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Resumé and Curriculum Vitae
Brian M. Lynch, S e n i o r Research Professor and Professor, Department of Chemistry, St.
Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
Currently Owner and CEO, Molecular Diversity Preservation Canada, listed with the Joint Stock Registry,
Province of Nova Scotia.
Dr. Brian Maurice Lynch was most recently Senior Research Professor in the Department of Chemistry at
Saint Francis Xavier University [St. FX] in A n t i g o n i s h , Nova Scotia,
from September 1995 to September 2000 and September 2003 to July 2009. He was re- appointed to the
position effective February 16, 2012, for a further two-year term. He was
born in Melbourne, Australia, on January 20, 1930, and was educated in the public [state] elementary
schools in Melbourne, at Melbourne High School, and at the University of
Melbourne, w h e r e he graduated B. Sc. with First Class Honors in Chemistry and in Metallurgy [1952],
obtaining the Dixson Scholarship in Metallurgy Part I [1949], and the Cuming Major Scholarship for
C h e mi s t r y [1951], M. Sc. with Honors in Organic Chemistry [1954], and Ph.D. in Physical Organic
Chemistry [1956].
He was awarded a University of Melbourne Research Assistantship Award in Metallurgy [1951], a
University of M e l b o u r n e Graduate Research Studentship Award in
Chemistry [1952], the Monsanto Chemicals [Australia] Research Scholarship [1953 and 1954], and the
Vacuum Oil Company Research Scholarship [1955-1956], and a CSIRO Australian Studentship for
Research in Organic Chemistry at the University of Melbourne [1955-1956].
He taught in the Chemistry Department of St FX from 1957-1958 and from 1962-1995, and at
Memorial University of Newfoundland from 1959-1962. From June
1958 to September 1959, he was a Research Officer in the Coal Research Section of the Commonwealth
Scientific & Industrial Research Organization, North Ryde, N e w South
Wales, Australia. He was Chairman of the Department of Chemistry of St FX from 1972 through 1979, and
from 1980 through 1986. He was Cancer Chemotherapy National
Service Center Postdoctoral Fellow financed by the U. S. National Institutes of Health, and Visiting
Professor of Chemistry at New Mexico Highlands University, Las Vegas,
New Mexico, U. S. A., from June 1956 to August 1957, and National Research Council of Canada
Research Fellow and Honorary Research Fellow at the Department of Medical Chemistry in the John Curtin
School of Medical Research of the Australian N a t i o n a l University, Canberra, from July 1968 to July 1969,
on sabbatical leave from St FX.
He was visiting scientist in Czechoslovakia in summer 1971 as a National Research Council scientific
exchange participant.
While on sabbatical leave from St FX, he held a Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Fellowship at the Atlantic Research Laboratory
[Institute for Marine Biosciences], National Research Council of Canada, Halifax, Nova Scotia, from
January 1981 to January 1982.
He was co-organizer and convener of the first North American Treaty Organization
Advanced Study Institute to be held in Nova Scotia in 1984, on the topic “Recent Advances in Coal
Science”, at St. Francis Xavier University
He held U. S. A. National Science Foundation visiting fellowships at Brandeis University,
Waltham, Massachusetts, U.S.A. and at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame,
Indiana, U.S.A., in 1965, and with the U. S. A. National Science Foundation Project SERAPHIM at
Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan, U.S.A. in 1988.
He visited several universities in Pakistan in August 1991 under the sponsorship of the Association fo
Universities and Colleges of Canada
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In 1994, he was the winner of the St. F. X. University Research Award, made to the senior faculty
member who best demonstrates outstanding leadership in the area of research and scholarship.
He has been recognized as an international authority on chemical spectroscopy,
in particular as applied to fossil fuels, and with the assistance of Canadian Federal Agencies [Energy,
Mines and Resources Canada, National Research Council Canada, Natural Sciences & Engineering
Research Council] and Nova Scotia Government Departments [Mines & Energy, Lands and Forests],
established and maintained a state- of-the-art facility in vibrational spectroscopy.
At St FX, Dr. Lynch taught courses in Physical Chemistry, Physical Organic
Chemistry, Organic Spectroscopy, Advanced Instrumentation and Spectroscopy, and Computer-Assisted
Accession to Research Literature. Dr. Lynch has published over eighty papers reporting results of his
research, dealing with syntheses and properties of potential anti-tumor agents, and several areas of applied
research ranging from insect pheromones in the control of the spruce budworm moth to the beneficiation of
oxidized coal surfaces, to the carcinogens in tobacco, and in chemical instrumentation [nuclear magnetic
resonance spectroscopy, Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy]. The papers have appeared in over twenty
different national and international journals:
Dr. Lynch supervised foreign undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students from 16 distinct
countries of origin; he undertook extensive collaboration in chemical education & scientific research w i t h
other university personnel in 16 distinct countries.
Dr. Lynch’s research in pure and applied chemistry has been supported by approximately
25 government agencies and industrial organizations.
Dr. Lynch has also served for the following:
The Canadian Society for Chemistry and Chemical Institute of Canada, Ottawa, as a member of Council
for the Atlantic Section and as Director of Education and Student Affairs on the Society’s Board of
Directors; Atlantic Section, Chemical Institute of Canada, as Secretary-Treasurer and President;
The Division of Chemical Information of the American Chemical Society, as a member of the
Education Committee and as Business Manager for that Division’s publication, the Chemical
Information Bulletin; The Council of Canadian University Chemistry Chairman, as SecretaryTreasurer; the St. Francis Xavier Association of University Teachers
[St FXAUT], as S e c r e t a r y -Treasurer and as President; Cancer Care Nova Scotia, as a member of
their Advisory Board; National Cancer Institute of Canada, as reviewer for Research Grant
Applications
In the years 2005 and 2007, Dr. Lynch and his professional associate, Lai Im Lancaster [a former Colombo
Plan Scholar] were invited to lecture at the University of Melbourne and Monash University [both in
Melbourne], the Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University in Canberra; University
Sains Malaysia in Penang, and University Putra Malaysia and Taylor’s College [both in Kuala Lumpur].
Dr. Lynch married Elizabeth Joan Welton on May 5, 1956 in Ormond, a suburb of Melbourne,
Australia. Joan died on July 23, 2003. Their children, Alexandra [born 25 June 1960] and Martin [born
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October 7, 1961] live in the Halifax Regional Municipality. Granddaughter Erica Gillis [born September
8, 1960] lives in Sydney, Nova Scotia, and granddaughter Grace De Beer [born May 2, 1984] lives in
Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador; grandson Benjamin Lynch [born October 8,
1988] lives in the Halifax Regional Municipality.
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