Medicinal inorganic chemistry: Introduction

Chris Orvig (right) and Mike Abrams (left) have been close friends and colleagues for 20 years. After completing undergraduate degrees at McGill University and Bowdoin College, respectively, they were graduate students with Alan Davison at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where they completed their Ph.D. degrees in 1981 and 1983, respectively. After Chris completed an NSERC of Canada postdoctoral fellowhip with Kenneth N. Raymond at Berkeley, Chris and Mike were reunited in 1983-84 at McMaster University in the labs of the late Colin J. L. Lock, where Mike was a NATO postdoctoral fellow. In 1984, Chris joined the faculty in the Chemistry Department at the University of British Columbia, where he remains, and Mike joined Johnson Matthey where he rose to become Manager of Biomedical Research, Worldwide, before starting AnorMED (where he is President and CEO) in 1997 with some of his Johnson Matthey colleagues. Mike is also an adjunct professor in the Chemistry Department at UBC. Both Chris and Mike are deeply interested in medicinal inorganic chemistry and outdoor activities.