History

The Department now

Presently the Department counts 32 Professors and Research Professors, 4 Clinical Biochemistry Professors, 4 Adjunct Professors, 40 accredited Professors and Research Professors, more than 350 undergraduate students, more than 200 graduate students and 41 postdoctoral fellows. In addition, 40 employees work in the Department to support teaching and research activities.

In addition to its specialized programs in biochemistry, biochemistry and molecular medicine and bioinformatics, the Department offers service courses of theoretical and practical instruction for the programs of medicine, dentistry, optometry, biological sciences and biomedical sciences.

Under the responsibility of Dr. Daniel Chevrier the teaching laboratory receives more than 700 students per year for more than 900 hours of course work. The laboratory courses are offered to students of biochemistry, biochemistry and molecular medicine, bioinformatics, medicine, biological sciences and biomedical sciences.

1964-2005 : Creation and advancement of the Department

The Department of Biochemistry was created following the initiative of Walter Verly who was Chair as of 1964. Administratively, the new Department belongs to the Faculty of Medicine. The undergraduate program in biochemistry is administered by the Faculty of Science, which becomes the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 1969, and its operation is managed by the Department of Biochemistry.

Under the leadership of Walter Verly the upswing of the Department in three areas is considerable, the teaching of biochemistry, the training of biochemistry professionals and the advancement of knowledge in the context of its research programs.

During the Chairmanship of Kenneth Savard the Department initiates the hiring of research professors with external salary support. Since then, all newly recruited Assistant Professors have salary support from external funding sources.

Since April 1983 and under the administration of Réjean Daigneault there is considerable development of the Department. The number of registered students increases (e.g. number of graduates with a B.Sc. increases from 23 to 66) and there is a strong increase of research funds held by the professors (from 0.8 to 2.4 million $).

During the mandate of Philippe Crine (1989-1997) the growth of the Department continues. The B.Sc. program in biochemistry is completely revised and its content brought up to date. New axes of research such as structural biology are developed and the amount of external research funds doubles despite the fact that the economic climate is less favorable for research funding.

Between 1997 and 2005 the Department was chaired by Michel Bouvier who has continued to pursue the expansion of research space as well as the diversification of research topics. Research space increased by 1300 m², which enabled seven new groups to join the Department and bioinformatics was developed as strategic research theme. The development of this axis of research was accompanied by the creation of undergraduate and graduate programs in bioinformatics in collaboration with the Department of Informatics (DIRO). The expansion of the Department continued also outside of the main campus with three research groups in Université de Montréal-affiliated research centres.

1935-1964 : A domain of studies covered by three faculties

Until 1964 the Biochemistry teaching and research activities at the Université de Montréal were associated with three faculties, Pharmacy, Medicine and Sciences.

Since 1935-1936, the Faculty of Pharmacy taught biochemistry in the context of Chemistry programs.

At the Faculty of Medicine, Biochemistry is called Physiological Chemistry until 1951 and is mostly associates with Dr. Georges Baril. In 1951 and 1952 he assumed the functions of Chair of the Departments of Chemistry (Faculty of Science) and Biochemistry (Faculty of Medicine).

From 1954 to 1964, Dr Arthur Gagnon administered the Department.

Following the suggestion of Dr. Édouard Pagé, the Faculty of Science creates a Biochemistry option in the Biology program in 1955; there were two students in the first promotion in 1958-59.

Chronology of Department Chairs since 1964