In memoriam: John Edmond
John Edmond, an emeritus professor of biological chemistry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, died Feb. 18 at age 85. He had been a member of the ͵͵ and ͵͵ Biology since 1974.
Edmond was born Jan. 21, 1937, in the village of Fintry, in central Scotland. He went to Glasgow to earn his undergraduate degree and Ph.D. in chemistry, and spent some time as an assistant lecturer at the University of Glasgow. He studied lipids in a basic research lab at Shell Oil in England for several years before being recruited in 1968 to join the biological chemistry department at UCLA.
Edmond remained active in research for more than 30 years, studying developmental neurobiochemistry. He was interested in the need for nutrients to fuel rapid brain growth in newborns; his lab studied neonatal rats and cultured neurons and astrocytes to understand these nutritional demands. Later in his career, he studied the effects of carbon monoxide on the developing brain, demonstrating that even at levels that were then recognized as safe, the gas could permanently damage neurons and cause hearing loss.
"No task was too small to recruit his help," colleagues in his department they wrote about Edmond in March. His commitment to service encompassed years he spent volunteering in many capacities on the university's academic senate, including as chair, along with National Institutes of Health study sections and the editorial board of the Journal of Neuroscience Research.
Edmond is survived by his wife, Lorna; two children; and four grandchildren.
Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?
Become a member to receive the print edition four times a year and the digital edition weekly.
Learn moreGet the latest from ASBMB Today
Enter your email address, and we’ll send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.
Latest in People
People highlights or most popular articles
Guiding grocery carts to shape healthy habits
Robert “Nate” Helsley will receive the Walter A. Shaw Young Investigator in Lipid Research Award at the 2025 ASBMB Annual Meeting, April 12–15 in Chicago.
Leading the charge for gender equity
Nicole Woitowich will receive the ASBMB Emerging Leadership Award at the 2025 ASBMB Annual meeting, April 12–15 in Chicago.
Honors for de la Fuente, Mittag and De La Cruz
César de la Fuente receives the American Society of Microbiology’s Award for Early Career Basic Research. Tanja Mittag and Enrique M. De La Cruz are named fellows by the Biophysical Society.
In memoriam: Horst Schulz
He was a professor emeritus at City College of New York and at the CUNY Graduate Center in Manhattan whose work concentrated on increasing our understanding of mitochondrial fatty acid metabolism and an ASBMB member since 1971.
Computational and biophysical approaches to disordered proteins
Rohit Pappu will receive the 2025 DeLano Award for Computational Biosciences at the ASBMB Annual Meeting, April 12-15 in Chicago.
Join the pioneers of ferroptosis at cell death conference
Meet Brent Stockwell, Xuejun Jiang and Jin Ye — the co-chairs of the ASBMB’s 2025 meeting on metabolic cross talk and biochemical homeostasis research.