Todd Lambert Lowary (born 1966) is an American carbohydrate chemist. He is a professor of chemistry at the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

and a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; , SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bilingual council of distinguishe ...

Early life and education

Lowary was born in 1966 in Montana. While attending Columbus High School, Lowary participated in band and was chosen to represent Montana in the 1983

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is an annual parade in New York City presented by the American-based department store chain Macy's. The Parade first took place in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States ...

. Following graduation, Lowary chose to attend the

University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana, United States. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. Fall 2024 saw total enrollment hit 10,811, marki ...

where he majored in chemistry. Prior to the 1985–86 academic year, Lowary was one of seven University of Montana students awarded the Fox Foundation Scholarship to continue his studies. The following year, he received the 1986–87 University of Montana Honors Program scholarship. After Lowary graduated with his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in 1988, Lowary remained at the University of Montana working in their wood chemistry lab before applying to graduate school. He eventually completed his PhD in organic chemistry at the

and finished his postdoctoral research with David R. Bundle and

Morten P. Meldal Morten Peter Meldal (born 16 January 1954) is a Danish chemist and Nobel laureate. He is a professor of chemistry at the University of Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is best known for developing the CuAAC-click reaction, concurrently w ...

Career

Following his PhD, Lowary accepted an

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

position at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

in 1996. In this role, Lowary was awarded a

Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) is the highest honor bestowed by the United States federal government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers. T ...

for "studying synthesis and conformations of compounds in bacterial cell walls, and designing courses that incorporate the latest educational technology." He was eventually promoted to the rank of

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

in 2002 but left the following year to return to the University of Alberta. Lowary joined the Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Carbohydrate Science (AICCS) in 2003 as a replacement for Ole Hindsgaul. As a member of the AICCS, Lowary's research group focused on techniques that use nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, chemical synthesis, and computational chemistry to examine the shape of the polysaccharides that make up the cell wall of the

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

bacterium. During his first year at U of A, Lowary continued to study tuberculosis and collaborated with Bundle and Monica Palcic in the Glycobiology Research Group which had "a major impact on the international carbohydrate community." As the director of the AICCS, Lowary focused on identifying and validating tuberculosis markers and developing tools to improve health in the developing world. Using a grant from the

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Gates Foundation is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be the third largest charitable foundation in the world, holding $ ...

, Lowary led a project with the goal of developing better diagnostic tools for tuberculosis and improve heart transplants in infants. In 2006, Lowary received an E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship to study why the sugars in the polysaccharide significantly enhance the flexibility of the polysaccharide. As a result of his overall research, Lowary and four members of the Alberta Glycomics Centre received a 2012 Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering for their "collaborative contributions to novel strategies in combating infectious diseases such as

E. coli ''Escherichia coli'' ( )Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus ''Escherichia'' that is commonly foun ...

and Clostridium difficile." As a result of his research into carbohydrates, Lowary was awarded a Tier 1

Canada Research Chair Canada Research Chair (CRC) is a title given to certain Canadian university research professors by the Canada Research Chairs Program. Program goals The Canada Research Chair program was established in 2000 as a part of the Government of Canada ...

in Carbohydrate Chemistry in 2015. In this role, he was selected to lead the Canadian Glycomics Network out of the University of Alberta. As such, he received the 2015 Award for Outstanding Leadership in Alberta Science for being the "driving force behind Canada’s lead in glycomics." A few years later, Lowary collaborated with a team of international experts to develop a urine test called Fujifilm SILVAMP TB LAM to detect tuberculosis in HIV-positive people. In 2019, Lowary became the first University of Alberta researcher to receive an Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

. The award was given in honour of his excellence in organic chemistry. In recognition of his "contributions to the synthesis of molecules to probe the biological role of carbohydrates," Lowary was elected a Fellow of the

in 2020.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowary, Todd L. Living people 1966 births Chemists from Montana Tuberculosis researchers 20th-century American chemists 21st-century American chemists Academic staff of the University of Alberta Ohio State University faculty Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers