Dr. Omond McKillop Solandt-Operational Research Pioneer

This paper was presented at the CORS Conference, 1 June 1992, as a brief summary of the career of Dr. Omond Solandt. A Gold Medical physiologist at the University of Toronto and scholarship holder at Cambridge, Dr. Solandt established the first blood supply depot in London in the spring of 1940 under the auspices of the British Medical Research Council, just in time for the blitz. He later became a pioneer in army operational research at the Armoured Fighting Vehicle School at Lulworth, again under the auspices of the MRC. He was eventually appointed Deputy Superintendent and then Superintendent of the Army Operational Research Group as Lt. Colonel and then Colonel in the Canadian Army, on loan to the War Office. In 1947 Dr. Solandt assumed the position of Director General of Research for all three Canadian services before forming the Defence Research Board. He became its first Chairman, and quickly established a strong Operational Research Group. In 1956 he moved to the position of Vice President of Research and Development at Canadian National Railways, where he also set up a large Operational Research OR group. He was instrumental in forming CORS in 1958, becoming its first (and second) president. Dr. Solandt took the position of Vice President, Research and Development at de Havilland, and Director of Hawker Siddeley in 1963, and three years later became the founding Chairman of the Science Council of Canada. In subsequent years he held many prestigious senior appointments to both Canadian and international agencies. He retired in 1988. Dr. Solandt holds many honours and awards but deserves special recognition for his role as an operational research pioneer.