Biophysical Society Bulletin | March 2019

Obituary

Michèle Auger Michèle Auger passed away on October 29th, 2018, at the age of 55. She was both a talented researcher and an exceptional teacher, not to mention an exceptional person. She had an enormous impact on science in Quebec and Canada and will be missed by all at Université Laval, as well as by the chemistry and biophysics communities across Canada and around the world.

Michèle served on numerous grant selection committees, notably at the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. She also organized various conferences and symposia, including the Meeting of the International Soci- ety for Magnetic Resonance (ISMAR) in Quebec City in 2017. Finally, Michèle was very engaged in promoting chemistry and sciences to the general public. She established an interactive activity on perfume fabrication and a very popular lecture entitled “The Chemistry of Odours: From Skunks to Chanel,” which she continued to deliver until very recently. Without doubt, her most notable contribution to scientific outreach started in 2011 for the International Year of Chemistry, when she co-founded “Attraction Chimique,” a series of interactive activities to promote chemistry to school children and the general public. To date, “Attraction Chimique” has initiated chemistry to over 400,000 people, mostly teenagers. Michèle joined the Biophysical Society in 1987, and was particularly active in the Biophysical Society of Canada (BSC) where she served on the Executive Committee, as Treasurer, and as Secretary. To recognize her outstanding contributions, the BSC created the Michèle Auger Award for Exceptional Service in 2016, with Michèle being the inaugural winner of this award. Michèle Auger was a woman of values and great empathy, involved, passionate for books, sports, music and science. But most of all, she was an inspiring person. Everyone that crossed paths with Michèle will remember her as a model to follow, an exceptional woman who passed away too soon. — Normand Voyer , University Laval — John Baenziger , President, Canadian Biophysical Society

Michèle Auger

After obtaining her B.Sc. in 1985, Michèle joined the group of Dr. Ian Smith at the University of Ottawa to pursue her PhD studies in biophysics. It is here where she developed her great passion for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and its use in the study of biological systems. After graduat- ing from the University of Ottawa in 1990, Michèle continued research as a postdoctoral fellow in the group of Dr. Robert G. Griffin at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is there she got interested in the use of solid-state NMR to study bi- ological membranes. She joined the Department of Chemistry at Laval in July 1991 as an assistant professor and became a full professor in 2000. Her namesake lab was founded with the aim of understand- ing the relationship between the structure, dynamics, and interactions of different macromolecules of biological interest. Specific research interests include the study of proteins and peptides with antimicrobial character, amyloid peptides, and silk proteins. Her research findings have been published in more than 125 peer-reviewed journals. For the quality and innovative character of her work, Michèle received several distinctions, including the Barringer Award from the Spectroscopy Society of Canada in 2002, the Clara-Benson Award from the Cana- dian Society for Chemistry in 2007, and she was nominated Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada in 2010. During her career, she trained over one hundred undergrad- uates, graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars, often receiving awards for her outstanding teaching contributions. Michèle was particularly proud of the Communication for Chemists course that she created from scratch. Anyone who knew Michèle knew how close she was to students and how much she cared about them. Her door was always open. In 2006, she co-founded a unique initiative: “Les 24 heures de la chimie” designed to promote chemistry and strengthen the sense of community in the Department of Chemistry.

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