Raymond Lemieux

Raymond Urgiel Lemieux ( born June 16, 1920 in Lac La Biche, Alberta Canada; † 22 July 2000) was a Canadian organic chemist, known for work in the sugar chemistry.

Lemieux studied chemistry at the University of Alberta ( Bachelor 1943) and in 1946 received his doctorate at McGill University. As a post-doctoral researcher, he conducted research on the structure of streptomycin at Ohio State University. He then spent two years an assistant professor at the University of Saskatchewan, Senior Research Officer was Prairies Regional Laboratory of the National Research Council in Saskatoon and in 1954 a professor and dean at the University of Ottawa, where he established the Department of Chemistry. In 1961 he went back to the University of Alberta as head of the Department of Organic Chemistry. In 1981 he was named a University Professor and 1985 he retired. He died of an aneurysm.

In 1953 he synthesized with the post- graduate students George Huber was the first sucrose. He researched then continue on the synthesis of sugars with applications to the development of drugs such as antibiotics. He founded several companies in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1990 his autobiography Explorations with sugars: how sweet it is.

A Chair and the building of the chemistry faculty at the University of Alberta are named after him ( the faculty building after its former boss Harry Gunning simultaneously).

In 1954 he became a member of the Royal Society of Canada in 1967 and the Royal Society. In 1966 he won the Hudson Prize of the American Physical Society, 1985 Gairdner Foundation International Award, the 1990 King Faisal Prize, in 1991 Herzberg Medal, and the 1999 Wolf Prize in Chemistry. In 1994 he became a Companion of the Order of Canada and 1990 he received the Alberta Order of Excellence. He was an honorary doctorate from the University of Stockholm.