Peter W. Hochachka Memorial Lecture

Peter Hochachka was without peer in Canadian Biology. With nearly 400 publications, 7 books, and service on local (Science World, Vancouver), National (NSERC) and International (I.U.B.S., I.U.P.S.) committees his impact was enormous. His contribution was recognised with the highest science awards given in Canada: the Canada Council Killam Memorial Prize in Science in 1993 and the NSERC Gold Medal in 1995 (since renamed The Herzberg Medal). In 2000, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada. In addition, he received many other prestigious awards such as Fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada (1983, Flavelle Medal,1990), Guggenheim (1977), Queen Elizabeth II (1983), and U.B.C. Killam (1982) Fellowships, the U.B.C. Killam Research (1987 and 1988) and Biely Prizes (1993), the B.C. Science Council Gold Medal (1987), the Fry Medal from the Canadian Society of Zoologists (1995) and in 1995 was BC’s inaugural Academic of the Year. In 1988 he was given an Honorary Doctorate by St Francis Xavier University (Nova Scotia, Canada). In 2003 he received posthumously the Commemorative Medal for the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Peter was born on March 9th, 1937, in Bordenave, Alberta, and died at his home in Vancouver, B.C., Canada on Sept 16th 2002. He obtained his B.Sc. from the University of Alberta (1959) which was followed by an M.Sc. from Dalhousie ( Nova Scotia, Canada) and Ph.D. from Duke University in 1964. Following brief spells at Duke as a post doctoral fellow and the University of Toronto as an Assistant Professor, he moved to the University of British Columbia in 1966. On his retirement in 2002 he was University Professor and Professor of Zoology with cross appointments in Sports Medicine, Radiology, the Brain Research Centre and the Prostate Centre, all in the Faculty of Medicine.

A combination of imagination and determination allowed Peter to develop entirely new lines of research concerned with the way animals survive extreme environmental conditions. The world was both his laboratory and lecture hall, as he was the most peripatetic of scientists. He led, or participated in, at least 9 research expeditions on the RV Alpha Helix, an N.S.F. (USA) programme, to regions as diverse as the Amazon and the Arctic. He also participated in 6 research expeditions to the Antarctic, four to the high Andes and one to the Himalayas.

His initial work in the 1970s served as an intellectual “jump start” for the field of comparative physiology and biochemistry, acting as a catalyst for an explosion of research around the world, and establishing the new and exciting field of adaptational biochemistry. Since then, his pioneering studies advanced the understanding of the metabolic mechanisms underlying environmental adaptations, demonstrated weaknesses in existing theories of metabolic control, and proposed new models to explain how the supply of energy to tissues is regulated.

In recent years, he and his students focussed on uncovering the exact molecular and metabolic defense mechanisms against oxygen deprivation. This work captured the interest of the medical community because of the implications for diseases caused by or complicated by lack of oxygen. (Peter is probably one of very few zoologists - if not the only one - to give lectures at the refresher course in Critical Care Medicine sponsored by the Department of Anesthesia at Mass General Hospital of Harvard Medical School.) Of special interest to physicians was his work on adaptations to chronic high altitude oxygen deprivation in native people. Peter’s research team was the first to study Quechuas from the Andes and Sherpas from the Himalayas in modern university and hospital laboratories. The team identified certain heart, brain and muscle adaptations that allow Quechuas and Sherpas to function normally, even thrive, at very high altitudes. He also explored the hypoxia connection in prostate cancer cells and published a paper with his surgeons as co-authors!

Peter’s research work was not confined within narrow discipline-linked boundaries. Through his syntheses, essays, reviews and books, and also directly in his research papers, he made an enviable impact on fields far beyond adaptational biochemistry: it is not at all uncommon to hear about his work at clinical symposia and in hospital laboratories; in ecological symposia and field expeditions; in exercise physiology/biochemistry conferences, and sports medicine testing laboratories. Peter was a scholar’s scholar. He was a deep and profound thinker and his intellectual field of play was enormous. There can be no doubt that his work put Canada on the map for the life science community of the world.

This has been exemplified by the success of the international journal “Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology” which he edited for many years. Establishment of a rigorous review system raised the journal’s credibility. Simultaneously, a new world-wide audience was reached through Peter fostering the formation of societies for Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry in South America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and China. Interaction between these new societies and the well established ones in North America and Europe will ensure a successful future for the field.

Peter had a friendly, charismatic personality which, combined with his acute research mind, led him to attract an impressive cadre of Graduate Students over the years. Many of these are now highly successful scientists working around the world. In fact, a measure of his impact can be obtained at any international scientific meeting by noting the number of papers delivered by students he trained.

Peter is held in exceptionally high esteem by colleagues around the world for it is true to say that none of his success was gained at the expense of others. Furthermore, in spite of his achievements, he managed to maintain an admirable balance between his professional and private lives. He was happily married for 32 years and was a fine father to his three children Claire, Gail and Gareth.