Meric Gertler
Visiting Fellow
Meric S. Gertler recently concluded a 12-year term as the 16th President (Vice-Chancellor) of the University of Toronto, where he continues to serve as Professor in the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, Distinguished Scholar in Residence in the School of Cities, Professor of Geography & Planning, and Goldring Chair in Canadian Studies. Prior to taking on the role of President, he served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science at U of T.
While President, Professor Gertler championed the University of Toronto’s role as a city-builder and leader in sustainability, for which it was recognized as the number one university in the world by QS World University Rankings: Sustainability in both 2024 and 2025.
An expert on urban economies, local and national innovation policy, and the role of institutions in economic development, he has advised governments in Canada, the United States and Singapore, as well as the OECD and the European Union.
He has authored or edited nine books, and has held visiting appointments at the University of Oxford, University College London, UCLA, and the University of Oslo. A graduate of McMaster University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard University, he has received honorary doctorates from Lund University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and the University of Montréal. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, the Academy of Social Sciences (UK), and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. President Gertler was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2015.
Professor Gertler has served as Chair of both Universities Canada and U15 Canada. He is a former trustee of the Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto), and director of the MaRS Discovery District and Canada’s Business Higher Education Roundtable. He currently serves on the international advisory board for Uppsala University, Sweden.
Professor Gertler has had a longstanding interest in the role that institutions play in shaping the behaviour of economic actors at the local and national level. He has explored this interest through comparative work in Canada, the United States, and Germany. He is also interested in the role of universities in stimulating the development of innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems, having played an active role in this regard as the head of Canada’s leading university.
His current projects focus on two topics: (i) the potential for universities to play a leading role in promoting sustainability and the decarbonization of the economy, and (ii) contemporary challenges facing universities in the western economies, especially the Anglo-American countries.
Manufacturing Culture: The Institutional Geography of Industrial Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Gertler, M.S. “Higher education in turbulent times: a geographical perspective”, Journal of the British Academy 6, 2018, 239-58.
G.L. Clark, M.P. Feldman, M.S. Gertler, and D. Wójcik (eds) The New Oxford Handbook of Economic Geography. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2018); [Chinese edition, Shanghai Joint Publishing Co Ltd, 2020].
Gertler, M.S. “W(h)ither global research collaboration: the end of the open model?”, in A.M. Cauce, Y. Flückiger and I. Popović (eds) The New Road to Success: Contributions of Universities Towards More Resilient Societies, Glion Colloquium Series no. 14, ISCA Geneva, 2024, pp. 181-98.
Where next?
