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2008 ORION Leadership Award of Merit Recipient
Robert (Bob) Gagne
Research and scientific discovery today depends on providing researchers and institutions with the advanced tools and technology they need to allow them to participate fully in the great scientific challenges of our time.
Most institutions however can point to only a handful of technology leaders whose vision and dedication have had a transformational impact on their ability to support and advance their research and education agenda.
For York University, one of those individuals is Bob Gagne, its visionary CIO, who has had a direct impact on the university’s growing profile as one of Canada’s most important research institutions.
Supporting its status as a bastion of social science and humanities research, to its ground breaking research collaboration with its national space program, York relies on an increasingly integrated technology and collaborative network platform. Gagne is the champion who has been able to orchestrate all of the pieces that need to come together to make it happen.
Through his efforts, the university has been able to develop and implement its research computing strategy and help the institution establish its status as a world-class player in the dissemination of research to the larger community.
His efforts have had an impact far beyond the walls of the university. His understanding of inter-institutional and inter-jurisdictional collaboration and commitment to learning, applied research, innovation and social policy development have furthered the communication and research capabilities of the Greater Toronto Area and advanced Canada’s innovation agenda.
He has and continues to play a leadership role in ensuring collaboration and consensus amongst IT leaders, academic faculty, administrators, students and the business community.
He helped to ensure that York was able to host and support an ORION Point of Presence (PoP), which was essential in enabling advanced research. This move has had an important role in the university’s success in attracting world-class researchers to its facility and doubling its research grants since 2001.
As a co-founder and chair of GTAnet, Gagne provided the necessary leadership and support that helped ensure critical research and postsecondary institutions in the Greater Toronto Area were able to participate and take advantage of ORION to advance their research and education capabilities.
He has worked with institutional partners to embrace ORION and played a significant role in helping heritage and cultural organizations to connect to the network and increase community engagement and outreach.
Gagne helped facilitate York’s participation in the SHARCNET distributed computing consortium and in the Access Grid Community. He was also a important partner in the development and support of the award-winning Advanced Broadband Enabled Learning (ABEL) program.
His vision of how innovative technology can transform education and learning in a global society has been crucial in helping to ensure the university, as well as the larger Ontario education community are well-positioned and prepared to embrace the 21st century.
Back to the 2008 Awards Winners page
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