1952: University of Saskatchewan awarded its first Ph.D.
At the spring convocation in 1952, the University of Saskatchewan awarded its first Ph.D. The degree was conferred upon Alastair Graham Walter Cameron of Winnipeg who did his doctoral work in nuclear physics and had previously earned a B.Sc. from the University of Manitoba in 1947. He worked for a year at the University of Chicago and two more with the Atomic Energy Commission facility at Chalk River before coming to the U of S.
1
Cameron went on to have a very distinguished career as an astrophysicist at Harvard and elsewhere. Just before his death in 2005, the American Physical Society cited him as follows: "For his pioneering work in developing the fundamental concepts of nuclear astrophysics. These basic ideas, laid out almost 50 years ago, are still the basis of current research in this field." (The University of Saskatchewan conferred a second, honorary, degree on Cameron in 1977.)
The University awarded its first post-graduate degree,
a Master of Arts, in 1912 to Father A.G. Morice, o.m.i. for previous work in
Canadian history. Its first graduate degree based on course work was a Master
of Arts granted in 1914 to George Weir. 2 Until 1922 all graduate
degrees were administered and granted by the individual colleges. In 1932 a
Graduate School was formed becoming the College of Graduate Studies in 1946.
Two years later select departments were authorized to grant PhDs. 3
The growth on the graduate program had been slow but steady until the
end of World War II. Like universities
across the western world the number graduate degrees awarded in subsequent
decades rose rapidly. Today most of the colleges and departments have graduate
programs.
| Related Collections |  |
Office of the Registrar fonds, RG 2011.
| Images | |
1952a: Green and White, Spring 1952.
1952b: Convocation Programme, 1952
| Sources | |
1. Green and White, Spring 1952.
2. Guide to Holdings.
3. Thompson.
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