Quastel, J. H. (Juda Hirsch)

Juda Quastel is remembered for his important scientific research contributions in cancer, soil metabolism, cell metabolism, and neurochemistry. Born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England in 1899, Quastel began his successful career in the life sciences as a lab assistant at the St. Georges Hospital for the British Army from 1917-1919. Quastel studied chemistry at Imperial College London and pursued graduate work at Cambridge University. He received a PhD in biochemistry in 1924 followed by a doctorate of science in 1926; additionally, by 1930 Quastel became the Director of Research at Cardiff City Mental Hospital and began to research the metabolism and enzymology of the brain. In 1941 the Agricultural Research Council contacted Quastel to research crop yields because of the deficiencies of food supplies. In 1947, Quastel became Assistant Director of McGill University-Montreal General Hospital Research Institute and professor and then the director of the institute in 1948 while supervising 70 PhD candidates. Quastel, although retired, came to UBC in 1966 to become a professor in neurochemistry in the Department of Psychiatry. Over his career, significant honors for Quastel included earning an honorary doctorate of science from McGill University in 1969, receiving the Companionship of the Order of Canada and an honorary doctorate at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1970, as well as becoming an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1983. Quastel was widowed by his first wife Henrietta Quastel in 1973 and himself passed away in 1987 leaving behind a second wife Susan Ricardo, three children (Michael, David, Barbara) and eleven grandchildren.