In July 2023, we changed our name from AACC (short for the American Association for Clinical Chemistry) to the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM). The following page was written prior to this rebranding and contains mentions of the association’s old name. It may contain other out-of-date information as well.
1984 Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry
William C. Purdy will receive the 33rd AACC Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry. The award is sponsored by Ames Division, Miles Laboratories.
Dr. Purdy was born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1930.He received his B.A. (cum laude) in chemistry form Amherst College in 1951 and his Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from M.I.T. in 1955.After serving as an instructor in chemistry at the University of Connecticut, he moved to the University of Maryland in 1958 as an assistant professor. There he rose through the ranks to become professor in 1964 and head of the Analytical Division in 1968.During his tenure at Maryland, Prof. Purdy took a sabbatical leave as a visiting professor at the Institut für Ernährungswissenschaft (Human Nutrition) of the Justus Liebig Universität, Giessen, Germany. In 1976 he came to McGill University, where he is now professor of analytical chemistry and associate in medicine.
A member of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) since 1969, Prof. Purdy has served on the Board of Editors of Clinical Chemistry and as a co-opted and titular member of the IUPAC Divisional Committee on Clinical Chemistry. He is currently an associate member of the IUPAC Commission on Toxicology and a titular member of the Commission on Chemical Kinetics. He also serves on the ACS Committee on Clinical Chemistry, is a Director of the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry, and is Chairman of the Analytical Chemistry Division of the Chemical Institute of Canada. Prof. Purdy was on the Editorial Advisory Board of Analytical Chemistry and currently is a member of the Board of Editors of Analytica Chimica Acta, Analytical Letters, Clinical Biochemistry, and Pure and Applied Chemistry.
His research interests embrace the application of modern analytical techniques to biological and clinical systems, new detectors for liquid chromatography, the separation and analysis of lipids, and digestion procedures for organic and biological samples. Prof. Purdy is the author or co-author of about 180 publications, including a monograph, Electroanalytical Methods in Biochemistry, published in 1965.He was the recipient of the Chemical Institute of Canada Fisher Scientific Lecture Award in 1982.
Prof. Purdy has directed the research of 33 recipients of the Ph.D. degree and 21 of the M.Sc. degree. At present he has nine students working toward the Ph.D. degree under his direction.
In addition to his many professional responsibilities, Prof. Purdy has found time to participate in community activities. He is chairman of the Board of Governors of the Trafalgar School for Girls in Montreal and a ruling elder in the Kirksession of the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul. He sings in the church choir and in a choir that gives about eight major concerts a year with orchestras such as the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.