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Please join us in congratulating Mehran Dastmalchi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in Plant Science, on receiving the prestigious Arthur C. Neish Award from the Phytochemical Society of North America (PSNA). The 63rd annual PSNA meeting took place in Monterrey, Mexico from July 15–19, 2024, where Professor Dastmalchi presented his lab's research in a keynote speech. Among the accomplishments recognized at the conference were his group’s findings on the biosynthesis of medicinal alkaloids in the Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus). This award is a significant milestone, highlighting the importance of Dastmalchi's work.

At the same conference, Fanfan Li, Ph.D. Candidate in Dastmalchi’s lab, received an award for her oral presentation describing the movement of metabolites within C. roseus by a unique transporter, which will be featured in a forthcoming publication in Communications Biology.

About the Arthur C. Neish Award

The globally recognized Arthur C. Neish Award is the foremost acknowledgement for early-career phytochemists and those interested in plant chemical biology in North America.

The Award is named after the late chemist and plant biologist Arthur Charles Neish. Born in Granville Ferry, Nova Scotia, Arthur Neish received his B.Sc. (Agr) from Ï㽶ÊÓƵ's Macdonald Campus (then Macdonald College) in 1938; he then went on to earn an M.Sc. (1939) and a Ph.D. (1942) from McGill. He later became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (1960) and an Officer of the Order of Canada (1973). His work covered many fields, including the biochemistry of plant tumours, the composition of chloroplasts, elucidation of chemical pathways using radiolabelling, and the fermentation of 2,3-butanediol, which has important industrial applications.  

It is an honour and delightful coincidence that Dastmalchi has received an award named after such an illustrious Mac alumnus.