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Sir John William Dawson Medal
- 2011 - Keith W. Hipel, FRSC
- 2009 - Kenneth G. Standing, FRSC
- 2007 - Roderick Alexander Macdonald, FRSC
- 2005 - Jean-Charles Chebat, MSRC
- 2003 - Martin L. Friedland, FRSC
- 2001 - Maurice Ptito, MSRC
- 1999 - Guy Rocher, C.C., MSRC
- 1997 - David M. Regan, FRSC
- 1995 - Pierre Dansereau, C.C., MSRC
- 1993 - J. Fraser Mustard, C.C., FRSC
- 1991 - Ursula M. Franklin, C.C., FRSC
- 1989 - Henry G. Thode, C.C., FRS, FRSC
- 1987 - Gérard Dion, O.C., MSRC
- 1987 - F. Kenneth Hare, C.C., FRSC
Top of Page2011 - Keith W. Hipel, FRSC
Keith Hipel, University Professor of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo and Senior Fellow with the Centre for International Governance Innovation, is globally renowned in a variety of domains for his unique interdisciplinary research in Systems Engineering on the development of Conflict resolution, multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA), time series analysis and other decision-making methodologies for addressing challenging system of systems problems lying at the interface of society, science, technology and the environment, with applications in water resources, environmental engineering, sustainable development, and elsewhere. He and his coworkers are the originators of the graph model for conflict resolution which includes a novel theoretical structure for modeling the key characteristics of conflict described in the social sciences, unique preference elicitation methods for capturing stakeholder's value systems, operational techniques for handling preference uncertainty and strength of preference, stability concepts for analyzing different kinds of human behavior in strategic decision making situations, determination of the influence of emotions and attitudes in conflict, coalition analysis for reaching cooperative win/win resolutions, extensive implementation algorithms, and a decision support system for permitting practical applications in diverse fields. Contributions made to the field of MCDA include designing a new method for classifying alternatives into nominal groups, and flexible screening techniques for eliminating inferior alternative solutions when selecting the best alternative among potential choices which are evaluated according to societal, environmental, economic and other criteria. Hipel's research on time series analysis has significantly impacted the field of stochastic hydrology by providing rigorous stochastic approaches to environmental impact assessment as well as simulating and forecasting hydrological phenomena.
2009 - Kenneth G. Standing, FRSC
Kenneth Standing is internationally renowned for innovations in time-of- flight mass spectrometry that have provided significant improvements in methods for characterizing large biomolecules. These in turn have led to productive interdisciplinary collaborations between his laboratory and instrument scientists, biochemists, biologists, and agricultural scientists.
2007 - Roderick Alexander Macdonald, FRSC
A Member of the Royal Society of Canada (1996) and a Trudeau Fellow (2004), Professor Roderick Macdonald is a prodigious scholar whose contribution to an almost impossibly wide range of social and legal issues has attracted attention across the English-speaking world as well as in Europe, and placed him in the very first rank of academics internationally. Engaging with history, literary theory, philosophy, aesthetics, anthropology, semiotics, sociology and political economy, he has challenged and re-challenged our understanding of law as well as its connection to social structures and the social imagination. No other author has opened up such a radical inquiry into the relationship between law and society. In the process he has given us new reasons to care about this relationship.
2005 - Jean-Charles Chebat, MSRC
Jean-Charles Chebat, C.Q., MSRC, is Chair Professor at HEC Montréal. His interdisciplinary training allowed him early on in his career to undertake original work linking disciplines that had until then been unconnected. This was recognized by ACFAS fourteen years ago when it awarded Professor Chebat, then only 46 years old, the Jacques-Rousseau Medal for his interdisciplinary research. Professor Chebat’s career was confirmed and enhanced through his interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary work. He has studied the psychology of the environment, psychology of time and personality traits, rhetoric and semiotics, microeconomics and family psychology, and through it all, he has strived to build bridges between compartmentalized disciplines. His research has been articulated around the following areas: persuasion, the individual’s relationship with space, time and social milieu. His studies have often been carried out with multidisciplinary teams and have been published in prestigious and very diverse journals. A prolific academic researcher, he has authored a great number of papers for scientific journals, books and chapters, some of which have been translated into several languages. Many of his articles have become classics and are now included in curricula across the Western universities. His work has influenced and continues to have an impact on a variety of disciplines as attested to by the many quotes of his studies found in diverse publications and by the various scientific journals that welcomed him on their editorial boards. He has received seven Best Paper Awards in scientific conferences, and has been awarded numerous prizes for his research in Canada, the United States and Europe. Elected Fellow of a number of scientific societies, Professor Chebat is frequently invited by foreign universities (France, United Kingdom, Poland, Israel, Japan, etc.). He was elected President of Academy I of the Royal Society of Canada, and has just been granted the distinction of Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Québec.
2003 - Martin L. Friedland, FRSC
Martin Friedland, University of Toronto law professor emeritus, has made important and sustained contributions in a wide range of disciplines. He has published 17 books and numerous articles, most of which have combined law and other disciplines. His first book, Detention Before Trial, published in 1965, used a sociological approach to investigate the bail system in Canada and was primarily responsible for changes in the bail laws. His Cambridge doctoral thesis, Double Jeopardy, published in 1969, employed an historical method in examining the origins of the concept. History has been central to many of his later writings, particularly in his three true crime murder books dealing with events from the turn of the last century. Each sheds light on contemporary issues and each has been widely and favourably reviewed. His most recent book, The University of Toronto: A History, has been universally praised for its readability and its insights on the development of higher education in Canada. Many of his works for government commissions have been of interest to governments and to political scientists. Other disciplines that have contributed to his work have included English literature, economics, linguistics and psychology. His legal work has been cited with approval by the highest courts in Canada, England, and the United States and his extraordinary contributions have been recognized by many honours.
2001 - Maurice Ptito, MSRC
Maurice Ptito, MSRC, School of Optometry and Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, has made major contributions in the fields of Psychology, Medicine, Neuropsychology and Optometry. He has significantly advanced these fields through fundamental research in animals and the application of his discoveries to normal and brain-lesioned humans. His numerous studies of visual anatomy and the physiological properties of visual neurons in various species have made him one of the foremost experts in comparative psychology. His scientific versatility is further evident in his human brain imaging studies to delineate the neural bases of visual motion and stereoscopic depth perception. As a leader in the study of plasticity and recovery of function, he conducted some of the first and only neuroimaging studies to date on the neural substrates underlying residual vision and blindsight. Using animal models to study plasticity in vision, Dr. Ptito has discovered new possibilities for modifying the visual circuitry in order to reestablish visual functions lost due to brain damage. These groundbreaking results, which received extensive media coverage, could have a major impact in the treatment of cortical blindness. Eventually, his work on the role of the corpus callosum in interhemispheric transfer of sensory information in split-brain animals and humans have gained worldwide recognition. The diversity of his achievements put this scientist at the crossroad of disciplines. The medical faculty of the University of Aarhus (Denmark) will bestow on him, in the coming year, the title of Doctor Medecinae.
1999 - Guy Rocher, C.C., MSRC
Guy Rocher, Professor in the Sociology department of the Université de Montréal as well as a Researcher at the university's Centre de recherche en droit public, has also held various other positions relating to his academic interests in the areas of education, culture, health and welfare. He was a member of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Education in the Province of Quebec (Parent Commission) from 1961 to 1966, Deputy Minister of Cultural Development from 1977 to 1979, and Deputy minister of Social Development from 1981 to 1983. His research focuses on the relations between Church and State, social mobility, the theory and history of sociology, academic and career aspirations, language laws in education, law and new technologies, ethics and moral standards in health and medicine, and university research policies. His research has led to the publication of fifteen books, one of which has been translated into six languages and one into five, as well as approximately 185 articles and numerous conference papers and lectures. Guy Rocher is a member of nine Canadian and foreign learned societies in the fields of sociology, sociology of law, law, and bioethics.
1997 - David M. Regan, FRSC
David M. Regan, York University, has made important sustained contributions in the fields of human biology, psychology, and medicine. He has long been noted for the prolific generation of original ideas in these three fields of basic research, and also for applying basic knowledge and technical innovation to solving well-recognized problems in diverse areas including medicine and public safety. His achievements in applying basic knowledge in the support of Canadian industry are evidenced, first by his CAE-NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Vision in Aviation, a position created to facilitate the application of his discoveries in visual perception to the design of the CAE flight simulators that are used worldwide for training airline pilots and second, his position as codirector of the Human Performance in Space Laboratory of the ISTS Centre of Excellence. His contributions as director of the Centre for Vision and Hearing at Dalhousie University were to considerably strengthen research in the Departments of Ophthalmology, Medicine, and Otolaryngology, and to enhance the research training of residents in Ophthalmology and Neurology. His contributions to medicine were recognized by the awarding of a higher doctorate in Science and Medicine by London University. He was the first Canadian to be awarded the Prentice Medal, highest honour of the American Academy, for his contributions to Optometry. He is, perhaps, the world's leading authority on human brain electrophysiology, and one of the world's leading researchers in visual perception.
1995 - Pierre Dansereau, C.C., MSRC
Honorary Professor since 1976 and Professor Emeritus at the Université du Québec à Montréal since 1989, Pierre Dansereau is known as one of the "fathers of ecology". He is among the few Canadian scientists who enjoy a genuine international reputation not only in the scientific community but also in the general public. His renown does not prevent this famous "bare- footed ecologist" from working every day in his office at the university, leaving on missions or making presentations to various audiences in this country and in many other regions of the world. He taught for many years at the University of Michigan, the University of Columbia and the New York Botanical Garden, where he was the Assistant Director and Head of the Department of Ecology. In Quebec, he has lectured at the Université de Montréal, McGill University and the Université du Québec à Montréal.
1993 - J. Fraser Mustard, C.C., FRSC
J. Fraser Mustard, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, has made varied and important contributions to Canadian academic and public life. As a medical scientist, his studies of blood platelets have been essential to the development of knowledge of the vessel changes that lead to heart attacks and strokes. As an academic leader, he was an important force in the founding of the Medical School at McMaster University, and through that effort has had a large impact on medical education. He has shown leadership as the Founding President of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. As its President, he has raised the funds and established the principles that now are expressed in nationwide cooperative work in very large fields such as artificial intelligence. As an advisor to Government, he has served on many important commissions, often as chairperson. The breadth of his accomplishments is strong reason for awarding him the Dawson Medal, since Sir William Dawson himself was a "man for all seasons".
1991 - Ursula M. Franklin, C.C., FRSC
Ursula M. Franklin, University of Toronto, is a distinguished metallurgist who has explored the structures and properties of metals ans alloys, ferromagnetism and the characterization of modern and ancient materials. After a period as Senior Research Scientist for the Ontario Research Foundation, she was a member of the University of Toronto's Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science until 1987. Since 1980 she has been director of the Collegium Archaeometricum at the same university. In 1984 she was elected University Professor, the first woman to hold that honour. Two years later she was asked to serve as director of the Museum Studies Program, which she continued into her retirement when she was also elected University Professor Emerita and Associate Fellow of Massey College. Dr. Franklin has also contributed to the public understanding of the social impact of technology, in part through her affiliation with the University's Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, but also through public talks-for example the 1989 CBC Massey Lecture Series, which have been published and republished, because of their great popularity, as The Real World of Technology. For these and other contributions she has been awarded twelve honorary degrees and many other distinctions. She is an indefatigable promoter of the advancement of women.
1989 - Henry G. Thode, C.C., FRS, FRSC
Henry G. Thode is one of Canada's most distinguished physical scientists and has also contributed an outstanding role as university builder. As a scientist he is best known for seminal experiments in stable isotope research and nuclear fission. A pioneer in both these fields, he is known throughout the world for his discoveries, and has been honoured many times already with medals and honorary degrees (including the Henry Marshall Tory Medal). His explorations on the distribution of the sulphur isotopes, in particular, have contributed to chemistry, physics, geology, biochemistry, cosmochemistry, and environmental science. As president for eleven years, he guided the growth of MacMaster University during the golden age of Canadian institutions of higher education. His leadership led to the evolution of all the faculties of his university as centres of strong scholarly reputation, including establishments of an innovative medical school, and an outstanding research library whose archival resources are world renowned. Already well-known to this Society through many offices which he has held, including its presidency from 1959-60, he is eminently qualified to receive the Dawson Medal.
1987 - Gérard Dion, O.C., MSRC
Given his exceptional career as a social science educator, his publications on all aspects of industrial relations—an essentially multidisciplinary subject field—and his social and religious activity, Gérard Dion is in a way the very incarnation of multidisciplinarity. He is a sociologist by training, yet through his teaching and writing, he has gained expertise in the fields of law, economics, and both individual and social psychology, as is clearly evidenced by his numerous publications. Particularly notable among his activities as an educator is the post he has held for the past forty years as the editor of Industrial Relations, a bilingual Canada-wide journal research methods, while respecting the philosophical, legal and social roots for which it is renowned. Gérard Dion was involved in the political and social evolution of Quebec. His book on Christians and elections had an impact that is remembered by all. His dictionary of industrial relations, Dictionnaire canadien des relations du travail, which has just been re-released in a revised and considerably expanded second edition, is a monument to the tenacity, hard work, erudition, and intellectual range of its author. It is an essential resource for anyone involved in the study or practice of industrial relations in Canada. Just the multiple sections and numerous appendices of this dictionary alone indicate the vastness of Gérard Dion's knowledge and his human and social preoccupations. Mr. Dion has been awarded six honorary doctorates in arts, humanities and law by six different Canadian universities from Antagonish to Vancouver. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada.
1987 - F. Kenneth Hare, C.C., FRSC
F. Kenneth Hare joined the Department of Geography and Meteorology of McGill University in 1946, and his interest in climatology and the north had enormous influence on the development of the subject at McGill. This development attracted scientists in the day when there were virtually no climatologists in Canada, and led to such daring enterprises as the McGill-Jacobsen Expeditions. His early research on northern climate is recognized as the first qualitative examination of climate carried out in Canada and had led to many new concepts, such as the zoning of the boreal forest, climate dynamics and the distribution of open water in the Arctic. This research later expanded to include topics of fundamental meteorology such as atmospheric circulation, ozone distribution and disturbances of the stratosphere. During his career at the University of Toronto, Dr. Hare tirelessly applied his knowledge of basic meteorology and climate to some of the most pressing problems of modern society: atmospheric pollution (acid rain, lead emissions) and the possible catastrophic effects on climate of nuclear explosions.