Sponsored by the University of Ottawa, Merck, the CSC Organic Chemistry Division
The Keith Fagnou Award is presented to a scientist residing in Canada who has made a distinguished contribution to organic chemistry while working in Canada. Eligible candidates must have received their Ph.D. no more than 12 years prior at the time of initial nomination.
The 2026 awards are now open for submission.
Nominate yourself or a colleague deserving of recognition.
Press release: Award winners will be recognized at the x2026 Conference.
View the Terms of Reference and list of Past Winners
The 2025 winner of the Keith Fagnou Award is:
David Leitch, MCIC
University of Victoria
Dave grew up on Vancouver Island, BC, and obtained both his B.Sc. (2004) and Ph.D. (2010) at the University of British Columbia. His thesis with Prof. Laurel Schafer focused on organozirconium chemistry and hydroamination catalysis. He then held postdoctoral positions at McGill University (2010-2012, Arndtsen group), and Caltech (2012-2014, Bercaw group) as an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow.
Making a pivot into industrial R&D, Dave joined GlaxoSmithKline’s Catalysis Center of Excellence at Research Triangle Park, NC in 2014, and moved with the group to the Pennsylvania R&D hub in 2015. There he became group leader of the re-christened Chemical Catalysis group (2016-2018), as well as the Continuous Primary group (2017-2018) within Process Chemistry R&D.
In January 2019, Dave returned to Vancouver Island (as all islanders tend to do), joining the Department of Chemistry at the University of Victoria as an Assistant Professor. In 2023, he was promoted with tenure to Associate Professor, and was also named a Cottrell Scholar by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement. His research group focuses on mapping chemical reaction space using high-throughput experimentation, and developing new catalysts and catalytic reactions for sustainable complex molecule synthesis.