The Faculty of Science is pleased to announce that it has renewed Biology Professor John McDermott as the McLaughlin Research Chair, and Chemistry Professor Cora Young as the Guy Warwick Rogers Chair in Chemistry – both for another five-year term (July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2027). 

The two positions are endowed research chairs in the Faculty of Science. The McLaughlin Research Chair, funded by a $1 million donation from the McLaughlin Foundation, supports world-class life sciences research. The Rogers Chair was created as an endowment fund with a donation from Mrs. Mary Rogers in 1988, in memory of her late husband, Guy Warwick Rogers, to support faculty research in the Department of Chemistry.

John McDermott

McDermott focuses on the mechanisms that cause a simple cell to become more specialized. This work is primarily undertaken using cardiac, skeletal and smooth muscle cells and neurons as model systems, and it is aimed at understanding the role of specialized proteins that bind to DNA to orchestrate gene expression. Professor McDermott is particularly interested in studying the basic regulatory mechanisms involved in muscle cellular differentiation.

Cora Young

Young conducts research on environmental chemistry, using state-of-the-science analytical techniques to characterize chemicals, their sources, and their fates in the environment. Her primary area of interest is in atmospheric analytical chemistry, particularly in understanding how the atmosphere interacts with the terrestrial and oceanic environment, how contaminants are transported through the atmosphere, and the mechanisms and chemical drivers of partitioning.