The Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies was founded in 1991 and was a research institute at the University of British Columbia. It supported basic research through collaborative, interdisciplinary initiatives. The institute brought together UBC scholars with researchers from around the world "to work together on innovative research, develop new thinking that is beyond disciplinary boundaries, and engage in intellectual risk-taking." The institute had a varied program of scholars in residence, visiting scholars, distinguished professorship, multiple speaker series, and major special events. It was dis-established by the UBC Senate in April 2024.

History

In 1991, Vancouver property developer Peter Wall donated 6.5 million shares of the Wall Financial Corporation (at the time, it was worth CAD$15 million and the largest private donation received by the University of British Columbia ) to fund the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced studies, which had been conceived by Wall and then UBC President David Strangway. Strangway was quoted as saying, "Peter realized that there was an opportunity to create a university-based institute for advanced research which doesn't exist anywhere else. He made it clear from the outset that the money had to be used to generate new ideas and initiatives that wouldn't happen otherwise." the market value of the shares stood at CAD$48 million. Also in 1994, the university dedicated a CAD$10 million Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies Endowment Fund to the institute. The institute began active operations in 1994 with the appointments of UBC Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Michael Smith (1932–2000), and Prof. Raphael Amit, then director of UBC's W. Maurice Young Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Research Centre, as Peter Wall Distinguished Professors. The institute's first full-time director was Kenneth MacCrimmon from 1996 to 2002. The institute acquired its own facilities at the Leon & Thea Koerner University Centre (formerly the Faculty Club) in 1999. In 2002, the institute appointed as its new Peter Wall Distinguished Professor Dr. Brett Finlay, who teaches in the department of biochemistry & molecular biology, the department of microbiology & immunology, and at the Finlay Lab at the Michael Smith Laboratories at UBC, and whose research led to the developments of vaccines for SARS and E. coli. The institute was a member of UBIAS and hosted its International Conference on September 17–19, 2013. It concluded Memoranda of Understanding with the Collège de France in 2008, the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) in 2009, and the TUM Institute for Advanced Study in 2010. According to Chris McGill, who was assistant to the director from 1999 to 2004, "The Institute was not modelled on a particular centre or institute. The individuals involved in establishing the Peter Wall Institute and in developing its programs looked at a number of different models. The Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Study & Conference Center at Lake Como, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford were some of the facilities that were considered. By trying to adapt elements from each of these centres and institutes to the particular mandate of the Peter Wall Institute we have created a new and original form of research institute." The most recent director of the institute was Dr. Philippe Tortell, a professor in the Departments of Botany and Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Tortell resigned in protest against directives from the board of trustees, which he viewed as "wholly inconsistent with its mission and mandate"

Programs

The institute's programs included: