Schindler named royal fellow
July 3, 2001
Note: The articles in the Archives were accurate on the date of publication.
Dr. David Schindler
A University of Alberta professor has been named a Fellow of the Royal Society of London--a prestigious honour bestowed upon some of the finest minds in the world.
"I think their first signator is Issac Newton, and Darwin appears in there, plus every Nobel Prize winner from the UK and a few others too," said David Schindler, a U of A biological sciences professor.
The society was founded by the United Kingdom national academy of science in 1660. It publishes scientific journals and reports and funds cutting-edge scientific research.
Schindler is in good company in this year's group of Fellows. The list of new appointees includes Professor Timothy Berners-Lee, who is credited with inventing the World Wide Web, designing the universal resource locator (URL) and the two Internet protocols HTTP and HTML. Also among the appointees is Richard Dawkins, the Oxford University professor and author of the controversial books Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design and Selfish Gene. Dawkins and Schindler knew one another as students at Oxford.
The appointment also puts Schindler on equal footing with faculty he studied under at Oxford. "I remember when I was a student I considered all these people my scientific heroes," said Schindler.
The U of A researcher, whose most recent work was a research paper studying long-term effects of intensive agricultural practices on fresh water (published last month in Science), was nominated for membership in the society a year ago. Digby McLaren, former president of the Royal Society of Canada, put together a list of nominators that included former classmate and current Royal Society of London president Robert May, who served as science advisor to former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
Aside from the prestige, what will the award mean? "Probably some committee work," says Schindler.
He says May has made it clear he wants Fellows to take a more active role in promoting the understanding of science in society, and to ensure science is understood by those responsible for setting public policy.
"He wants to upgrade the participation of the society in public affairs," Schindler said. "In the mid or early '80s, Digby took a stand as president of the Royal Society in Canada. He believed that elite scientific societies should go beyond simply sitting around sipping sherry--he thought they should make their expertise available in the public domain. Digby was the pioneer there."
Influencing public policy and helping the public understand science are things Schindler is accustomed to. In 1991, he was part of a federal review panel that recommended against a giant pulp mill proposed by Alberta Pacific Forestry Industries. He delivers public talks frequently and is regarded as an authority on the topic of fresh water.
"I would guess I've had over 100 interactions with media this year alone, mostly on fresh water crises in Walkerton and North Battleford and on a couple of papers I've published."
Schindler said that this appointment is one of the most exciting awards of his career.
"Of all the royal societies and national academic groups in the world, this is the oldest and most elite," he said. "It's very exciting. But one of the sobering things in all this is they wanted me to send them a picture and information that will be used in my obituary, and they wanted to know who I would like to have as my biographer."
Related links - Internal
"I think their first signator is Issac Newton, and Darwin appears in there, plus every Nobel Prize winner from the UK and a few others too," said David Schindler, a U of A biological sciences professor.
The society was founded by the United Kingdom national academy of science in 1660. It publishes scientific journals and reports and funds cutting-edge scientific research.
Schindler is in good company in this year's group of Fellows. The list of new appointees includes Professor Timothy Berners-Lee, who is credited with inventing the World Wide Web, designing the universal resource locator (URL) and the two Internet protocols HTTP and HTML. Also among the appointees is Richard Dawkins, the Oxford University professor and author of the controversial books Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design and Selfish Gene. Dawkins and Schindler knew one another as students at Oxford.
The appointment also puts Schindler on equal footing with faculty he studied under at Oxford. "I remember when I was a student I considered all these people my scientific heroes," said Schindler.
The U of A researcher, whose most recent work was a research paper studying long-term effects of intensive agricultural practices on fresh water (published last month in Science), was nominated for membership in the society a year ago. Digby McLaren, former president of the Royal Society of Canada, put together a list of nominators that included former classmate and current Royal Society of London president Robert May, who served as science advisor to former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
Aside from the prestige, what will the award mean? "Probably some committee work," says Schindler.
He says May has made it clear he wants Fellows to take a more active role in promoting the understanding of science in society, and to ensure science is understood by those responsible for setting public policy.
"He wants to upgrade the participation of the society in public affairs," Schindler said. "In the mid or early '80s, Digby took a stand as president of the Royal Society in Canada. He believed that elite scientific societies should go beyond simply sitting around sipping sherry--he thought they should make their expertise available in the public domain. Digby was the pioneer there."
Influencing public policy and helping the public understand science are things Schindler is accustomed to. In 1991, he was part of a federal review panel that recommended against a giant pulp mill proposed by Alberta Pacific Forestry Industries. He delivers public talks frequently and is regarded as an authority on the topic of fresh water.
"I would guess I've had over 100 interactions with media this year alone, mostly on fresh water crises in Walkerton and North Battleford and on a couple of papers I've published."
Schindler said that this appointment is one of the most exciting awards of his career.
"Of all the royal societies and national academic groups in the world, this is the oldest and most elite," he said. "It's very exciting. But one of the sobering things in all this is they wanted me to send them a picture and information that will be used in my obituary, and they wanted to know who I would like to have as my biographer."
Related links - Internal
- David Schindler's U of A Web page:
http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/schindler.hp/schindle.html - The U of A Department of Biological Sciences Web site: http://www.biology.ualberta.ca
- The Royal Society of London Web site: http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/