Robert Haynes

Robert Hall Haynes, OC, FRSC (27 August 1931 – 22 December 1998) was a Canadian geneticist and biophysicist. He was the Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Biology at York University. Haynes was best known for his contributions to the study of DNA repair and mutagenesis, and for helping promote the concept of terraforming through his invention of the term, ecopoiesis.

Haynes was one of the earliest geneticists to recognize the fundamental biological importance of the vulnerability of DNA to damage and therefore the central role of DNA repair processes. As he noted, “DNA is composed of rather ordinary molecular subunits, which certainly are not endowed with any peculiar kind of quantum mechanical stability. Its very chemical vulgarity makes it prey to all the chemical horrors and misfortune that might befall any such molecule in a warm aqueous medium.”

Haynes early life and scientific contributions have been summarized by Kunz et al. (1993) and Kunz and Hanawalt (1999).

Incomplete timeline

1953, Haynes receives a degree in Mathematics and Physics, at the University of Western Ontario. 1957, Ph.D. in Biophysics, UWO 1984, Haynes creates the word ecopoiesis, a term that came to be widely used by writers and some proponents of terraforming and space exploration. 1987, The Genetics Society of Canada creates the Robert H. Haynes Young Scientist Award. 1988, Haynes serves as President of the 16th International Congress of Genetics. 1990, He is made an Officer of the Order of Canada. 1995 Haynes becomes the 104th President of the Royal Society of Canada

Selected publications

Presidential Address

Planetary engineering

in Haynes, Robert H. (1990) Etablierung von Leben auf dem Mars durch gerichtete Panspermie: Technische und ethische Probleme der Okopoese," Biol. Zent. bl. 109. 193-205.

Haynes, Robert. (1993) How Mars Might Become a Home for Humans. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mankind.