David Suzuki

David Suzuki
Suzuki in December 2009
Born
David Takayoshi Suzuki

(1936-03-24) March 24, 1936 (age 88)
Alma materAmherst College (BA)
University of Chicago (PhD)
Awards
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of British Columbia
ThesisInterchromosomal effects on crossing over in Drosophila melanogaster (1961)
Doctoral advisorBill Baker
Other academic advisors
  • Bill Hexter
  • Dan Lindsley
Signature

David Takayoshi Suzuki CC OBC FRSC (born March 24, 1936) is a Canadian academic, science broadcaster, and environmental activist. Suzuki earned a PhD in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1961, and was a professor in the genetics department at the University of British Columbia from 1963 until his retirement in 2001. Since the mid-1970s, Suzuki has been known for his television and radio series, documentaries and books about nature and the environment. He is best known as host and narrator of the popular and long-running CBC Television science program The Nature of Things, seen in over 40 countries. He is also well known for criticizing governments for their lack of action to protect the environment.

A longtime activist to reverse global climate change, Suzuki co-founded the David Suzuki Foundation in 1990, to work "to find ways for society to live in balance with the natural world that does sustain us." The Foundation's priorities are: oceans and sustainable fishing, climate change and clean energy, sustainability, and Suzuki's Nature Challenge. The Foundation also works on ways to help protect the oceans from large oil spills such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.[1] Suzuki has also served as a director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association from 1982 to 1987.

Suzuki was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 2009. His 2011 book, The Legacy, won the Nautilus Book Award. He is a Companion of the Order of Canada. In 2004, Suzuki ranked fifth on the list of final nominees in a CBC television series that asked viewers to select The Greatest Canadian of all time.

  1. ^ "Protecting Canada from an Oil Spill". David Suzuki Foundation. Archived from the original on 28 October 2014. Retrieved 28 October 2014.