EDWARD J. DAVISON completed his A.R.C.T. degree in piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music in 1958, and his B.A.Sc. degree in Engineering Physics and M.A degree in Mathematics from the University of Toronto in 1960, 1961 respectively. He then received his Ph.D. degree and the Sc.D. degree from Cambridge University in 1964 and 1977 respectively. He is at present University Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Davison has received several awards including the National Research Council of Canada's E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship 1974-77, the Canada Council Killam Research Fellowship 1979-80, 1981-83, the Athlone Fellowship in 1961-63 (Cambridge University), two IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control Outstanding Paper Awards, and a Current Contents Classic Paper Citation. He was elected a Member of the Academy of Nonlinear Sciences (ANS), Moscow, Russia in 1998, a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers in 1977, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1977, an Honorary Professor of Beijing Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1986, and has been a designated Consulting Engineer of the Province of Ontario since 1979. He received the IEEE Centennial Medal in 1984,was elected a Distinguished Member of the IEEE Control Systems Society in 1984 and was awarded the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) Outstanding Member Service Award in 1996. He was President of the consulting company Electrical Engineering Consociates Ltd (Toronto) from 1997 to 1999, and has served on numerous positions in the IEEE Control Systems Society, including President in 1983 and Consulting Editor of the IEEE Trans. on Automatic Control in 1985. He was elected to the Council of the Academy of Sciences, Royal Society of Canada, in 1999, and in 2003 he was elected a Life Fellow member of IEEE.
He was Chairman of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) Theory Committee in 1988-1990, Vice-Chairman of the IFAC Technical Board in 1990-1993, a member of the IFAC Council in 1991-1996, and a member of the IFAC Policy committee in 1996-99. He has been a member of the IFAC Administrative and Finance Commitee from 1999 to 2005. He has served on numerous Editorial Boards of various journals. In 1993, he was awarded the triennial Quazza Medal from the International Federation of Automatic Control, and in December 1997 he was awarded the IEEE Control System's Hendrik W. Bode Lecture Prize. He was elected to the rank of University Professor of the University of Toronto in Jan 2001, and in May 2003 he was awarded the Killam Prize in Engineering from the Canada Council. In Oct 2003 he was inducted into the University of Toronto Engineering Alumni Hall of Distinction. He was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering in June 2005, and in July 2005, he was elected a Fellow of the International Federation of Automatic Control. In 2010 he was awarded the 2010 Canada Outstanding Engineer Award given by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Canada, and was elected a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), USA.