June 21, 2025 | This article will appear in Volume 61, Issue 1
ASP member Mark O’Neil-Johnson passed away in Saint Louis, Missouri from lymphoma on December 11, 2024. He is fondly remembered for his smiling face, passion for natural products, and significant contributions to planning several ASP annual meetings.
ASP President, Dr. Joseph Betz, said, “On behalf of the ASP, I’d like to express my condolences to the family and friends of colleague, Mark O’Neil-Johnson. His expertise in NMR spectroscopy for small molecules was critical to his success at Bruker and Sequoia companies. His ability to help organize ASP meetings in several cities was very much appreciated by the membership. He will be greatly missed.”
O’Neil-Johnson began his career performing total synthesis of natural products under Professor John McMurry at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He transitioned to industry at IBM Research and later joined IBM Instruments at its inception, where he helped launch the San Jose Demonstration Laboratory. He then moved to Bruker Instruments, where he established the West Coast NMR Demonstration facility in the San Jose area.
“Thinking of Mark O’Neil-Johnson, I see a smiling face, a ready jokester, an exceptional NMR specialist, and most importantly, a kind and caring person.” -Toni Kutchan, PhD
At the inception of Sequoia Sciences in San Diego, O’Neil-Johnson became a scientific co-founder and natural products chemist, eventually serving as Vice President of Analytical Chemistry at Sequoia Vaccines from 2012 onward. At Sequoia, he developed the company’s platform technologies and built advanced analytical capabilities for the structure characterization group, pushing the boundaries of structure elucidation to the microgram scale. He also led collaborations with pharmaceutical and consumer companies to explore applications of Sequoia’s plant compound library.
O’Neil-Johnson played a vital role in keeping Sequoia’s highly specialized equipment operational – continually repairing, rebuilding, and sourcing backup parts and equipment. It is fair to say, he was the face of Sequoia Sciences, presenting research at scientific conferences across the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Sequoia Sciences owes its more than 25 years of existence, in part, to his hard work and dedication.
Dr. Toni Kutchan wrote, “Thinking of Mark O’Neil-Johnson, I see a smiling face, a ready jokester, an exceptional NMR specialist, and most importantly, a kind and caring person. Gary Eldridge of Sequoia Sciences put me in touch with Mark to help with a natural product structure problem. Sequoia was just up the road from the Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, where my lab was located. What ensued were years of collaboration with many a lively discussion and excellent structure determinations on minute quantities of enzymatic product. Mark was keenly interested in natural products, and in the young scientists who pursued careers in the field. He readily helped young local scientists advance their careers with a well-placed phone call or email that resulted in a good job. We will all miss his smiling face.”
O’Neil-Johnson had over 20 years of experience in the field of NMR spectroscopy and the application of NMR to chemical characterization. He was deeply committed to the scientific community and to volunteer service, especially to the ASP. He served as issue editor for special editions of Planta Medica covering the 2012, 2013, and 2014 annual meetings of the ASP, and he was also an editor for Planta Medica Letters. O’Neil-Johnson was the co-chair and scientific chair for the 2013 ASP annual meeting in Saint Louis, MO and taught specialized ASP workshops on the handling of small amounts of material for NMR spectroscopy.
ASP Honorary Member Dr. Edward Kennelly remembers working with Mark when organizing the 2012 annual meeting. “I got to know Mark while planning the 2012 International Congress on Natural Products Research held in New York City. Although Mark was based in St. Louis at Sequoia Sciences, he regularly attended the planning meetings in-person at the New York Botanical Garden, and I could sense his great love of natural products and New York City. He was tasked with putting together the meeting abstract book, together with colleagues at Thieme Publishing Group, and his ‘big reveal’ was a stunning special issue of Planta Medica with the iconic image of the Statue of Liberty on the cover. I will miss Mark’s deep commitment to ASP and natural products research—and New York City.”
On behalf of the ASP, I’d like to express my condolences to the family and friends of our colleague Mark O’Neil-Johnson. He will be sorely missed.