Big City, Big Ideas: U of T President Meric Gertler

On September 18th, University of Toronto President Meric Gertler gave a public talk at IMFG, as part of the Big City, Big Ideas ongoing lecture series organized by IMFG at its partners, entitled “Universities, Cities and Prosperity: An Agenda for the Future.” The event was moderated by Alan Broadbent.

A strong university helps build a strong city, and vice versa. Universities impart innovative dynamism and resilience to the economies of urban regions. They are stabilizing forces on urban economies, and on the local neighbourhoods they inhabit. And they connect their host regions to the world. We see this in leading city-regions around the globe: from Boston to Beijing, from San Francisco to São Paulo. But how do you build and nurture these relationships? And what role should the University of Toronto play in our region’s future?

SPEAKER

Meric S. Gertler is the 16th President of the University of Toronto, and past Dean of U of T’s Faculty of Arts and Science. A Professor of Geography and Planning, Gertler is one of the world’s foremost urban theorists and policy practitioners, and a widely regarded expert on innovation, creativity and culture as drivers of the economic dynamism of city-regions. Among other accolades, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the Academy of Social Sciences (UK). He holds the 2014 Distinguished Scholarship Honor from the Association of American Geographers, and a doctor of philosophy honoris causa from Lund University in Sweden.

View photos from the event, courtesy of Nicolett Jakab