chemistry

Raymond Lemieux

Raymond Lemieux is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Raymond Lemieux rather than just read about it. In short: Raymond Urgel Lemieux, CC, AOE, FRS (June 16, 1920 – July 22, 2000) was a Canadian organic chemist, who pioneered many discoveries in the field of chemistry, his first and most famous being the synthesis of sucrose. His contributions include the discovery of the anomeric effect and the development of general methodologies for the synthesis of saccharides still employed in the area of carbohydrate chemistry.

Key takeaways

Raymond Lemieux belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Raymond Lemieux to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Raymond Lemieux from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Raymond Urgel Lemieux, CC, AOE, FRS (June 16, 1920 – July 22, 2000) was a Canadian organic chemist, who pioneered many discoveries in the field of chemistry, his first and most famous being the synthesis of sucrose. His contributions include the discovery of the anomeric effect and the development of general methodologies for the synthesis of saccharides still employed in the area of carbohydrate chemistry. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Society (England), and a recipient of the prestigious Albert Einstein World Award of Science and Wolf Prize in Chemistry.

Life and career Dr. Raymond U. Lemieux was born in Lac La Biche, Alberta, Canada. His family moved to Edmonton, Alberta in 1926. He studied chemistry at the University of Alberta and received a BSc with Honours in Chemistry in 1943. He went on to study at McGill University, where he received his PhD in Organic Chemistry in 1946. He won a post-doctoral scholarship at Ohio State University, where Bristol Laboratories Inc. sponsored his research on the structure of streptomycin. He met his future wife, a doctoral student, at Ohio State and they were married in 1948. In following years, he returned to Canada where he spent two years as an assistant professor at the University of Saskatchewan. Next he served as Senior Research Officer at the National Research Council's Prairie Regional Laboratory in Saskatoon. In 1953 he and a fellow researcher, George Huber, were the first scientists to successfully synthesize sucrose. In 1954, he accepted the position of Dean in the Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences at the University of Ottawa, where he established their Department of Chemistry. In 1961 he returned to the University of Alberta as a professor in the Chemistry Department and to serve as the chairman of the Organic Chemistry Division. He developed a method to make synthetic versions of oligosaccharides, which led to improved treatments for leukemia and hemophilia and the development of new antibiotics, blood reagents, and organ anti-rejection drugs. While at the University of Alberta, he established a number of biochemical companies, including R&L Molecular Research Ltd. in 1962, Raylo Chemicals Ltd. in 1966 (which purchased R&L) and Chembiomed in 1977 (which has since been taken over by Synsorb Biotech of Calgary, Alberta.) Prof. Lemieux published an autobiography, entitled "Explorations with Sugars: How Sweet It Was," in 1990. Dr. Raymond Lemieux died of an aneurysm in 2000. In 1999, the University of Alberta Faculty of Science and Strathcona County established the Strathcona County/R.U. Lemieux Chair in Carbohydrate Chemistry. In 2001, the University of Alberta renamed the building(s) housing the Department of Chemistry to the Gunning/Lemieux Chemistry Centre to acknowledge the contributions of Profs. Raymond Lemieux and Harry Gunning.

Awards Dr. R.U. Lemieux received numerous awards and honours for his work in chemistry:

Induction into the Royal Society of Canada (1954) C.S. Hudson Award of the American Chemical Society (1966) Became the first western Canadian to be elected a fellow of the Royal Society (England) (1967) Appointed Officer of the Order of Canada (1968) Haworth Award and Medal (1983) The Tishler Award, Harvard University (1983) Gairdner Foundation International Award (1985) Made Honorary Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Stockholm (1988) Induction into the Alberta Order of Excellence (1990) King Faisal International Prize for Science (first Canadian) (1990) NSERC Gold Medal in Science (1991) Albert Einstein World Award of Science (1992) Made Companion of the Order of Canada (1994) Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1999)

Notable former trainees David R. Bundle, former postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Lemieux, currently professor of chemistry, the Raymond U. Lemieux Chair in Carbohydrate Chemistry, and a distinguished university professor at the University of Alberta, founder and former director of the Alberta Glycomics Centre (formerly known as Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Carbohydrate Science). http://www.chem.ualberta.ca/~glyco/who/index.htm Ole Hindsgaul, former PhD student with Prof. Lemieux, currently a distinguished professor at the Carlsberg Laboratory, Copenhagen, Denmark, and an adjunct professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Canada. http://www.crc.dk/carbochem/oledraft2.htm Archived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine

Personal Lemieux and Virginia (Jeannie) McConaghie met at Ohio State University where Virginia was working towards her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry. They married in New York City in 1948, upon her graduation. They had seven children; their daughter Janet was a Canadian champion soccer player; she was inducted into the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame in 2021.

See also Lemieux-Johnson oxidation Anomeric effect Carbohydrate chemistry

References

Further reading The Alberta Order of Excellence Member Profile Science.ca Profile Remembering Dr. Lemieux (article) Archived 2004-09-11 at the Wayback Machine Alberta Inventors and Inventions Order of Canada: Raymond U. Lemieux Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Raymond Lemieux

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Raymond Lemieux claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Raymond Lemieux before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Raymond Lemieux ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Raymond Lemieux

In research: Raymond Lemieux appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Raymond Lemieux in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Raymond Lemieux is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1920 births, 2000 deaths, 20th-century Canadian chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Raymond Lemieux outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Raymond Lemieux in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Raymond Lemieux means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Raymond Lemieux out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Raymond Lemieux in simple terms?

Why does Raymond Lemieux matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Raymond Lemieux?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Raymond Lemieux.