Honorary degree citation - Myer Bloom*
By: J. David N. Cheeke, June 1995
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you Myer Bloom, an outstanding Canadian physicist who has done much for the development of interdisciplinary science and the organization of scientific research in Canada.
Né à Montréal, M. Myer Bloom obtient un baccalauréat en physique de l'Université McGill en 1949. En 1954, il passe son doctorat en résonance magnétique nucléaire (RMN) à l'Université de l'Illinois puis entreprend des études post-doctorales aux Pays-Bas, au Laboratoire Kammerlingh Onnes à Leiden. En 1957, il devient professeur au Département de physique de l'Université de Colombie-Britannique, la prestigieuse UBC, où il passera le reste de sa carrière.
Myer's main contribution to science has been in the field of NMR. In the early part of his career, he made seminal contributions to the field, including several internationally recognized world firsts. One of these was the first observation of free magnetic induction in pure quadropole resonance. In the second part of his career, he applied NMR to biological membranes, in so doing, established the new and flourishing field of the physics of soft materials. This field is characteristically multi-disciplinary, in that it involves physics, chemistry and biology in equal proportions. This aspect of his work is particularly relevant to Concordia, where there is a flexible and unpronounced boundary between the three disciplines.
Myer has been awarded all of the major Canadian awards in physics at various stages of his career, as well as several international awards. These include a Sloan and a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Steacie Prize, Gold Medal of the Canadian Association of Physics, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, of The American Physical Society and of the Canadian Institute of Advanced Research.
M. Myer Bloom a dirigé les travaux de toute une génération de jeunes physiciens dont un grand nombre compte parmi les meilleurs professeurs et chercheurs du pays, et les plus actifs dans leur domaine. En ce qui me concerne, j'ai été tellement marqué par son enseignement de la physique des basses températures à UBC, où j'étudiais avec lui la thermodynamique, que j'ai décidé de poursuivre mes études supérieures dans ce domaine.
Bloom is founder and Director of the Program on the Science of Soft Surfaces and Interfaces of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, which is the premier organization for international level research networks in Canada. In addition to all of this, Myer is still continuing his research very actively as Professor Emeritus at UBC. This has been recognized by yet another award given in the last few weeks, the prestigious Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Prize.
Mr. Chancellor, it is my privilege and a personal pleasure to present to you, on behalf of the Senate and by authority of the Board of Governors, Myer Bloom, so that you may confer on him the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.
* Deceased
