Tom Brzustowski, O.C., FRSC (1937–2020) was the RBC Professor at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa and Chair at the Board of the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo. He served on the University of Waterloo’s Senate and Board of Governors and chaired the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Council of Canadian Academies. Brzustowski was President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) from 1995–2005. A professional engineer in Ontario, Brzustowski graduated with a BASc in Engineering Physics from the University of Toronto in 1958, and with a master’s degree (1960) and a PhD (1963) in Aeronautical Engineering from Princeton. He taught mechanical engineering for 25 years and served a dozen years as Vice-President, Academic, at the University of Waterloo. He then became Deputy Minister in the Government of Ontario (1987–1995), first in the Ministry of Colleges and Universities and later in the Premier’s Council. During his academic career he published more than 60 research papers and undergraduate textbooks on thermodynamics. He authored several publications on Canadian innovation and prosperity, including The Way Ahead: Meeting Canada’s Productivity Challengeand Innovation in Canada: Why We Need More and What We Must Do to Get It (Invenire). Brzustowski held honorary doctorates from many institutions, including Alberta, Concordia, Guelph, McMaster, Ottawa, Ryerson, Waterloo, the École polytechnique de Montréal, and the Royal Military College of Canada. He was an Officer of the Order of Canada, and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the Engineering Institute of Canada, and the Royal Society of Canada. In 2006 he received the Ontario Professional Engineering Association’s Gold Medal for making “significant and lasting contributions to research and development in Canadian engineering.”
