Susan Tighe

Delivered September 16, 2025

Good afternoon to all of you. I offer my warmest welcome.

I’m deeply honored to be taking on the role of President and Vice Chancellor.

I’m grateful for the support of my husband Chris and our daughters Hannah and Carol, and thrilled to have family members, friends and colleagues here from across Canada and the United States and as far away as Chile, Saudi Arabia and Australia.

I’m highly respectful of all the presidents who have served before me. They worked tirelessly to help shape the university we all know and love today.

I’m grateful for the best wishes of previous McMaster presidents, and I’m especially pleased to have my immediate predecessor, Dr. David Farrar, here with us today.

David, thank you for your leadership, your support and for your confidence you showed in me when you selected me to serve as Provost five years ago.

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I want to thank the McMaster Alumni Association for the gift of this beautiful robe. I’m the third president to have the honor of wearing it, and to me it’s an important symbol of continuity and tradition.

I’m so pleased we are gathered here in Convocation Hall. For the first 15 years after McMaster moved to Hamilton in 1930, this is where the university would welcome new students, and this is where they would come back to convocate.

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Students are the true heart of McMaster, and we have the great privilege of helping them to learn, to grow, and to fulfill their potential. What could possibly be more inspiring?

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Here at McMaster, we have much history to build on, and as we mark this new beginning, we can turn to the future with hope and promise.

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I commit to everyone that I will work with this great community to grow McMaster’s capacity for education and research, accelerate its contribution to our society, improve its resources and to honour its bold traditions of creativity, innovation and impact.

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Philosopher George Grant, an intellectual giant in Canada, was a professor of religion here at McMaster University when he published his 1965 masterwork, Lament For A Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism.

He predicted, controversially but perceptively, that Canada was on the brink of being absorbed by the United States of America for failing to distinguish and disentangle itself from its much larger, more powerful neighbour.

Six years before Grant’s influential book appeared, Canada’s federal government abruptly canceled the Avro Arrow supersonic jet project, scuttling a dazzling new piece of Canadian technology before its Cold War potential could be fully realized.

Canceling the project left at least 15,000 people out of work, including my father, Charlie.

My dad went on to have a prosperous career, but he had always been proud to work for Avro.

My mother, Theresa, trained as a registered nurse at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, where she learned the skills of her profession directly from the nuns who were responsible for nursing care at the hospital.

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My parents worked hard and showed us the importance of honesty, fairness, kindness, and sharing with others. Chris and I hope we have set a similar example for our own daughters.

My parents recognized the value of learning, and made sure my sister, brother and I would get the education we needed to succeed in a changing world.

It was never a matter of whether we were going to university. It was only a question of where.

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In the span of just a generation or two, earning a university degree or college diploma has become increasingly necessary. For students and families, broad access to post-secondary public education is now an expectation.

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I completed all my studies, from kindergarten to PhD, at schools right here in this province.

I am proud to be a product of the Ontario education system. It equipped me to work alongside peers from around the world, proving to me that our institutions rank among the best anywhere.

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I should share I study a very glamorous and exciting subject: pavement.

I know it’s not everbody’s favourite topic – at least until they hit a pothole – but safe, efficient, cost-effective infrastructure is critical to our quality of life.

As a pragmatic person, I enjoy the challenge of making concrete and asphalt better through engineering and science.

I have spent much of my career working on construction sites, experimenting in the lab and creating designs and models at the computer — all to help people, goods and services move safely and efficiently across our transportation networks, on land and in the air.

I’m passionate about all of it, especially sharing what I have learned with others.

I have always loved being a professor, and I continue to draw powerful inspiration from the students I guide today. I take great pride in seeing so many of them now working as distinguished leaders in their respective careers.

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Understanding the past has always been a helpful guide to navigating the present. This is especially true today.

George Grant’s warning of 60 years ago that Canada could soon lose its independence to the United States accurately foreshadowed today’s crisis, with the current president openly suggesting America should absorb Canada as its fifty-first state and using tariffs to advance that agenda.

Fortunately, Canada is responding with pride, resolve and good old-fashioned Canadian practicality. We’re coming together, building new partnerships and developing new solutions to preserve our sovereignty.

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In this moment, we Canadians are seeing something about ourselves that was always there but was never as apparent as it is now. We’re seeing that Canada is determined, resilient and ready to seize the moment.

Education has also changed, and McMaster has grown in ways we are just beginning to realize. We are strong, agile and creative in the face of challenge, as we learned during the COVID emergency.

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During the peak of the pandemic, we were able to call on our deep roster of McMaster experts for scientific and practical guidance on what we should do here on campus, and how we could help our community and our society.

Our experts responded enthusiastically. They worked, for example, to develop new forms of personal protective equipment, to help local entrepreneurs navigate new circumstances, to inform the public and policymakers, and to create an inhaled COVID vaccine.

The vaccine they are testing today has significant potential for preventing a wide range of respiratory illnesses.

During my term, I want us to preserve this resourceful mentality as we all work together toward greater excellence, motivated by our historical successes.

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In 1946, McMaster established its School of Nursing, featuring a strong foundation in research.

A generation later, McMaster built a major medical school based on its own original methods, including problem-based learning, and it’s where McMaster experts developed the concept of evidence-based medicine.

These schools and programs help make McMaster a powerhouse in health sciences, both in terms of training adaptable, team-oriented clinicians and leading impactful, imaginative research.

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Harry Thode, a true visionary, saw the future of nuclear technology as an affordable, carbon-free source of energy, a source of new forms of medical diagnostics and treatments and a means of material testing. His nuclear research during the Second World War helped to establish McMaster as a research institution.

Before becoming president, he advocated for building a research reactor right here on campus, something that had never happened in Canada and which has never been duplicated on such a scale in this country.

The McMaster Nuclear Reactor began operating in 1959 – the same year the Avro Arrow was canceled. While one possibility was being extinguished, another exciting and innovative idea was being ignited.

Sixty-six years later, our reactor is tangible proof of what in his presidential installation address of 1961 Thode had called “targeted excellence”: strategically investing in the most promising areas of research to achieve maximum return.

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Today our campus reactor is a busy hub for a broad range of activities, from research to teaching, training and providing support to a range of other activities, such as mining assays, the nuclear dating of materials and testing the structural integrity of aircraft components.

One of its most critical functions is producing medical isotopes used in cancer treatments for 70,000 patients around the world every year.

The Province of Ontario, as you just heard, recently invested $15.5 million to help us expand the reactor’s operating hours so it can run around the clock, seven days a week.

In other words, Thode’s idea continues to blossom, three generations after becoming a reality.

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We’re leading the way — right here at McMaster, right here in Hamilton.

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Thode also knew that for McMaster to prosper, its teaching and research needed balance.

He authorized University Librarian William Ready to acquire the cultural equivalent of a nuclear reactor: the archives of renowned philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell, outbidding serious competitors and scoring a global coup for this ambitious university.

Today, the Russell archives have their own building, and the collection continues to grow and draw interest from around the world. The same is true for the University Library’s collection of rare maps and books and the McMaster Art Museum’s impressive collection, which includes works by Van Gogh, Monet and Tom Thomson.

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The academic balance Thode had prioritized across our six faculties continues to drive McMaster’s growth and achievement, as we see in the success of creative and effective programs such as Integrated Business and Humanities, and in the exciting new Wilson College of Leadership & Civic Engagement.

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It’s critical we continue to discover, develop and apply new knowledge, just as our researchers are doing today. They’re using AI to find new antibiotics, leveraging big data to understand and explain political behaviour, and coaxing elusive information from ancient DNA to reveal secrets nature has kept to itself for thousands of years.

From these few examples, it’s clear that innovation and achievement are more than our university’s traditions. They are part of McMaster’s DNA.

We’re leading the way, right here at McMaster, right here in Hamilton.

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In this moment in history, as we Canadians are seeing that we are stronger than we might have realized, I think McMaster is also stronger than many realize.

This is the time to make the most of that strength and our special character. I see great opportunities related to innovation, commercialization and entrepreneurship, focusing our resources to do world-class work that has major impact here at home.

We already support inventors with training and guidance, and help them with technology transfer and launching new ventures.

McMaster’s research partnerships with external agencies have earned us the top spot in the country for corporate research income over the past three years.

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This made-at-Mac commercialization ecosystem will help Canada accelerate discovery across the board by developing new materials, new drugs, new diagnostic tests, new systems, new products and new ways of seeing ourselves and improving our world.

This work will not only make people healthier, smarter and safer, it will contribute significantly to our local community’s prosperity and deepen its knowledge base.

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I want McMaster to be the first place that industries, government, donors, academics, students and graduates think of when they have problems to solve or goals to reach. I want them to see McMaster as a partner they can count on.

We see this happening already in the way North America’s leading auto manufacturers turn to the McMaster Automotive Resource Centre for help creating and testing new forms of cars and auto components.

We saw it when AstraZeneca purchased Fusion Pharmaceuticals, whose inventive cancer treatment has its origins here at McMaster, in work led by a McMaster graduate. Fusion is continuing its work here in Hamilton, like so many startups that have sprung from McMaster research.

This is McMaster’s brand, and we’re proud it belongs to Canada’s brand.

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We trust Ontario’s education system, from its roots in primary school through to its branches in higher education. The system is facing challenges, though, and while McMaster has managed its finances responsibly, we need to develop additional resources.

At his own installation 30 years ago, President Peter George identified fundraising as necessary for McMaster to preserve and grow what he called its “margin of excellence.” It’s something that has been true throughout the university’s history.

In 2030, we will celebrate McMaster’s centennial year in Hamilton, looking back to when the university moved from Toronto, where it started in 1887, to a new home where it could grow and prosper.

The people of Hamilton figured critically in that move, raising an impressive $500,000 on the cusp of the Depression to help attract this university to a beautiful plot of land here in the west end of the city.

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For Hamilton to be successful, it needs a strong McMaster. For McMaster to be successful, it needs a strong Hamilton, and we are committed to growing this relationship and to helping Hamilton thrive.

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Together, McMaster and Hamilton form a living lab. Take a walk through the McMaster Forest not far from campus on the Ancaster border. Amid the public hiking trails, important ecological research is happening.

Pay a visit to the Physical Activity Centre of Excellence on the north side of campus, and you’ll see experiential learning, research, and exercise coming together as Hamilton seniors and people with cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries work with students, faculty and staff to improve their well-being.

Throughout the community, individuals and families are participating in clinical trials of new treatments and taking part in McMaster’s research studies that explore such topics as physical fitness, aging and childhood development.

This work helps everyone live better lives, and that requires resources.

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McMaster is at a point where major and minor gifts alike will set the future course of the university, and soon we’ll be embarking on the most ambitious fundraising campaign in the university’s history, to renew the original promise of McMaster.

By so doing, we can improve our community and our society. We can strengthen Canada.

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We are here to make sure that the money and time our students invest in their studies, the funding that governments and industry invest in our teaching and research, and the gifts we receive from donors of every kind directly benefit our community, our society and our economy.

More than ever, it’s important to be strategic with the resources we have and to work with purpose to maximize our impact locally and globally.

I’m pleased to share today that we are embarking on an institutional strategic planning process to light the way as we turn our ambitious goals into concrete realities. Having a thoughtful, practical, informed plan will make it possible to convert our aspirations into strategic, focused actions.

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More than ever, we must maximize the products of our research and scholarship in all their forms, to create economic and social impact and to spur further discovery, to deepen understanding, and to improve health and well-being.

More than ever, we must commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research and service.

We must strive to do this work in a climate that is collaborative, fair and inclusive, knowing we can meet any challenge when there is goodwill and mutual respect, which are also proud McMaster traditions.

We must be cognizant of our ongoing responsibility to respect, understand and include Indigenous knowledge and culture, and to build our foundation of Indigenous education and to dedicate ourselves sincerely to reconciliation.

We must be rigorous, energetic, passionate and imaginative in all of our work.

We must also be kind and understanding, and we should treasure laughter and togetherness in all we do.

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As a civil engineer, I have had the opportunity to work on projects across Canada and in many other countries around the world, learning from impressive mentors and teaching others how to design, build, maintain and manage infrastructure.

In my time at McMaster, I have had the privilege of meeting many of our alumni, at home and abroad. I’ve seen how they are applying what they learned here, and I’ve heard them talk about how their education has helped them to succeed in their careers and lead meaningful lives.

Every day, I get to see and meet students, and to be amazed all over again by their vitality, their hunger for knowledge and their hope.

From my time as Provost, I know our students are learning from talented, devoted and caring instructors, who are supported by committed academic leaders.

I know our dedicated and talented staff enable the university to run smoothly and efficiently and I value them deeply.

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We have something special and unique here at McMaster.

This opportunity to serve as your President and Vice-Chancellor fills me with joy, energy and enthusiasm.

Whether we are driving, flying, riding or walking, we always need a reliable route to lead us to our destination.

Finding the best way has always motivated my research, teaching and leadership. We will find the best way, together.

Seatbelts on. Let’s go, McMaster!