Memories of a Key Meeting 25
But in 1992 , the search for a permanent base for the Fields Institute was expected to be somewhat divisive .
I do not recall the composition of the selection committee , but I do remember a key meeting of this committee with the Director and other administrative members of the Fields Institute , together with administrative and scientific representatives from the affiliated universities . According to a note I seem to have retained , it took place on Saturday , March 27 , 1993 , 12:30 to 3:00 p . m ., in the Council Chamber of the University of Toronto . Everyone present was given the opportunity to address the committee . Jerry Marsden , looking every bit the director of a serious research institute , described with assurance the progress Fields had made in its first year of operation . My memories otherwise seem to be confined to colleagues from my own university . University of Toronto Mathematics Chair , Steve Halperin , outlined with admirable clarity his ambitions for the Department of Mathematics , for mathematics , and for the Fields Institute .
But it was the words of Rob Prichard , then in his third year as President of the University of Toronto , that are most indelibly imprinted on my mind . He spoke with a passion that seemed to transfix everyone present — of the fundamental importance of mathematics to the modern world , and in particular , to a country , a province and a university . He included words to the effect that as the University leader , he would personally be very honoured to host the Fields Institute , and that he would do anything he could to make it a centre of which the affiliated universities and the entire province could be proud .
I believe that he also added , with endearing modesty , that he had wanted to study mathematics as an undergraduate , and had much enjoyed first-year calculus , but that he had met his Waterloo in the calculus of several variables . Well , it could be argued that multivariable calculus is the most difficult course