William A. Bridger Lectureship

Bill Bridger joined the Department of Biochemistry at the U of A in 1967. He moved through the ranks to full professor (1977), spent 1984-85 as a visiting professor at the Rockefeller Institute in New York and in 1987 became Chair of the Department of Biochemistry. Six years later, Bill took on the role of Associate Vice-President (Research) at the University of Alberta and served in that position, whilst maintaining his research group, until January 1996, when he became Vice-President (Research) at the University of Western Ontario. In 2001 Bill became Founding President and CEO of the newly established Alberta Ingenuity Fund. In this capacity he played a key role in the Province of Alberta in the development of long-term strategies for knowledge discovery, and top-quality training of scientific personnel. He has also been active in national science bodies, including serving the Canadian Biochemical Society (CBS) as Secretary, Vice-President and then President. In 1980 Bill was the recipient of the Ayerst Award of the CBS, given for outstanding biochemical research, and in 1989 he was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Bill's career has demonstrated the highest levels of achievement in research, teaching and administration. To commemorate his many achievements, the William A. Bridger Lectureship in Biochemistry was inaugurated as an annual event in 2005.