Famous Canadian Physicists

Donna Strickland is a Canadian optical physicist who is considered a pioneer in the field of pulsed lasers. In recognition of her research on the practical implementation of chirped pulse amplification, she was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018, together with Gérard Mourou. She is currently a professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. 

Nobel Prize-winning Canadian physicist Arthur B. McDonald is remembered for his research on neutrino oscillations and for proving that neutrinos have mass. He spent most of his life teaching at the Princeton and Queen’s universities. He also headed a project that mass-produced low-cost ventilators to be used as COVID-19 supplies.

Known as “The Poet of the Stars,” Canadian astrophysicist Hubert Reeves has been a NASA advisor. His research covers neutrinos and thermonuclear reactions in stars. Having penned numerous science and astronomy books such as Soleil, he is known as a popularizer of science and has an asteroid named after him.

Equipped with a PhD in astronomy, Hugh Ross had been a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech. However, he later focused on studying the link between scientific discoveries and their biblical explanations, and formed the ministry Reasons to Believe. He has written books, hosted podcasts, and attended events, speaking about progressive creationism.

Nobel Prize-winning Canadian physicist and Stanford professor Richard E. Taylor is best remembered for revolutionizing particle physics by discovering quarks, which make up matter. He was also associated with the designing of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Willard Boyle revolutionized physics with the invention of the charge-coupled device (CCD), which also earned him, and his co-inventor George E. Smith, a Nobel Prize. During his time at Bellcomm, he was associated with the Apollo space program. Both he and Smith worked for Bell Laboratories, too.

German-Canadian physicist Gerhard Herzberg is remembered for his Nobel Prize-winning work on ascertaining the electronic structure of molecules, particularly free radicals. He had escaped to Canada following the rise of the Nazis and later also worked in the U.S. His doctoral students included Japanese chemist Takeshi Oka.

Best known for his work on plate tectonics, John Tuzo Wilson was the son of a Scottish immigrant and had become the first Canadian to earn a degree in geophysics. Following his service in World War II, he began teaching geophysics. The Wilson Mountains in Antarctica was named after him.

Nobel Prize-winning Canadian physicist Bertram Brockhouse is best remembered for his research on neutron-scattering techniques. He also invented the neutron spectrometer and became one of the first to calculate the phonon dispersion curve of a solid. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society for his contribution to science.

Particle physicist and Harvard professor Melissa Franklin is known for her research on the Higgs boson and the proton-proton collisions caused by the Large Hadron Collider. Interestingly, she had quit high school to form a parallel school with her friends. The Stanford alumna is also associated with the ATLAS experiment.

Physicist Arthur Jeffrey Dempster is credited with the invention of the first mass spectrometer, which is used to measure the quantities of charged particles. He was also the man behind the discovery of uranium-235, an isotope used in atom bombs, and was associated with the Manhattan Project, too.

While he initially aspired to be an artist, physicist James Hillier later earned a scholarship to the University of Toronto, where he co-invented the prototype of the first commercial electron microscope. He eventually won 40 patents and was made a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

A pioneer of modern heavy ion physics, nuclear physicist and Yale professor D. Allan Bromley had received more than 30 honorary doctorates and won the National Medal of Science. As the science and technology advisor to President George H. W. Bush, he became the first to hold such a position.

Though physicist Robert Pound was a major part of the discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), he missed out on the Nobel Prize for the discovery due to the restrictions on the upper limit of recipients. The Harvard professor and National Medal of Science winner also designed the Pound–Rebka experiment.

Born to a Canadian physician in Wales, John Savage followed in his father’s footsteps to study medicine. He later gained the name "hippie doctor" for his beard and unconventional treatments. He later led the Nova Scotia Liberal Party and also became the Premier of Nova Scotia.