Browse "Science & Technology"

This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on April 13, 1998. Partner content is not updated.

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.

David Boyle, blacksmith, teacher, archaeologist, museologist, historian (b at Greenock, Scot 1 May 1842; d at Toronto, Ont 14 Feb 1911). Although apprenticed as a blacksmith on arriving in Canada in 1856, Boyle became internationally prominent as Canada's premier archaeologist before WWI.

David Douglas, botanist (b at Scone near Perth, Scotland 25 July 1799; d in Hawaii 12 July 1834). Douglas became an apprentice gardener at age 11; at 20 he moved to the Botanic Gardens, Glasgow, and at 23 became a collector for the Horticultural Society of London in North America.

David Ernest Hornell, VC, clerk, pilot (born 26 January 1910 in Toronto, Ontario; died 25 June 1944 at sea near the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean). During the Second World War, Hornell was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross (VC) for his heroic actions in sinking a German submarine and encouraging his crewmates after their plane was shot down. He was the first member of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) to receive the VC.

David Howard Harrison, physician, politician, farmer, businessman, premier of Manitoba (b at London, Canada W 1 June 1843; d at Vancouver 8 Sept 1905).

David Laurence Thomson Smith, veterinarian, teacher (b at Regina 18 Apr 1914; d at Saskatoon 15 Nov 1983). After serving in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps in WWII, he joined the faculty of the Ontario Veterinary College in 1946, and was head of pathology and bacteriology there 1955-63.

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.

David Takayoshi Suzuki, CC, OBC, geneticist, broadcaster, environmental activist (born 24 March 1936 in Vancouver, BC). A Canadian of Japanese parentage, Suzuki was interned with his family during the Second World War and later became one of Canada’s most popular scientists and media personalities. He is known for his career as a broadcaster (including the CBC TV series The Nature of Things) as well as his work as an environmental activist.

This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on October 4, 2004. Partner content is not updated.

This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on November 5, 2007. Partner content is not updated.

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

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.