Charles Scriver

Charles Robert Scriver, CC GOQ FRSC FRS (born November 7, 1930) is an eminent Canadian pediatrician and biochemical geneticist. Scriver made many important contributions to our knowledge of inborn errors of metabolism. He led in establishing a nationwide newborn metabolic screening program that is considered a landmark in applying the results of research to children's health across an entire nation.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Scriver graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1951 and from the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University in 1955. He was appointed to the Department of Paediatrics at McGill and as a Markle scholar in 1961, becoming a professor in pediatrics in 1969. He was the Samuel Rudin Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Columbia University from 1979 to 1980. He is the Alva professor Emeritus of Human Genetics in the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University. In 2010 he was awarded the prestigious Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research.

Scriver played a critical role in developing scientific and ethical policies associated with the international Human Genome Project - created to decode more than three billion DNA base pairs and identify all the genes.^[1]

He is co-editor of the authoritative multi-volume textbook entitled The Metabolic & Molecular Bases of Inherited Disease, published by McGraw-Hill.

He and his wife, Esther, have four children.

Honours

• He was awarded the McLauglin medal from the Royal Society of Canada in 1981.
• In 1985 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada
• In 1991, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
• In 1995, he was awarded the Government of Quebec's Prix Wilder-Penfield.
• In 1996 he was promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada
• He was the 1996 recipient of the Canadian Medical Association Medal of Service, awarded to a physician who has made "an exceptional and outstanding contribution to the advancement of health care in Canada."
• In 1997 he was made a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec.
• In 2001 he was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
• In 2001, he was inducted into the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame.^[2]
• In 2010, he was honored by the American Pediatric Society with the 2010 John Howland Award
• He received honorary Doctor of Science degrees from the University of Manitoba, Glasgow University and the Université de Montréal.

Honorary degrees

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• The University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario; Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) June 13, 2007^[3]

References

• "Canadian Who's Who 1997 entry". University of Toronto Press. Retrieved October 13, 2006. 
• Fedak, George; Kim, Nam-Soo (May 2008). "Canadian Pioneers. Dr. Charles Robert Scriver". Genome 51 (5): iii–iv. doi:10.1139/g08-914. PMID 18595221.