Goldsmith, Bernice

Bernice Goldsmith (née Iscovitch) was born on June 15, 1934. She married Carl (Beno) Goldsmith and had one child, Philip. She died in Montreal on March 26, 2014. She attended Sir George Williams University and graduated from Concordia University with a BA (Cum Laude) with Specialization in Science & Human Affairs in 1979.

In 1976, she joined the Social Aspects of Engineering program - which was initiated in the early seventies by Dr. Hugh McQueen - as a part-time lecturer and taught a course on environmental and social impact assessment. The same year, she organized and set-up a Resource Centre, used by students for research on environmental assessment. In 1984, she succeeded Hugh McQueen as the program’s coordinator. Through her strong commitment to the program, it continued to grow and thrive.

In June 1990 she was appointed assistant professor in the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science. As well as teaching undergraduate courses, she developed and taught, in 1991, a graduate course on Environmental Life-Cycle Assessment which examined the environmental burdens associated with a product or a process from conception to disposition by incorporating the principles of green design. In 1992, she was the recipient of the Seagram Fund for Academic Innovation Award for the project Development of Interdisciplinary Case Study Methodology and Materials for Teaching/Training of Engineers, which resulted in a paper she presented in conjunction with the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA), in Shanghai, in June 1993. She had been a member of IAIA since 1982 and was on its international board from 1992 to 1995, and later became the liaison to the francophone secretariat in 1999. In 1998, she received an Outstanding Service Award for her many activities with the organization.

She retired from Concordia in 2000. Following the conclusion of her teaching career, she applied her knowledge of technology, engineering and the environment to the area of environmental impact assessment. She co-chaired IAIA’s Trade Impact Assessment section, collaborating on the Principles of Environmental Impact Assessment Best Practices.

In 2010, Bernice Goldsmith, along with Hugh McQueen, was a winner of Concordia’s inaugural Sustainable Champions prize, recognizing her contributions to analyses of life-cycle endurance. They were both instrumental in establishing Concordia’s recycling program in 1990.

In 2014, the Bernice Goldsmith Bursary in the Social Aspects of Engineering was established in her memory.

Created 2015-06-05