James Collip
James Bertram Collip was a graduate of University of Toronto who first arrived at the University of Alberta in 1915 to assume a position as a lecturer in biochemistry and physiology. Interestingly, Collip's work outside the University of Alberta - as part of the research team that discovered insulin - has earned him a solid place in the University of Alberta history books.Collip had made his way back to the University of Toronto during a sabbatical from the University of Alberta in 1921 when, through the Professor of Physiology at the University of Toronto, J.J.R. Macleod, he met Dr Frederick Banting and Banting's assistant, Charles Best. Learning of Banting's project to investigate the function of certain parts of the human pancreas, Collip joined the team in December of that year. Banting and Best managed to isolate an extract from the pancreas that helped regulate blood sugar levels. Collip's work involved the refining of this extract, insulin, so that it could be used by human diabetic patients.
Though the story of the discovery of insulin remains a controversial one to the present day, due in part to the fact that Collip was not officially listed in the Nobel Prize that was received by Frederick Banting and J.J.R. Macleod for the discovery of insulin (neither was Banting's partner, Charles Best), Collip was hailed in Alberta for his efforts. The University of Alberta placed Collip as Professor and Head of the Biochemistry Department, a position he held until he left the University of Alberta in 1927. He died on June 19, 1965 at the age of 72.