As Emöke Szathmáry looks out of her office window, she takes a moment to reflect on how much the view has changed over the past decade. It has been 11 years since Szathmáry became president of the University of Manitoba— the first woman president in the university’s history—and her tenure is coming to an end. This fall marks her 12th and final year at the helm of the province’s largest and oldest university.

One of the most noticeable changes in the landscape at the University of Manitoba is the new Engineering Information and Technology Complex. “One day I looked out of my office window, where the second oldest engineering building had been taken down. The engineering students were getting impatient, so they strung a banner between the buildings that said, ‘Insert engineering building here,’” Szathmáry recalls with a laugh. The building has since replaced the banner, with construction completed in 2005. The building features a wide-open atrium, modern design and is an up-to-date engineering and computer science facility.

Standing at 5’9’’, Szathmáry, dressed in a tailored grey suit, exudes power and determination as she glances out at University Centre. Described as a strong leader by her colleagues, Szathmáry has seen many of her visions come to fruition in her time as president. “The last 10 years have been the most exciting,” says Deborah McCallum, who has been at the university for the past 35 years, first as a student, then on staff and now as vice president (administration). “(The university) is really vibrant, and has become a much more diverse campus. Since the president arrived, it has really blossomed.”

The university has seen more construction in the past 11 years than it has since the 1960s, including SmartPark, an innovative research and technology park, employing some 800 people. They have implemented new up-to-date computer systems, which includes an easy-to-use system that allows students to register for classes, check grades, pay tuition, etc. Another system, Jump, was also introduced, allowing students and staff to communicate via e-mail, keep their calendars handy and stay connected with their peers and professors.

Under Szathmáry’s leadership, the U of M has also completed the largest fundraising campaign in Manitoba’s history. Raising money for everything from scholarships to new facilities, the five-year Building on Strengths: Campaign for the University of Manitoba was completed in 2004. Szathmáry worked very closely with Elaine Goldie, vice president (external), whose skills in campaign design enabled them to raise over $237 million. “All of these additions,” says McCallum, “have helped to bring the university into the 21st century.”

Szathmáry says that the financial support the university has received over the past decade has been quite overwhelming. With 36,420 individual donors, she sees their support as a huge vote of confidence in the university. And it’s not just financial support that has increased—there have also been record enrollments, dramatic research growth and many new professors and researchers recruited since the 1990s, says McCallum. “We’ve managed to rejuvenate our workforce,” Szathmáry says. “We have hired a lot of young professors and support staff.”

Despite all of the praise made to the university, Szathmáry is hesitant to take credit, and recognizes that there are always challenges to face. It is the president’s job, she says, to provide professors and students the means they need to succeed, and despite the successful capital campaign, funding remains an ongoing issue.

“I’m pleased with how successful we have been, but I don’t take credit for it. It is the whole team. The fact is,” she adds, “an awful lot of people are involved.” These other people include four vice presidents—Elaine Goldie, Deborah McCallum, Robert Kerr and Joanne Keselman—who work closely with the president and meet on a weekly basis.

While her tenure is quickly coming to an end—2008 will be her final year as president—Szathmáry says she can’t imagine leaving her adopted province.
Born in Hungary in 1944, Szathmáry’s life began far away from the Canadian prairies. As a child during the Second World War, Szathmáry and her family—mother, father, sister and two brothers— went from one displaced persons camp to another in Germany, until they emigrated to Canada in 1951.

The family settled in Ontario, but the transition put strains on the family, and when Szathmáry was 13, her parents divorced. Her mother found work in a textile mill in Dunnville, Ontario, while her father moved to Toronto, 130 kilometres away.
Szathmáry went to a Catholic high school in Welland, Ontario, where she lived with her mother and siblings, and decided that she wanted to attend university. Because money was tight, she knew she would have to get a scholarship. She worked hard in high school, won a scholarship, and was admitted into the faculty of medicine at the University of Toronto. But she didn’t stay beyond her first year.

Bored with pre-med, Szathmáry was admitted into an honours program called Social and Philosophical Studies. This new program allowed the eager student to take a variety of different subjects and find out what truly interested her. The subject that stood out was anthropology. “Anthropology really interested me simply because it talked about the evolution of the human species, but it also talked about social development,” she recalls.

In 1968, she earned her honours degree in Anthropology, focusing on human genetics, and went directly into her PhD, graduating in 1974 from the University of Toronto.

In the 33 years since Szathmáry received her PhD in Anthropology, she has been a professor, a distinguished researcher, a dean, provost, vice president and now president. But before being recruited to Manitoba, she spent much of her career at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

One of Szathmáry’s colleagues at McMaster University was Susan Watt, who is now associate dean of Social Work. While it has been 18 years since the two worked together, Watt says she still misses her former colleague. “She is extremely bright and extremely articulate,” Watt says. “She can be very tough and demanding, but at the same time extraordinarily fair and giving as well. No one works harder than she does, which just means when you work with Emöke, you work hard.”

Szathmáry spent a total of 16 years at McMaster, where she taught, researched and published many of her research findings. She has written more than 80 scientific articles and reviews and co-edited three books. The area that Szathmáry has been most involved is the genetics of North American Aboriginals, focusing on the causes of Type-2 Diabetes, the microevolution of the peoples of the Arctic and Sub Arctic and the genetic relationships between North American and Asian people.

With a career devoted to research, it is not surprising that one of Szathmáry’s main focuses at the University of Manitoba is expanding and advancing research efforts. “The research that we do is very important, and it’s not just confined to Manitoba,” she says. “It is relevant throughout the world.”

One area of research that Szathmáry is particularly proud of is the work that has been done on HIV prevention, treatment and care. There have been huge contributions made in that area, she says, that affect people throughout the world.

Joanne Keselman, vice president (research) says having Szathmáry as president has allowed research efforts to expand and evolve. “I’ve been really fortunate to work with someone so supportive of the research mission,” Keselman says. “She never ceases to inspire me. She sets for herself very high expectations, and sets high expectations for those around her.”

Once her term is up at the end of June 2008, Szathmáry has no thoughts of retiring. The 63-year-old hopes to attend lectures and labs at universities across the country, and possibly even abroad to get “upgraded” and “re-tooled.”

But she plans to return to Manitoba to live with her husband, and continue to write. “This is where we have built our home over a 12-year period,” she says. “It’s hard for me to imagine ever going anywhere else, at least in the immediate future.” Szathmáry says she is also looking forward to seeing her two children and five grandchildren more often and might eventually move closer to them, possibly back to Ontario.

Reflecting back, Szathmáry says she is very pleased with how the past 11 years have gone, and is proud of the successes. “My contribution has been a good chapter, but it’s only a chapter,” she says. “We’ve come a very long way, but I know there’s more to do. A university is an ever-changing and evolving community.”

In her words, the university is a “jewel,” and there will be a lot of research contributions and successful graduates to come out of the university, long after her time is up. But, she hopes her final year at the university will prove to be a successful end of an era. She is looking forward to gazing out of her office window in September and seeing the new students embarking on their university path. She knows the university has the power to bring out their fullest potential.