Madam Chancellor: I Have the Honour to Present Dr. Leo Yaffe, B.Sc., M.Sc
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Madam Chancellor: I have the honour to present Dr. Leo Yaffe, B.Sc., M.Sc. (Manitoba), Ph.D. (McGill), D. Leu. (Trent). Dr. Yaffe is a distinguished son of this university and one who gained an insight into and a fascination with chemistry in part from his lessons from another of our honorary graduands, Dr. Alan N. Campbell. Dr. Yaffe's first published scientific paper, The Ternary Alloy System Silver, Lead and Aluminum, co-authored by Dr. Campbell and two others, appeared when Dr. Yaffe was still not old enough to vote. His interest in becoming a research chemist led him, as it has led so many young Canadians, then and now, to McGill U niversiry in Montreal, where he began to study and learn about those fascinating reactions in which atomic nuclei divide and elements change their very nature. It is as a student of nuclear fission and the mechanism of nuclear reactions that Dr. Yaffe has made a reputation as an outstanding Canadian scientist. He has contributed to both fundamental and applied areas of nuclear science, and today about half of his research output is devoted to the application of nuclear science to archeology. After completing his doctoral studies at the precocious age of twenty-three, Dr. Yaffe moved to the new laboratories of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., at Chalk River. There he served as Project Leader in the Nuclear Chemistry and Tracer Division. In passing, he had his first encounter with politics, acting as the Mayor of Deep River, Ontario, for two years. In 1952, he returned to McGill as a Special Lecturer in Chemistry. There he began his authoritative work on the counting of beta radiation. In 1958 he became Macdonald Professor of Chemistry; sixty years earlier, McGill's first Macdonald Professor was Ernest Rutherford, the discoverer of the atomic nucleus. From 1963 to 1965 Dr. Yaffe was on leave to be Director of Research and Laboratories of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna where he devoted his efforts to furthering the peaceful uses of atomic energy. Dr. Yaffe returned to McGill in 1965 as Chairman of the Department of Chemistry; and in 1974 he became Vice-principal (Administration) of his university. Last year he gave up the dubious joys of the administrator to return to his first love, research in nuclear chemistry. The list of Dr. Yaffe's honours is a long and impressive one. He is a fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada, of the American Physical Society, and of the Royal Society of Canada. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the world-famous Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovor, Israel, and of the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada. He has served his science on editorial boards and research committees and as a widely-travelled lecturer. Last year he was the recipient of the American Chemical Society's Award for Nuclear Chemistry, and this year he is the President of the Chemical Institute of Canada. These represent only a short selection of the academic honours that have been paid to Dr. Yaffe by his peers, and it is clear that we have with us today a man who has contributed both widely and deeply to Canadian life. He is not a narrow scientist but a man of wide interests outside his professional field. He is a graduate of this university in whom we can take special pride. Madam Chancellor, it is an honour and a privilege for me to ask, in the name of the Senate of the University of Manitoba, that you confer on Leo Yaffe, the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa. A. Naimark President May 27,1982.