The Fields Institute Turns Twenty-Five 170725 Final book with covers | Page 117

A Dream Program Becomes a Reality
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approved funding in late 1991, at a level of $1M from each per
year. The name chosen for the new institute was the Fields
Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences.
In early 1992, Jerrold Marsden, the new Director of
the fledgling Fields Institute, informed me that the review
committee liked my proposed program very much, and that it
had been selected as the first year-long thematic program, to
run from August 1992 to July 1993. The Program Committee
consisted of John Chadam, Leon Glass (McGill), and myself.
It would follow the start-up Program in Control Theory
being given by Shadwick from January to July 1992, and
run concurrently with a Program in Geometry being given by
McKenzie Wang and Maung Min-oo (McMaster) and activities
in Hamiltonian Systems by Marsden. I immediately started
writing letters of invitation, thus turning my dream program
into a reality. To my surprise, although the notice given was
short, almost all the invitations were accepted. I obtained a
leave of absence from the University of Guelph and was given
an office at the University of Waterloo, in order to be able
focus on this program. Keep in mind that everything was new
at this time; most of us had never done anything like this
before. Even the staff was new and had to be trained in the
art of “nurturing” mathematical research activity.
Thematic Program in Dynamical Systems
and Bifurcation Theory
The Program in Dynamical Systems and Bifurcation Theory
rapidly took shape. It was decided that the emphasis in the fall
semester would be Finite Dimensional Systems, Bifurcation
and Chaos; the winter semester would focus on Pattern
Formation and Infinite Dimensional Systems; while the spring
semester would emphasize Applications and Computations.
In the fall, two graduate courses were offered: Introduction