Louis Siminovitch

Louis "Lou" Siminovitch, CC OOnt FRSC FRS (born May 1, 1920) is a Canadian molecular biologist. He was a pioneer in human genetics, researcher into the genetic basis of muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis, and helped establish Ontario programs exploring genetic roots of cancer.

Louis (Lou) Siminovitch
Born	(1920-05-01) May 1, 1920 Montreal, Quebec
Alma mater	McGill University
Known for	Molecular biology, genetics
Awards	Order of Canada Order of Ontario Flavelle Medal (1978)
Scientific career
Institutions	Ontario Cancer Institute Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute Samuel Lunenfeld Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital University of Toronto
Notable students	Joyce Taylor-Papadimitriou

Born in Montreal, Quebec to parents who had emigrated from Eastern Europe, he won a scholarship in chemistry to McGill University, earning a doctorate in 1944. He then studied at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. In 1953 he joined Toronto's Connaught Medical Research Laboratories. Later he joined the University of Toronto and worked there from 1956 to 1985.[1] One of his doctoral students was Joyce Taylor-Papadimitriou.

He helped establish the Department of Genetics at the Hospital for Sick Children as geneticist in chief, where he worked from 1970 to 1985. From 1983 to 1994 he was the founding director of research at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital (Toronto). He is the founder and the first Chair of the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto, then called Department of Medical Cell Biology. [2]

He is the author or coauthor, at last count, of over 147 scientific papers, reviews, and articles in journals and books.

He married Elinore, a playwright who died in 1995. They had three daughters. The annual Elinore & Lou Siminovitch Prize in Theatre is named in his and his wife's honour. [1]