Faculty of Science interdisciplinary researcher honoured with Killam Award

Back when Peter Tieleman was a student, the use of computer modelling technologies in molecular biosciences was still a unique area.

Twenty-seven years later, as computers have become orders of magnitude faster, the professor in the Faculty of Science has become an internationally renowned expert in his field.

“I enjoy computers, and I enjoy the interdisciplinary nature of what we do,” Dr. Peter Tieleman, PhD, says in an interview. “We draw on physics and chemistry, statistics, computer science to study biological or biochemistry or biomedical problems.”

He and his work are now being recognized with a 2025 Killam Research Excellence Award — an honour presented annually to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to research.

“It’s nice. It recognizes the journey from fundamental physical chemistry to biomedical applications,” says Tieleman, who holds a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Molecular Simulation.

Tieleman was among those honoured at this year’s UCalgary Killam Awards luncheon on Oct. 22.

Excellence in research and leadership

Tieleman’s excellence in research and leadership has been recognized by many awards throughout his career.

Most recently, he was named as a fellow of the Biophysical Society of Canada. The honour acknowledges his ground-breaking work in simulating complex membrane systems, which has transformed the scientific understanding of lipid bilayers and biological membranes.

He has also helped to develop MARTINI, a powerful tool that has become an essential resource for researchers worldwide, that enables the study of complex biosystems.

“It allows simulations that are 100 to 1,000 times faster,” he explains. 

Tieleman notes that his research areas are wide ranging.

“It’s partly computational methods to do models of biomolecules, partly biophysical problems related to cell membranes, and, at the moment, increasingly we are part of larger collaborations that are looking at molecular mechanisms of disease. 

“This year alone we have papers that are related to antimicrobial resistance, cardiac arrythmia, cancer and kidney disease.”

Tieleman has had more than 280 publications in his career, with more than 40,000 citations, meaning his work has a profound and far-reaching influence on biophysics.

‘Field re-defining insights’

Dr. Kristin Baetz, Dean of the Faculty of Science, says in a nomination letter that Tieleman has “repeatedly contributed field re-defining insights and tools that continue to shape our understanding of how cell membranes function.”

His work on membranes has led to applications in vaccine design and cancer treatment.

Tieleman, as an early innovator in computational simulation, has also been a strong advocate for improving the computing resources available to Canadian researchers.

His leadership and mentorship in molecular biosciences are also notable, supervising or co-supervising about 30 graduate students, 35 postdoctoral fellows and 35 undergraduate students since 2000.

Baetz says he has been a strong leader and researcher in the Faculty of Science for many years.

“Dr. Peter Tieleman’s exceptional research contributions have had a profound impact on the bioscience community and have allowed for medical advances such as mRNA vaccines that improve health care,” says Baetz.

Tieleman says computer modelling played a part in developing mRNA vaccines, and adds that the technology is becoming widely useful for biotechnology applications and drug design.

“It’s only getting better,” he says.