The Chappel Memorial Lecture Series
The prestigious Chappel Memorial Lecture series invites internationally renowned scientists from human and veterinary medicine and the biomedical sciences to present their work to the University of Guelph community.
About the Chappel Memorial Lecture Series
The Chappel Memorial Lecture Series was established in 1987 through an endowment from Ontario Veterinary College graduate Dr. Clifford Chappel and his wife in memory of his father Herbert James Chappel. Held annually since 1988, the Chappel Memorial Lecture Series has hosted numerous internationally known scientists who have inspired University of Guelph graduate students, faculty, and staff to achieve the highest possible goals in basic or applied research and to motivate undergraduate students to consider alternate career paths and become leaders in their profession.
About Dr. Clifford Chappel
Now retired in Oakville, Ontario, Dr. Clifford Chappel had an exemplary career in medical research.
Growing up in Guelph, he graduated from OVC as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) in 1950, and subsequently earned his PhD in Investigative Medicine at McGill University in Montréal.
He launched his career as Director of Biological Research at Ayerst Research Laboratories, where he developed Atravet, the first tranquilizer and preanesthetic designed for veterinary use. Later, working at his own private research firm, Dr. Chappel developed the first animal model for Type 1 diabetes --- “BB” rats. His largest private venture, Bio-Research Laboratories, and two other companies that he founded, remain in operation today.
But Dr. Chappel’s most remarkable achievements have been in identifying and, in some cases, stopping the harm to public health caused by dangerous pharmaceutical, environmental, and biochemical agents. For example, he discovered the damage to cardiac function resulting from the asthma medication isoproterenol. It was later withdrawn from the market. Similarly, he was the first to notice the risk posed to heart health by hormones adrenaline and noradrenaline. This research was foundational to a colleague’s Nobel Prize-winning synthesis of atenolol and propranolol for the treatment of angina.
Dr. Chappel correctly identified the brewing industry’s use of cobalt salts as the cause of dozens of cardiac deaths among the beer-drinking public in Québec alone. Eventually, the use of cobalt in foods or pharmaceuticals would be banned worldwide. Most recently, he discovered that the lead paint used on corrugated steel roofs in the Caribbean was poisoning children whose families relied on eavestroughs and cisterns for potable water. As a result of this investigation, the paint company eliminated lead from its product.
A quiet hero, Dr. Chappel has used his gifts not only to improve life but to save countless lives.
2001
Lekh Juneja
Nutritional Foods Division, Taiyo Kagaku Co. Ltd. Japan
2002
Freda Miller
Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University and Hospital for Sick Children
2003
Ingrid Sarelius
Pharmacology and Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, University of Rochester
2004
John Solaro
Professor and Head, Physiology and Biophysics, University of Illinois at Chicago
2005
Robert S. Kerbel
Senior Scientist, Molecular and Cellular Biology Research, Canada Research Chair in
Molecular Medicine, Sunnybrook and Women’s College Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto
2006
Stephen G. Matthews
Professor of Physiology, Obstetrics and Gynecology & Medicine, University of Toronto
2007
Colin McKerlie
Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Researcher, Hospital for
Sick Children, Scientist, Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, and Interim Director, The Toronto Centre for Phenogenomics
2008
Peter H. Backx
Senior Scientist, Division of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Toronto General Research Institute, University of Toronto
2009
Edward Robinson
Matilda R. Wilson Professor of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, Veterinary Medical Center, Michigan State University
2010
Kenneth R. Chien
Director, Massachusetts General Hospital Cardiovascular Research Center, and Professor, Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School
2011
Dr. Michel G. Bergeron
Director and Founder, Centre de Recherche en Infectiologie, Université Laval
2012
Lorne Tyrrell
Founding Director, Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology and Professor of Medicine, Biochemistry and Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Alberta
2013
Dr. Daria Mochly-Rosen
Professor in Chemical and Systems Biology, George D. Smith Professor in Translational Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine
2014
Dr. Gerry Wright
Director, Michael G.DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease and Research Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences
2015
Dr. Peter Walls
Division of Biomolecular Sciences in the Faculty of Pharmacy and in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the Faculty of Medicine
2016
Dr. Gary Nabel
Chief Scientific Officer, Sanofi Global Research and Development
2017
Rocky Tuan
Distinguished Professor, Departments of Bioengineering and Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Pittsburgh
2018
Dr. Mina Bissell
Distinguished Scientist, Biological Systems and Engineering Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley
2019
Dr. John Hogenesch
Ohio Eminent Scholar & Professor of Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in the Divisions of Human Genetics and Immunobiology
2020 [Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic]
Dr. Gary Kobinger
Professor & Director, Infectious Disease Research Centre at Université Laval, Associate Professor at University of Manitoba, and Adjunct Professor at University of Pennsylvania
2021
Dr. Michael Surette
Professor and Canada Research Chair Interdisciplinary Microbiome Research in the Department of Medicine and Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University
2022
Dr. Laszlo Radvanyi
President and Scientific Director of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
1988
Harry Rubin
University of California Berkley
1989
John Gurdon
Cambridge, England
1990 Julia Levy
Quadra Logic Technology
1991
Victor Ling
Ontario Cancer Institute and University of Toronto Research
1992
Victor McKusick
Johns Hopkins
1993
Francis Roe
Cambridge, England
1994
Carl Djerassi
Stanford University, California
1995
Michael Hayden
University of British Columbia Research
1996
Randolph Nesse
University of Michigan
1997 No lecture held
1998
James Cross
Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute and Mount Sinai Hospital
1999
Irwin Fridovich
Duke University Medical Center, North Carolina
2000
Louis Guillette
University of Florida
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