Do you remember what life was like before COVID-19? So much of our world has changed in just a few short months. What remains unchanged is our Gryphon community spirit. As I begin my role as president and vice-chancellor this fall, I have been impressed and humbled by the support that our community members have
A farewell column from President Franco Vaccarino
Some 1.4 million full- and part-time students arrived at university campuses across Canada this fall, including almost 30,000 students on our U of G campuses. For those students and our wider society, our collective investment in Canada’s public university system will yield numerous returns – in ways that go well beyond strict dollars and cents.
It’s among the most pressing challenges of our time. How to ensure environmental sustainability and mitigate our human impact on this planet? Environmental sustainability is in this institution’s DNA. From our founding colleges to today’s campuses, wise resource stewardship has been a constant in our research and teaching. Experts here study everything from the effects
In the film The Martian, Matt Damon’s astronaut character improvises to survive, including adapting his botany smarts to grow food on the red planet while awaiting rescue. The movie is about the adaptability of the human spirit – a favourite theme of mine. We often fear the unknown, and still we are driven to explore,
Any researcher or scholar knows that bright ideas are a dime a dozen, especially on a campus full of bright people such as this one. For ideas that actually make an impact in the world, you need both the spark of innovation and the fuel of excellence. Ask Bonnie Mallard, a pathobiology professor in the
Looking around our campuses in Guelph, Ridgetown and Toronto, I see people engaged in learning, teaching and discovery. Those pursuits are important in their own right — and hardly a surprise. As a post-secondary institution, we’re all about education and research. But there’s something else humming through those endeavours. From a laboratory on the main
Slow down. How often do you hear that these days? We live in a fast-changing world, one that often seems to value quick reaction over deep reflection. Who has time to slow down in a world where we measure time in tweet- and Instagram-sized chunks? Certainly we all have to be more nimble and ready
I went all the way to Israel only to find myself at home. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne invited me, along with Malcolm Campbell, U of G’s vice-president (research), on a provincial life sciences trade mission to Israel in May. Malcolm Campbell, U of G’s vice-president (research), also attended. While there, I signed a cooperation agreement
Two works of art hang side by side on my office wall. One is Requiem for a Planet by David Bierk, a play on an image by Italian Baroque painter Pietro da Cortona. The other, Life Adrift in the Ocean by U of G fine art professor Jean Maddison, depicts a DNA strand and a