Jay Ingram, C.M.

Jay Ingram is the Chair of the Science Communications Program at the Banff Centre in Alberta.

Mr. Ingram was co-host of “Daily Planet,” a prime-time science program on Discovery Channel for 16 years in which he also assisted in the design and launch of the show. From 1979 to 1992, Mr. Ingram also hosted CBC Radio’s “Quirks and Quarks” and earned two Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) awards, including one for Best Host. He has worked as a freelance correspondent for CBC’s “Morningside,” and has hosted two CBC radio documentary series. In the fall of 2012, Mr. Ingram hosted three documentary specials on Discovery’s Science Channel, and also began a new column on human behaviour for “Daily Planet.” For 10 years, Jay wrote articles for the popular children’s publication Owl Magazine, wrote a weekly science column for the Toronto Star for 12 years, and is currently a columnist for Canadian Wildlife. Mr. Ingram is also co-founder of Beakerhead, an annual arts and engineering event beginning in 2013 in Calgary, Alberta.

Mr. Ingram has 12 twelve books, and has received numerous accolades and awards for his outstanding contributions to the popularization of science, including the Royal Society of Canada’s McNeil Medal for the Public Awareness of Science (1997) and a Michael Smith Award for Science Promotion from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (2000). He has received five honourary degrees, was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2009, and was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.

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