Professor Andre Simpson of UTSC has been named the 2026 winner of the Ricardo Aroca Award, announced the Chemical Institute of Canada on November 28th.
“Professor Simpson has pioneered NMR development for environmental research. His early work focused on unravelling soil’s chemical structure and understanding contaminant binding,” reads the official CIC announcement. "Since then, he developed real-time in-vivo NMR to understand and explain contaminant toxicity."
The announcement cited several of Simpson’s accomplishments including the discovery of 6PPD-Quinone, (6PPD-Q) a car tire-derived chemical responsible for killing 90% of the world’s wild salmon.
“Andre Simpson is extremely deserving of this award, as he is widely known as the world's leader in environmental NMR.” Professor Lea Beck Casabianca of Clemson University praised the CIC's choice for the Ricardo Aroca Award. “He is not only a great scientist, but also an excellent mentor and collaborator. He has advised more than 40 students, postdocs, and visiting scientists, most of whom have gone on to successful careers in NMR.”
“Most NMR labs either focus on method development or applications, but his lab does both - by developing state-of-the art pulse sequences that improve the technology of NMR as well as applying these pulse sequences to answer relevant and timely environmental questions. Prof. Simpson has developed techniques that improve the sensitivity of NMR and used these techniques to detect perfluorinated compounds in polar bears.”
Casabianca went on to note Simpson’s passion for inclusivity. “Prof. Simpson is committed to improving access to science for people with different abilities and interests, having developed undergraduate labs to teach NMR and technology to improve the chemistry lab experience for students with visual impairments.”
Simpson grew up on a farm in the UK, which he says inspired his interest in the environment. “I studied Chemistry as an undergrad at the University of Birmingham (UK) and did my PhD at the same institution, on analysis of soil extracts, which inspired my career-long interest in NMR.”
After postdocs at Mississippi State and Ohio State, he was appointed as faculty at the University of Toronto in 2002, where he co-founded and directs the Environmental NMR Center at the Scarborough Campus. The Center is famous for being the world premiere site for the development of environmental NMR technology and applications.
“In my spare time, I am an avid songwriter and musician,” he added. “Not only do I enjoy this, but I find the “right side” use of the brain in music writing greatly helps my creativity in research.”
Simpson expressed a sense of honour at winning a Canadian National Award. “It’s heartwarming to know my work is having an impact on both the scientific community and society in general."
The Ricardo Aroca Award is presented to a scientist residing in Canada who has made a distinguished contribution to the field of analytical chemistry while working in the country. Asked about those contributions, Simpson cited two areas of research he was most proud of.
“Firstly, are the novel analytical tools that my group has developed. These allow scientists to generate new molecular-level information on the most complex systems. An example is my work developing Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) of living organisms.”
"NMR is the most powerful tool we have for mapping out bonds and understanding how atoms combine to form molecules. In vivo NMR not only identifies the biochemical perturbations and pathways affected by a stressor, but can also be used to elucidate transformation, bioaccumulation, excretion, and binding mechanisms. This can directly link bioavailability and toxicity to environmental and human health.”
Simpson also took pride in noting the societal impact of his research, with the biggest example being the discovery of the critically important novel compound named 6PPD-Quinone.
The discovery originated with a problem: for two decades the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and collaborators had been trying to find the cause of death of salmon across the U.S. and Canadian West Coast.
“Salmon are preconditioned to return to their place of birth to spawn. But 90% would die in the small rivers, which has been headline news for 2 decades, especially in the Northwest U.S.,” said Simpson.
In looking for the answer, Simpson’s research group was sent some river water fractions by the EPA and the University of Washington.
“This was exactly at the start of Covid, when labs across Canada were closed. As luck would have it, this sample was stuck inside the spectrometer for 6 weeks in a special micro-coil that offers improved NMR sensitivity.”
With labs closed during the early weeks of the lockdown, Simpson was able to work with the spectrometer remotely and had time to map the structures of all the chemicals in the sample.
“A novel chemical 6PPD-Quinone was found and when the chemical structure was sent to the University of Washington and the EPA, it all got very exciting. The work was co-published in 2021 in Science and the chemical is now considered one of the most toxic ever found.”
“One car tire contains enough of a parent chemical 6PPD, to kill 50 billion salmon. This chemical is added in kilogram quantities to vehicle tires to stop rubber cracking, but when deposited on roads, 6PPD reacts with ozone to form 6PPD-Q.”
Since its discovery 6PPD-Q has been discovered all around the world, including in large quantities found after storms, by Environment Canada, in Toronto rivers. It has also been found to be toxic to many species and demonstrates toxic mechanisms not seen before.
“Recently it was found to be ubiquitous in humans’ urine and blood, and it’s shown to cause liver damage, with direct links to many respiratory and neurological diseases,” said Simpson. “The parent compound, 6PPD, is already undergoing a worldwide ban due to this discovery.”
“Ultimately this is the most rewarding part of my research. Banning 6PPD impacts the health of everyone in Canada, from the general population to the First Nations who rely on salmon as a primary food source.”
He jests that this discovery does have one drawback: "Every time I go for a walk with my 10 year old son and he sees a tire in a wetland he insists we dig it out; which if you ever tried is easier said than done!”
Simpson acknowledged many scientific collaborators and contributors to his body of work. “I would like to thank Professor Myrna Simpson who co-founded the Environmental NMR Centre with me and has been a career-long collaborator. I would really like to thank my collaborators at Environment Canada, especially Derek Muir and Robert Letcher who have always been so supportive of my work. I would like to thank the Environmental Chemistry faculty and all my graduate students over my career.”
He expressed gratitude to Bruker Biospin, the world’s largest manufacturer of NMR technology. "Very few environmental researchers use NMR and Bruker has supported my group, even donating much of their demo lab to get me started over 20 years ago. Without this support, I would not be where I am today and could not have made the developments and discoveries I have.”
CFI, NSERC and the Krembil Foundation also provided much-appreciated funding.
Simpson will receive the Ricardo Aroca Award during the Canadian Societies for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering 2026 Conferences and Exhibition (x2026) and will give a symposium presentation at that event. The Conference will be held in Toronto on May 24-28, 2026, at the Metro Toronto Convention Center.