Gordon Penrose

Gordon William Gavin Penrose CM (July 24, 1925 – December 16, 1997), nicknamed the Zany Dr. Zed, was a Canadian scientist, educator, and author of children's science books. His works have been featured in OWL magazine and ChickaDEE magazine, and he played the role of Dr. Zed for the children's television show OWL/TV.

Penrose's philosophy was based on interactive science experiments on the belief that children learn best by doing. Consequently, his books describe experiments that require as little adult supervision as possible. Penrose's audience is eight- to twelve-year-olds, who are in Piaget's "concrete operations" stage, where abstract thinking about hypotheticals is not yet fully developed.