QUASTEL, JUDAH HIRSCH

QUASTEL, JUDAH HIRSCH (1899–1987), British biochemist. Quastel, born in Sheffield, was a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge (1924). Quastel was a descendant of Solomon Judah Leib *Rapoport (Shir). He was director of research at the Cardiff City Mental Hospital from 1929 to 1941, and director of the soil metabolism unit of the Agricultural Research Council from 1941 to 1947. In 1947 he went to Canada to become professor of biochemistry at McGill University and director of the McGill-Montreal General Hospital Research Institute. In 1966 he became professor of neurochemistry and biochemistry at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Quastel is recognized as a founder of modern neurochemistry. His fields of research were the chemistry of enzymes, microorganisms and soils, phytobiochemistry, and the biochemistry of mental disorders. In 1970 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada (coc), Canada's highest decoration. In 1974 he was the recipient of the Gairdner International Award for Medical Research, and from 1976 to 1977 was visiting professor at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, London, and in 1979 was appointed honorary president of the International Congress of Biochemistry, Canada.

He was editor and coauthor of Neurochemistry (1955, 1962²), Methods in Medical Research, vols. 8–9 (1960–61), Metabolic Inhibitors, vols. 1–2 (1963–64), vol. 3 (1972) and vol. 4 (1973), and coauthor of The Chemistry of Brain Metabolism inHealth and Disease (1961). Quastel was a fellow of the British Royal Society and of the Royal Society of Canada, and president of the Canadian Biochemical Society. He was on the Board of Governors of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1950 and honorary secretary of the Canadian Friends of The Hebrew University for 19 years.

[Samuel Aaron Miller]