Bristow Guy Ballard, a native of Fort Stewart, Ontario, Canada, received a Bachelor of Science degree from Queens University in 1924. He went on to take a Westinghouse graduate course in electrical engineering after which he joined the staff of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in East Pittsburgh, Pa.
In 1930, Dr. Ballard was appointed to the National Research Council of Canada where he spent the following ten years advancing the electrical engineering section of the Physics Division. In 1946, he was appointed Assistant Director of the Division of Physics and Electrical Engineering and in 1948 he was made its Director of the Division of Radio and Electrical Engineering . He was named Vice-President (Scientific) of NRC in 1954, and President in 1963.
Dr. Ballard was an Honorary member and Past President of the Engineering Institute of Canada; a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada; a member of The Association of Professional Engineers of the Province of Ontario, and a member of the Instrument Society of America; and was a member of the Board of Directors and Past President of the Canadian Standards Association.
Ballard received Honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Queens University in 1956, Assumption University of Windsor in 1961, and the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow in 1967.
The Order of the British Empire was awarded to him for his distinguished wartime contributions, among them the development of mine sweepers and other means of protecting ships against enemy magnetic mines. He died in Ottawa September 22nd, 1975.