September 2014 BCBusiness 35
mathematician Arvind Gupta made a name for himself
by connecting universities with businesses across the
country. Now, Western Canada's premier research
institution is hoping its new president can supercharge
industrial and community connections to
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In this anecdote are the seeds of future greatness:
It's 1970, and an eight-year-old Arvind Gupta is kneeling in the cold, lost in
concentration over what looks—on a winter day—like an inadequate stack
of kindling. Or maybe it's summer. Maybe there's blood trickling down
his cheek from where he scratched the last blackfly bite. It doesn't really
matter, because either way, the scene is in Timmins, Ontario: a rock-hard
town on the Canadian Shield, not even famous yet as the birthplace of
Shania Twain. The climate here is relentless, deathly cold from October
through March and so hostile in summer that the Weather Network issues
a daily "Bug Report." And yet there kneels Gupta, stacking and restack-
ing sticks.
by R i c ha r d Li t t l e mor e
p o r t r a i t b y B r i a n H o w e l l
