James Milton Ham

James Milton Ham, OC , O.Ont (1920 – September 16 1997) was a Canadian university administrator and the tenth President of the University of Toronto.

Born in Coboconk, Ontario, Ham attended Runnymede Collegiate Institute and received a B.A.Sc. degree from the University of Toronto in 1943. He then joined the Royal Canadian Navy as an electrical officer. After the Second World War, he was a lecturer and housemaster in the Ajax division of the University of Toronto. In 1946, he left to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he received a M.Sc. degree in 1947 and a D.Sc. degree in 1952. He was also a Research Associate from 1949 to 1951.

In 1951, he returned to the University of Toronto as an assistant professor of electrical engineering, becoming Associate Professor in 1952 and Professor in 1959. He headed department of electrical engineering in 1964, before becoming the Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering in 1966 and the Dean of Graduate Studies in 1976. He served as President of the University of Toronto from 1978 to 1983.

From 1974 to 1976, he was the chairman of the Ontario government's Royal Commission on Health and Safety of Workers in Mines (known as the Ham Commission). The commission's report included more than a hundred recommendations about health and safety in mines.

In 1987, he was a founding fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, serving as its vice president from 1988 to 1989 and president from 1990 to 1991. He was the advisor to the president of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research from 1988 to 1990.

In 1980, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition as a "scientist, engineer and scholar who has had a distinguished academic and administrative career". In 1989, he was awarded the Order of Ontario.

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* [http://www.gg.ca/honours/search-recherche/honours-desc.asp?lang=e&TypeID=orc&id=712 Order of Canada entry]