Thursday, August 21, 2025

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• Sir Andrew Steer is the 2025 TD Walter Bean Professor in Environment

• Snapshots of change

• Remembering Professor Emeritus Joseph Novak

Sir Andrew Steer is the 2025 TD Walter Bean Professor in Environment

This article was originally published on the Faculty of Environment's news site.

The University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Environment is proud to welcome Sir Andrew Steer, KCMG, PhD, as the TD Walter Bean Professor in Environment for 2025. 

This fall, Sir Andrew Steer will visit campus to deliver two lectures that speak to our moment: how we as leaders, innovators, and citizens must respond to the defining environmental challenges of our time. His lectures will explore the intersections of climate, nature, and global development, and will spark critical dialogue on how we shape a more sustainable future locally and globally. 

Sir Andrew brings decades of global leadership on climate and sustainability. He is the former President of the Bezos Earth Fund, a $10 billion initiative to address climate change and nature loss, and previously served as President and CEO of the World Resources Institute. He held senior roles at the World Bank and was Director General at the UK Department for International Development, with over a decade of experience shaping sustainable development policy in East Asia.  

Currently, a Distinguished Professor of Economics and Sustainability at both the London School of Economics and Georgetown University, he is also co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Innovative Financing for Nature and Climate, a member of the UK Foreign Policy Board, and serves on the board of BRAC, the world’s largest development NGO. 

In 2024, Sir Andrew was knighted for his contributions to sustainable development and named by Forbes as one of the 50 most impactful climate leaders.   

His visit aligns closely with Waterloo’s growing efforts through the Future Cities Institute Founded by CAIVAN and our commitment to Waterloo at 100 and the Global Futures initiative through Environment 2035, which seeks to address the complex, interconnected challenges of urbanization, sustainability, and climate adaptation. His insights will help advance the Faculty and University’s mission to connect world-leading knowledge with real-world impact. 

Read more about the TD Walter Bean Lecture and register for the event.

The TD Walter Bean Professorship brings outstanding international and national leaders and researchers to Waterloo to deepen our collective capacity to address pressing environmental issues. The Professorship was established in honour of Walter Bean’s enduring legacy of community leadership, environmental stewardship, and dedication to youth and education. We thank TD Canada Trust for their generous support and shared commitment to a sustainable future. 

Snapshots of change

By Katie McQuaid. This article was originally published on Waterloo News.

Remembering Professor Emeritus Joseph Novak

With files from Professor Mathieu Doucet and Professor James Skidmore.

Professor Emeritus Joseph Novak passed away on August 10 at the age of 78.

A retired faculty member of Waterloo's philosophy department, Dr. Novak began his teaching career in 1976 at St. Thomas More College at the University of Saskatchewan before joining Waterloo’s Department of Philosophy in 1984. Novak received his PhD at the University of Notre Dame for a dissertation entitled Aristotle on Method: Definitions and Demonstrations and was steeped in the tradition of historical philosophy and philology. He became proficient in a number of languages–French, German, Latin, Classical Greek being the most prominent among them–so that he could pursue his interest in the underpinnings of western philosophical and theological thought.

"Colleagues described him as a 'walking library catalogue' on Aristotle—a valuable resource indeed in the days before Google!—and much of his early work involved investigating the ways in which the philosophical views of Plato and Aristotle depended on the developments in the mathematics of their day," writes Dr. Mathieu Doucet, chair of Waterloo's philosophy department. "His philosophical interests were wide-ranging and covered philosophers from the medieval and modern periods. He was a popular graduate supervisor for projects in the history of philosophy, and for much of his career he carried the bulk of the undergraduate teaching in ancient philosophy."

"Students who took his courses or engaged with him in long chats in his office were entertained by his impish wit and his extensive knowledge of his field, but they were also struck by his kindness - he rarely turned down a request for an extension on an essay," writes Dr. James Skidmore of the Germanic and Slavic Studies department. "His interests ranged beyond academic philosophy; he was a lover of all things classical–classical ballet, music (especially organ) and architecture (especially cathedrals) above all–and yet he also loved science fiction and fantasy, even developing a course that used sci-fi film to explore philosophical concepts. He also loved big cars and for a while he drove a motorcycle."

Dr. Novak developed Phil 208: Philosophy Through Science Fiction over 30 years ago and the course is still popular with students today. It introduces perennial philosophical questions about the nature of knowledge, mind and body, ethics, logic and language as they arise in classic works of science fiction.

"He was admired by colleagues and students alike for his remarkable erudition, his kindness, his very keen sense of humour—always delivered with a gentle smile—and his love of excellent chocolate, which he always brought to share with colleagues during talks and meetings," Dr. Doucet writes.

Dr. Novak retired in 2013.