BANFF – Award-winning scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster David Suzuki arrived at the Banff World Television Festival on Monday to be a guest panelist and came away as the inaugural recipient of a new award, created in his honour, at the Alberta Film Annual Lunch Awards.
The “David Suzuki Science and Environmental Media Award” recognizes outstanding professional and/or personal achievements in raising public awareness and understanding of science and environmental issues through the visual media.
The award, presented by actress Darryl Hannah, came as a complete surprise for Suzuki. But festival Executive Director Jennifer Harkness said organizers “wanted to show our admiration and our appreciation of everything David Suzuki has come to stand for”.
“David’s uncompromising environmental activism, founded on his expertise in the field of science, and evident in his long and successful on-screen career and his work with the David Suzuki Foundation, is exemplary. He is an inspirational figure for the broadcast industry and beyond.”
Suzuki founded the long-running CBC Radio show Quirks and Quarks and is well known as the host of the CBC TV science series, The Nature of Things.
His eight-part series, A Planet for the Taking won an award from the United Nations. His eight-part PBS series The Secret of Life was praised internationally, as was his five-part series The Brain for the Discovery Channel.
The author of 43 books, Suzuki is an internationally respected geneticist and was a full Professor at the University of British Columbia until his retirement in 2001. He has received numerous awards including the Roger Tory Peterson Award from Harvard University, along with 18 doctorates.
In Banff, Suzuki took part in a panel entitled “Code Green – Environmental Responsibility in the Media,” which addressed the power of television as a vehicle for social change.
