Pierre Dansereau (October 5, 1911 – September 28, 2011) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

ecologist Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

from

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

known as one of the "fathers of ecology".

Biography

Born in

Outremont, Quebec Outremont is an affluent residential borough (''arrondissement'') of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It consists entirely of the former city on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec. The neighbourhood is inhabited largely by fra ...

(now part of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

), he received a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (B.Sc.A.) in 1936 and a Ph.D. in Biological Science in 1939 from the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centur ...

. From 1939 until 1942 he worked at the

Montreal Botanical Garden The Montreal Botanical Garden (french: link=no, Jardin botanique de Montréal) is a large botanical garden in Montreal, Quebec, Canada comprising of thematic gardens and greenhouses. It was designated a National Historic Sites of Canada, Natio ...

. From 1943 until 1950 he taught at the

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (UdeM; ; translates to University of Montreal) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte- ...

. From 1950 until 1955 he worked at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Botanical Gardens. From 1955 until 1961 he worked in the Faculty of Science and as the director of the Botanical Institute at the Université de Montréal. In 1961 he returned to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

as the assistant director of the

New York Botanical Garden The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, a ...

and as a professor of botany and geography at the

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

. From 1972 until 1976 he was the Director of the Research Centre for Sciences and the Environment at the

Université du Québec à Montréal The Université du Québec à Montréal ( English: University of Quebec in Montreal), also known as UQAM, is a French-language public university based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest constituent element of the Université du Qu� ...

(UQAM). In 1988 he was made a Professor Emeritus at UQAM, but he still worked there after mandatory retirement (in 1976, at 65 years old) to year 2004, aged 93. He was the subject of a 2001 documentary ''An Ecology of Hope'' by his cousin, Quebec filmmaker

Fernand Dansereau Fernand Dansereau (born April 5, 1928) is a Canadian film director and film producer A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate v ...

. On September 28, 2011, Pierre Dansereau died, one week before his 100th birthday, after 76 years of marriage, and three months after his wife (a painter) became a centenarian — they had no children. UQAM's Complexe des sciences Pierre-Dansereau was named for him.

Honours

* 1949 - Made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (MSRC) * 1959 - Awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the

University of Saskatchewan A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

* 1965 - Awarded the Léo-Pariseau Prize * 1969 - Made a Companion 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 c ...

* 1971 - Awarded honorary doctorate from

Sir George Williams University Sir George Williams University was a university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It merged with Loyola College to create Concordia University on August 24, 1974. History In 1851, the first YMCA in North America was established on Sainte-Hélène ...

, which later became

Concordia University Concordia University (French: ''Université Concordia'') is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University, Concordia is one of the th ...

. * 1972 - Delivered the Massey Lecture * 1973 - Awarded the Royal Canadian Geographical Society's

Massey Medal The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) awards the Massey Medal annually to recognize outstanding personal achievement in the exploration, development or description of the geography of Canada. The award was established in 1959, by the Ma ...

* 1974 - Won the

Molson Prize The Thomas Henry Pentland Molson Prize for the Arts is awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts. Two prizes are awarded annually to distinguished individuals. One prize is awarded in the arts, one in the social sciences and humanities. The priz ...

* 1983 - Awarded the

Université de Sherbrooke The University of Sherbrooke (French: Université de Sherbrooke) (UdS) is a large public French-language university in Quebec, Canada with campuses located in Sherbrooke and Longueuil, a suburb of Montreal approximately west of Sherbrooke. It i ...

's prix Esdras-Minville * 1983 - Won the Government of Quebec's

Prix Marie-Victorin The Prix Marie-Victorin is an award by the Government of Quebec that is part of the Prix du Québec, which "goes to researchers in the pure and applied sciences whose work lies in fields outside biomedicine. These fields include the natural and p ...

* 1985 - Made a Knight of the

National Order of Quebec The National Order of Quebec, termed officially in French as ''l'Ordre national du Québec'', and in English abbreviation as the Order of Quebec, is an order of merit in the Canadian province of Quebec. Instituted in 1984 when Lieutenant Govern ...

; promoted to Grand Officer in 1992 (French) * 1985 - Awarded the

Canada Council for the Arts The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the federal government's principal in ...

Killam Prize The Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Prize was established according to the will of Dorothy J. Killam to honour the memory of her husband Izaak Walton Killam. Five Killam Prizes, each having a value of $100,000, are annually awarded by the Canada Co ...

* 1995 - Awarded the Royal Society of Canada's Sir John William Dawson Medal * 2001 - Inducted into the

Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame The Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame, was located at the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, honoured Canadians who have made outstanding contributions to society in science and engineering. It also promoted role mo ...

Pierre Dansereau, Charles Scriver Inducted Into The Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame
, News Release, Canada Science and Technology Museum, November 8, 2001.

References

External links

Pierre Dansereau
at

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available f ...

Audio interview with Pierre Dansereau
on Les années lumière
'Barefoot ecologist' got up close to nature
Toronto Globe and Mail obituary {{DEFAULTSORT:Dansereau, Pierre 1911 births 2011 deaths Canadian ecologists Canadian expatriate academics in the United States University of Geneva alumni Grand Officers of the National Order of Quebec Companions of the Order of Canada French Quebecers Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada People from Outremont, Quebec Columbia University faculty University of Michigan staff Université du Québec à Montréal faculty Massey Medal recipients Fellows of the Ecological Society of America