Harold E. Johns Travel Award

The Board of the Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine is pleased to honour the Founding President of the College by means of the Harold E. Johns Travel Award for Young Investigators.

H.E. Johns – Officer of the Order of Canada, Ph.D., LL.D., D.Sc., Emeritus University Professor and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Medical Biophysics and Radiology, University of Toronto.

Dr. Johns was born of missionary parents while in West China.  During his scientific career, he published over 200 peer-reviewed papers, trained over 100 graduate students, many of whom hold key positions in the field of Medical Physics across Canada and around the world.  He has won many prestigious awards and has published four editions of “The Physics of Radiology”, the premiere textbook in the field.

His developments in the late 1940s of the Cobalt “bomb” led to a career in the pioneering field of Medical Biophysics.  This in turn led to international reputation among scientists.  His many awards and accolades reflect the respect and admiration in which he was held by academics and scientists around the world.  He was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 1998.  Dr. Johns passed away on August 23, 1998.