Prof. Sunney Ignatius Chan 5 October 1936 – 5 May 2025
ISMAR mourns the passing of Prof. Sunney I. Chan, an ISMAR Fellow that contributed to fields of both NMR and EPR. He died in Taiwan on May 5, 2025 at the age of 88.
Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
The following tribute was written by Prof. James Prestegard
Sunney was born in San Francisco, had his early education in a Jesuit School in Hong Kong and then returned to the U.S. for pursuit of his B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry, both at the University of California, Berkeley. He subsequently pursued postdoctoral studies at Harvard with Norman Ramsey. This was his introduction to magnetic resonance, although in the gas phase, and not with the high field magnets that dominate today’s research. This pathway engendered him with a love for science, a respect for humanity and a desire to educate that would stay with him throughout his career.
Chan group and Sunney (right front) outside Crellin Lab at Caltech – 1967
Sunney’s academic career began as an Assistant Professor at the University of California Riverside, but he soon moved to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) where he rose to occupy the George Grant Hoag Professorship in Biophysical Chemistry. These years at Caltech were amazingly productive with many research contributions involving the application of both NMR and EPR to systems of biological importance. His early work involved using NMR to characterize molecular interactions underlying the formation of nucleic acid helices and lipid bilayers. More recently, he used EPR to characterize electron transport by cytochrome oxidase and catalysis by methane monooxygenase. He also trained graduate students, postdocs and visiting scientists; a number that Sunney estimated to be over 200 in 20091. His interest in education extended to undergraduates as well. In fact, he and his wife, Irene, lived on campus and Sunney served as “Master of Student Housing” for a time. Sunney’s son, Michael, also followed Sunney into an academic career. Michael served as Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at The Ohio State University until his move to the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2012. There he accepted a role as Director of Life Sciences and is currently Professor of Life Sciences. Sunney was very proud of both Michael and his own role in educating future scientists.
Sunney retired from Caltech in the late 90’s and became Professor Emeritus in 2002. However, his achievements did not stop at that point. He and Irene moved to Taiwan with the goal of enhancing Taiwan's academic reputation and international competitiveness. Sunney set up research teams at both Academia Sinica and National Taiwan University. In Taiwan he trained many more students and extended his work on methane monooxygenase to the development of a synthetic catalyst capable of efficient conversion of methane into methanol. In 2021 he was recognized for his efforts by the award of Taiwan’s Presidential Science Award, the highest honor given to scientists in Taiwan. Sunney, and his future contributions to science will be sorely missed.
1 Chan, S. I.: A Physical Chemist’s Expedition to Explore the World of Membrane Proteins, Annual Review of Biophysics, 38, 1–27, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.biophys.050708.133713, 2009.