Charles Samuel Hanes, 21 May 1903 - 6 July 1990

Abstract

Charles Samuel Hanes was born and raised in Toronto and received his elementary and secondary education in local schools. An enthusiastic and omnivorous student, he completed high school at the age of 16. Before entering the University of Toronto in 1920 he held several jobs including an assistantship in an instrument-making shop attached to the Weather Bureau, which experience he was to find invaluable. His duties there included flying a one metre weather balloon each morning and this he continued to do after his admission to the University of Toronto. At University he studied all the sciences, eventually with an emphasis on biology and chemistry, and he graduated with high honours in 1925. The award of a coveted Overseas Scholarship of the Exhibition of 1851 took him to Cambridge which, with a few interruptions, was to be his base of operations for more than a quarter of a century. He was to receive a Ph.D. degree from Cambridge University in 1929 and an Sc.D. degree in 1953. He was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1942 and to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada in 1956.