Who was Sugar Ray?
This lesson plan introduces students to the work of Dr. Raymond Lemieux of the University of Alberta. Synthetic sugar was the life’s work of Dr. Lemieux of the University of Alberta, who researched carbohydrates. In 1953, he and another researcher became the first scientists in the world to synthesize sucrose—ordinary sugar. This was considered an important development because the three-dimensional structure of sugar is crucial, and Lemieux and his colleague had discovered a technique that enabled them to reproduce the molecules in perfect 3-D configurations. Later, Lemieux would be the first to synthesize oligosaccarides, a sugar that coats red blood cells, marking an important step in the study of immunology. Over the years, Dr. Lemieux became known by the nickname “Sugar Ray,” for his work. At the U of A, he became a professor and chairman of the division of organic chemistry. Dr. Lemieux’s autobiography, Explorations with Sugars: How Sweet It Was, was published in 1990, and is stil
