��ɫֱ��

His smile widens and eyes light up at the mere mention of the University of Calgary’s research, student accomplishments and community impact.

It’s the same look you see when President Ed McCauley speaks at convocation ceremonies or countless meetings and events around Calgary.

More than 40 years after first stepping foot on campus as a professor, he says he still feels “like a kid in a candy store” as he oversees what is now a nationally and internationally recognized school for its high quality of teaching and research.

McCauley, PhD, has had a front-row seat to ��ɫֱ�� growth and maturation through his journey from professor of biological sciences, to Tier 1 Canada Research Chair, to vice-president (research), to his current post as president and vice-chancellor.

As he reflects on UCalgary’s 60th anniversary, McCauley says he believes Calgary has something unique: it is a comprehensive research university with an entrepreneurial spirit that is embedded in the community.

“Having that trust between the community and UCalgary to work together to solve a really important problem is what makes us special,” he says. “What the University of Calgary has been very successful at is identifying those big problems that are important to solve.”

It’s a core value that McCauley believes will be a guiding light for the university as it embarks on its next 60 years.

A breakthrough for Calgary

McCauley’s passion for community impact is highlighted by one of his own experiences as a scholar.

All of a sudden, Calgary’s drinking water was plagued by a major taste and odour event, particularly in the spring, leading to thousands of complaints from residents and public health concerns.

A research collaboration in the early 2000s between the City of Calgary and UCalgary, funded by a three-year major grant from the , was headed by McCauley.

In 1999, his team (including Dr. Susan Watson, PhD) concluded that chemicals released during the sporadic growth of two types of algae in the Glenmore Reservoir produced a fishy or musty smell and taste.

“We documented how the bloom dynamics come about, how that translates into the degradation of the taste and odour of the drinking water, and actually established that causal link,” McCauley says. “Then we worked with some Swiss scientists to identify what organic compounds were actually producing the taste-and-odour event, which allowed us to give the city an early warning system.”

It was a major breakthrough for Calgarians who could once again trust the water coming out of their taps, and it paved the way for a stronger relationship between city hall and the university.

A unique alliance

The ripple effects of that one collaboration were felt right away.

McCauley was selected as a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Population Ecology in 2001 and became a founding co-director of the Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Water Research two years later, which led to the creation of the Alberta Ingenuity Water Research Institute.

He was also the project leader and principal investigator for the (ACWA) project, a first-of-its-kind facility at Calgary’s Pine Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Then in 2007, the was created as a formal collaboration and Memorandum of Understanding between the City and UCalgary to formally work together on a variety of local issues.

“The City has all of these major challenges in terms of transportation, drinking water, wastewater, and others that are really, really important to Calgarians,” McCauley says. “Colleagues at the City are on the frontlines facing the actual problems and don’t have the capacity to explore solutions.”

He says the Urban Alliance allowed the City to put its problems on a table and allow UCalgary researchers to seize an opportunity to make real-world impact using their own scholarship and expertise.

More than 120 projects have now been completed through the Urban Alliance initiative.

Doing something impactful

McCauley left UCalgary in 2009 to serve as director of the and as a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Just two years later, UCalgary came calling again as he took on an expanded role as vice-president (research) under then-President Elizabeth Cannon.

Along with then-Provost Dru Marshall, McCauley says the three set out on a mission of expanding the university’s research footprint in a strategic way to capitalize on the entrepreneurial spirit of the campus and its community.

“These were areas where we wanted to ensure we were building capacity, training the next generation of talent, discovering new ideas and mobilizing those ideas for the benefit of society,” McCauley says.

“My mantra was simple: I don’t care about your address, I care about your expertise. Bring it to the table, work with your colleagues and do something impactful.”

From mental health and chronic diseases to new space technologies and human dynamics, McCauley says they encouraged numerous scholars from across UCalgary’s faculties to come together to work on solving problems together.

Once the first research area found success, a few more were added, including child health and the integration of human, animal and environmental health.

“The secret sauce is that we have very, very strong disciplinary strength, but we don’t have the deep silos that other universities have because we’re so young,” McCauley says. “Being able to bring together these disciplines across all faculties is really, really special.”

Breaking down barriers

Aside from his appointment in California, McCauley has worked and held several distinguished visiting international professorships all over the world, including Germany, Sweden, the U.K., Norway, the Netherlands and France.

He has seen how things work through a variety of lenses, which leads to one question: Why Calgary?

“It’s because new ideas can flourish here, No. 1,” McCauley says. “You don’t have the constraint of, ‘Oh no, we’ve done it this way and therefore you can’t do it another way.’”

Second, he says, Calgary is an entrepreneurial city where people are willing to take risks and aren’t afraid to make mistakes as long as they are able to learn from them quickly.

McCauley’s third point comes back to the leaders and people in the community who look to their university for expertise and guidance time and time again.

“They really admire and support excellence,” he says. “They may be tremendous leaders in other sectors, but they see what we are doing and are the first to step up, as they want to see us make an impact in other areas.”

McCauley says it makes a tremendous difference when it comes to bringing the best and brightest researchers to Calgary, as they are able to meet members of the community who support their scholarship and know they will make a positive difference.

Ahead of Tomorrow

As he gazes into the proverbial crystal ball, McCauley says UCalgary’s next 60 years need to be rooted in the same fundamental values it holds dearly today.

He believes the university’s entrepreneurial spirit and community impact will allow it to remain at the forefront of major issues, from Canadian security and energy production to health care and education.

“��ɫֱ�� needs to be the first on speed dial, whether you’re the prime minister of Canada, premier of Alberta, mayor of Calgary, or a foundation working here or around the world on an important problem,” McCauley says. 

“Our reputation needs to be there as a university that tackles tough problems, provides important solutions to those problems and does so in an objective manner with excellent disciplinary expertise.”

He says the university’s 2023-2030 strategic plan, Ahead of Tomorrow, provides a strong foundation surrounding teaching and learning, research and community engagement.

“Our responsibility is to ensure that we deliver on those, recognizing that the world changes,” McCauley says. “We have these long-term goals, but we have to adapt along the way to reflect the relationship we have with community and the important values we have as an institution.” 

The smile glistens once again as he says UCalgary is destined to continue being bold and making positive change for a supportive city and ever-evolving world.