William Leiss

Who is William Leiss?

William Leiss, OC, FRSC was President of the Royal Society of Canada from 1999 to 2001.

Born in Long Island, New York at the end of 1939, he grew up in rural Pennsylvania. He began his university education in New Jersey, at Fairleigh Dickinson University, graduating in 1956 with a B.A. summa cum laude; then in Massachusetts, with a M.A. in the History of Ideas Program at Brandeis University; and finally in La Jolla, California, with a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of California, San Diego. Leiss studied with Herbert Marcuse at UCSD.

Dr. Leiss started his academic career in the Political Science Department at the University of Regina, before moving on in 1973 to two stints with the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University, interrupted by a brief stay at the University of Toronto's Department of Sociology; then in 1980 to the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University, where he was department chair for six years and later Vice-President, Research.