Discovery of insulin for the treatment of diabetes. Frederick Banting and Charles Best of Toronto, 1922. Awarded the Nobel Prize, Medicine, 1923.
Mapping the visual cortex of the brain. This means figuring out where in the cerebral cortex different vision processing tasks take place: things like: lines, brightness, contrast, edges, colour, motion and much more. David Hubel born 1926, Montreal , worked on this all through the 60s and 70s at Harvard, where he still is. Worked with Torsten Wiesel who shared the prize. Won the Nobel Prize, Medicine, 1981.
Development of site-based mutagenesis. Michael Smith discovered a new way of creating mutations in living organisms. Plant and animal breeders rely on naturally occurring beneficial mutations that result in improved plants and animals. Smith found chemical techniques to create a specific mutation by precisely changing any particular part of the DNA in an organism. This has allowed countless researchers around the world to develop special bacteria, plants and animals with new desirable qualities or abilities that either do not occur naturally or that would take years and years of trial and error breeding to achieve. For instance, Smith became a multimillionaire by creating a special "designer yeast" that produces human insulin. This is a much cheaper way to get insulin than by processing cow pancreas which was the old fashioned method. Michael Smith, Born Blackpool England 1932, Came to Vancouver in 1956 and worked there till his death in October 2004. Won the Nobel Prize, Chemistry in 1993.
Discovering the structure and geometry of free radicals: A free radical is a very short-lived atom or molecule that has an extra pair of electrons (or an electron "hole") that it tries desperately to share with another atom or molecule to form yet a third compound. This makes the free radical very reactive which means it will combine quickly, usually within a few millionths of a second with some other molecule. The fleeting nature of free radicals makes them very difficult to observe, yet they are crucial to understanding the mechanisms of countless chemical reactions. Gerhard Herzberg, born in Hamburg in 1904, came to Canada in 1935, and headed Physics division of Canada's National Research Council from 1949 - 1969. Won the Nobel Prize, Chemistry in 1971 for his contributions to the knowledge of electron
ic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free radicals.
Invention of the CCD chip for camcorders and telescopes. The CCD or Charge Coupled Device is a microchip that takes light and converts it into digital data that can be manipulated by computers and electronics to form images. Most good camcorder and TV cameras use CCDs to create the images that you see on television. Also every modern telescope in the world today has a CCD to capture the images. No self respecting astronomer looks through telescopes with their eyeballs anymore because CCDs are something like 100 to 1000 times more sensitive than a human retina. Invented by Willard Boyle, born in Amherst, NS, 1924. Did his work in the 60s and 70s in New Jersey at Bell Labs, then returned to Nova Scotia. He lives today in Wallace, NS.
Development of computerized weather forecasting systems now used worldwide. These systems use complex mathematical models of the Earth's atmosphere in three dimensions as well as time. They use data continuously provided by numerous orbiting satellites and thousands of Earth based stations. Developed by Roger Daley. Born in London, England, 1943, grew up in West Vancouver, B.C., developed his theories in Montreal and Boulder Colorado, 1970s - 1990s.
Development of the Ricker curve used worldwide to determine sustainable fisheries catches. The Ricker curve is a mathematical model of fish population dynamics that can be used to predict how many fish will survive depending on how many are caught. William Ricker, born Waterdown, ON, grew up in Nanaimo, B.C., developed his theories at the Fisheries Research Board of Canada in Ottawa and Nanaimo in the 1950s and 60s.
Theory of plate tectonics -- the notion that the earth's crust is made up of a series of floating plates and when these plates shift or grind together we get earthquakes. Theory of plate techtonics elucidated in the 1970s by John Tuzo Wilson, born 1908, Ottawa, ON.
Discovery of the t-cell receptor, a key to the understanding of the human immune system: Tak Wah Mak, born in China, 1946, grew up in Hong Kong, came to Canada in early 1970s, discovered T-cell receptor in 1983 in Toronto.
Elucidation of the Geometry of higher dimensions. Best way to understand this is to look halfway down Harold Scott Macdonald Coxeter's page. In the meantime, we live in three dimensions, but math and geometry can go beyond this. The higher dimensions (e.g. the fourth dimension and up) are imaginary, but can still be very useful to comprehend such cosmological concepts such as space-time and many complex systems such as computer and telephone networks, the genetic code and much more. Donald Coxeter of Toronto, born in London, England in 1907, came to Toronto in 1937.
Bonus 11th achievement: Discovery of stem cells, whereby a single type of cell has the ability to divide and grow to regenerate any kind of human body tissue. Discovered in 1963 by James Till and Ernest McCulloch at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto. Watch a video about stem cells on James Till's science page.