Professor David Palmer

Dr. Palmer is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry. He joined the faculty in 1999, and served as Head of Chemistry from 2010 – 2019. He was the Program Chair and Treasurer of the Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Program for the 88th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition (CSC2005), and was Chair of the Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Division of the Canadian Society for Chemistry for 2005-2006. He co-founded the Western Canadian Medicinal Chemistry Workshop (WCMCW) with Dr. Ed Krol. Dr. Palmer was the group leader of the SHRF-funded Molecular Design Research Group from 2009 - 2013, and served on the executive of the PRISM Centre from 2014–2019. He served on the SHRF Establishment Grant Review Committee from 2009–2011, and on the NSERC Discovery Grant Evaluation Group for Chemistry from 2018–2021, including two years as section chair for organic and bioorganic chemistry. He was a member of the CSC Committee Working for Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (WIDE) from 2020–2022, and was Conference Chair of the 107th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition (CSC2024). Dr. Palmer was elected a Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada in 2022. He became the Thorvaldson Professor of Chemistry on July 1, 2023.

Dr. Palmer has an undergraduate degree in Chemistry and a PhD in Organic Chemistry from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. His doctoral thesis on reaction mechanisms in the presence of cyclodextrins was completed under the co-supervision of Professor Greg Thatcher and Professor Erwin Buncel. His postdoctoral work in enzymology was carried out in the laboratory of Professor John Gerlt in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Palmer has taught thousands of Chemistry students over the course of his career, developing and delivering courses on introductory organic chemistry, bioorganic chemistry, physical organic chemistry, organic structure analysis, and graduate-level chemical biology. He has also given lectures in the College of Medicine and the Western College of Veterinary Medicine. Like most teachers, he loves hearing from former students!

Dave (he/him) grew up on Prince Edward Island, on the East coast of Canada, but now calls Saskatoon home.