For most of the second half of the 19th century, the University of Toronto was the only English-language university in Canada to offer programs with
specializations, one being in mathematics and
natural philosophy. The university launched its mathematics program in 1877, which became a model for the rest of Canada during the first half of the 20th century.[4] The Mathematical and Physical Society was founded in 1882 as a mathematics
student society.[5]: 83
In the early 20th century, the department became the first in North American to explore the field of
actuarial science. At the same time, the University of Toronto's mathematics department increasingly took the lead on mathematical research in Canada. Faculty member
John Charles Fields, appointed professor in 1902, was perhaps the most important in developing research at Toronto.[6] Fields organized the 1924
International Congress of Mathematicians held in Toronto, and would later found the
Fields Medal.[4]
Fields's student,
Samuel Beatty, was the first mathematics
Ph.D. in Canada, obtaining his degree in 1915 (Beatty would later serve as head of the mathematics department and first president of the
Canadian Mathematical Society in 1945). In the next twenty years, Toronto was to produce eight doctorates in mathematics, two of them women.[7]
The department moved from
University College to Baldwin House in 1958, and then to Sidney Smith Hall upon its completion in 1961. The statistics sub-department, first established in 1947, became a separate department in 1978.[5]: 87
Of the 120 current
Fellows of the
Royal Society of Canada in the discipline of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, 21 (or 18%) are members of the University of Toronto's Department of Mathematics.[9]
^
abArchibald, Tom (2016). "Mathematics in Canada: An Institutional Portrait (1900–1980)". Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences. 66 (176): 101–117.
doi:
10.1484/J.ARIHS.5.112882.
ISSN0003-9810.
^Archibald, Thomas; Charbonneau, Louis (2005). "Mathematics in Canada before 1945: A Preliminary Survey". In Van Brummelen, Glen; Kinyon, Michael (eds.). Mathematics and the Historian's Craft: The Kenneth O. May Lectures. CMS Books in Mathematics. New York: Springer. pp. 141–182.
doi:
10.1007/0-387-28272-6_7.
ISBN978-0387-25284-1.
LCCN2005923503.
^Ellers, Erich W.;
Elliott, George A., eds. (February 2005).
"Open House in the New Space"(PDF). Department of Mathematics. Mathematics Newsletter. Toronto: University of Toronto. p. 2. Retrieved 25 October 2018.