Search for ""

From his early research which focussed on developing an oilseed crop for Manitoba, he became an internationally acclaimed plant breeder, best known for suggesting the elimination of erucic from rapeseed oil and producing low glucosinolate varieties.

Seager Wheeler, plant breeder, farmer (b on the Isle of Wight, Eng 1869; d at Victoria 15 Dec 1961). After starting work at age 11, Wheeler immigrated to Saskatchewan in 1885, working on farms near Moose Jaw and Saskatoon until 1897, when he bought his own farm near ROSTHERN.

Raoul Blanchard, geographer (b at Orléans, France, 1877; d at Paris 1965). He was considered the father of modern geography in Québec, and exercised a profound influence on the future founders of geography departments at universities in Montréal and Québec.

Juan Josef Pérez Hernández, naval officer, explorer (b c 1725 at Majorca, Spain; d 2 Nov 1775 off California). Pérez served as a pilot and marine officer in Spain's Pacific trade between Mexico and the

George Lawson, botanist (b at Logan, Scot 12 Oct 1827; d at Halifax 10 Nov 1895). Lawson studied natural and physical sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Assistant secretary and curator for the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, he also worked in Britain's first biological laboratory.

In 1882 Macoun was appointed to the GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA as Dominion botanist and began a study of the range and distribution of Canada's flora, adding fauna when he became survey naturalist and assistant director in 1887.

André Michaux, botanist, explorer (b near Versailles, France 8 Mar 1746; d on Madagascar 11 Oct 1803?). He compiled the first North American flora which includes many plants collected in Lower Canada in 1792.

Frederick Pursh, botanist (b Friedrich Traugott Pursch in Grossenhain, Saxony 4 Feb 1774; d at Montréal 11 July 1820). At age 25 Pursh left Dresden to try his luck in the New World.

Louis-Marcel Raymond, botanist, man of letters (b at St-Jean, Qué 2 Dec 1915; d at Montréal 23 Aug 1972).

Thorvaldur Johnson, plant pathologist (b at Arnes, Man 23 Oct 1897; d at Winnipeg 15 Sept 1979). Johnson became Margaret NEWTON's assistant at the Winnipeg Rust Research Laboratory in 1925 and was its head from 1953 until his retirement in 1962.

Howard Fredeen, agricultural research scientist (b at Macrorie, Sask 10 Dec 1921).

Joao Fernandes, explorer (flourished 1486-1505). A Portuguese of the Azores, he had traded with Bristol from 1486. He likely sailed with John CABOT in 1498 as a pilot. Cabot's ship went down, but Fernandes returned with charts of discoveries around Greenland and Newfoundland.

James Fletcher, entomologist, botanist (b at Ashe, Eng 28 Mar 1852; d at Montréal 8 Nov 1908).

On a search mission for John ROSS in 1834, Back found and travelled the Thlew-ee-choh R, later named for him.

Charles Gordon Hewitt, administrator, economic entomologist, conservationist (born 23 February 1885 in Macclesfield, England; died 29 February 1920 in Ottawa, ON). Charles Gordon Hewitt was an expert on houseflies who served as Canada’s Dominion entomologist from 1909 until his death. He played an important role in expanding the government’s entomology branch, as well as in passing the Destructive Insect and Pest Act (1910).

William Francis Ganong, regional historian, cartographer, botanist, linguist (b at Carleton, NB 19 Feb 1864; d at Saint John 7 Sept 1941). A passionate lover of New Brunswick, Ganong devoted his life to its study.

Gaspar Corte-Real, explorer (b 1450?; d 1501). A native of the Azores, he initiated Portuguese claims in the North Atlantic. It is thought that he reached Greenland and worked his way south to Newfoundland in 1500, and that he

Catharine Parr Traill, née Strickland, pioneer writer, botanist (born 9 January 1802 in London, England; died 29 August 1899 in Lakefield, ON). Catharine Parr Traill’s books are some of the earliest in the Canadian literary canon. Works such as The Backwoods of Canada: Being Letters from the Wife of an Emigrant Officer (1836) offer detailed descriptions of pioneer life in Canada, while Canadian Wildflowers (1868) and Studies of Plant Life in Canada (1885) showcase her skill as an amateur botanist.

Leif Eriksson (Old Norse Leifr Eiríksson, a.k.a. Leifr hinn heppni, Leif the Lucky), explorer, chieftain (born in the 970s CE in Iceland; died between 1018 and 1025 in Greenland). Leif Eriksson was the first European to explore the east coast of North America, including areas that are now part of Arctic and Atlantic Canada. Upon the death of his father, Erik the Red, Leif became paramount chieftain of the Norse colony in Greenland. The two main sources on him are The Saga of the Greenlanders and The Saga of Erik the Red. There are also references to him in The Saga of Olaf Tryggvason and The Saga of St. Olaf.

Edgar Spinney Archibald, agriculturalist (b at Yarmouth, NS 12 May 1885; d at Ottawa 23 Jan 1968). Archibald's greatest contribution to Canadian agriculture was his dedicated and active support of scientists in the Experimental Farms Service, of which he was director 1919-51.