This week, Patrick Ingram will walk up the famous Fields spiral staircase and step into his corner office on the third floor. It’s a great space with loads of natural sunlight and a big table for meeting with students, colleagues or visiting scholars. Until recently, it held the original cast for the Fields Medal prototype. 

While Prof. Ingram has spent a considerable amount of time at Fields over the course of his academic career, it marks the first time he will experience the Institute from this particular viewpoint.

As the new Deputy Director, he will step away from his primary teaching post at York University, where he most recently served as Graduate Program Director for Math and Stats, to support the Institute’s growth over the next three years. But in a sense, he’s been preparing for this moment for a long time.

“When I interviewed for my job at York, they asked me this standard question of where I saw myself in ten years, and I mentioned that I’d love to be involved with the Fields, maybe as Deputy Director. That was ten years ago, so in some sense I guess it was part of the plan,” he says. 

Leading an administrative team in a non-university setting requires a very specialized skill set. There’s the need for subject matter expertise to help steer the scientific direction; there’s the need for history as a participant or organizer to be able to make decisions from both an inside and outside perspective. Finally, a successful leader requires experience with the hardest part of all: managing a team of people outside the traditional academic environment. 

As a number theorist specializing in arithmetic dynamics, Ingram has the first part down. As for the second part, he has participated in two Thematic Programs (in 2008 and 2017, respectively) and attended many workshops in between, often meeting students here when convenient.

And with years of experience supporting the Canadian Mathematics Society – in addition to his work as Grad Director – he also has the administrative chops to take on the challenge. Proof of this experience is evident in the way he handles questions about his long-term goals at Fields.

“One of the lessons that I learned in my role at York was that your vision changes once you see things from the inside. There might be a good reason that some reform hasn’t been made, or that things work the way they do. Another lesson I learned, though, is that a term can go by quickly, and if you don’t make time for big ideas, the minutia of day-to-day operations can expand to fill your plate. So, I have a vision, but it is provisional, and highly contingent on the realities that I will learn about in the first months.”

This doesn’t mean he comes without big ideas. Some of the avenues he wishes to explore include research dissemination, expanding the successful Fields Academy Shared Graduate Course program and a focus on building both international partnerships and intranational partnerships within Canada.

“It’s a very interesting time, with a shifting landscape that will affect the Fields, and mathematics more broadly. I’m looking forward to working with the team at Fields to navigate those changes.”

But since it is summer, some of that will have to wait. In the intense months-long ramp-up the new role demands, Ingram will find time to spend with his family at the cottage, kayaking and fishing on the lake and exploring the city with his kids.