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stories( including an account of why one of his Springer books was dedicated to“ Ann Murray— a good Canadian”), I recall that Jerry had to excuse himself to make a call to a Bill Shadwick at the University of Waterloo, who had been pushing a proposal to establish a“ Mathematics Research Institute” at the University of Waterloo and wanted Jerry Marsden to be its Founding Director. As a recently appointed Assistant Professor at that time, it all seemed like a“ pipe-dream” to me. I really did not imagine that the Fields Institute was destined to become one of the premier mathematical institutes in the world!
Over a decade later, in 2004, Barbara Keyfitz fortuitously became the Director of the Fields Institute— the first female Director of any mathematical institute! At that time, together with Amit Oza( now head of Medical Oncology at Princess Margaret Hospital), we pitched the idea of establishing a Centre for Mathematical Medicine( CMM) at the Fields Institute. Barbara and Tom Salisbury, Deputy Director, enthusiastically supported the idea, and thus CMM came into existence.
The official opening took place on September 2, 2005, with keynote addresses by David Naylor( former President of the University of Toronto), Robert Bell( Deputy Health Minister and former CEO of the University Health Network, Toronto), Tak Mak, FRS( University of Toronto) and James Keener( Distinguished Professor of Mathematics, University of Utah). At the time, it was one of a handful of sites worldwide dedicated to promoting the interaction of the mathematical and biomedical sciences.