David Strangway, O.C., FRSC

Dr. Strangway has had a distinguished and varied career spanning government, academia, and industry. As the former Chief of Geophysics for NASA, Dr. Strangway had the opportunity to participate in the Apollo 17 lunar mission by conducting remote electromagnetic experiments on the surface of the moon, and by examining lunar samples from that mission.

He has also served as the President and CEO of the Canada Foundation for Innovation, where he played an important role in the creation of the Canada Research Chairs program.

As well, he has served as the President of the University of British Columbia, a position he held for over a decade. He is also the Founding Chancellor of Quest University, Canada’s first independent, not-for-profit, non-sectarian university.

Dr. Strangway studied geophysics at the University of Toronto where he would later go on to serve as Chair of the Geology Department and eventually as President. He has also served on the faculty at the University of Colorado and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Currently Dr. Strangway is implementing an African Research Chairs program, and is working internationally to increase knowledge and awareness of the value of science and technology. In addition to being an officer of Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, he is also a foreign Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. He has been awarded the Queen’s Silver, Gold and Diamond Jubilee medals, and is a recipient of the NASA medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement.

---