Thomas Brzustowski came to Canada with his family when he was eleven. He obtained a B.Sc. in engineering physics from the University of Toronto in 1958, and a Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering from Princeton in 1963. Throughout his multi-faceted career, he has made unique and lasting contributions to post-secondary education, science and technology. He was a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Waterloo for twenty-five years, teaching and researching thermodynamics and combustion. He served as Department Chair, and then as Vice-President, Academic of the university for more than twelve years. Joining the Ontario Government in 1987, Brzustowski was named Deputy Minister, first of Ministry of Colleges and Universities, and later of the Premier’s Council. In 1995, he was appointed president of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the primary federal agency supporting university research in these fields. In this post, he succeeded in gaining significant increases in government and industry support for scientific research, innovation, education and training. Since 2005, Brzustowski has been Professor of the Royal Bank of Canada endowed chair at the Telfer School of Management of the University of Ottawa, as well as Chair of the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo. His recent publications include the book The Way Ahead: Meeting Canada’s Productivity Challenge, published in 2008. Professor Brzustowski is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, as well as of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the Engineering Institute of Canada, and the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering. He has received Gold Medal awards from the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers and the Professional Engineers of Ontario, an Alumni Medal from the University of Toronto, and holds several honorary doctorates. Photos from top left clockwise: • Professor Thomas Brzustowski • With Canadian astronaut Julie Payette, member of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, 2000 • Being sworn in by Premier Davis Peterson for the office of Deputy Minister of Colleges and Universities for Ontario, 1987 • Meeting Vice Premier of China at First Canada China Math Congress, 1999 All photos – private archives .
Structural engineer