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Symposium Honours Renowned Microbiologist
Prof. Terry Beveridge's work in microbiology, microscopy to be highlighted at gathering of scientists from across North America
BY ANDREW VOWLES
About 150 researchers are coming from across North America this week to attend a U of G science symposium to honour longtime faculty member Prof. Terry Beveridge, Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB), who died Sept. 10 after battling liver cancer.
The symposium on “Biofilms, Geomicrobiology and Bacterial Cell Surfaces” runs Sept. 29 in Room 113 of the MacNaughton Building and will feature speaker panels discussing recent developments in these fields.
All three areas were linked research interests for Beveridge, an internationally respected scientist who earned his PhD at the University of Western Ontario before joining Guelph's Department of Microbiology in 1978. His extensive work on bacterial structures has yielded diverse insights for fighting infections, ensuring food safety, designing new vaccines and antibiotics and using bacteria for environmental remedia- tion.
Among his numerous honours, he held a Canada Research Chair (CRC) in the Structure, Physical Nature and Geobiology of Prokaryotes. His recent research projects included studies of a new bacterium believed to resemble Earth's earliest microbes and novel methods used by bacteria to “breathe” heavy metals, which may one day help in harnessing these organisms to clean up toxic environmental waste.
Bob Hancock, holder of a Canada Research Chair in Pathogenomics and Antimicrobials at the University of British Columbia, will open the symposium with a tribute to his former colleague's contributions and impact. Hancock had originally proposed the event as a retirement tribute.
“Terry, in my opinion, was a giant in the field.”
He says the Guelph microbiologist explained the workings of a fundamental technique used by generations of researchers and students in staining two major groups of microbes (Gram-positive and -negative) for microscope observations.
“That's something we use every day,” says Hancock, pointing to Beveridge's international standing in advanced electron microscopy that helped explain bacterial structures and their functions. “He always produced the most elegant work.”
Beveridge led the Guelph Regional Integrated Imaging Facility, a suite of equipment that included electron microscopes and other imaging tools used by researchers from across campus and beyond.
“Terry was interested in seeing Guelph's microscopy group become the premier group in the discipline in the world, and, through his efforts, that goal was achieved,” says Prof. Chris Whitfield, MCB chair.
Beveridge also helped Hancock launch the Canadian Bacterial Diseases Network in 1989 and led its Ontario section for several years.
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the American Academy of Microbiology and the Austrian Academy of Science, he was awarded the National Research Council's Steacie Prize in 1985 and the Killam Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts in 1995. He was the author of more than 200 research papers and book chapters, and edited several journals.
Whitfield, also a CRC holder, says Beveridge helped support his own FRSC nomination, announced this summer. Recalling their lengthy discussions about aspects of their research, Whitfield says: “W've lost a good friend — and one of the best scientists I've ever met. He was always supportive of younger colleagues and had a strong sense of the importance of research in our national fabric. He was constantly fighting through his Royal Society involvements for the maintenance of basic science funding.”
CBS dean Mike Emes says that, as a professor, “Terry inspired generations of undergraduate and graduate students, mentored many faculty and staff, and — in his unobtrusive style — shared his wisdom and experience with all around him. His pioneering research in the structure of micro-organisms and, more recently, geomicrobiology brought national and international recognition and acclaim.”
Quoted upon being named a CRC in 2002, Beveridge said: “The interdisciplinary nature of my work, which brings microbiology, geology, medicine, chemistry and physics together, makes for an exciting research laboratory filled with young, inquisitive experimentalists working in the life and physical sciences.”
He is survived by his wife, Jan; his son, Braden; his daughter, Bree; and his granddaughter, Ava.
For more information about the symposium, contact co-organizer Prof. Joe Lam at Ext. 53823.