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Arvind Gupta (born c. 1961) is an Indo-Canadian computer scientist who was the 13th President of the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the former CEO of Mitacs Canada.

Early life and education

Gupta was born in Jalandhar in the Indian state of Punjab. Both his parents were academics. His mother was one of the first women to teach mathematics at a college in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Gupta lived in India and spoke Punjabi for his first five years until his family moved to Detroit where his father, a chemistry professor, had started a fellowship at Wayne State University. He then learned to speak English. Within two years, they moved to Timmins, Ontario after his father earned a job as a pollution chemist with a mining company.

He obtained a bachelor's degree in mathematics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario before earning a master's and a PhD at the University of Toronto, under the supervision of Stephen Cook and Alasdair Urquhart. His family knew some of the victims killed in the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182.

Academia

Gupta spent 18 years in the School of Computing Science at Simon Fraser University before being recruited by UBC in 2009 as a professor of computer science. In 2012, he joined the federal government's Science, Technology and Innovation Council.

From 2000 until his appointment as President of UBC in 2014, Gupta served as CEO and scientific director of Mitacs Canada, a national non-profit that worked with government and industry to fund student researchers.

In his inauguration, Gupta committed to increasing UBC's focus on research. Gupta resigned abruptly from his position as President of UBC on August 7, 2015, after 13 months of service. The reasons for his resignation were not revealed and caused some public controversies.

In October 2015, the University of Toronto announced Gupta's joining them as a distinguished visiting professor for one academic year.

References

1. ^ Arvind Gupta - The Mathematics Genealogy Project
2. Sherlock, Tracey (Sep 13, 2014). "University of B.C. boss hates missed opportunities". Vancouver Sun. Archived from the original on August 26, 2016. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
3. ^ Smith, Charlie (March 26, 2014). "Incoming UBC president reinforces university's global brand". Georgia Straight. Retrieved September 13, 2014.
4. Ian Bailey; James Bradshaw (March 12, 2014). "Arvind Gupta, innovation expert, named next president of UBC". Globe and Mail. Retrieved September 13, 2014.
5. Dhillon, Sunny (Sep 12, 2014). "UBC's Gupta kicks off term as president by adding $100-million to research funding". Globe and Mail.
6. "UBC announces leadership transition". UBC News. 7 August 2015. Retrieved 2015-08-07.
7. MacQueen, Ken (August 18, 2015). "The acrimony and enigma of Arvind Gupta's exit from UBC". Maclean's. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
8. "Arvind Gupta, former UBC president, joins University of Toronto". CBC News. Canadian Press. Oct 1, 2015.

• 1961 births
• Living people
• Canadian university and college chief executives
• Canadian computer scientists
• Indian emigrants to Canada
• McMaster University alumni
• Presidents of the University of British Columbia
• Academic staff of Simon Fraser University
• University of Toronto alumni
• Academic staff of the University of Toronto
• Academic staff of the University of British Columbia Faculty of Science