John Alexander Hopps, OC (May 21, 1919 – November 24, 1998) was a co-developer of both the first artificial pacemaker and the first combined pacemaker-defibrillator, and was the founder of the Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society (CMBES).
[6] Beginning in 1949, he worked with Doctors Wilfred Bigelow and John Callaghan at the Banting Institute in the University of Toronto, developing the world's first external artificial pacemaker in 1951.
[8] Hopps was an advisor to the Sri Lanka health department's Electromedical Division through the Canadian government's Colombo Plan in 1957-58 before returning to the NRC and becoming head of its Medical Engineering Section in 1973.
[9] In 1965, Hopps founded the Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society (CMBES) and became its first President.
[10] In 1971, he was appointed president of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering, for which he later served as the secretary general from 1976 to 1985.