Henry van Driel, professor emeritus in the Department of Physics, has been awarded the prestigious 2021 Peter Kirkby Memorial Medal for Outstanding Service to Canadian Physics by the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) and the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists (COMP).
Since 1966, CAP-COMP Peter Kirkby Memorial Medal winners have been recognized for strengthening the Canadian physics community, enhancing the profession of physical scientists, effectively communicating physics to the non-scientific community, and making physics more attractive as a career.
The award is a joint initiative from CAP, representing over 1600 physicists and physics students in Canada, the U.S. and overseas; and COMP, comprising over 700 medical physicists and graduate students working in areas such as medical imaging, cancer therapy and medical biophysics.
The two groups announced van Driel as the winner for “his outstanding service to the Canadian physics community over a period of more than forty-five years, which has included international efforts, great service to the CAP, work with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) on behalf of Canadian physics, and editorial service to distinguished journals in North America.”
“It is a humbling honour to be recognized for efforts to serve the physics community in Canada and abroad,” says van Driel. “This award represents a truly welcome bright spot during this interminable pandemic.”
“This is a well-deserved recognition of Henry's long and distinguished record of service to physics, both in Canada and internationally,” says Department of Physics chair Kimberly Strong.
“His leadership of the physics department, multiple physics societies, advisory and editorial boards, and conference committees, as well as his mentoring of many students and postdoctoral fellows, has significantly strengthened physics in Canada."
According to CAP-COMP, van Driel’s international impact has been widespread, helping Canada “punch above its weight” within the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), where he served from 1993 to 2002, and was vice-chair of a commission for three years.
As chair of the Canadian National-IUPAP liaison committee, he helped elect nine Canadian scientists who served on 17 commissions, which is considered an outsized contribution for Canada.
This is a well-deserved recognition of Henry's long and distinguished record of service to physics, both in Canada and internationally. His leadership of the physics department, multiple physics societies, advisory and editorial boards, and conference committees, as well as his mentoring of many students and postdoctoral fellows, has significantly strengthened physics in Canada.
Back in Canada, van Driel helped to restore funding for condensed matter physics and general physics from NSERC, as well as promoting a CAP liaison committee with NSERC to strengthen CAP’s input into NSERC decisions.
While on the CAP executive, he played a crucial role establishing the first CAP graduate scholarship, which then led to the creation of the CAP Foundation and the endowment of further graduate scholarships.
As president of CAP, van Driel recruited representatives of eight natural science societies to work with the Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO) to enhance natural scientists’ opportunities in industry.
As an academic, van Driel joined the faculty in 1976 at U of T Mississauga where he taught and conducted research until 1988. He then transferred to the physics department on the St. George campus, serving as department chair from 2000-2004, before retiring in 2014.
At UTM in the 1970s and 1980s there were only six physics faculty members and van Driel taught nearly every department course, from first-year physics to advanced classical and quantum mechanics.
On the St. George campus, he mainly taught first-year physics courses and was inspired by the students’ energy and enthusiasm. He especially enjoyed conducting scientific demonstrations. Some worked, and some didn’t, but regardless of the outcome, both he and the students enjoyed the experience immensely.
He also taught modern optics to third- and fourth-year year students and laser physics to graduate students, giving him the chance to get to know his students within these smaller classes.
Van Driel’s teaching career is also filled with fond memories of working with graduate students and postdocs. He’s especially proud to have helped 30 PhD students graduate, and see them launch their own careers in academia, industry and government labs.
After he retired, van Driel had no intention of losing contact with young scholars, so he continued to support undergraduates by mentoring third- and fourth-year students in the Physics Mentorship Program.
How has van Driel managed to accomplish so much academically, while simultaneously making tremendous contributions to the larger physics community?
“The canonical answer is that I never learned to say ‘no,’ and perhaps that’s not far from the truth,” says van Driel.
Grateful to have worked with talented graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and collaborators, he says “once I provided them with rough ideas to pursue, along with good equipment, they didn’t need me in the lab very much; they wanted to solve research problems and experience the joys of discovery themselves.
“The independence served them well since many went on to prominent positions in industry, and even more with faculty positions in Canada and internationally. As they were establishing their independence as young researchers, I found time to serve the wider physics community.”