| Leon Katz | |
| Birth Date: | August 9, 1909 |
| Birth Place: | Lutsk, Russian Empire |
| Nationality: | Polish-Canadian |
| Field: | Physics |
| Work Institution: | University of Saskatchewan Westinghouse |
| Alma Mater: | Queen's University California Institute of Technology University of Saskatchewan |
| Prizes: | Fellow Royal Society of Canada (1952) Fellow American Physical Society (1966) Officer of the Order of Canada (1974) |
Leon Katz, (August 9, 1909 - March 1, 2004) was a Canadian physicist.
Born in Lutsk[1] (then part of the Russian Empire; after World War I part of Poland), Katz emigrated to Canada in 1920 and was reunited with his father who emigrated in 1914. During these early years he studied at Toronto Central Technical School to become an electrician, however through an exchange program with Queens University he was able to transfer into a science program working part-time to afford tuition.[2]
Katz completed his undergraduate and MSc degrees at Queen’s University, and received a PhD from the California Institute of Technology.[2] He specialized in Accelerator Physics, RF Systems and, in later life, Chaos Theory. After working for Westinghouse Electric Company on radar equipment for aircraft, in Pittsburgh, in 1946 he moved to Saskatoon to become an associate professor at the University of Saskatchewan.[1] In collaboration with Drs. Haslam and Jones he was part of the team that was successful in bring a Betatron to the University of Saskatchewan, that was used as the first radiation therapy facility in the province and also for research. He was the founding Director of the Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory from 1964-1975 that eventually led to the formation of the Canadian Light Source.
Katz also served or was honored as:[2]