Stories profiling New Brunswick Innovators

My name is Lane MacIntosh, and I like to write about ideas, innovation and innovators. My goal is to use plain language to tell stories that shine a light on some of the New Brunswickers who have made and are making remarkable advances that benefit our province, country and world.

In these stories, which will be published on a website in both English and French, I want to show what life events inspired the innovator to innovate. For example, in a recent piece I wrote about innovator Dana Wasson, a true pioneer of New Brunswick's innovation culture, we learn that this brilliant man was influenced by an electrician who wired his family's farmhouse in 1944 when Dana was 10 years old.

The investment for each story will be $1,000, and I will do a fundraiser for each. Each profile will be about 650-750 words and will focus on innovators who have made or are making significant contributions to the development of New Brunswick and Canada.

The first story will profile UNB's professor emeritus, Angus Hamilton, whose contributions to the world of geodesy and geomatics engineering at UNB have been significant. Hamilton is more than 100 years old. UNB’s president emeritus, John McLaughlin, says that through Hamilton's efforts, the university's geodesy and geomatics program is now the top-ranked academic program in its field in the world.

"The history of the department, and its global impact, has been widely reported in the international literature," McLaughlin says. "Very briefly, it came of age in an era when computers, satellite remote sensing and global positioning, cadastral and high precision surveying, and related technologies fundamentally transformed the nature and relevance of the surveying and mapping field.

"The Surveying Engineering program at UNB was involved from the outset in the development of these technologies starting with its seminal contribution to the mapping of 10 potential lunar landing sites for NASA in the 1960s," McLaughlin continues. "It also played a key role in utilizing these technologies in support of reforming land administration systems (both at home and around the world), in modern resource management and infrastructure development, in ocean mapping, and in other significant endeavours.

"Founded in 1960, and especially under Chairman Hamilton (1971-1985), the Department attracted world class scholars, from every continent except Antarctica, who provided the intellectual, professional, and entrepreneurial drive that set it on the path to becoming the premier such department in the world. Without question, the academic leadership crucial to achieving this pinnacle was provided by Angus Hamilton," McLaughlin says.

Writing about innovators is important to me because innovation is essential to the province's future, as are the innovators who make it all happen. Thanks so much for your interest in my project.

Funds will be used this way.

$550.00 - Research, interviews and writing

$100.00 - Editing

$150.00 - Translation to French

$200.00 - Web work

$1,000 - TOTAL