David M. Wiles is a polymer chemist with an international reputation in the field of polymer degradation and stabilization and the physical and chemical characterization of polymer systems. His definitive studies of the light-induced deterioration of fiber-forming polymers have led to a new, thorough understanding of the mechanisms by which these polymers may be protected against weathering. In the area of anionic polymerization, he carried out pioneer work both in the synthesis and characterization of these highly regular polymers. Dr. Wiles' work has combined a talent for basic, exploratory research with an intense interest in its practical implications, facets which are continuing in his role as Director, Division of Chemistry, at the National Research Council. Following 31 years of research and research management, Dr. Wiles retired from the NRC in 1990, moved to Victoria, and started a consulting business with polymer and related chemical industries in several countries. The focus continues to be on the science of prolonging the useful life of plastics in some applications, and shortening it in others. Commercially-viable, novel products have been the result in a number of instances in addition, of course, to huge numbers of frequent-flyer points and a certain tolerance to airline food. Unrelated but equally interesting has been the opportunity to testify as an "expert witness" in a couple of dozen litigations, primarily in the USA.

He is the outstanding Atlantic Region geologist of his generation and one of the most distinguished of this century. His reputation is based on extraordinary pioneering field studies which invariably stand the test of subsequent detailed investigations, his exceptional capabilities as a stratigrapher and structural geologist, and his remarkable success in synthesizing and analyzing Appalachian data. His elegant map of his native Newfoundland received international acclaim, his paper on Appalachian symmetry is probably the most cited reference on northern Appalachian geology - its closest contenders are among his 30 other publications of the past ten years.

Roy Wise has made important contributions to knowledge about the systems of the brain underlying rewarding properties of drugs. He was the first to formulate the hypothesis that drugs of abuse have as their common substrate the dopaminergic systems of the midbrain. He has combined behavioral and neurochemical techniques to determine the changes in this system that accompany drug self-administration. Wise's work has brought the study of drug abuse into the realm of the study of the brain mechanisms underlying natural rewards, and it has transformed both experimental and clinical approaches to drug abuse.

Originally trained as an entomologist Dr. Wolfe made distinguished contributions to the physiology of insects including valuable work on the biology and control of black flies. Subsequently he became medically qualified and has since carried out outstanding research on complex lipids and carbohydrate derivatives, particularly in brain. He is now a leader in the study of gangliosides and prostaglandins. These basic studies have led to biochemical understanding of several neurological diseases due to inborn errors of metabolism of gangliosides. Dr. Wolfe has published over a hundred articles, he is heavily engaged in editing and teaching, and his wisdom is sought in many organizations and committees.

Professor Wong is one of the very top leaders internationally in the important, widely cultivated, extensively applied and extraordinarily difficult field of asymptotic analysis. His work is characterized by great power, strict rigour, deep insight, imaginative originality, remarkable clarity and by wide-ranging applicablity within mathematics and to physics, engineering and statistics. In the asymptotics of integrals containing a parameter, subsuming such important transforms as those of Hankel, Hilbert, Kantorovich-Lebedev and Stieltjes, his novel methods yielded complete expansions and computable error bounds, all completely rigorously.

Jim Woods has been, for more than twenty years, one of the world's leading researchers in operator algebras and their relations with mathematical physics. He and Araki obtained an absolutely remarkable classification of factors. Their work on what are now called the Araki-Woods factors is acknowledged to be a cornerstone of the theory of injective von Neumann algebras, one of the monumental structures in mathematics. An application of this theory, by Woods and Connes, has produced a new, deep result in classical ergodic theory.

In 1984, his group exploded into the forefront in the field of human genetics by identifying a translocation breakpoint of the Duchene muscular dystrophy gene. Subsequently, he and his colleagues and L. Kunkel and his colleagues of Boston were successful in cloning fragments of the gene (1985). This work represents the breakthrough in our understanding of the nature of the gene. Already, the availability of the molecular probe allows prenatal diagnosis of this disease. This work sets the stage for future work in understanding the disease and in possibly reversing the defect by therapy.

Professor James D. Wuest is a chemist who is recognized internationally for creative, interdisciplinary work as a molecular architect. His goal is to design and synthesize molecules that use weak intermolecular forces to accomplish specific tasks. He has made important contributions to the study of complexation and catalysis by devising 'multidentate Lewis acids', which are reagents incorporating strategically placed electron-deficient sites that bind and activate molecules with complementary arrangements of electron-rich sites. Prof. Wuest has also helped create the new field of 'molecular tectonics'. He has devised "sticky" molecules, called 'tectons' from the Greek word for builder, that incorporate specific patterns of groups chosen to promote intermolecular adhesion. Well-designed tectons have a strong tendency to associate spontaneously and to generate complex aggregates with predictable three-dimensional structures. This work promises to have an important impact because it gives chemists the elements of a powerful molecular-scale construction set. Prof. Wuest has received numerous awards for his work, including the 1992 Rutherford Memorial Medal in Chemistry from the Royal Society of Canada.

Hugh Wynne-Edwards has had a profound influence on our understanding of Canadian Precambrian rocks. His modification and expansion of the concept of flow folding, his novel hypothesis on the emplacement of granitic rocks, and his challenging new ideas on the tectonic history of the Grenville Province, based on rigorous field and laboratory studies, has stimulated constructive controversy among Canadian Precambrian geologists and has drawn international attention to the problems of our deep zone metamorphic rocks. In addition, despite his youth, he has acquired an enviable reputation as an interdisciplinary research manager and also as an educator and lecturer.

Professor York's contributions to the field of potassium-argon age determination have given his laboratory an international reputation in geochronology. He and his students have consistently been in the forefront of research in this area, particularly in developing the 40Ar/ 39Ar technique and applying it to the dating of very young rocks, the application of laser melting for the release of argon from small and well-defined areas in rocks, and the use of the 40Ar/39Ar method for the direct dating of sulphide minerals. In addition to his work on geochronology, Dr. York has also made significant contributions to other areas, including seismology, plate tectonics, and linear regression analysis. Since his arrival in Canada, Dr. York's scientific career has consisted of innovative and productive research, and the stimulation of many graduate and undergraduate students through his writing, his attention to detail and his highly effective style as a teacher and lecturer in Physics and Geophysics.

Tom Ziegler is a Theoretical Inorganic chemist. He is a world authority on the application of Density Functional Theory to the determination of the bonding structures and reaction profiles of inorganic and organometallic compounds. He is a pioneer in applying these methods to catalytic cycles of industrial importance. He has also used them to calculate vibrational frequencies and NMR chemical shifts of inorganic compounds. Tom Ziegler is acknowledged by experimentalists as a theoretician with outstanding chemical intuition. He is widely sought after as a collaborator. The numerous invited lectures and constant stream of visitors to his research group are a clear indication of the high standing of his work in the international community of chemists.