From the Dean’s Desk
Along with serving as Dean, Maureen MacDonald supervisors and mentors nearly two dozen undergraduate and graduate students in her Vascular Dynamics Lab.
It’s essential that everyone feels they belong and are valued in our Faculty of Science.
Diversity always leads to better science.
FROM THE DEAN’S DESK
We run thousands of experiments every year in our Faculty of Science. The biggest and boldest is also our most important.
What happens when you bring more than 9,000 students together with nearly 350 faculty and staff, add hundreds of academic, industry, government and community partners, and put everyone in an environment that’s research-focused, student-centred and inclusive for all?
We believe these connections, collaborations and conditions will spark the innovation and creativity that leads to a brighter world.
Transforming our world through science is our shared vision, and we’re proud to highlight in this annual report some of the remarkable students, faculty and staff who made that vision a reality in 2021. Instead of making the best of a difficult year, they upped their game and took learning, discovery and engagement to a whole new level.
These are the three strategic pillars in our strategic plan launched in 2020. Our students played an integral role in developing that plan. We then invited a team of students to help us implement it. We tell you how in our annual report.
We also share stories of an exciting research collaboration that generated international attention, a dedicated instructor who found innovative ways to teach during the pandemic, and science champions who are connecting with the community and sharing their passion for science and research. Finally, we recognize the student leaders who played a pivotal role in maintaining a sense of belonging among fellow students during many months of remote learning.
Diversity always leads to better science so it’s essential that all of our students, faculty and staff feel they belong, have a voice and are valued. It’s why we begin every public event – and our annual report – with an act of reconciliation that shows respect for Indigenous peoples and their enduring connection with their traditional territories and its histories. And it’s why we are currently recruiting for our first ever Associate Dean of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Indigeneity to support vitally important EDII work happening across all of our Departments and Schools by our students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty members and staff.
In the year ahead, we will continue moving forward with the learning, discovery and engagement priorities in our strategic plan.
We’ll be fostering even more collaborative research, with a new Dean’s Distinguished Professorship with the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Science. We will also be welcoming Avis Favaro as our inaugural journalist in residence.
We will continue our largest ever faculty renewal, welcoming new Black colleagues through an important McMaster hiring initiative that will add 12 emerging and established Black academics and scholars across the University.
We will begin construction on a new biology greenhouse as part of our efforts to renew the places where we teach, conduct research, and connect with the community.
As always, we will continue drawing on our core strength – the intelligence, curiosity, collaborative spirit, excellence and brilliance of our students, faculty and staff – as we transform our world through science.
Maureen MacDonald
Dean, Faculty of Science
Assistant Professor
Assistant professor Joseph Okeme is joining the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology in July 2022 from Yale University. Joseph is among 11 new faculty members joining Science in 2022.