Persona

Katz, Leon

1909-2004

Leon Katz was born in Poland on August 9, 1909. His father immigrated to Canada in 1914 but, with the outbreak of World War I and the Russian Revolution, the family remained apart for six years before they were reunited in Toronto. While at Toronto's Central Technical School, Katz was recognized as a promising pupil and was encouraged to seek a university education. He enrolled in Electrical Engineering at Queen's University and earned both a B.Sc. (1934) and M.Sc. (1937). He received his PhD (1942) from the California Institute of Technology. From 1942 to 1946, Katz worked for Westinghouse (Pittsburgh), developing radar equipment for aircraft. In 1946, he accepted the position of Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Saskatchewan, was promoted to Professor in 1952, made founding director of the Accelerator Laboratory in 1964, and named Head of the Physics Department in 1965. In 1975, he left the U of S to become the Director of the Saskatchewan Science Council; he retired in 1976. Katz was an internationally recognized physicist, best known for his work in establishing the University's Linear Accelerator Laboratory. Among his many honours are the Order of Canada in 1973 and a D.Sc. from the University of Saskatchewan in 1990. In 2000, a boardroom at the Canadian Light Source synchrotron was named in his honour. Katz died in March 2004.