Professor Canty is an outstanding contributor to the expanding field of organometallic chemistry, especially of the heavier elements. His early work was concerned mainly with the interaction of organomercury compounds with biologically important molecules, such as amino-acids and DNA bases, and provides essential information relevant to the action of methylmercury in the environment. In the last twelve years, he has synthesised and characterised the first reasonably stable er-bonded alkyls of palladium(JV), compounds that are relevant to current lively discussions of the mechanisms of numerous organic reactions catalysed by palladium compounds.