From: Trevor Young, Vice-President and Provost
Date: March 26, 2025
Re: Appointment of Professor Stephen Wright as Acting Dean, Faculty of Arts & Science (PDAD&C #27)
As announced on March 26, 2025 by the Chair of Governing Council, Professor Melanie Woodin has been appointed the 17th President of the University of Toronto, beginning July 1, 2025. She will be stepping away from her duties as Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science (FAS) as of April 15, 2025, to focus on the leadership transition. Dean Woodin has been a visionary academic leader for FAS over the last six years, and I know we are all very excited for this next phase of U of T history. Read more about President-Designate Woodin here.
It is my pleasure to announce the appointment of Professor Stephen Wright as Acting Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science, effective April 15 to May 31, 2025. I am consulting with faculty and staff leaders about the appointment of an Acting/Interim Dean from June 1 until a new Dean is appointed and will be bringing that appointment forward for governance approval in the near future.
Professor Wright currently serves as Vice-Dean, Research & Infrastructure at FAS. Prior to this role, he was Chair of the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from 2019 to 2022. Professor Wright joined the University of Toronto in 2008 as an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and became a full professor in 2016. He has held an E.W.R. Steacie Fellowship and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair and has received many other honours, including the Steacie Prize for Natural Sciences, the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution’s President’s Award for Research Excellence and the Margaret Dayhoff Award for Research Excellence. Professor Wright was President of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution in 2024. He was admitted to the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, Royal Society of Canada in 2015, and became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2024.
I appreciate Professor Wright’s willingness to step forward during this critical transition period for both the Faculty of Arts & Science and the University of Toronto.