Professors Stewart Aitchison (ECE) and Harry Ruda (MSE) have been elected Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), one of Canada’s most prestigious academic honours.
The RSC is the senior national body of distinguished Canadian scholars, artists and scientists. It consists of nearly 2,000 Fellows, who are selected by their peers for outstanding contributions to the natural and social sciences, the arts and the humanities.
“Professors Aitchison and Ruda are acknowledged as groundbreaking leaders in their fields, not just in Canada but on a global level,” said Dean Cristina Amon.
“They are most deserving of this honour and we are delighted that the RSC has recognized their extraordinary achievements.”
Stewart Aitchison, the Faculty’s Vice-Dean, Research, is a world leader in the field of nonlinear optics, and considered the leading researcher in the area of spatial optical solutions. His research has resulted in 214 journal publications, which have been cited more than 4,800 times, and in more than 250 conference publications.
In addition, Professor Aitchison has seven patents, which have led to the creation and growth of four new companies. From 2004 to 2007 he was Director of the Emerging Communications Technology Institute, where he worked towards the establishment of open access micro- and nano-fabrication facilities. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (London) and the Optical Society of America.
Harry Ruda is an international leader in the synthesis and understanding of the behaviour of semiconductor nanostructures, with seminal contributions dating back to the early 1980s. These contributions are represented in 215 articles in leading journals, 125 papers in international conference proceedings, nine books, 15 patents, and more than 2,000 citations.
Professor Ruda is the Founder and Director of the Centre for Advanced Nanotechnology, Canada’s first centre for nanotechnology, which is known internationally for its innovative and leading-edge work on semiconductor nanostructures. He also co-founded the National Centre of Excellence in Photonics, which supports the research of 90 of Canada’s top professors at 20 universities.
Professors Aitchison and Ruda will be inducted into the RSC at a ceremony at the National Gallery of Canada on November 27th.
Follow the link to read the story about the Royal Society of Canada fellows and medallists for 2010 on the University of Toronto website.
