Former Chair of the PIMS Board passes on: Hugh Morris (1932-2012)

“Hugh Clough Morris was admired and respected by all who knew him.  

[He] was a life-long friend of the sciences in Canada. In addition to his memberships in the Geological Association of Canada (GAC), and numerous other scientific societies, he served for seventeen years as a member of the Canadian Geological Foundation, a charitable foundation promoting earth science-related activities. For his extraordinary service to the GAC, Hugh was honored with the Ambrose J. Willis Medal in 1993. He became a 'Distinguished Fellow' of the GAC in 1995, and a member of the Royal Society of Canada in 1997. Hugh's contributions to the sciences encompassed service on several committees for the National Research Council of Canada and the National Research Council of the United States. He chaired both 'Lithoprobe', a major seismic research project on the earth's crust, and the Canada Global Change Program, a joint initiative of the Royal Society of Canada and Environment Canada devoted to the study and mitigation of climate change. In addition, he was Chairman of the Pacific Institute of Mathematical Sciences (PIMS), and Chair of the Board of the Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems (MITACS), a Canadian Networks of Centres of Excellence (The Vancouver Sun).”

In 2011, he generously endowed a yearly lecture series at PIMS, the Hugh C. Morris Lecture Series, which attracts the world’s top mathematical scientists to deliver presentations on current research topics to PIMS sites in Western Canada and Washington State.

Dr. Morris served on the PIMS Board for over ten years. In 2011, Alejandro Adem, Director of PIMS noted, “We are enormously grateful to Hugh for his generosity and vision in support of the mathematical sciences. His contributions to PIMS and science in Canada are truly outstanding. In addition he is a wonderful person who has provided valuable advice to PIMS Directors over the years. It has been a real privilege to count on his friendship and counsel.''