Born in Canora, Saskatchewan of Ukrainian immigrants, Dr. Sylvia Fedoruk is one of Canada’s foremost medical biophysicists and the only woman who in the 1950s was conducting medical-physics research in Canada. Her groundbreaking achievements have earned her worldwide recognition, bringing honour to the University of Saskatchewan, her home province, and Canada as a whole.

Born in southern China, Dr. Tak Wah Mak brilliant career as a leading world-renowned Canadian scientist has had a major impact on public health around the world. His legacy includes a series of critical discoveries in fields as diverse as immunology, signal transduction and cancer biology.

Born in Montreal, Dr. Ronald Melzack has revolutionized the study and treatment of pain. His pioneering theories in pain mechanisms and pain control spanning over a half a century have had a major impact on every field of medicine that deals with patients who suffer pain.

Since the early 1970s, Dr. Charles Tator has had a resounding impact on spinal cord injury research, prevention and treatment, and on training our next generation of leading surgical scientists. An eminent scientist, neurosurgeon, professor and administrator, his laboratory was the first in Canada to study acute spinal cord injury from a basic science perspective.

In 1963, Croatian-born Dr. Mladen Vranic was invited to come to Canada by Dr. Charles H. Best, the co-discover of insulin, to be his final post-doctoral fellow. This sojourn marked the beginning of Dr. Vranic’s remarkable career as a leading advocate for the advancement of diabetes research, and teacher of innumerable renowned scientists and academic leaders.