Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Dalhousie University

E. Gordon Young Memorial Fund

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In July, 1990, the estate of Dr. Elrid Gordon Young established a memorial fund to support the purchase and maintenance of essential and communal research equipment in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University.

Dr. Young was born in Quebec City in 1897. He left us on March 24, 1976 having accomplished a pioneering career in biochemistry in Canada and internationally. He had graduated from McGill University in 1919 with an M.A and earned a Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1921. He pursued postdoctoral studies in Chicago.

Dr. Young was the first person with the designated title of biochemist when he was appointed in Pharmacology at the University of Western Ontario, in 1921. His appointment coincided with occupancy of a new Medical School Building on Ottawa Avenue (later known as South Street) across the road from Victoria Hospital. The first Professor of Biochemistry with Department status at Western was Dr. A. Bruce Macallum appointed in 1924 to succeed Dr. Young when he left for an appointment as the first Professor and Head of the Department of Biochemistry in the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University. Biochemistry at Dalhousie was established as a department in 1924 with the opening of the Medical Sciences (Burbidge) Building on College Street, which it shared with Physiology, Pharmacology, and Hygiene. Dr. Young held his appointment from 1924 through 1950, when he was succeeded by Dr. John Alexander McCarter. In 1950, Dr. Young became the founding director of the Atlantic Regional Laboratory of the National Research Council in Halifax.

During the Second World War, Dr. Young undertook classified research in chemical warfare agents for the Department of National Defence.

Dr. Young was a member of many national and international professional societies. He was awarded an Honorary D.Sc. by Acadia University in 1957 and an Honorary L.L.D. by Dalhousie University in 1965. Among his many interests promoting the scientific community, he wrote The Development of Biochemistry in Canada, which is held by countless libraries. Dalhousie University's Archive holds a collection of his personal correspondence, research, reports, notebooks, articles and manuals: The Dr. Elrid Gordon Young Collection.