Pioneering chemist Michael Lynch was educated in Omagh

MICHAEL Felix Lynch, who died on November 15, was born in Glasgow on February 21, 1932.

His parents, Thomas and Norah Lynch, were both GPs.

The family moved to Omagh when Michael was eight-years-old and lived on the Dublin Road.

A loving husband, father and grandfather, Michael was a kind and generous man. He enjoyed classical music, Irish folk music, travel and spending time with his family and friends.

Michael was educated at the Christian Brothers School in Omagh and then studied Chemistry at University College, getting a BSc in 1954 and a PhD in 1957.

At his father’s suggestion, he won a scholarship for Irish students to study research chemistry in Zurich in 1958 where he spent a year and learnt to speak German.

Michael had a distinguished career initially as a research chemist in Cambridge. He became head of research at Chemical Abstracts Services in Columbus, Ohio and then moved to Sheffield University to the Information Studies department in 1965 where he taught and pioneered research into cheminformatics.

He was appointed a personal chair at 42 and later became an Emeritus Professor. He received the Skolnik Award of the American Chemical Society in 1989.

This award was given ‘for pioneering research of more than two decades on the development of methods for the storage, manipulation, and retrieval of chemical structures and reactions as well as related bibliographic information’.

He supervised 12 doctorate theses at the university and retired in 1995. Michael was Honorary President of the Chemical Structure Association, which awards the triennial CSA Trust Mike Lynch Award in his honour.

In 2018 he and his wife Mary moved permanently to Nova Scotia, Canada from Sheffield and more recently moved to a care home in Calgary, Alberta in July 2024.

Michael’s younger sister Una and his brother Tom both sadly died before him in 2021 and 2020 respectively.

He is a nephew of Louis Lynch and part of the founding family of the Ulster Herald.

Michael is survived by his second wife, Mary Lynch (m 1995), his children Catherine and Kevin and grandchildren Rory, Layla, Jack and Calista. His beloved first wife, Mary Lynch née Moloney died in November 1993.