Paper for the Island Solar Summit Web Page format  Wordpefect format

Biosketch

Peter Meincke was born in Winnipeg Manitoba in 1936, graduated with the sword of honour from the Royal Military College of Canada in 1958, obtained a degree in Engineering Physics from Queen's University Kingston and a master's and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in Low Temperature Solid State Physics. While serving in the telecommunications branch of the Royal Canadian Air Force, he taught physics at RMC from 1962 to 65. He then spent two years as a member of the Technical Staff at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill N.J. 

In 1967, he returned to teach physics at the Erindale Campus of the University of Toronto and was appointed Associate Dean for Science in 1969. His interest in the computer communication revolution led to an interdisciplinary course called Communications, a major project in computer assisted learning and, in 1972, was appointed as vice-provost of the University of Toronto with responsibility for the professional faculties and all the information resources including libraries, academic and administrative computing and the instructional media. He also taught a graduate course called "The Future of Information Systems and Services" in the Faculty of Library Science. 

A growing concern about the role of technology in society and the need for "appropriate" technologies led him to resign from that position in 1976 and accept the presidency of the University of Prince Edward Island in 1978. Some of his thoughts are contained in a talk to the Royal Canadian Institute called "What is the Right Size?". He served as President and Chairman of the Board of the Institute of Man and Resources from 1979-82 and on a number of other groups such as the National Library Advisory Board, the Canadian Environmental Advisory Council and the Council of the Association of Commonwealth Universities. 

When his term as president ended in 1985, he attended the National Defence College of Canada for a year where he wrote a paper on Peacekeeping and Conflict Resolution, the Keys to Canadian Foreign and Defence Polices. He is now back at UPEI teaching a first year mathematics course, a physics course called Energy, Environment and the Economy and has designed a course called Technological Innovation for Sustainable Development which has been given twice as a special course. His current activities include trying to increase our awareness and understanding of the important role that technology plays in our lives and to discover how society can best encourage the technological innovations necessary for sustainable development. 

He believes that the Internet and particularly the World Wide Web provide an extraordinary opportunity for small islands to build a virtual infrastructure to support their sustainable development. In 1992, he established the Small Islands Information Network for the Institute of Island Studies and continues to operate a number of lists related to small islands. He created a SIIN website in 1994 and co-founded Island Web Creations in 1996  to make it possible to continue the design and maintenance of web pages to support the sustainable development of small islands. He helped establish and chairs the Board of the Island Web Consortium and was elected Chair of the Royal Commonwealth Society of Canada  for the 1998-2000 term. He is also the chairman of the Board of IMAPRO Corporation. 

At the request of the UNDP, he prepared a discussion paper on networking Small Island Developing States for the UN Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States held in Barbados in April 1994. He was one of five senior consultants asked by the UNDP to prepare a feasibility study on SIDSnet in time for the fall session of the UN General Assembly. In 1996, he was asked by the UNDP to do an update on the 1994 SIDSnet feasibility study for the Alliance of Small Island States. In 1997, Island Web Creations designed a prototype web site for SIDSnet 

The Island Web Consortium, the work with the UNDP and Island Web Creations provide ideal opportunities for him to bring to fruition three decades of thinking about the many ways in which the new information technologies could profoundly transform society and how they can help us achieve sustainable development.