John Scott Cowan is a graduate of Upper Canada College and the University of Toronto, earning a B.Sc.(Math and Physics) in 1965, and M.Sc. (1967) and PhD (1969) in Physiology. After a two year postdoc at Laval University, he joined the physiology department in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa (1971), and later chaired the department (1979-86). He was President of the Canadian Federation of Biological Societies (1980), and of the Canadian Physiological Society (1982). He served 5 years on the Program Grants Committee of the Medical Research Council of Canada. From 1971-1989 he held over $2,000,000 of research grants and contracts.
After 1975 he was also heavily involved in labour relations, including some arbitration work. In 1986, he joined the central administration of the University of Ottawa, serving (1987-1992) as the first Vice-rector (Resources and Planning). As Advisor to the Rector (1992-1995), he also acted as the first Senior Advisor on Labour Relations to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), directly advised 25 Universities, negotiated a number of collective agreements with faculty across Canada, conducted an enquiry into the Fabrikant case at Concordia (1994), and wrote the implementation plan for the restructuring of Faculties of Education in Nova Scotia (adopted 1995). In 1998 he mediated a dispute between the University of Zimbabwe and the Government which had closed the university for five months. He taught the Labour Relations component of the Senior University Administrators Course (SUAC) in Banff (1990-94), and has also taught short courses for department heads and chairs. In 1992-1993 he was President of the Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO).
During 1995-1999 he was Vice-Principal (Operations and Finance) at Queen’s University. In 1995, he sat on the arbitration board that resolved the first collective agreement for faculty at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC). Still active in labour relations, he has now negotiated over 30 university collective agreements, and until 2007 taught industrial/labour relations in the RMC MBA program. He was also (1997-98) one of seven persons on the body chaired by Gen. Ramsey Withers to recommend on reforms to and future directions for RMC.
Despite having an extensive research career in his first discipline, he has also had a long involvement in defence issues, starting with a monograph on defence policy in 1963. In recent years his writings have focussed much more on issues related to defence and security (including asymmetric threats, terrorism and piracy) and on the characteristics of the profession of arms, as well as defence education.
He was Principal of the Royal Military College of Canada from 1999 to 2008. From 2002 to 2008, the role of Senior Academic Advisor to the Canadian Defence Academy was added to his responsibilities. (The Canadian Defence Academy is not a school, but a formation HQ which controls all educational establishments, generic military skills training establishments, language schools, and all related policy in the Canadian Armed Forces). In addition, he led the Defence Science Advisory Board’s (DSAB) study on Asymmetric Threat (2002) and subsequently participated in or led over a dozen other studies.
He was appointed to the Defence Science Advisory Board of Canada, in 2001. It has since been renamed the Defence Advisory Board of Canada (DAB). He was Chair from 2010 to 2013, following a period of three years as Vice-Chair, and he continues to serve, as Past Chair and member of the Executive Committee. From 2008 to 2012 he was also President of the Conference of Defence Associations Institute (CDAI), a defence and security think tank in Canada, where he continues on the Advisory Board. He was Chair of the PWOR Foundation until early 2017 and was a member of the board of the RMC Foundation until late 2015.
He has received both the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal (2002) and Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012), and in 2008 he was awarded the Canadian Armed Forces Medallion for Distinguished Service. His current RMC status is Principal Emeritus, and in May 2009 he was awarded the honorary degree Doctor of Military Science (honoris causa) by RMC for his contributions to the profession of arms. He was the Honorary Colonel of the Princess of Wales’ Own Regiment from 2013 to Jan 2017, having previously been the HLCol.
His enthusiasms include boating and writing. He has piloted 64 aircraft types, from gliders to the CF18, and he is slightly hard of hearing from a few thousand hours in Harvards. He is married to Dr. Marie-Anne Erki, who is Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering at RMC.