Article

John Convey

Published Online December 9, 2007

Last Edited December 16, 2013

John Convey, metallurgist (b at Craghead, Eng 29 Mar 1910; d at Toronto 14 Jan 2006). Having immigrated to Alberta in 1929, he later moved to Ontario, where he earned a PhD in atomic physics at the University of Toronto in 1940.

Convey, John

John Convey, metallurgist (b at Craghead, Eng 29 Mar 1910; d at Toronto 14 Jan 2006). Having immigrated to Alberta in 1929, he later moved to Ontario, where he earned a PhD in atomic physics at the University of Toronto in 1940. After service in the navy during WWII and a spell of teaching at University of Toronto, he went to Ottawa in 1948 to become chief metallurgist at the federal government's Mines Branch, later renamed the Canada Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology. He served as director 1951-73, and it was under his leadership that the extensive laboratories became an important scientific base for national research into mining, metallurgy and energy resources.

A man of wide interests and a talented raconteur and public speaker, Convey received many honours, including the Blaylock Medal of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, fellowship in the American Society for Metals, the Jean P. Carriere Award of the Standards Council of Canada, the John Jenkins Award of the Canadian Standards Association, and the G. MacDonald Young Award from ASM Canada Council in 1989. John Convey retired from the public service in 1974.