I was quite content at the National Research Council in Ottawa during the 1940s, studying the pasteurization of beer using radio-frequency (microwave) re-warming. A beer company provided the raw material I needed for my research. Dr. Ballard, head of the Radio and Electrical Engineering Division where I worked, offered my services to some researchers from the Banting Institute in Toronto. They had great ideas about developing a radio-frequency re-warming device, an electrical artificial pacemaker, and an electrical defibrillator. They were so keen that I happily joined them on their quest.

We managed to develop a "bipolar" catheter electrode to stimulate the lining of the heart without needing to open the patient's chest. Back in Ottawa, I built an efficient portable pacemaker unit, incorporating the desired electrical features with a suitable electric circuit. Portable didn't mean that you could actually carry the pacemaker around with you; however, in 1950, it was still considered "portable"!

Today, pacemakers are implanted under the skin, as they have been since 1959, but transistors had to be invented before the necessary miniaturization could occur. Those transistors have enabled many, including me, to live a normal life, thanks to pacemaker technology.

Work on the pacemaker was actually only one part of my career. Biomedical engineering was my field of work, and I was one of the first in this field in Canada. My group, the Medical Engineering section of the Division of Electrical Engineering at the National Research Council, continued cardiovascular research, and produced several inventions to help the blind, to advance the diagnostic uses of ultrasound, and to assist people with muscular disabilities.

I did my part to promote biomedical engineering. In 1965, I founded and became the first president of the Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society. I also served on the International Federation as President in 1971 and as Secretary General from 1976 to 1985.

While I may be remembered for my work with pacemakers, I was fortunate to contribute in other ways too, and I am honoured to be called the Father of Biomedical Engineering in Canada