Alexander George Harrison (1931–2018)

Abstract

Alex G. Harrison, Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, passed away on September 7, 2018, at the age of 87. He was an eminent mass spectrometrist, a distinguished educator, and an esteemed colleague in the international scientific community. Alex was born in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, on April 1, 1931, and spent his early years on farms near Lakefield and Watford, Ontario. Hewas intrigued by science and enrolled in a chemistry curriculum at the University of Western Ontario; he earned his B.Sc. in Chemistry in 1952 and his M.Sc. in Physical Chemistry in 1953. Alex performed his doctoral research at McMaster University under the direction of Harry Thode, a pioneer inmass spectrometry. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1956 with his thesis entitled “Isotope Effects in the Reduction of Sulphur Compounds,” Alex carried out postdoctoral studies both at McMaster University and later with Fred Lossing at the National Research Council in Ottawa. He was then appointed as a Lecturer in the Chemistry Department at the University of Toronto. In 1960, Alex assumed a tenure track position as Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, and he was promoted to Full Professor in 1967. Alex was named Professor Emeritus in 1993. Alex’s contributions to science were both profound and diverse. His earlier research focused on the reactivity and mechanisms of gas-phase organic ions, their detailed structures, and their precise thermochemistry. He was instrumental in the development of new techniques and in the analytical applications of ion chemistry. After his appointment as Professor Emeritus, he embarked on new studies of peptide fragmentation, including the structures of b-type fragment ions. This seminal work resulted both in landmark papers as well as insightful collaborations with computational chemists. Alex is a highly cited author with more than 280 publications, including his classic 1983 text on Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometry. Throughout his career, Alex received many distinguished honors. He was awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1962– 1964), the Noranda Lecture Award from the Chemical Institute of Canada (1971), the Killam Research Fellowship (1985– 1987), and the Award of Excellence from the Canadian Society for Mass Spectrometry (1995). A Graduate Fellowship in Analytical Mass Spectrometry at the University of Toronto was named in his honor in 2005. An 80th Birthday Special Issue of the International Journal of Mass Spectrometry, containing 36 research papers from colleagues and friends, was dedicated to Alex in 2012. Alex also provided extensive service to the scientific community over many decades. He served on the Editorial Advisory Boards of Organic Mass Spectrometry, Mass Spectrometry Reviews, the International Journal of Mass Spectrometry, the Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, and the Journal of Mass Spectrometry. Moreover, he served as Associate Editor for the Canadian Journal of Applied Spectroscopy, as a Member of the Board of Directors for the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, as a Member of the Council of the Chemical Institute of Canada, and as President of the Canadian Society for Mass Spectrometry. On a personal note, Alex was a loving husband, devoted father, and proud grandfather. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Barbara (nee Smith), his two daughters, Jane (Charlie Trainor) and Ann (Michael Hrycusko), and four grandchildren, Matthew, Emma, Kathryn, and Andrew. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https:// doi.org/10.1007/s13361-019-02278-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.