Leon Katz, (August 9, 1909 – March 1, 2004) was a Canadian physicist.

Biography

Born in

Lutsk Lutsk ( uk, Луцьк, translit=Lutsk}, ; pl, Łuck ; yi, לוצק, Lutzk) is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Volyn Oblast (province) and the administrative center of the surrounding Lu ...

(then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

; after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

part of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

), Katz emigrated to Canada in 1920 and was reunited with his father who emigrated in 1914. During these early years he studied at Toronto Central Technical School to become an electrician, however through an exchange program with Queens University he was able to transfer into a science program working part-time to afford tuition. Katz completed his undergraduate and MSc degrees at Queen’s University, and received a PhD from the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

. He specialized in

Accelerator Physics Accelerator physics is a branch of applied physics, concerned with designing, building and operating particle accelerators. As such, it can be described as the study of motion, manipulation and observation of relativistic charged particle beams ...

, RF Systems and, in later life,

Chaos Theory Chaos theory is an interdisciplinary area of scientific study and branch of mathematics focused on underlying patterns and deterministic laws of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, and were once thought to hav ...

. After working for Westinghouse Electric Company on radar equipment for aircraft, in Pittsburgh, in 1946 he moved to Saskatoon to become an associate professor at the

University of Saskatchewan A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United State ...

. In collaboration with Drs. Haslam and Jones he was part of the team that was successful in bring a

Betatron A betatron is a type of cyclic particle accelerator. It is essentially a transformer with a torus-shaped vacuum tube as its secondary coil. An alternating current in the primary coils accelerates electrons in the vacuum around a circular path. Th ...

to the University of Saskatchewan, that was used as the first radiation therapy facility in the province and also for research. He was the founding Director of the Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory from 1964-1975 that eventually led to the formation of the Canadian Light Source.

Honours

Katz also served or was honored as: *Fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

(1952) *Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

(1966) *Member of

Science Council of Canada The Science Council of Canada (SCC) was a Canadian governmental advisory board existing from 1966 to 1993. It originally had 25 scientists and senior civil servants, later expanded to 40 natural and physical scientists, with the civil servants remov ...

(1966–72) *President of the

Canadian Association of Physicists Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP), or in French Association canadienne des physiciens et physiciennes (ACP) is a Canadian professional society that focuses on creating awareness among Canadians and Canadian legislators of physics issues, spo ...

(1973–74) *Appointed Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the cen ...

(1974) *Member of the Council of Trustees of the

Institute for Research on Public Policy The Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) is an independent, national, bilingual, not-for-profit organization based in Montreal, Quebec. Its mission is to "improve public policy in Canada by generating research, providing insight and info ...

(1974–86) *Director of the Science Secretariat of the Government of Saskatchewan (1975–80) *Honorary Degree University of Saskatchewan (1990) *Prime of Life Achievement Award, University of Saskatchewan Retirees Association *Rotary Golden Wheel Award for Excellence (2000)

References

* Archives: Leon Katz papers, 1965-1973: Murray Memorial Library. University Archives, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon *

, Obituary: ''In Memoriam Leon Katz 1910-2004'', Physics in Canada, Vol. 60, No. 2, 2004, p. 70-71 {{DEFAULTSORT:Katz, Leon 1909 births 2004 deaths People from Lutsk 20th-century Canadian physicists Canadian nuclear physicists Polish emigrants to Canada Jews from the Russian Empire Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Officers of the Order of Canada University of Saskatchewan alumni Queen's University at Kingston alumni Presidents of the Canadian Association of Physicists Fellows of the American Physical Society