TORONTO, October 30, 2000 --
York University
President Dr. Lorna Marsden today praised and congratulated York professor of psychology
and biology Dr. David Regan, a world pioneer in human vision research and a contender for
the Herzberg Gold Medal, Canada’s premier science and engineering research award.
The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) announced the three
finalists for the Canada Gold Medal last week, and will announce the winner on Dec. 7 at
Rideau Hall in Ottawa. The award, named for Canada’s first Nobel Prize winner for
chemistry, the late Dr. Gerhard Herzberg, comes with $1-million in research funding. Each
of the finalists also receives a $50,000 NSERC Award of Excellence.
"Dr. Regan is not only an inspired and leading scientist, but an inspirational
teacher who has beaten a path to new frontiers for his students," said Marsden.
"His achievements are proof positive that funding of first class basic research in
Canada can lead to billion-dollar technologies for Canadians. We are very proud of our
team of scientists at York and privileged to be able to count Dr. Regan among them."
Regan is co-director of the Human Performance in Space Laboratory in the Centre for
Research in Earth and Space Technology at York, and holds the NSERC/CAE Industrial
Research Chair in Vision in Aviation at York. He also holds cross-appointments in
ophthalmology, psychology and bio-medical engineering at the University of Toronto.
"Dr. Regan’s discoveries of how the human brain organizes vision have been
integral to the success of our industry and we are pleased to be supporting his research
through the NSERC/CAE industrial research chair," said CAE President and Chief
Executive Officer, Derek H. Burney. Montreal-based CAE is the world’s premier
provider of simulation and control technologies for training and optimization solutions in
the aerospace industry.
Regan was the first in the world to demonstrate how the brain computes the direction of
approaching objects using both monocular and stereo mechanisms, brain processes that
underlie collision avoidance on the highway. He showed that visual system function is
highly modular -- a concept that has become a cornerstone of modern understanding of how
the brain organizes vision, and important for aviation and road safety, and in the design
of systems that allow human operators to control robot movements, such as in remote
surgery.
Regan was also a pioneer in recording the electrical activity of the human brain and
devised major diagnostic tests for studying developmental disorders in infants and disease
in adults. His work also helped redefine the diagnostic criteria for multiple sclerosis
and demonstrate how ocular hypertension and glaucoma affect cells in the retina. He played
a critical role in the development of instrumentation for cataract surgery.
"I am surprised, and greatly honoured to be short-listed for the Herzberg Gold
Medal, though most of the credit should go to the students and medical residents who have
worked in my laboratory," said Regan. "Although their number is not large --
only 16 over the last 35 years -- they have all been first-class scientists and a delight
to work with."
Regan is currently working with Radha Kohly on coincidence detectors in human vision
that take a quick snapshot of the outlines of objects following each eye movement. With
Dr. Marian Regan he is researching the human brain mechanism responsible for stereoscopic
depth perception, and with Dr. Rob Gray he is researching a possible cause of road
accidents associated with overtaking.
He is the first Canadian to receive the prestigious Proctor Medal from the Association
for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology -- the leading international scientific
organization for the study of vision. He is also the first Canadian recipient of the
Charles F. Prentice Medal from the American Academy of Optometry. He is a recipient of the
Sir George William Dawson Medal by the Royal Society of Canada and is a foreign fellow of
the Netherlands Royal Academy of Science.
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