Meric Gertler

Biography

Meric S. Gertler began his term as the 16^th President of the University of Toronto on November 1, 2013.  Prior to that, he served as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science—the largest faculty at the University—from 2008 to 2013, where he championed many important innovations in undergraduate teaching and learning. He is a Professor of Geography and Planning, and the Goldring Chair in Canadian Studies at the University of Toronto.  He was co-founder, with David Wolfe, of a large research program at U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy investigating the role of city-regions as sites of innovation and creativity in the global economy, and continues his research affiliation within the Innovation Policy Lab.  His work engages in comparative analysis of North American and European cities to understand how local social and cultural dynamics create the foundations for economic success and prosperity.  He has served as an advisor to local, regional and national governments in Canada, the United States and Europe, as well as to international agencies such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (Paris) and the European Union.  He has authored or edited six books, including Manufacturing Culture: The Institutional Geography of Industrial Practice and The Oxford Handbook of Economic Geography (with Gordon Clark and Maryann Feldman).  He has held visiting appointments at Oxford, University College London, UCLA, and the University of Oslo.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and received the 2007 Award for Scholarly Distinction in Geography from the Canadian Association of Geographers.  In 2012, he was elected as an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences (UK).  He holds a doctor of philosophy honoris causa from Lund University in Sweden.