Ernest Frederick "Fred" Roots OC FRSC (5 July 1923 – 18 October 2016)[1] was a Canadian geologist, polar explorer, educator and public servant.
During the expedition, in addition to ground-breaking geological and glaciological research studies, he made a 189-day, unsupported dog sled journey across the continent; a record that still stood at the time of his death over six decades later.
After 14 years with PCSP, Roots left to act as science advisor to the newly created federal Department of the Environment, where he remained on staff until 1989.
He remained at the same institution to continue his postgraduate education, and completed a master's degree thesis on the geology of the Aiken Lake map-area, in the Cassiar Mountains of northern British Columbia, in 1947.
[7] Roots's role was to study the geology of Queen Maud Land, which he showed was a conjugate part of and had once been attached to the east coast of southern Africa.
[8][9] In addition to his geological observations, Roots also helped to show that the glaciers of Antarctica had once been much more extensive, and that the phenomenon of climate change was a global effect and not limited to discrete locations.
[3] At the end of his fellowship in Cambridge, Roots was appointed as a field geologist with the GSC, based at the survey's head office in Ottawa, Ontario.
[10] Between 1956 and 1958 Roots was, in turn, head of Operation Stikine, the GSC's first systematic attempt to map the geology of the northern portion of the Canadian Cordillera of British Columbia and Yukon.
PCSP was set up to promote research in Canada's Arctic north, principally by providing logistical and practical support for government and academic scientists active in the area, and Roots had largely been responsible for conceiving of and establishing the novel organization.
As science advisor to the Minister of the Environment, Roots was instrumental in helping design the department's structure and objectives, and has been credited with giving it "the scientific credibility, the moral authority and knowledge that enabled it to play its role.
At the time, Green was attempting to launch a new educational initiative aimed at providing opportunities for secondary school students to visit and explore polar regions.
Previous recipients of the award include explorers Sir Edmund Hillary and Roald Amundsen, primatologist Jane Goodall, and astronaut Neil Armstrong.
During his master's thesis research in the Aiken Lake area of northern British Columbia, Roots collected samples of fossils to assist in correlation and dating of the various rock units that he examined there.