The Faculty of Science Convocation takes place this afternoon at Hamilton Place.

Degrees will be conferred for student in the programs offered by the departments of Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Computing & Software (Science program), the School of Geography & Geology (Science program), Mathematics and Statistics, Materials Science & Engineering (Science program), Physics & Astronomy and Psychology (Science programs) as well as programs in Medical & Health Physics, Molecular Biology and Neural Computation.

The honorary degree recipients at the Faculty of Science Convocation ceremony are James Bruce and David Strangway. Strangway is giving the Convocation address.

James Bruce

Doctor of Science

Jim Bruce has had a distinguished career in the fields of meteorology, climate, water resources, disaster mitigation and environment. He began his career as a weather forecaster, establishing the flood warning system for Ontario in the late 1950s and undertook research and teaching at the University of Toronto in hydrometeorology.

He was the first director of the Canadian Centre for Inland Waters in Burlington (1967) and, later, director general, Inland Waters Directorate for Canada. He was a member of the Canadian team that negotiated the 1972 and 1978 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreements between Canada and the United States.

He was an assistant deputy minister responsible for environmental management service of Environment Canada and served as assistant deputy minister of the atmospheric environment service. While holding that post, Bruce chaired a national steering committee on acid rain, an international working group that negotiated the Helsinki Protocol for SO2 emission reductions. In 1985, he left the federal government to work for the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva.

In the early 1990s Bruce chaired the United Nation's scientific and technical committee for the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction and has been a frequent consultant, speaker and writer on climate change and disaster mitigation. He is currently a senior associate with Global Change Strategies International.

David Strangway

Doctor of Science

As president and CEO of the Canada Foundation for Innovation, David Strangway oversees a funding agency that is integrally linked to innovative research projects across the country.

Born in Canada, he grew up in Africa where his parents served as medical missionaries in Angola for 40 years. Upon returning to Canada, Strangway studied physics and geology at the University of Toronto, obtaining his PhD in 1960.

In 1970, he joined the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) as chief of the geophysics branch where he was responsible for the geophysical aspects of the Apollo space missions. In 1973, he joined the University of Toronto and chaired the geology department until 1980. For the next five years he served as vice-president and president of the University of Toronto. He then took up the mantle of president and vice-chancellor of the University of British Columbia and during his 12-year tenure brought a vision and commitment of excellence to the university.

He has served on the British Columbia Premier's Advisory Committee on Science and Technology, the B.C. Task Force on the Environment and the Economy and the Corporate-Higher Education Forum (Canada).

Strangway holds the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and the Logan Gold Medal of the Geological Association of Canada. He is an officer of the Order of Canada (1996).