Browse "Science & Technology"

This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on October 4, 2004. Partner content is not updated. David Suzuki was there to explain to Canadians the grand ambitions of the early space program and our Anik satellites.

This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on November 5, 2007. Partner content is not updated. On the afternoon of Tuesday, Oct. 9, emergency crews raced to the provincial cabinet offices on the Vancouver waterfront after a receptionist's hands were left tingling from a suspicious powder in a piece of mail.

David William Schindler, OC, FRSC, FRS, AOE, scientist, limnologist (born 3 August 1940 in Fargo, North Dakota; died 4 March 2021 in Brisco, BC). Schindler was an outspoken researcher who advanced the understanding, protection and conservation of Canada’s fresh waters.

Davidson Black, anatomist, anthropologist (b at Toronto, Ont 25 July 1884; d at Beijing [Peking], China 15 Mar 1934).

Deborah McGregor, Indigenous Knowledge Systems expert, environmentalist, professor (born in Whitefish River First Nation, Birch Island, ON). Deborah McGregor is an Anishinaabe scholar and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) expert. Her work focuses on how Indigenous Knowledges, experiences and voices can be applied to solve environmental problems. McGregor has held roles in both academic institutions and public organizations to address issues related to climate change.

Dennis Hubert Chitty, zoologist (born 18 September 1912 in Bristol, England; died 3 February 2010 in Vancouver, BC ). Educated at University of Toronto and Oxford, he studied rodent populations as a research officer at the Bureau of Animal Population, Oxford, 1935-61.

Derek York, geophysics professor, science writer (b at Normanton, Yorkshire, Eng 12 Aug 1936; d at Toronto, 9 Aug 2007). A leader in the field of potassium-argon dating of rock, Derek York was a foreign principal investigator for NASA during the Apollo missions to the moon.

John Richard (Dick) Bond, OC, OOnt, FRS, FRSC, cosmologist (born 15 May 1950 in Toronto, ON). Bond is known for his work in astrophysics and cosmology, especially for his investigations of the early universe. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada has described him as “a Godfather of Canada’s now vibrant internationally recognized theoretical cosmology community.”

Dominique François Gaspard, physician and community builder (born 22 December 1884 in New Orleans, Louisiana; died 6 February 1938 in Montreal, QC). Gaspard was a respected doctor and a trailblazer in Montreal’s Black district. After serving with distinction at a field hospital during the First World War, he devoted himself to medical practice in Montreal. He also worked to create social and intellectual outlets for Black men in the city. A bilingual Catholic, he was unique in the city’s early-20th-century anglophone Protestant Black community. His story speaks of a complexity of language, ethnicity and migration not often explored in narratives of Quebec’s English-speaking and Black communities.

Donald Allan Ramsay, CM, FRSC, FRS, physicist (born 11 July 1922 in London, England; died 25 October 2007 in Ottawa, ON).

Donald Alfred Chant, OC, FRSC, scientist, educator, environmentalist, executive (born 30 September 1928 in Toronto, ON; died 23 December 2007 in Kingston, ON). Chant was one of the foremost experts on the phytoseiid family of predatory mites. A professor of zoology and administrator at the University of Toronto, he was also a prominent environmental leader and advocate.

Donald Frank Stedman, scientist (b at Tunbridge Wells, Eng 4 Apr 1900; d at Ottawa 2 May 1967). Primarily a chemist, he was one of the earliest staffers of the NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL (1930).

Donald James Le Roy, physical chemist, science adviser (b at Detroit, Mich 5 Mar 1913; d at Ottawa 1 Nov 1985). After gaining his PhD at the University of Toronto (1939), he joined E.W.R.

Donald McKay, designer and builder of clipper ships (b at Jordan Falls, NS 4 Sept 1810; d at Hamilton, Mass 20 Sept 1880). As a boy he learned the shipbuilder's trade in his father's and uncle's shipyards on the Jordan River.

Donald Olding Hebb, psychologist (b at Chester, NS 22 July 1904; d at Halifax, 20 Aug 1985). He was a brilliant pupil who completed grades 1 to 4 in one year and 5 to 6 the next. But school proved too easy, and when he graduated from Dalhousie, his record was undistinguished.