By: Tasha Glover, Keystone volunteer
Dr. Michel Fich’s relationship with the university began during his final year of high school, when he was a student competitor in the Sir Isaac Newton Exam, which is run annually by UWaterloo in high schools across the province and even internationally. Scoring very well on the exam, he received an undergraduate scholarship that allowed him to attend Waterloo. Encouraged by then professor, and future Dean of Science, Don Brodie, Dr. Fich chose to pursue a degree in physics rather than the path he’d planned in engineering.
That path led him to complete his BSc in Physics at Waterloo in 1978, followed by an MA (1981) and his PhD (1983) from the University of California, Berkeley and, ultimately, to a career in astronomy. He has been a faculty member in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Waterloo since 1986.
Today he studies the formation of planets, stars and galaxies using some of the largest instruments built for that purpose. He is the Canadian leader in the HIFI instrument on the Herschel Space Observatory, SCUBA-2 for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii, and most recently, the Cornell Caltech Atacama Telescope, a telescope to be built in the mountains of Chile. Dr. Fich says everyone at Waterloo - from students to senior administration - is very supportive of his research at all levels.
When asked why he chooses to give back to Waterloo, Dr. Fich explained, “I could not have gone into this career without that financial assistance at the start of my university education. That is why I give now: to help provide scholarships to others who need the same assistance.” Thank you, Dr. Fich!
