David Suzuki
 |
Dr. David Suzuki |
Dr.
David Takayoshi Suzuki, CC ,
OBC ,
Ph.D (born
March 24 1936) is a
Canadian geneticist who has attained prominence as a
science broadcaster and an
environmental activist. Since the mid 1970s, Suzuki's TV and radio series and books have sought to educate in an engaging way about nature and the environment. He is best known as host of the popular and long-running
CBC TV science magazine,
The Nature of Things, seen in syndication in over 40 nations. He is co-founder of the
David Suzuki Foundation.
Suzuki and his twin sister Marcia were born to Setsu and Kaoru Carr Suzuki in
Vancouver. Suzuki's maternal and paternal grandparents had immigrated to Canada at the beginning of the
20th century.
A third-generation
Japanese-Canadian ("Canadian
Sansei"), Suzuki and his family suffered
internment in
British Columbia during the
Second World War from when he was six (1942) until after the war ended. In June 1942, the government sold the Suzuki family's dry-cleaning business, then interned Suzuki, his mother and two sisters in a camp in the
Slocan Valley in the BC Interior. His father had been sent to a labour camp in Solsqua, two months earlier. Suzuki's sister, Dawn, was born in the internment camp.
After the war, Suzuki's family, like other Japanese Canadian families, was forced to move east of the
Rockies. The Suzukis moved to
Islington,
Leamington, and
London,
Ontario.
Suzuki attended Mill Street Elementary School and Grade 9 at Leamington Secondary School, before he moved to London where he attended
London Central Secondary School.
Suzuki received his
BA from
Amherst College in
Massachusetts in
1958, and his
Ph.D in
zoology from the
University of Chicago in 1961.
Early in his research career he studied
genetics, using the popular
model organism Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies). To be able to use his initials in naming any new genes he found, he studied
Drosophila temperature-sensitive phenotypes (DTS). (As he jokingly noted at a lecture at
Johns Hopkins University, the only alternative was "damn tough skin".) He gained several international awards for his research into these
mutations. He was a
professor in the
zoology department at the
University of British Columbia for over thirty years (from 1969 until his retirement in 2001), and has since been professor emeritus at a university research institute.
For his work popularizing science and environmental issues, he has been presented with
honorary degrees (all
doctorates) from schools in
Canada,
The United States and
Australia. He has notably received an honorary doctorate from
Lakehead University (
Thunder Bay, Ontario,
Canada), a nationally-renowned centre for
environmental studies and
activism.
He hosted the radio program
Quirks and Quarks on
CBC Radio One from 1975 to 1979.
Since 1979, Suzuki has hosted
The Nature of Things, a
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television show that has aired in nearly fifty countries worldwide. In this show, Suzuki aimed to stimulate interest in the natural world, to point out what some of the threats to human wellbeing and wildlife habitat were, and to point out some promising alternatives in terms of
sustainability. Suzuki has been a very prominent proponent of
renewable energy sources and the
soft energy path.
Suzuki was also the host of the
PBS series
The Secret of Life.
A Planet for the Taking, a 1985 hit series, averaged over 1.8 million viewers per episode and earned him a
United Nations Environment Programme Medal in 1985. His perspective, in this series is summed up in his statement: "We have both a sense of the importance of the
wilderness and space in our culture and an attitude that it is limitless and therefore we needn't worry." He concludes with a call for a major "perceptual shift" in our relationship with nature and the wild.
Suzuki also did
The Sacred Balance, a four hour
mini-series on Canadian public television which was broadcast in October 2001.
Suzuki is the author of thirty-two books (fifteen for children), including
Genethics,
Wisdom of the Elders,
Inventing the Future, and the best-selling
Looking At series of children's science books.
Suzuki is the recipient of Canada's most prestigious award, the
Order of Canada Officer (1976) upgraded to Companion status in (2006), the
Order of British Columbia (1995),
UNESCO's Kalinga Prize for science (1986) and a long list of Canadian and international honours.
In 2004, David Suzuki was nominated as one of the top 10 "
Greatest Canadians" by viewers of the . In the final vote he finished 5th. Suzuki said his own vote was for
Tommy Douglas who was the eventual winner (aside from 1996 when he supported the
Green Party, Suzuki has consistently endorsed the
NDP, the party founded by Douglas, in provincial and federal elections).
Suzuki was married to Setsuko Joane Sunahara from 1958 to 1965, with three children (Tamiko, Laura, and Troy). He married Tara Elizabeth Cullis in 1972. They have two daughters: Sarika and
Severn Cullis-Suzuki. Severn, born in 1979, has also done environmental work, including speaking at environmental conferences.
David Suzuki's
Japanese name is Suzuki Takayoshi, but he is always known by his English name to the public, even in Japanese scientific and popular literature (using
Romaji).
In 2006, on the French Canadian talk-show
Tout le monde en parle, Suzuki said that his family (his wife, him and two of their kids) is producing only one bag of garbage per monthâ€"reusing or recycling everything else.
*
Conservation biology*
Soft energy path*
From Naked Ape to Superspecies Series of MP3s from CBC
*
The Biotech Context (March 2006) - video and audio files of a speech given at the University of British Columbia
*
Video Interview with David T. Suzuki*
Suzuki's curriculum vitae*
The David Suzuki Foundation, with the mission of popularization of science and environment
*
Nature of Things official website*
Greatest Canadian bio*
David Suzuki at Saxton Speakers Bureau*
David Suzuki's scientific publications from
PubMed*
Order of Canada Citation*
David Suzuki talks about the year's record temperatures,
CBC News: The Hour, December 6, 2005. Retrieved December 28, 2005.
*
CBC Digital Archives: David Suzuki: Scientist, Activist, Broadcaster
