Edgar William Richard Steacie

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Edgar William Richard Steacie , OBE (born December 25, 1900 in Westmount , Québec , † August 28, 1962 in Ottawa ) was a Canadian chemist and science organizer. 1952 to 1962 he was President of the National Research Council of Canada .

biography

Steacie studied from 1919 at the Royal Military College in Canada in order to pursue a military career like his father. Only a year later he switched to chemistry and studied chemical engineering at McGill University with the degree in 1923. Influenced by the chemistry professor Otto Maass , he turned to physical chemistry and received his doctorate in 1926. He then taught until 1939 at McGill University, at the he had become an assistant professor in 1930 before becoming director of the chemistry department at the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, which he made a leading chemical research institution, including by bringing in scientists such as Gerhard Herzberg . In 1950 he became its vice-president and in 1952 president. During his time, many decisions were made to organize research funding in Canada (including tax breaks for industrial research).

He was a pioneer in the study of free radical kinetics. In 1944 he became deputy director of the British-Canadian nuclear energy project, which was led by John Cockcroft .

He was a Fellow of the Royal Society (1948), the National Academy of Sciences (1957) and the Royal Society of Canada , whose Henry Marshall Tory Medal he received in 1955 and whose President he was 1954/55. In 1961 he became President of the International Council of Scientific Unions and was President of the Faraday Society . He was an honorary member (Honorary Fellow) of the American Chemical Society and since 1958 a foreign member of the then Academy of Sciences of the USSR .

The EWR Prize , the EWR Steacie Memorial Fellowship of the NSERC and the Steacie Institute for Molecular Science of the NRC are named after him.

Fonts

  • Atomic and free radical reactions: the kinetics of gas-phase reactions involving atoms and organic radicals, New York, Reinhold Publishing 1946, 2nd edition 1955
  • Science in Canada; selections from the speeches of EWR Steacie, editor JD Babbitt, University of Toronto Press 1965
  • with Otto Maass: Introduction to the principles of physical chemistry, 2nd edition, Wiley 1939

Web links

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Steacie Prize. In: steacieprize.ca. Retrieved January 18, 2018 .
  2. ^ Steacie Fellowship
  3. ^ Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences (SIMS). Archived from the original on April 4, 2008 ; accessed on January 18, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Steacie, Edgar William Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian chemist
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Westmount , Quebec
DATE OF DEATH August 28, 1962
Place of death Ottawa