Article

David Arnold Keys

Published Online February 7, 2008

Last Edited December 16, 2013

David Arnold Keys, physicist (b at Toronto 4 Nov 1890; d at Ottawa 28 Oct 1977). He was a much-loved professor at McGill 1922-47 and thereafter the "mayor of Chalk River" - administrative manager of the Canadian atomic project. After research on antisubmarine warfare with J.C.

Keys, David Arnold

David Arnold Keys, physicist (b at Toronto 4 Nov 1890; d at Ottawa 28 Oct 1977). He was a much-loved professor at McGill 1922-47 and thereafter the "mayor of Chalk River" - administrative manager of the Canadian atomic project. After research on antisubmarine warfare with J.C. MCLENNAN in WWI, Keys earned PhDs at both Harvard and Cambridge before joining the McGill physics department in 1922, where he became Macdonald research professor in 1941. His own special field was geophysics, for which he wrote one of the earliest textbooks in 1929.

During WWII he was research director of the bureau of technical personnel and organized special classes at McGill that trained 2000 radar technicians for the RCAF. The NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL appointed Keys vice-president in charge of the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories in 1947 and he retired in 1961 after serving as London liaison officer for ATOMIC ENERGY OF CANADA LTD.