Peter J. Roach

Dr. Peter J. Roach, Distinguished Professor of Indiana University
June 8, 1948 – March 11, 2022
Peter J. Roach, 73, of Indianapolis, IN, passed away on March 11, 2022, holding hands with his wife Anna. Peter was born in Rangeworthy in South Gloucestershire, England on June 8, 1948. The son of a Royal Air Force officer, Peter and his family moved several times during his childhood, eventually settling in Elgin in Moray, Scotland. Peter completed his secondary education at the Elgin Academy and earned BSc (Hons) and Ph.D. degrees in Biochemistry from the University of Glasgow. Peter came to the United States for his post-doctoral training, first at UCLA with Daniel E. Atkinson where he studied energy metabolism and then at the University of Virginia with Dr. Joseph Larner where he worked on the regulation of glycogen synthase. During his career, Peter received many accolades, both as a faculty member and as a mentor, including being named Chancellor’s Professor of IUPUI in 2000 and Distinguished Professor of Indiana University in 2008. He published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers in his career and held the longest funded research grant at Indiana University of 41 years from the National Institutes of Health. Peter earned international recognition for his studies on glycogen metabolism and its regulation. No other laboratory in the world has made more groundbreaking discoveries in this area. In the last fifteen years, his glycogen expertise led him to studies of Lafora Disease where he made outstanding contributions to the pathology of this deadly childhood disorder.
There were two constants in Peter’s life, an intense interest in the regulation of glycogen metabolism and a true love for Dr. Anna A. DePaoli who he met in Larner’s laboratory in Charlottesville. They celebrated their 46th year of marriage on November 22, 2021. Peter’s laboratory provided one of the best places in the world for training graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. He received University, Graduate Student and IU Trustee teaching awards.
He was the founding PI and Director of a T32 Training Grant in Diabetes and Obesity. Peter’s approach to student training is a model for all faculty members not only at Indiana University, but throughout the world. Eighteen students have earned Ph.D. or MS degrees and twenty postdoctoral fellows studied under his direction several of which went on to highly successful careers and one of them recently became a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
Without exception, his students and postdoctoral fellows published their work in high quality peer reviewed journals. An annual department award for excellence in research by a student was frequently awarded to one of his graduate students. This was also true for the departmental award for the most outstanding research paper by a postdoctoral fellow. In recognition of his exceptional mentorship, the Biochemistry graduate students honored him with their outstanding mentor award in 2002. Indeed, Peter was widely loved and respected by his scientific “children”, his former graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, many of whom credit their success to the supportive culture of excellence that Peter exhibited and instilled in them for their own careers. Peter loved Anna, glycogen metabolism, poetry, a good party, playing the guitar, good food, and good libations. Peter and Anna’s home was the site of many memorable events where colleagues became family and friends.
He is survived and sorely missed by his wife Anna as well as his dogs Tank and Julie, his brother Bob and nephews Michael and Andrew who live in the United Kingdom and all his friends in Indianapolis and around the world.

Memorial arrangements:
A celebration of life will be held later this year.

Donations Information
In lieu of flowers, his wife Anna asks that you consider a memorial donation to be used towards graduate student education and a Lectureship in Peter’s name
Gifts can be made to the IU foundation in memory of Dr. Peter Roach. They can be done online at https://www.myiu.org/give-now or by mail at PO Box 6460, Indianapolis, IN 46206-6460.