From: Trevor Young, Vice-President and Provost
Date: May 21, 2026
Re: Appointment of Professor Stephen Wright as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science (PDAD&C #42)

I am delighted to announce that the Agenda Committee of Academic Board has approved the appointment of Professor Stephen Wright as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science for a five-year term from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2031, after an extensive international search.

Stephen I. Wright, FRSC, is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Population Genomics in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. His research interests are genome evolution, plant adaptation, genomic conflicts, and population genomics. He received his BSc at the University of Toronto, his MSc at McGill University and his PhD at the University of Edinburgh. He also held an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California, Irvine. Professor Wright became a faculty member at University in Toronto in 2008 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. He was promoted to Professor in 2016.

An award-winning researcher and sought-after lecturer, Professor Wright has held an E.W.R. Steacie Fellowship and many honours, including the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, 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 & 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.

Professor Wright has served as Interim Dean at the Faculty of Arts and Science since April 2025. Prior to this role, he was Vice-Dean, Research & Infrastructure (2024) and Chair and Graduate Chair of the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2019 – 2022).

I am grateful to the Advisory Committee for their dedication and insight over the course of this search.

Please join me in congratulating Professor Stephen Wright on his appointment.