Schindler conducted numerous groundbreaking studies during his career in efforts to protect freshwater around the world
Renowned conservation scientist David Schindler photographed around the time of his retirement from the University of Alberta in 2013. (Photo: Michael Holly/University of Alberta)
The world has lost one of the 20th centuries leading conservation scientists. Limnologist David Schindler died on March 4, 2021, at the age of 80.
Schindler had served as the Killam memorial chair and a professor of ecology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton since 1989 and during his 50-plus-year career he was awarded most of the planet's top environmental science prizes, including the inaugural Stockholm Water Prize (1991), the Volvo Environmental Prize (1998), the Gerhard Herzberg Gold Medal (2001) and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (2006). He garnered more than 30 such honours in total and held 13 academic or honorary degrees from universities in North America and around the world.
He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2004 in recognition of his pioneering large-scale investigations of whole lakes as director of the Experimental Lakes Area in Kenora, Ont., (of which he was a co-founder) and his acid rain research and other studies that resulted in specific protection measures for world freshwater resources.
He was also honoured with the Alberta Order of Excellence in 2008 and was a Fellow of The Royal Canadian Geographical Society, the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Canada. In 2020, Canadian Geographic named Schindler one of its 90 greatest Canadian explorers of all time.
Dozens of tributes to Schindler from a who's who of Canadian scientists and conservationists hit Twitter on March 5, 2021, in response to a tweet from his friend, "fishing companion" and fellow professor of ecology at the University of Albera, Mark Boyce, sharing news of Schindler's passing. You can read the tributes here.