The Fields Institute Turns Twenty-Five 170725 Final book with covers | Page 115

CHAPTER 17
A Dream Program Becomes a
Reality
William Langford
“It is hard now to imagine Canadian mathematics without the
Fields Institute.”
In 1990 I learned that a few dedicated Canadian
mathematicians were working to create a mathematics
research institute in Ontario—an institute with no permanent
research staff that would host limited-term thematic programs
and workshops in specific areas of current importance, where
the best Canadian and international researchers could work
together.
Graduate students and postdocs were to be
involved. Having participated at similar institutes in Germany,
France, and the U.S.A., I thought this was a wonderful idea.
I contacted John Chadam (McMaster) and Bill Shadwick
(Waterloo) to offer my support. To my surprise, a number of
our mathematical colleagues saw this idea as a waste of time,
an impossible dream, with no chance of success in the political