Exploration

Canada’s 90 Greatest Explorers: Innovation

The final instalment in our roundup of Canada’s 90 greatest explorers, these seven explorers harnessed the power of technology — or invented their own — to break new ground
  • Feb 03, 2020
  • 687 words
  • 3 minutes
Bill Lishman Expand Image
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Pioneering glaciologist and ice researcher, who in the 1950s became the first woman to travel on government ice breakers. Was among the first to use remote sensing for data collection. 

FRED ROOTS (FRGCS)
1923-2016 | East Sooke, B.C.

Geophysicist and diplomat, led or was part of numerous scientific expeditions at the poles and around the world. He was senior geologist for the first international scientific study of the Antarctic region (1949-52), and later conceived the Polar Continental Shelf Program. 

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DAVID SCHINDLER (FRCGS)
1940- | Edmonton 

Renowned environmental scientist who pioneered large-scale investigations of whole lakes as director of the Experimental Lakes Area, Kenora, Ont. His acid rain research and other studies have resulted in specific protection measures for world freshwater resources. 

PHIL NUYTTEN (FRCGS)
1941- | Vancouver 

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Deep-sea explorer and inventor of diving equipment and submersibles that have allowed humans to dive deeper, more safely. The founder of companies such as Nuytco Research Ltd., his hard-suits (the Newtsuit and the Exosuit) are used by explorers and navies around the globe. 

ELON MUSK 
1971- | Kingston, Ont.

SpaceX’s CEO and chief designer, working toward crewed interplanetary space travel and rapidly reducing the expense of space flight. SpaceX was the first private company to launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft and to send a craft to the ISS. 

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