Famous Canadian Scientists
and InventorsFamous Canadian Scientists
and Inventors
| Astronauts | |
| Chris Hadfield | Astronaut, musician, scientist. Talk about an over-achiever. My Canadian hero |
| Marc Garneau | Astronaut and scientist |
| Roberta Bondar | Astronaut and scientist |
| Other | |
| James Gosling | Inventor of Java |
| David Suzuki | Geneticist, science broadcaster, "The Nature of Things" |
| HSM Coxeter | World renowned mathematician, developer of Coxeter groups |
| J.C. Fields | Mathematician, founder of the Shields Medal |
| David Levy | Astronomer, comet hunter, discovered Shoemaker-Levy comet that hit Jupiter |
| Chemists | |
| Gerhard Gerzberg | chemist, 1971 Nobel Prize |
| Heny Taube | chemist, 1983 Nobel Prize |
| John Polyanyi | chemist, 1986 Nobel Prize |
| Michael Smith | chemist, 1993 Nobel Prize |
| William Francis Giauque | chemist, 1949 Nobel Prize |
| Rudolph Marcus | chemist, 1992 Nobel Prize |
| Sidney Altman | chemist, 1989 Nobel Prize |
| Physicists | |
| John F. Allen | physicist, co-discoverer of superfluidity |
| Richard Taylor | physicist, 1990 Nobel Prize |
| Arthur Schawlow | physicist, 1981 Nobel Prize |
| Bertram Brockhouse | physicist, 1994 Nobel Prize |
| Economist | |
| Andrew Michael Spence | economist, 2001 Nobel Prize |
| Myron Scholes | economist, 1997 Nobel Prize |
| William Vickrey | economist, 1996 Nobel Prize |
| Medicine | |
| Norman Bethune | medical doctor, more known in China than in Canada, hero to the Chinese. |
| Sir William Osler | "most influential physician in history" |
| David Hubel | 1981 Nobel Prize in medicine |
| Frederic Banting | Discovered insulin, won Nobel Prize for Medicine |
| Charles Best | did much of work with Banting to discover insulin, did not win Nobel Prize |
Inventors and Inventions
| Alkaline Battery | Lewis Urry | 1959 | |
| Ardox Spiral Nail | Allan Dove | 1954 | |
| Basketball | James Naismith | 1892 | |
| Birch Bark Canoe | First Peoples | ||
| Auto Lubricating Cup | Elijah McCoy (son of former slaves) | 1872 | |
| Blackberry | Mike Lazaridis | 1999 | |
| Bloody Caesar | Walter Chell | 1969 | |
| Canadarm | Spar AeroSpace NRC | 1975 | |
| Caulking Gun | Theodore Witte | 1894 | |
| Cobalt-60 Cancer Treatment | Harold Johns | 1951 | |
| CPR-Mannequin | Dianne Croteau, Richard Brault | 1989 | |
| Crash Position Indicator | Harry Stevinson | 1957 | |
| Electric Shaver | Jacob Schick | 1923 | |
| Electric Oven | Thomas Ahearn | 1882 | |
| Electric Wheelchair | George Klein | 1952 | |
| Electron Microscope | James Hillier, Arthur Prebus | 1939 | |
| Electronic Music Synthesizer | Hugh Le Caine | 1945 | |
| Explosives Vapour Detector | Lorne Elias | 1985 | |
| Five Pin Bowling | Thomas E. Ryan | 1908 | |
| Fog Horn | Robert Foulis | 1853 | |
| Goalie Mask | Jacques Plante | 1959 | |
| Green Garbage Bag | Harry Wasylyk, Larry Hansen | 1950 | |
| G-suit | Wilbur Rounding Franks | 1941 | |
| Instant Mashed Potatoes | Edward Asselbergs | 1962 | |
| Instant Replay | CBC Hockey Night in Canada | 1955 | |
| Insulin | Frederik Banting, Charles Best | 1921 | |
| Java Programming Language | James Arthur Gosling | 1994 | |
| Key Frame Animation | Nestor Burtnyk, Marcelli Wein, NRC scientists | 1970 | Won Academy Award in 1997 |
| Lacrosse | First Peoples | ||
| Light bulb | Henry Woodward, Mathew Evans | 1874 | |
| Marine Screw Propeller | John Patch | 1833 | |
| Marquis Wheat | Sir Charles Saunders | 1908 | |
| Pablum | Alan Brown, Theodore Drake, Fred Tisdall | 1930 | |
| Pacemaker | John Hopps, Wilfred Bigelow, John Callahan | 1950 | |
| Paint Roller | Norman Breakey | 1940 | |
| Plexiglass | William Chalmers, McGill U. | 1931 | |
| Poutine | Fernand Lachance | 1957 | |
| Radio voice Transmission | Reginald Fessenden | 1900 | First wireless voice transmission in 1900 |
| Robertson Screw | Peter Robertson | 1908 | The best screw ever developed. |
| Self-propelled Combine Harvester | Thomas Carroll | 1937 | |
| Separable Baggage Check | John Mitchell Lyons | 1882 |