George Klein (inventor)
George Johann Klein, OC MBE (August 15, 1904 – November 4, 1992) was a Canadian inventor and mechanical engineer who spent 40 years at the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, he faced challenges in high school but went on to earn a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Toronto.
His inventions helped many people and fields, including:
- the first electric wheelchairs for quadriplegics
- a microsurgical suturing device
- the ZEEP nuclear reactor, a precursor to the CANDU reactor
- snow classification systems, aircraft skis, and the Weasel all-terrain vehicle
- a space program antenna and contributions to Canadarm
He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1968 and was inducted into the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame in 1995. Klein died in Ottawa at the age of 88.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 03:35 (CET).