Physics alumna inducted to medical hall of fame

Sylvia Fedoruk (BA '49, M.Sc. '51), world-renowned medical physicist, the first women to hold the positions of University of Saskatchewan chancellor and Lieutenant-Governor of Saskatchewan, and an accomplished curler, can now add to her list of awards the position of inductee into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

Fedoruk, 81, received the recognition for her role on the four-person team that developed the cobalt-60 unit, often called the ‘cobalt bomb,’ which used high intensity radioactive cobalt for the treatment of cancer in humans. The world’s first non-commercial cobalt-60 therapy unit went into operation at the University of Saskatchewan in October 1951.

A chief medical physicist at the Saskatoon Cancer Clinic, the director of physics services with the Saskatchewan Cancer Foundation, a professor of oncology and an associate member of the Department of Physics, Fedoruk worked at the U of S for 35 years, retiring in 1986. That same year, she was elected chancellor, a position she held until 1989. In 1988, she was named this province’s first female Lieutenant-Governor.

An avid participant in many sports, Fedoruk was a member of the team that won the first Canadian national women’s curling championship in 1961. That accomplishment, along with her involvement with women’s curling at a national organizational level, earned her a spot in the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 1973 and induction into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame in 1986. Fedoruk was made an officer of the Order of Canada in 1987.

The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame is a national organization dedicated to recognizing this country’s medical heroes. Fedoruk, along with four incoming laureates, will be formally inducted into the hall of fame April 29 in Montreal.

- From On Campus News, Nov. 14, 2008