Dr. Neil Madsen

(1928-2017)

 

Dr Madsen earned a BSc in 1950 and an MSc in 1952, both at the University of Alberta. He then went on to obtain a PhD with Nobel laureate Carl Cori at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, and continued from there to Oxford, UK, for post-doctoral work with the Nobel laureate Sir Hans Krebs. In 1957, he returned to Canada and worked as a microbiologist with Canada Agriculture for five years before joining the University of Alberta, Department of Biochemistry, as a faculty member in 1962.

His area of research, for which he was internationally recognised, focused on the study of enzymes - catalysts in the chemical reactions upon which life depends. One of his major discoveries was the structure of the enzyme glycogen phosphorylase, of which he produced a detailed three-dimensional map in collaboration with Robert Fletterick.

Times Colonist Obituary