The Fields Institute Turns Twenty-Five 170725 Final book with covers | Page 31

Where it All Began
9
We got a very friendly hearing but had no reason to believe
that we had advanced our prospects. In fact, as soon as we got
back Vic told me that as he was convinced we had hit a brick
wall, he was going to resign as Chairman of the Committee.
Violating the Marsden Separation
Requirement
Almost immediately, however, we were contacted by an official
of NSERC. Apparently more than one member of the Standing
Committee was demanding to know why something of the
self-evidently high quality of the Fields Institute proposal had
no prospect of funding. While we had not been asking NSERC
for support, this was not as unfair a question as it may have
seemed to NSERC staff. There was, in fact, no NSERC
program at the time for which our proposal would have been
eligible for.
But there was, as it turned out, a program whose
requirements could be subjected to interpretation sufficient
for it to be used in a way that was clearly never intended.
That would provide half the support we needed. The question
was whether Ontario, also lacking any program for which we
qualified, could provide the other half. I managed to convince
Vic to stay on while we saw this possibility through and we
served as Co-Chairs of the Fields Institute Committee until
the funding eventually came through.
The Importance of Deputy Ministers
At this time, Ontarios Deputy Minister of Colleges and
Universities was Tom Brzustowski, who had been the Vice
President Academic at Waterloo when I began the campaign
for a mathematics institute. Tom had been encouraging to
us, and with the appearance of joint funding with NSERC, he
secured his Minister’s support as well. And then the Liberals