University of Alberta

The University of Alberta is a public research university founded in 1908—just three years after the Province of Alberta officially entered the Dominion of Canada.

In the lead-up to the university’s founding, there was a heated debate over its location, with one faction favoring Calgary (Alberta’s largest city) and another faction in favor of Edmonton (the provincial capital). Although the final decision favored Edmonton, the lack of a university in the province’s largest city continued to be felt. In 1944, the University of Alberta opened a branch campus in Calgary.

In 1966, the Calgary campus became administratively independent from the University of Alberta and was renamed the University of Calgary.

Today, the University of Alberta comprises 18 faculties, as well as two affiliated colleges—one for undergraduates (St. Joseph’s College) and one for graduate students (St. Stephen’s College).

Among many prominent University of Alberta–associated individuals, we may mention the following:

• Mathematicians, Robert Moody, Andrew Liu, Mark A. Lewis, Vaclav Zizler & Mathukumalli Subbarao
• Computer scientists, James Gosling, Jonathan Schaeffer, Richard Sutton, Osmar Zaiane & David Silver
• Philosophers, Bas van Fraassen & Adam Morton
• Poet, Jonathan Hart
• Novelist, Greg Hollingshead
• Playwright, Vern Thiessen
• Actors, Kenneth Welsh, Nathan Fillion, Frank C. Turner, Paul Gross, Sara Canning, Pascale Hutton & Eric Allan Kramer
• Theater historian, John Orrell
• Folklorist, Natalie Kononenko
• Symphony orchestra conductor, Leonard Ratzlaff
• Physicists, Richard E. Taylor (Nobel laureate) & Don Page
• Chemists, Raymond Lemieux & Walter E. Harris
• Geologist, Robert Folinsbee
• Petroleum engineer, Jacob Masliyah
• Paleontologist, Philip J. Currie
• Biochemist, James Collip
• Virologist, Michael Houghton
• Geneticist, Tak Wah Mak
• Surgeon and bioethicist, John Dossetor
• Historian, George Stanley
• Social psychologist, Peter L. Hurd
• Psychologist, blogger, and social commentator, Jordan Peterson
• Sociologist, Stephen A. Kent
• Political commentator, Ezra Levant
• Former Canadian Prime Ministers, Joe Clark and Stephen Harper