Douglas Harold Copp
scientist, discoverer of calcitonin (1915-1998)
Douglas Harold Copp (January 16, 1915 – March 17, 1998) was a Canadian scientist who discovered and named the hormone calcitonin, which is used in the treatment of bone disease.
Early life and education
Douglas Harold Copp was born in Toronto, Ontario, on January 16, 1915.
He received his MD from the University of Toronto in 1939 and his PhD in biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1943.
Career
In 1950 Copp became the first head of the physiology department in the newly-established Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia.
Recognition, honours and legacy
In 1967 he received the Gardner International Award jointly with the British endocrinologist Iain Macintyre who had sequenced calcitonin and showed it originated in the thyroid gland.
He was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
In 1971 he was elected fellow of both the Royal Society
In 1971 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Companion in 1980.
In 1972 he was awarded the Flavelle Medal Award of the Royal Society of Canada.
In 1980 he was made Companion of the Order of Canada
In 1994 he was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
In 2000 he was inducted into the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Douglas Harold Copp” as scientist, discoverer of calcitonin (1915-1998). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as scientist, discoverer of calcitonin (1915-1998). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q260351. VIAF identifies the subject as 216179626. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1915, 1998, 1939 and 1943.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Douglas Harold Copp” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.