Distinguished Professor

2011 -
The latest Distinguished Professor is Derek Gregory, Professor in the Department of Geography.

2002 - Present
One of the two current Distinguished Professors is Brett Finlay, Professor in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Microbiology & Immunology, and the Biotechnology Laboratory.

1994 - 2000
Raphael Amit was the Peter Wall Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital prior to his leaving UBC on June 30, 2000.

1994 - 2000
The Institute deeply misses Michael Smith, the Peter Wall Distinguished Professor of Biotechnology and winner of the 1993 Nobel prize in Chemistry. Dr. Smith passed away on October 4, 2000.

First Wall Distinguished Professor

The late Michael Smith was Wall Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry from 1994 until his death in 2000. Born in Blackpool, England he had an extensive research career at UBC in the field of Medical Genetics. He was appointed the founding Director of the University's Biotechnology Lab in 1987, later renamed in his honour the Michal Smith Laboratories. Dr. Smith also directed the Genome Sequence Center, which he established as Canada's first and world-class sequencing facility. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1993 for work he did as a member of UBC's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, which he joined in 1966. The Nobel Prize recognized Dr. Smith's contribution to site-directed mutagenesis, a method he developed for mutations in protein. The work revolutionized research directed towards understanding the functions of these basic building blocks of living systems. As Distinguished Professor, Michel Smith provided an essential guiding hand during the formative years of the Institute. The Chair also enabled him to continue working in, and promoting and contributing to, science past mandatory retirement age.