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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 .