118 Sheila Embleton
affairs . This was also the time period when I first heard of the Fields Institute and learned about its activities — all prompted by a budget entry in the Department of Mathematics budget , paying fees to the Institute . What a mundane way to first learn about such a wonderful Institute ! It was also during this time that I began to realize that probably the most important thing to facilitate the research of mathematicians was other mathematicians ( and blackboards and chalk — neatly embedded in the Fields logo ). Research budgets consisted almost entirely of expenses for travel to work with other mathematicians , or to host visiting mathematicians , or for post-doctoral fellows with whom to work .
Half a dozen years later , as Vice-President Academic and Provost , I started to become more involved with the Fields Institute , again through budget initially , but also because of meeting notices and invitations to events , which I accepted and attended . It did not take long to see what a thriving enterprise Fields is , and ( since mathematicians mostly need other mathematicians ) how important the Institute is for mathematical research not just for the principal sponsoring universities but also for Canada . And all this brought me back in contact with some of the people who had been my professors in my student days at the University of Toronto . My nine years as Vice-President Academic and Provost also brought me face to face again with the issues of women in the STEM disciplines in general , and with some worthwhile initiatives from NSERC to try to remedy these issues . I was also responsible for merging the ( three ) mathematics units on our Keele campus into one unit , to be housed in the Faculty of Science , which again kept me in close contact with mathematicians , albeit on purely administrative matters . Further , this was also the time of a large change in the Ontario high school curriculum ( both the change from 5 years to 4 years of high school , but also other re-orientations in the mathematics curriculum ). As Chair of