Longtime Professor of Chemistry and Canada Research Chair Tom\u00e1\u0161 Hudlick\u00fd has died at the age of 72.<\/p>\n
Hudlick\u00fd, who joined Brock in 2003, held the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Organic Synthesis and Biocatalysis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe passing of a Brock community member who has had such a distinguished career as a researcher, is tremendously upsetting,\u201d says Lynn Wells, Interim President and Vice-Chancellor. \u201cOur thoughts are with Tom\u00e1\u0161\u2019 loved ones, friends and students right now as they process this difficult news.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ejaz Ahmed, Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Science, said “our community is deeply saddened by this news.”<\/p>\n
\u201cOn behalf of everyone here in Mathematics and Science, I want to send my most heartfelt condolences to Tom\u00e1\u0161\u2019 wife (Dr. Josephine Reed), family, colleagues and students at this difficult time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A \u201cgreen\u201d scientist, Hudlick\u00fd\u2019s work focused on developing more environmentally friendly and sustainable methods of making important medicines.<\/p>\n
He specialized in synthesizing natural compounds used in drugs to fight cancer.<\/p>\n
One particularly noteworthy breakthrough was Hudlick\u00fd\u2019s creation of variations of the synthetic compound pancratistatin (PST), which he patented.\u00a0He had spent more than 25 years researching PST\u2019s chemical structure and constructing molecules that had similar structures and functions.<\/p>\n
In 2017, a team of scientists tested out these variations on 20 different types of cancer cells. The results showed that Hudlick\u00fd\u2019s compound appears to be capable of killing cancer cells while leaving healthy cells intact. The PST substance is found in the spider lily.<\/p>\n
A native of Prague, in the former Czechoslovakia, Hudlick\u00fd immigrated to the U.S. in 1968 and earned his Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Virginia Tech and his PhD from Rice University.<\/p>\n
In 1978, he joined the faculty at the Illinois Institute of Technology before returning to Virginia Tech in 1982. In 1995 he moved to the University of Florida in Gainesville and in 2003 joined the faculty at Brock.<\/p>\n
Throughout his career, Hudlick\u00fd received a number of recognitions for his work, including the Canadian Society for Chemistry\u2019s 2014 R.U. Lemieux Award, which is the highest Canadian award for an organic chemist, and election to the Royal Society of Canada, as well as the Czech Chemical Society\u2019s Hanu\u0161 Memorial Medal.<\/p>\n
Hudlick\u00fd had a musical side to him. He played lead guitar with pH Six, a Brock rock band of science professors and students; he and his students have been jamming on a number of occasions since 2004.<\/p>\n
The Office of the Vice-Provost, Graduate Studies, in collaboration with the graduate program in Chemistry, is working to provide Hudlick\u00fd\u2019s students with appropriate supports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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