John Tuzo Wilson served as Principal of Erindale College, University of Toronto from 1967 to 1974. He was a Canadian geophysicist and geologist who achieved worldwide acclaim for his contributions to the theory of plate tectonics. He also conceived of the transform fault, a major plate boundary where two plates move past each other horizontally. He was a also a practical scientist – one of the first geologists to use remote sensing to understand the geological process. These contributions had a major impact on mineral exploration and mine development in Canada and around the world. Tuzo Wilson was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and then promoted to the rank of Companion of that order in 1974.
