Isydore Hlynka
Encyclopedia
Isydore Hlynka was a Canadian biochemist
, and Ukrainian Canadian
community leader. He was born in the village of Denysiw, near Ternopil
, Ukraine
. He came to Canada
at age one in 1910 with his parents, who homesteaded near Delph, Alberta
, north of Vegreville.
ing in a one-room school
house, which was located in a corner of his father's farm. He attended high school in Edmonton
. He received Bachelor's
and Master's degree
s in chemistry
from the University of Alberta
. He then attended the California Institute of Technology
and received his PhD
in biochemistry
in 1939.
from 1939 to 1947. In 1947, Dr. Hlynka took a position at the Grain Research Laboratory in Winnipeg
, Manitoba
where he lived for the rest of his life. He published over a hundred refereed journal papers, mainly on biochemistry applied to wheat
, and bread quality. For his research, he was the first winner of the Brabender Award (1967) for the application of rheology
in milling and baking, and was a winner of the Osborne Gold Medal in Cereal Chemistry (1976). The American Association of Cereal Chemists
, Rheology Section, in which Dr. Hlynka was active, named the Isydore Hlynka Best Student Paper Award in his honor. While at the Grain Research Laboratory in Winnipeg, he supervised postdoctoral students and visiting scientists from many countries, including Japan
, the United Kingdom
, Yugoslavia
, Bulgaria
, and the Netherlands
. He was the editor/author of one book on cereal chemistry, entitled "Wheat, Chemistry and Technology." For years, this book was a standard reference (and was translated into the Russian language
and used in the Soviet Union
).
Dr. Hlynka was active in the Ukrainian Canadian
community. His brother, Anthony Hlynka
, was the second Member of Parliament
of Ukrainian ancestry in the Canadian House of Commons
(Vegreville, 1940–1949). Dr. Hlynka wrote many of the commentaries which appeared in the Ukrainian Canadian Committee national bulletin in the 1950s.
Dr. Hlynka was a pioneer in the concept of multiculturalism
in Canada. In 1963, he wrote and presented the Ukrainian Canadian Committee's submission to the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism
in Ottawa. His submission was the first of any non-British, non-French ethnic group. Dr. Hlynka argued that Canada was in fact multilingual and multicultural, with two main working languages – Quebec
's working language being mainly French
, and the rest of Canada having English
as a working language. His presentation received major news coverage across Canada and set the tone for all other ethnic groups to follow. In succeeding years, Dr. Hlynka wrote many articles and gave many speeches on the subject of multiculturalism. From 1971-1983, he wrote a weekly English language newspaper column
for Winnipeg based Ukrainsky Holos (The Ukrainian Voice), with the title "Behind the Official Languages Curtain", under the pseudonym
Ivan Harmata. Selections from that column were published in book form with the title "The Other Canadians." Simultaneously with the newspaper column, Dr. Hlynka had a Ukrainian language weekly commentary on radio station CKJS in Winnipeg, on the same topics.
Dr. Hlynka was the founding president of the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko. From its inception in 1963, he was president for its first fifteen years. Dr. Hlynka was an executive member of the Board of Directors of St. Andrew's College (Winnipeg)
. He was an executive member of the National Presidium of Ukrainian Canadian Committee. He was active with the Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre in Winnipeg and with the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Association.
Biochemist
Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. Typical biochemists study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. The prefix of "bio" in "biochemist" can be understood as a fusion of "biological chemist."-Role:...
, and Ukrainian Canadian
Ukrainian Canadian
A Ukrainian Canadian is a person of Ukrainian descent or origin who was born in or immigrated to Canada. In 2006, there were an estimated 1,209,085 persons residing in Canada of Ukrainian origin, making them Canada's ninth largest ethnic group; and giving Canada the world's third-largest...
community leader. He was born in the village of Denysiw, near Ternopil
Ternopil
Ternopil , is a city in western Ukraine, located on the banks of the Seret River. Ternopil is one of the major cities of Western Ukraine and the historical region of Galicia...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. He came to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
at age one in 1910 with his parents, who homesteaded near Delph, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, north of Vegreville.
Education
Hlynka finished his elementary schoolElementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
ing in a one-room school
One-room school
One-room schools were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In most rural and small town schools, all of the students met in a single room...
house, which was located in a corner of his father's farm. He attended high school in Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
. He received Bachelor's
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
and Master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
s in chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
from the University of Alberta
University of Alberta
The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...
. He then attended the California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
and received his PhD
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
in 1939.
Career
Hlynka worked in OttawaOttawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
from 1939 to 1947. In 1947, Dr. Hlynka took a position at the Grain Research Laboratory in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
where he lived for the rest of his life. He published over a hundred refereed journal papers, mainly on biochemistry applied to wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
, and bread quality. For his research, he was the first winner of the Brabender Award (1967) for the application of rheology
Rheology
Rheology is the study of the flow of matter, primarily in the liquid state, but also as 'soft solids' or solids under conditions in which they respond with plastic flow rather than deforming elastically in response to an applied force....
in milling and baking, and was a winner of the Osborne Gold Medal in Cereal Chemistry (1976). The American Association of Cereal Chemists
American Association of Cereal Chemists
AACC International is a non-profit professional organization of members who are specialists in the use of cereal grains in foods. Founded in 1916, they are headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota....
, Rheology Section, in which Dr. Hlynka was active, named the Isydore Hlynka Best Student Paper Award in his honor. While at the Grain Research Laboratory in Winnipeg, he supervised postdoctoral students and visiting scientists from many countries, including Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. He was the editor/author of one book on cereal chemistry, entitled "Wheat, Chemistry and Technology." For years, this book was a standard reference (and was translated into the Russian language
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
and used in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
).
Dr. Hlynka was active in the Ukrainian Canadian
Ukrainian Canadian
A Ukrainian Canadian is a person of Ukrainian descent or origin who was born in or immigrated to Canada. In 2006, there were an estimated 1,209,085 persons residing in Canada of Ukrainian origin, making them Canada's ninth largest ethnic group; and giving Canada the world's third-largest...
community. His brother, Anthony Hlynka
Anthony Hlynka
Anthony Hlynka was a Canadian journalist, publisher, immigration activist and politician. He represented Vegreville in the Canadian House of Commons from 1940 to 1949, as a member of the Social Credit Party of Canada...
, was the second Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
of Ukrainian ancestry in the Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
(Vegreville, 1940–1949). Dr. Hlynka wrote many of the commentaries which appeared in the Ukrainian Canadian Committee national bulletin in the 1950s.
Dr. Hlynka was a pioneer in the concept of multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
in Canada. In 1963, he wrote and presented the Ukrainian Canadian Committee's submission to the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism
Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism
The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism was a Canadian royal commission established on 19 July 1963, by the government of Prime Minister Lester B...
in Ottawa. His submission was the first of any non-British, non-French ethnic group. Dr. Hlynka argued that Canada was in fact multilingual and multicultural, with two main working languages – Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
's working language being mainly French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, and the rest of Canada having English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
as a working language. His presentation received major news coverage across Canada and set the tone for all other ethnic groups to follow. In succeeding years, Dr. Hlynka wrote many articles and gave many speeches on the subject of multiculturalism. From 1971-1983, he wrote a weekly English language newspaper column
Column (newspaper)
A column is a recurring piece or article in a newspaper, magazine or other publication. Columns are written by columnists.What differentiates a column from other forms of journalism is that it meets each of the following criteria:...
for Winnipeg based Ukrainsky Holos (The Ukrainian Voice), with the title "Behind the Official Languages Curtain", under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Ivan Harmata. Selections from that column were published in book form with the title "The Other Canadians." Simultaneously with the newspaper column, Dr. Hlynka had a Ukrainian language weekly commentary on radio station CKJS in Winnipeg, on the same topics.
Dr. Hlynka was the founding president of the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko. From its inception in 1963, he was president for its first fifteen years. Dr. Hlynka was an executive member of the Board of Directors of St. Andrew's College (Winnipeg)
St. Andrew's College (Winnipeg)
St. Andrew’s College is an institution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada and is affiliated with the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg...
. He was an executive member of the National Presidium of Ukrainian Canadian Committee. He was active with the Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre in Winnipeg and with the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Association.
Awards and honours
- Carl Wilhelm Brabender Award in Rheology (1967). Presented by the American Association of Cereal ChemistsAmerican Association of Cereal ChemistsAACC International is a non-profit professional organization of members who are specialists in the use of cereal grains in foods. Founded in 1916, they are headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota....
to an outstanding worker in applied rheology. Hlynka was the first recipient.
- Osborne Gold Medal in Cereal Chemistry. The Thomas Burr OsborneThomas Burr Osborne (chemist)Thomas Burr Osborne was a biochemist and co-discoverer of Vitamin A. he was the son of laywer Arthur Dimon Osborne and the grandson of US Representative Thomas Burr Osborne....
Medal is awarded by the AACC to an individual whose research in cereal chemistry has contributed significantly to the progress of the science.
- Honourary DoctorateHonorary degreeAn honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
of Science from the University of ManitobaUniversity of ManitobaThe University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
(1976)
- Canadian Centennial MedalCanadian Centennial MedalThe Canadian Centennial Medal is a commemorative medal struck by the Royal Canadian Mint in 1967 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation and was awarded to Canadians who were recommended by governments and professional, educational and cultural associations, as well as...
(1967)
- Shevchenko Medal (1968) from the Ukrainian Canadian Committee
- Osvita Foundation Honouree (posthumously, 1984). The Osvita Foundation promotes the Ukrainian English bilingual program in Manitoba.
- Ukrainian Canadian Congress' 100 most prominent Ukrainian Canadians of the Past Century Award (1992)
External links
- Brabender Award
- Osborne Gold Medal
- Isydore Hlynka Best Student Paper Award
- University of Manitoba Honorary Degrees
- Reflections and reminiscences: Ukrainians in Canada, 1892-1992, by Michael EwanchukMichael EwanchukMichael Ewanchuk Canadian educator, historian of Ukrainian origin. Doctor of Laws from the University of Winnipeg and a Doctor of Canon Law from St. John's College of the University of Manitoba.- External links :...
. Winnipeg. 1995. - Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko
- Osvita Foundation Honouree