The Fields Institute Turns Twenty-Five 170725 Final book with covers | Page 28

6
W.F. Shadwick
proposals for a second round of funding.
The Campaign Extends to McMaster and
Toronto
Adrian Bondy introduced me to Carl Riehm at McMaster
University, the first person outside Waterloo to get involved
in supporting the idea.
Carl was successful in recruiting others from McMaster’s
Mathematics Department, Bernhard Banaschewski, John
Chadam, Ian Hambleton, and Vic Snaith as well as the
McMaster Vice President Academic, Les King. It was also Carl
who made the connection to Steve Halperin at the University
of Toronto. Halperin led Toronto’s contributions and this
completed the trio of universities that became the initial
backers.
The administrators responsible for research at these
universities had been working together in the campaign for
additional research funding from Ontario, and their past
co-operative experience was to be important in the eventual
success of our proposal.
An Institute Needs a Director
The first Director at MSRI was Chern. His name alone gave
the new Institute instant scientific credibility. We needed to
find someone who could do the same thing.
In the summer of 1987, I phoned Jerry Marsden to tell him
about our campaign and, assuming he liked its prospects, to
ask if he would be interested in being the first Director. I knew
Jerry’s work in some detail but had only met him on a couple
of occasions. I was half expecting him to tell me not to waste
any more of my time on a hopeless project. But that’s not
what happened.