History
By any reasonable measure, the Guelph Waterloo Physics Institute, (previously known as the Guelph Waterloo Pprogram for Graduate Work in Physics), which has been in operation for a little more than a decade, has been a success. Toward the end of the 1970's, the perpetual problem of limited resources was making it difficult for small to medium sized physics departments to mount a complete, well-rounded graduate programme and hence to compete on an equal footing with the larger established schools for outstanding graduate students. Without first rate graduate students in reasonable numbers, it is not possible to mount successful research programmes and hence build a strong graduate programme. A strong graduate programme enhances all of a department's activities and in particular, has a positive stimulating effect on the undergraduate programmes.
One can enhance all of these activities if two active departments who share the same goals, can combine their activities and operate as a single programme. It is even more advantageous if the two departments are complementary in their expertise and they are located a reasonable commuting distance apart. It seemed that the University of Guelph and the University of Waterloo were ideally matched to continue a successful experiment begun by the Departments of Chemistry of these two institutions, a number of years earlier. In addition, the venture enjoyed the support and encouragement of both University presidents, Dr. B.C. Mathews at Waterloo and Dr. D. Forster at Guelph, as well as both Faculty Deans, Dr. R. Farvolden at Waterloo and Dr. J. MacDonald at Guelph.
Serious discussions of a possible collaboration began in the two Departments concerned in 1980 and these were led by the two Chairmen of the Physics Departments involved, Dr. N.R. Isenor at Waterloo and Dr. J.L. Campbell at Guelph. GWP2 became an operating reality early in 1981 with Dr. D.E. Brodie at Waterloo becoming the first Director.
Many different established policies and procedures had to be harmonized and some autonomy relaxed by both groups in order to build a common set of forms, requirements, regulations, and many other details that make up the administrative and operating structure of an effective graduate programme in science.
The purpose of this collaboration was to provide the best possible environment for graduate studies and research within the Physics Departments of the Universities of Guelph and Waterloo. The operating structure adopted consisted of the Director and a Coordinating Committee and a number of Sub-Committees, each with a defined set of functions and responsibilities. The Director represented the interests of GWP2 both within and outside of the Universities and with the aid of one secretary, was responsible for the its operation.
The Coordinating Committee chaired by the Director, was responsible for developing and/or approving all policies, admission requirements, and regulations that would apply for students registered in this programme. The committee also decided what (and when) courses would be offered, faculty membership in GWP2, and any other decisions affecting the programme in an ongoing way. The membership of the Coordinating Committee ensured the smooth integration of the activities of this new enterprise into the two Departments and ensured cooperation amongst the three units involved, and promoted cohesion among the members. The Coordinating Committee consisted of: the Director, the two Department Chairmen, the two Graduate Officers, and two elected faculty members from each department, for a total of nine members, all of whom were members of GWP2.
The first committee was made up of D.E. Brodie (Director), J.L. Campbell and N.R. Isenor (Chairmen), R.W. Ollerhead and I.R. Dagg (Graduate Officers), D.E. Sullivan, K.R. Jeffrey, A. Anderson, and R.K. Pathria (elected members). This committee (with F.R. Hallett representing K.R. Jeffrey) met for the first time on May 7, 1981 at the University of Guelph. That agenda dealt with a number of urgent matters that included: transportation between Guelph and Waterloo, graduate courses to be offered in the fall and winter, the budget, membership, publicity, graduate student stipends, and how student admissions would be handled initially.
With the urgent decisions taken and workable procedures in place by the fall of 1981, there was an opportunity to review the progress and begin to think about longer term planning. With approximately 60 faculty members and research expertise that spanned a wide range of physics specialties including: condensed matter physics, molecular physics, nuclear physics, particle physics, biophysics, geophysics, and astronomy, a larger collection of graduate courses could be offered and these could be planned for a four or five year period. As a result, students would be able to select from the course offerings at the beginning of their graduate studies and hence match them to their interests and need. Some thought was given to defining a five year goal for GWP2 so that decisions made in the ongoing operation of the programme might be made easier when considered with respect to that goal. Some discussion centred on scholarships and how GWP2 might "level the playing field" when competing with other Universities for good students. A modest budget item of about $4000 was used to offer small supplementary scholarships to the best students applying to the new programme. It was thought that regular "mixing " of the members of GWP2 was a desirable objective in order to encourage collaborations and cross- fertilization of ideas among the members. Among other things, one day conferences or seminar days with members of GWP2 presenting their work to the rest of the group and this to be followed by a social event were planned. Also, it was decided that an exchange seminar would be held once a semester in which a speaker from Waterloo would go to Guelph and vice versa.
As a practical operating matter it was agreed that the number of Coordinating Committee meetings would be kept to a minimum and the Director would spend one day a week at the other campus. In this way, concerns or suggestions by members could be discussed at regular intervals. The Director was to be appointed for a three year term and would be selected alternately from the Waterloo and Guelph campuses.
By February of 1982, it was known that the current Director would be the next Dean of the Faculty of Science at Waterloo, beginning July 1 1982. The Director would have completed one year of a three year term at that time and the group decided to appoint another member from Waterloo to complete the first director's three year term. A selection mechanism for the new Director was suggested by the Forward Planning Sub-Committee (later modified to include the two Deans of Graduate Studies) was adopted by the Coordinating Committee. During this period, various forms were adopted and the procedure and content of the Comprehensive/Qualifying Exam required for the PhD degree was discussed and finalized. Membership in GWP2 continued to grow and was extended to included members from other Departments both at Guelph and Waterloo. It had been decided that all members in GWP2 should have a formal connection with either of the two Physics Departments and consequently all members were required to be either members of, or cross-appointed to, one of the two departments.
At the Coordinating Committee meeting held on March 31, 1982, it was decided to recommend Dr. J.D. Leslie for the position of Director of GWP2 and that an approval ballot to that effect would be distributed to the membership. This recommendation was approved by the membership and Dr. Leslie became the second Director of GWP2 on July 1, 1982.
