U of T is hiring three top scholars from American universities
The school is “intensifying” international recruitment as many academics consider leaving the US
As part of a hiring trend that’s seeing Canadian universities recruit from the American postsecondary sector, the University of Toronto has added three leading US scholars to its faculty.
Joining U of T are astrophysicist Sara Seager of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Stanford economist Mark Duggan, who will become director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy; and innovation and energy economics scholar Jacquelyn Pless, also from MIT.
A press release published by U of T today said the school is “intensifying” its international recruitment and that more hires will follow.
“At a time when the value of scientific inquiry is contested and the importance of scholarly expertise questioned, the University of Toronto is a place where great minds still have the freedom to go where their curiosity takes them,” said U of T president Melanie Woodin in the release. “Our world is facing big problems, but U of T can make a big difference in finding solutions—and we need the brightest minds of our time, from across Canada and around the world, to help us meet this moment.”
Seager grew up near the university’s St. George campus, in the Annex, and will become the school’s North Star Distinguished Professor at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics. “I’m excited to return home as a faculty member, researcher and mentor at the institution where my academic journey began—and to push the boundaries of discovery with forward-thinking collaborators across disciplines,” she said, also in the media release.
U of T recently hired philosopher Jason Stanley, historians Timothy Snyder and Marci Shore, and quantum chemist Alán Aspuru-Guzik, from the US and elsewhere, as part of its strategy.
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
