The Most Famous

BIOLOGISTS from Canada

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This page contains a list of the greatest Canadian Biologists. The pantheon dataset contains 1,097 Biologists, 9 of which were born in Canada. This makes Canada the birth place of the 19th most number of Biologists behind Belgium, and Spain.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Canadian Biologists of all time. This list of famous Canadian Biologists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Canadian Biologists.

Photo of Ralph M. Steinman

1. Ralph M. Steinman (1943 - 2011)

With an HPI of 63.68, Ralph M. Steinman is the most famous Canadian Biologist.  His biography has been translated into 54 different languages on wikipedia.

Ralph Marvin Steinman (January 14, 1943 – September 30, 2011) was a Canadian physician and medical researcher at Rockefeller University, who in 1973 discovered and named dendritic cells while working as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Zanvil A. Cohn, also at Rockefeller University. Steinman was one of the recipients of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Photo of John Murray

2. John Murray (1841 - 1914)

With an HPI of 51.37, John Murray is the 2nd most famous Canadian Biologist.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Sir John Murray (3 March 1841 – 16 March 1914) was a pioneering Canadian-born British oceanographer, marine biologist and limnologist. He is considered to be the father of modern oceanography.

Photo of David Suzuki

3. David Suzuki (b. 1936)

With an HPI of 48.51, David Suzuki is the 3rd most famous Canadian Biologist.  His biography has been translated into 39 different languages.

David Takayoshi Suzuki (born March 24, 1936) is a Canadian academic, science broadcaster, and environmental activist. Suzuki earned a PhD in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1961, and was a professor in the genetics department at the University of British Columbia from 1963 until his retirement in 2001. Since the mid-1970s, Suzuki has been known for his television and radio series, documentaries and books about nature and the environment. He is best known as host and narrator of the popular and long-running CBC Television science program The Nature of Things, seen in over 40 countries. He is also well known for criticizing governments for their lack of action to protect the environment. A longtime activist to reverse global climate change, Suzuki co-founded the David Suzuki Foundation in 1990, to work "to find ways for society to live in balance with the natural world that does sustain us." The Foundation's priorities are: oceans and sustainable fishing, climate change and clean energy, sustainability, and Suzuki's Nature Challenge. The Foundation also works on ways to help protect the oceans from large oil spills such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Suzuki has also served as a director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association from 1982 to 1987. Suzuki was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 2009. His 2011 book, The Legacy, won the Nautilus Book Award. He is a Companion of the Order of Canada. In 2004, Suzuki ranked fifth on the list of final nominees in a CBC television series that asked viewers to select The Greatest Canadian of all time.

Photo of George Romanes

4. George Romanes (1848 - 1894)

With an HPI of 47.63, George Romanes is the 4th most famous Canadian Biologist.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

George John Romanes (20 May 1848 – 23 May 1894) was a Canadian-Scots evolutionary biologist and physiologist who laid the foundation of what he called comparative psychology, postulating a similarity of cognitive processes and mechanisms between humans and other animals. He was the youngest of Charles Darwin's academic friends, and his views on evolution are historically important. He is considered to invent the term neo-Darwinism, which in the late 19th century was considered as a theory of evolution that focuses on natural selection as the main evolutionary force. However, Samuel Butler used this term with a similar meaning in 1880. Romanes' early death was a loss to the cause of evolutionary biology in Britain. Within six years Mendel's work was rediscovered, and a whole new agenda opened up for debate.

Photo of Colin Munro MacLeod

5. Colin Munro MacLeod (1909 - 1972)

With an HPI of 45.29, Colin Munro MacLeod is the 5th most famous Canadian Biologist.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Colin Munro MacLeod (January 28, 1909 – February 11, 1972) was a Canadian-American geneticist. He was one of a trio of scientists who discovered that deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA is responsible for the transformation of the physical characteristics of bacteria, which subsequently led to its identification as the molecule responsible for heredity.

Photo of William Diller Matthew

6. William Diller Matthew (1871 - 1930)

With an HPI of 43.61, William Diller Matthew is the 6th most famous Canadian Biologist.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

William Diller Matthew FRS (February 19, 1871 – September 24, 1930) was a vertebrate paleontologist who worked primarily on mammal fossils, although he also published a few early papers on mineralogy, petrological geology, one on botany, one on trilobites, and he described Tetraceratops insignis, which was much later suggested to be the oldest known (Early Permian) therapsid. Matthew was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, the son of George Frederic Matthew and Katherine (Diller) Matthew. His father was an amateur geologist and paleontologist who instilled his son with an abiding interest in the earth sciences. Matthew received an A.B. at the University of New Brunswick in 1889 and then earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1894. Matthew was curator of the American Museum of Natural History from the mid-1890s to 1927, and director of the University of California Museum of Paleontology from 1927 to 1930. He was an elected member of the American Philosophical Society. He was the father of Margaret Matthew Colbert, an artist, illustrator, and sculptor who specialized in visualizing extinct species.

Photo of Robert H. MacArthur

7. Robert H. MacArthur (1930 - 1972)

With an HPI of 43.61, Robert H. MacArthur is the 7th most famous Canadian Biologist.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Robert Helmer MacArthur (April 7, 1930 – November 1, 1972) was a Canadian-born American ecologist who made a major impact on many areas of community and population ecology. He is considered to be one of the founders of ecology.

Photo of Peter Watts

8. Peter Watts (b. 1958)

With an HPI of 42.52, Peter Watts is the 8th most famous Canadian Biologist.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Peter Watts (born January 25, 1958) is a Canadian science fiction author. He specializes in hard science fiction. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia in 1991 from the Department of Zoology and Resource Ecology. He went on to hold several academic research and teaching positions, and worked as a marine-mammal biologist. He began publishing fiction around the time he finished graduate school.

Photo of Alice Wilson

9. Alice Wilson (1881 - 1964)

With an HPI of 41.99, Alice Wilson is the 9th most famous Canadian Biologist.  Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Alice Evelyn Wilson, MBE, FRSC, FRCGS (August 26, 1881 – April 15, 1964) was Canada's first female geologist. She is most well known for her scientific studies of rocks and fossils in the Ottawa region between 1913 and 1963.

Photo of Severn Cullis-Suzuki

10. Severn Cullis-Suzuki (b. 1979)

With an HPI of 41.12, Severn Cullis-Suzuki is the 10th most famous Canadian Biologist.  Her biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Severn Cullis-Suzuki (born 30 November 1979) is a Canadian environmental activist and writer. She has spoken around the world about environmental issues, urging listeners to define their values, act with the future in mind and take individual responsibility. She is the daughter of Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki.

People

Pantheon has 14 people classified as Canadian biologists born between 1841 and 1979. Of these 14, 5 (35.71%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Canadian biologists include David Suzuki, Peter Watts, and Severn Cullis-Suzuki. The most famous deceased Canadian biologists include Ralph M. Steinman, John Murray, and George Romanes. As of April 2024, 5 new Canadian biologists have been added to Pantheon including George Romanes, William Diller Matthew, and Carrie Derick.

Living Canadian Biologists

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Deceased Canadian Biologists

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Newly Added Canadian Biologists (2024)

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Overlapping Lives

Which Biologists were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 9 most globally memorable Biologists since 1700.