The 2025-26 Gotlieb Lecture will feature Dr. Gerard (Gerry) Wright, who is a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University and an associate member in the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and of Pathology and Molecular Medicine. Gerry established the Institute of Infectious Disease Research (IIDR) and Canada's Global Nexus for Pandemics and Biological Threats at McMaster University, and served as Director for many years, steering both institutions through significant growth and transformation. Gerry still remains a respected member of both institutes.
Dr. Gerry Wright received his BSc in Biochemistry (1986) and his PhD in Chemistry (1990) from the University of Waterloo, where he conducted research in the area of antifungal drugs under Dr. John Honek. He followed this up with 2 years of postdoctoral research in Chris Walsh’s lab at Harvard Medical School in Boston, focusing on the molecular mechanism of resistance to the antibiotic vancomycin in enterococci. He joined the Department of Biochemistry at McMaster in 1993.
This lectureship honors the legacy of David Gottlieb, who is best known for his isolation of chloramphenicol from Streptomyces venezuelae at the University of Illinois. The Gottlieb Fund allows us to invite internationally renowned scientists working in the fields of natural products, plant disease, and plant pathogenesis to visit and present a lecture. A sampling of past awardees includes Julian Davies, Richard Hutchinson, Chris Walsh, Craig Venter, Richard Baltz, Chaitan Khosla, Mohamed Marahiel, Rolf Muller, David Craik, Joern Piel, Christian Hertweck, and most recently Kim Lewis.