M. Daria Haust

Maria Daria Haust (née Jaworska; August 18, 1921 – January 11, 2022) was a Polish-Canadian pathologist, medical researcher, and pioneer of the speciality paediatric pathology. She was the first president, from 1983 to 1986, of the Canadian Atherosclerosis Society.

Biography Maria Daria Jaworska was born in a small village in Poland. She completed her primary and secondary education in Poland before WW II. In 1945 the part of Poland where she grew up was incorporated into the Soviet Union. In 1951, Jaworska graduated from the Heidelberg University School of Medicine In addition to her native Polish, she spoke German, French, and English. In 1952, she and her husband immigrated to Canada. In 1953, she completed her medical internship at Kingston General Hospital. After one year as a research fellow, she enrolled in the General Pathology Residency and Graduate School programs at Queen's University.

Haust was, from 1960 to 1967, an assistant professor and was promoted in 1967 to associate professor at Queen's University at Kingston. At the University of Western Ontario, her husband was also a faculty member and was the medical director of the Children's Psychiatric Research Institute .

She garnered an international reputation from numerous invited lectures, service on the editorial board of 10 scientific journals, and the authorship or co-authorship of more than 200 publications, In 1990, she was awarded the Killam Prize in Medicine. She received honorary doctorate of medicine degrees in 1996 from the Jagiellonian University of Krakow and, in 1998, from both Charles University in Prague and the University of Havana. In 2002, two issues of the journal Pediatric Pathology and Molecular Medicine, dedicated to her as a festschrift, consist of 14 contributions by scientists from many different countries. She was appointed in 2007 an Officer of the Order of Canada. She received in 2012 the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal from the Governor General of Canada.

Upon her death in Toronto at age 100 in 2022, Haust was survived by her husband, their two sons, four grandsons, and three great-grandchildren.

Selected publications