Michael A. Brook

Mike Brook Mike Brook is a Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. He received a B.Sc. with Honours from the University of Toronto in 1978, and a Ph.D. from McGill University in 1983 where he worked in the group of Tak Hang (Bill) Chan, and then did a postdoc at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich from 1984 to 1985 with Dieter Seebach.

Brook is an expert in silicon, silica and silicone chemistry. He wrote the solely authored book Silicon in Organic, Organometallic and Polymer Chemistry (Wiley) in 2000 and was Americas editor of Silicon Chemistry. His main interests revolve around the application of silicon chemistry to materials science, particularly in interfacial control for biomedical applications. Currently, his research has three main axes: manipulation of silicone elastomers for improved biocompatibility (including drug delivery and surface properties), developing silicone surfactants to structure growth of metal nanofoams and silicone hydrogels, and developing synthetic strategies to create high molecular weight silicones with explicit structural control.

Brook has served on Expert Advisory Panels on Breast Implants for the Therapeutic Products Directorate of the Health Canada (the approximate equivalent of the Food and Drug Administration FDA in the United States) in 2002 and 2005. He was also an external expert reviewer for select screening level risk assessments for Environment Canada in 2010. Brook also consults extensively.

Honors and Awards

Prof. Brook has been recognized with honours and awards for both his research and teaching accomplishments.  He was nominated 7 times by the McMaster student union for a teaching award and won twice, and was winner of the President's Award for Instruction. He has been a visiting professor at 6 different universities (National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland; Adelaide, Australia; Lyon, France; Bordeaux, France; Toulouse, France and Amsterdam, The Netherlands).  He has been honoured to receive the following awards: CSIRO Distinguished Visiting Scientist, Melbourne Australia (2011); ETS Walton Visiting Research Professor (Science Foundation Ireland)(2007); Killam Fellowship (Canada Council of the Arts)(2003-2004); The Synergy Award, Conference Board of Canada, NSERC (with Mark R. McDermott and Connaught Laboratories, now Sanofi-aventis)(1996); Dutch National Science Foundation Foreign Researchers Award (NWO Bezoekersbeurs)(1992-93).

Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology Faculty

Email: mabrook at mcmaster.ca
Phone: +1 (905) 525-9140 ext 23483
Fax: +1 (905) 522-2509
Office: 459 Arthur Bourns Building (contact main office at room 156)

Mailing address:
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
McMaster University
1280 Main St. W.
Hamilton ON Canada L8S 4M1.