Dr Donald Forbes has a BA (Honours) from Carleton University, an MA University of Toronto and a PhD University of British Columbia. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Carleton University Senate Medal (1970), the Woodrow Wilson Honorary Fellow (1970-1972), the Government of Canada Science Award to Leaders in Sustainable Development (2002), the Earth Sciences Sector Merit Award (2005), and the Natural Resources Canada Departmental Award (2006).
Donald has worked as a consultant in the private sector, as a lecturer at the University of British Columbia, as a research associate at Uppsala University in Sweden, as a flume lab technologist at the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), and part-time as a lab demonstrator and a janitor in his student days. He also worked as a student field assistant with the Arctic Institute of North America in the St. Elias Mountains and with the Geological Survey of Canada on Baffin Island, on Melville Island, and in the Mackenzie Delta. He was appointed to the Atlantic Geoscience Centre (now GSC-Atlantic) at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography as a research scientist in 1981.
Dr Forbes is a strong advocate of interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches to research. He feels that Geography as a discipline is particularly relevant today as the need grows for applied science input to public policy, hazard assessment, adaptation planning, and sustainable development.
His research work for government has ranged from the Yukon coast and Mackenzie Delta area to the central and eastern Arctic, Hudson Bay, Lake Winnipeg, eastern Québec, the Atlantic Provinces, and Ireland. In the mid 1990s, Donald Forbes was seconded to the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission, conducting applied research on coastal management issues in Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, and the Cook Islands. Over the past decade, he has been involved in projects on coastal impacts of climate change in the Canadian Arctic and Atlantic Provinces. In 2005-2006, he was the program manager for climate-change research activities in the Earth Sciences Sector of Natural Resources Canada.
Dr Forbes was a Lead Author on Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Third and Fourth Assessments) and an Expert Reviewer for Working Group I. He is a Network Investigator and Project Leader in the ArcticNet Network of Centres of Excellence. He is also a collaborator on coastal topographic and bathymetric LiDAR development in the GEOIDE Network of Centres of Excellence. Early in 2005, he was involved in the UNESCO-coordinated scientific response to the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Dr Forbes serves on the Editorial Boards of Marine Geology (1997-present) and the Journal of Coastal Research, (1990-present). His research has been funded by: Earth Sciences Sector (Natural Resources Canada), Canadian International Development Agency, Environment Canada, Parks Canada Agency, Canadian Space Agency, Canadian Transportation Safety Board, the Inter-departmental Recovery Fund, Office of Energy Research and Development, the Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Directorate (Natural Resources Canada), the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Japan International Development Agency, Networks of Centres of Excellence (GEOIDE and ArcticNet), and other sources, with in-kind support from the Governments of Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Cook Islands, Eire, and Seychelles, and from numerous provincial, territorial, and university partners.
Besides his active research career in the service of government, Donald enjoys the outdoors, sailing, and back-country paddling. He is a keen but intermittent gardener, a casual botanist, and an enthusiastic birder. When time allows, he haunts archives and cemeteries, indulging interests in scientific, colonial and maritime history, genealogy, old photographs, and architectural and industrial built heritage, including former wooden ship-building sites in Nova Scotia.
Dr Forbes has had an illustrious career in the service of government and is a tireless champion for the discipline of Geography. He is a worthy recipient of the CAG’s award for Geography in the Service of Government or Business.
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