DAVID SUZUKI

A world-renowned geneticist, academic and broadcaster, Dr. David Suzuki has spent the past 40 years educating the public about environmental issues, both in the classroom and over the airwaves.

David Suzuki

As the long-running host of CBC's The Nature of Things and the author of more than 30 books, Suzuki has been called a 'gladiatorial geneticist' who mixes education with entertainment to get his ideas across to the public. Never one to step down from a fight, the passionate and often controversial Suzuki has earned a well-deserved reputation as an environmental guru for two generations of Canadians.

David T. Suzuki and his twin sister Marcia were born in Vancouver, B.C. in 1936. His early years were spent living with his family in the back of their dry-cleaning business in Marpole, a primarily white neighbourhood. His father Kaoru "Carr" Suzuki, an avid outdoorsman, helped shape Suzuki's interest in nature early by taking his son on camping and fishing trips.

His life was uprooted in 1942 when the Suzuki family was sent to an internment camp following the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbour. The next three years of Suzuki's life were spent living in an abandoned hotel in a former gold rush town. On top of the indignities he and his family experienced, he also became a target for other Japanese youth for his refusal to disavow his Canadian roots.

David Suzuki PHOTO: CBC

After the war, Suzuki and his family were relocated to Ontario where they eventually settled in London. A bright student from a young age, Suzuki enrolled in Amherst College in Massachusetts on a scholarship in 1954. Originally intending to go on to medical school, a third-year genetics class altered his course after he learned of the "detective story" behind genetics research. After graduating from Amherst in 1958, he earned his PhD in Zoology from the University of Chicago before returning to Canada, with his young family in tow. He took on his first teaching jobs, at University of Alberta in 1962, then at the University of British Columbia the subsequent year.

It was around this time that he began appearing as a guest on several TV shows, in part out of curiosity and in part as an effort to drum up public support for what he considered the woefully under-funded sciences. After seeing what effect he was having, he made the move to national broadcasting in 1971 as host of the weekly CBC Television show Suzuki on Science. Four years later he founded CBC Radio's Quirks and Quarks, which gained a loyal audience thanks to its irreverent attitude and use of news headlines as the basis of its science stories.

In 1979, Suzuki became the host of The Nature of Things, which became one of CBC Television's most popular and respected shows. In the three decades since the award-winning program began, it has featured in-depth documentaries on such topics as the birth of the human mind; the language of animals; the pathology of psychopaths; medical marijuana; the growth of big business farming; and the future of the Arctic. A groundbreaking 1987 episode focused on the emerging AIDS/HIV epidemic, providing many Canadians with their first understanding of the disease.

In 1990, he founded the David Suzuki Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to finding innovative solutions to help conserve the natural world. Most recently the organization has advocated for Canada to back the implementation of the United Nations Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas reduction.

David Suzuki PHOTO: CBC

Suzuki has been awarded numerous recognitions, including a UNESCO prize for science, a United Nations Environment Program medal and an induction as an Officer of the Order of Canada. He has 15 honorary doctorates from universities in Canada, the U.S. and Australia. In addition, Canada's First Nations people have honoured him with five native names and he has been formally adopted by two tribes.

Now retired from teaching, Suzuki has dedicated himself full-time to educating the public about the importance of the natural world. It's a role that places him alongside the likes of Carl Sagan and Jacques Cousteau, and makes him one of the world's most effective ambassadors of science - and our future.