The 2025 CAP-COMP Peter Kirkby Memorial Medal for Outstanding Service to Canadian Physics is awarded to Stephen Pistorius

"This award is a profound honour that reaffirms my belief in serving our community as physicists and champions of science, and like Peter Kirkby, I believe in a strong Canadian physics and medical-physics community that upholds honesty, openness and dedicated professional service. Thank you to CancerCare Manitoba, the University of Manitoba, COMP and CAP for allowing me to contribute."

The Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) and the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists (COMP) are pleased to announce that the 2025 CAP-COMP Peter Kirkby Memorial Medal for Outstanding Service to Canadian Physics is awarded to Stephen Pistorius, University of Manitoba, in recognition of his service to both COMP and CAP in service and leadership roles, and in the words of one of his colleagues has been instrumental in bringing physics into the forefront of the work of COMP.

Professor Stephen Pistorius is, first and foremost, a dedicated and insiprational leader, a creative and efficient administrator, and simultaneously, an excellent and innovative researcher. His tireless efforts and effective leadership abilities have, over the past twenty-five years, helped shape the Canadian Association of Physicists and the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists into what they are today. His contributions include tenure as President (2006-8 COMP, and 2018 for CAP), and extensive service to both throughout his career. Moreover, as founder and Director of the Medical Physics program in Manitoba, Professor Pistorius has forged important and enduring links between CancerCare Manitoba and the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg. He has helped bring students across Canada to realize the great importance and contributions to be made through a career in Physics. Teaching by example, Professor Pistorius has motivated and encouraged students to explore pathways through Physics that led into careers of benefit to Canadian society and Canadian scientific communities. Through his leadership of strong and creative research achievements, Professor Pistorius has helped launch many careers into a field that brings young scientists personal satisfaction in tackling problems of fundamental importance to the health and well being of us all.

About the Medal
The CAP-COMP Peter Kirkby Memorial Medal is intended to recognize service to the physics community by strengthening the Canadian physics community, by enhancing the profession of physical scientists, by effectively communicating physics to the non-scientific community, or by making physics more attractive as a career.

The Kirkby Memorial Medal, which is awarded biennially, was introduced in 1996 as a lasting memorial to Peter Kirkby and to recognize in others the qualities for which he is remembered best: a vision of a strong Canadian physics community, dedicated efforts to support that vision and, in all things, fairness, and honesty.