Israel Halperin was born in Westmount, Quebec, the son of Russian immigrants Solomon Halperin and Fanny Lundy, Halperin attended Malvern Collegiate Institute, Victoria University in the University of Toronto, graduated from the University of Toronto in 1932, and later was a graduate student of John von Neumann at Princeton University, where he finished his doctorate.
University of Toronto. Princeton University.
Halperin took a faculty position at Queen"s University beginning in 1939. Halperin joined the Canadian Army in 1942, serving until 1945 in Ottawa with the Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment (CARDE). He then returned to Queen"son
In February 1946, Halperin was arrested and accused of espionage in Canada, in connection with the defection of Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet cipher clerk, which occurred in Ottawa in September 1945.
Gouzenko"s defection and subsequent investigation showed that the Soviet Union was carrying on large-scale spying in Canada and the United States, including nuclear weapons espionage. After some arduous questioning and confinement lasting several weeks, under a Royal Commission appointed by Justice Minister Louis Street-Laurent, followed by a trial in early 1947, Halperin was eventually cleared and freed.
He resumed teaching at Queen"s, but not until 1948, following more legal hurdles which were raised by Queen"s University leadership. Queen"s Principal Robert Charles Wallace advocated his return.
Following von Neumann"s death in 1957, Halperin completed two of his unfinished papers, leaving them under von Neumann"s name alone.
Halperin taught at Queen"s until 1966, earning tenure as a full professor He then moved to the University of Toronto until his retirement in 1976, by which time he had authored more than 100 academic papers.
