Head and shoulders image of Dr. Malcolm A. Ramsay, professor of Biology, taken outdoors.

Bio/Historical Note: In 1986 Dr. Malcolm Alexander Ramsay (b. 1949) completed his PhD dissertation on the reproductive physiology and ecology of female polar bears while at the University of Alberta. He was a dedicated evolutionary ecologist and naturalist, and a world-renowned polar bear expert. On 21 May 2000, he and a close colleague, Dr. Stuart Innes, were returning to the research station of Resolute, Nunavut (managed by the Polar Continental Shelf Project) in the Canadian High Arctic after a successful day of tagging polar bears. The helicopter crash occurred over the pack ice close to Lowther Island. Both researchers were killed instantly, leaving the pilot as the only survivor. Dr. Ramsay was 51 years old. The Malcolm A. Ramsay Memorial Award is open to students entering or continuing graduate studies and research within the Department of Biology at the University of Saskatchewan and who are conducting research with a focus on ecology, ethology or evolution of animals as defined by the Awards Committee.