He was promoted to Full Professor in 2005.
Michael has received several awards including a Premiers Research Excellence Award (2000), a Faculty Scholar Award (2008), and the Alfred Bader award from the Canadian Society for Chemistry in 2015. He has continuously held an NSERC Discovery Grant since 1994. He has held research funding from Merck Frosst, Boehringer Ingelheim, Glaxo Smith Kline, MedMira Laboratories, and Sepracor Canada.
Michael has 100 publications relating to his research activities as well as ~100 invited lectures, both national and international. Very early in his independent career, and in the confines of a primarily undergraduate milieu, he focussed on the development of new synthetic methods at ultra-high pressures as well as novel lanthanide catalysis. Upon moving to Western, he expanded his research program to include the development of cycloaddition reactions of donor-acceptor cyclopropanes. More significantly perhaps, he branched out with an aggressive program in the area of natural products total synthesis, completing more than 30 targeted molecules.
Michael has served as Secretary for the International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry as well as a Section Chair for the NSERC Discovery Grants Program in Chemistry. He currently is on the editorial advisory board for Organic Chemistry Frontiers.