Ursula Franklin, German-born Canadian scientist and academic, Died at 94

Ursula Martius Franklin was born on September 16, 1921, and died on July 16, 2016.

She was a German-Canadian metallurgist, research physicist, author, and educator.

Franklin served as a teacher at the University of Toronto for more than 40 years.

Ursula was the author of The Real World of Technology, which is based on her 1989 Massey Lectures; The Ursula Franklin Reader: Pacifism as a Map, a collection of her papers, interviews, and talks; and Ursula Franklin Speaks: Thoughts and Afterthoughts, containing 22 of her speeches and five interviews between 1986 and 2012.

She was a practicing Quaker and active in working on behalf of pacifist and feminist causes.

Franklin has written and spoken extensively about the futility of war and the connection between peace and social justice.

She received numerous honours and awards, including the Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case for promoting the equality of girls and women in Canada and the Pearson Medal of Peace for her work in advancing human rights.

During 2012, Franklin was inducted into the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame.

In April 2013, she donated her huge collection of writings devoted to Chinese culture and history to the Confucius Institute at Seneca College in Toronto.

Her collection included more than 220 texts, books, publications, and journals interpreting Chinese culture and history from the perspective of Western scholars, which had also contained some of Franklin’s own working papers and files.

At the Toronto high school,has been named in her honour to the Ursula Franklin Academy.

During 1952, Ursula Franklin married Fred Franklin, who was engineer of German Jewish ancestry who had been exposed to Quakerism while living in England

Ursula Franklin passed away at 94 years old.