The Royal Society of Canada has awarded the 2017 Sir John William Dawson Medal to UBC fisheries researcher Daniel Pauly and the Rutherford Memorial Medal in Physics to astronomer Ingrid Stairs.
Pauly is a fisheries biologist and Principal Investigator of the Sea Around Us Project, a large research project devoted to identifying and quantifying global fisheries trends. Pauly is also co-founder of FishBase.org, the online encyclopedia of more than 30,000 fish species. In 2017, he was named Chevalier de la Légion D’Honneur.
Stairs is one of world’s leading experts on pulsars and has made significant contributions to radio astronomy instrumentation. In 2017, she was honored with a Martin Award from the Canadian Astronomical Society. She was involved in the development of instrumentation for the innovative CHIME radio telescope.
The Sir John William Dawson Medal was established in 1985 by the RSC to honour the man who was its first President (1882-1883) and who was the foremost Canadian scientist and educator of his day: geologist, naturalist, teacher, author, man of religion, educational administrator and promoter of learning.
The Rutherford Memorial Medals were established in 1980 by the RSC in memory of Lord Rutherford of Nelson, a great scientist and a leader in nuclear research. They replace the Rutherford Memorial Scholarship founded in 1952 thanks to donations from the Lord Rutherford Memorial Fund.
This year's RSC award winners will be celebrated during the Induction and Awards Ceremony on Friday, November 24, 2017 at the Fairmont Winnipeg Hotel, in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Alex Walls
Media Relations Specialist, UBC Media Relations
alex.walls@ubc.ca
