Professor Doug Reeve (ChemE) has received the 2015 Vivek Goel Faculty Citizenship Award from the University of Toronto Alumni Association. The distinction recognizes one U of T professor each year who has made rich and meaningful contributions across diverse spheres of the University, the community and the world.
As founding director of both the Pulp & Paper Centre (PPC) and Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering (ILead) at U of T, and chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry (ChemE), Reeve has led many significant initiatives that have profoundly advanced the University’s research and education programs.
“Doug Reeve is an excellent example of the brilliant, motivated and innovative leaders that U of T Engineering attracts and enables,” said Professor Emeritus Ron Venter (MIE), who was the inaugural recipient of the award in 2009. Four faculty members from Engineering have received the honour in the past seven years, including Dean Emeritus Michael Charles (ChemE) and Professor Emeritus Safwat Zaky (ECE).
“It’s no surprise to me that my colleagues in Engineering continue to earn this honour year after year,” said Venter.
A pioneer in chemical engineering
Reeve is a double alumnus of U of T in chemical engineering, obtaining his MASc in 1969 and PhD in 1971. He worked in industry for several years and as a ChemE adjunct professor from 1978–89, joining the faculty full time in 1989.
During his term as director of the Pulp & Paper Centre from 1987–2001, Reeve created more than $25 million in research programs with financial support from 45 companies from seven countries. When he stepped down in 2001, there were 23 faculty members, 12 research staff and 50 graduate students associated with the Centre.
As chair of ChemE from 2001–11, he expanded undergraduate and post-graduate enrolment, increased endowments and annual giving, created a board of advisors and oversaw facility renovations and expansions. He also assisted in the creation of the interdisciplinary research centre BioZone, and he developed a new framework of research clusters within the department.
Developing future engineering leaders
In 2002, Reeve founded the Engineering Leaders of Tomorrow program at U of T, which grew to become the nationally and internationally recognized Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering (ILead) in 2010. The multidisciplinary hub offers innovative learning offerings that help engineering students develop critical competencies in leadership, collaboration, communication and problem solving.
“The very successful ILead program that Reeve pioneered will be an integral component of, and housed within, the Faculty’s forthcoming Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship building,” said Venter, who leads the CEIE’s planning committee. In addition to ILead, the new facility will house state-of-the-art collaborative classrooms, fabrication facilities and several other multidisciplinary research and education hubs.
Reeve has won many major awards, including an induction into the International Pulp and Paper Hall of Fame. His contributions to public policy have been recognized with the Carolyn Tuohy Impact on Public Policy Award and his leadership in engineering education led to the 2014 Alan Blizzard Award from the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. He has been inducted into U of T’s Engineering Hall of Distinction and is a senior fellow at Massey College.
“A colleague once told me that excellence is hard to define, but you know it when you see it,” said Professor Greg Evans (ChemE), ILead associate director. “To see Doug Reeve’s achievements and contributions in and beyond U of T is to know excellence in administrative leadership.”
The University of Toronto Alumni Association also recognized U of T Engineering Professor Brenda McCabe’s (CivE) contributions to student learning with the 2015 Joan E. Foley Quality of Student Experience Award. Read more.
