History & leadership – Faculty of Engineering
Dean Heather Sheardown smiles at a student on stage at convocation.

History & leadership

McMaster Engineering has a long history of excellence in industry-driven research and student-focused education.

Dean Heather Sheardown

Leaders in advancing engineering for global change

McMaster Engineering is committed to the pursuit of excellence and plays a significant role in helping McMaster University earn its reputation as one of Canada’s most innovative universities.

The calibre of our research and the impacts we make are well known and respected in Canada and across the globe. Our faculty members are consistently awarded national and international recognition for pushing the boundaries of discovery and exploring novel, ground-breaking technologies.

Heather Sheardown Headshots

Meet our Dean

Dr. Heather Sheardown

Associate Deans

A timeline of Mac Eng’s history

DeanYears served
Heather Sheardown2022 – Present
Ishwar K. Puri2013-2021
David S. Wilkinson2008-2012
Mo Elbestawi2001-2007
Mamdouh Shoukri1994-2001
Gary R. Purdy1989-1994
Arthur C. Heidebrecht1981-1989
John W. Bandler1979-1981
Leslie W. Shemilt1969-1979
John W. Hodgins1958-1969

2020s

In the fall of 2023, 43 per cent of incoming Bachelor of Engineering students to McMaster University were women

Pictured: Engineering students standing behind the iron ring on campus

  • New McMaster Manufacturing Research Institute opens its doors

  • Celebration of 65 years of innovation as a Faculty marked with launch of Lighting the Way campaign

  • In the summer of 2022, Heather Sheardown becomes the first woman dean of the Faculty of Engineering

  • Integrated Cornerstone Design Project in Engineering program launches. The program is a full-year project-based experience where students are exposed to a series of design podcasts that develop both technical and professional skills

2010s

Donna Strickland, a McMaster alumna who received her BEng in engineering physics in 1981, wins the Nobel Prize in Physics — the first woman to do so in 55 years and one of only three in the history of the award 

Pictured: Donna Strickland

  • Led by McMaster Engineering, McMaster University becomes the first university to offer digital degrees

  • The Pivot – a transformation of engineering education focused on experiential learning inside and outside the classroom – launches in 2019.

  • Faculty marks 60th anniversary in 2018

  • Formation of MacChangers, a co-curricular program that pairs multidisciplinary teams with community partners to propose innovative solutions to local challenges

  • Launch of new Innovation Minor in collaboration with the DeGroote School of Business and The Forge

  • Beginnings of the McMaster Automotive Resource Centre

  • Launch of new Integrated Biomedical Engineering & Health Sciences program

  • Opening of the Gerald Hatch Centre for Engineering Experiential Learning

Early 2000s

In 2006, McMaster's School of Biomedical Engineering is established.

Pictured: Students working with biomedical equipment in a lab

  • First grads from Department of Computing and Software

  • The Faculty’s 50th anniversary in 2008 is marked

  • BTech Four Year Bachelor of Technology Program launches

  • LEED Gold Certified Engineering Technology Building opens

  • World’s most advanced and powerful microscope unveiled at McMaster Engineering’s Canadian Centre of Electron Microscopy

  • LEAP Summer Academy for secondary school students begins

  • Faculty expands: John Hodgins Engineering Annex, McMaster Manufacturing Research Institute, Engineering Information Technology Building, McMaster Steel Research Centre

  • School of Engineering Practice and Technology is founded with a gift from alumnus Walter G. Booth

1990s

Beginning of the Venture program, which engages youth with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)

Pictured: Youth participating in Venture Camp in the summer on campus

  • First Engineering Musical performed

  • The McMaster Engineering Society launches the McMaster Laboratory Advancement Benefaction (macLAB) – lab equipment endowment fund

  • BTech Degree Completion Program launched

  • New Computing & Software department begins

  • Engineering & Society program introduced

1980s

In 1985, Engineering Redsuits came to be thanks to the initiative of alumnus Mark Huttram

Pictured: Smiling engineering students in Red Suits on campus

  • Hodgins Memorial Lecture begins

  • First MacEngineer newsletter is distributed

  • In McMaster’s centennial year, 4,500 total engineering graduate

  • Communication Research Laboratory opens, lead by Simon Haykin

  • Computer Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering programs launch

  • Faculty doubles (+200 graduates)

1970s

Programs and partnerships are established in this decade, including the Engineering & Management degree and the first bioengineering electives offered with Health Sciences

Pictured: John Hodgins Engineering (JHE) Building, present day

  • Institute of Materials Research is established (later renamed the Brockhouse Institute of Materials Research in honour of Nobel laureate Dr. B. Brockhouse)

  • Courses in bio-engineering were offered as electives in all engineering programs (Eng phys, Chem and Electrical profs with joint research projects led the way)

  • On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Faculty, John Hodgins Engineering building was so named after its first dean, John W. Hodgins

  • First woman McMaster Engineering Society President, Susan Sproule, is voted in

  • First bioengineering courses begin

  • Engineering & Management program introduced (first grads in 1975)

  • Faculty quadruples (+100 graduates)

1950s-1960s

In 1956, McMaster named its first Director of Engineering Studies – Dr. John W. Hodgins, a young chemical engineering professor from the engineering faculty of the Royal Military College at Kingston. The first 25 Mac Eng graduates cross the stage in 1961.

Pictured: Dr. John W. Hodgins, former Dean of Engineering and engineering building namesake

  • First Fireball Formal Dance takes place

  • Camp 13 established, wardens overview of Kipling Day

  • “Fireball” designed based on the heraldic emblem “gurgles enflamed” shown on the Arms of Hamilton College

  • McMaster Nuclear Reactor opens its doors. It’s  the first university-based nuclear reactor in the British Commonwealth

  • McMaster Engineering Society begins in 1959

  • New departments launch, including Chemical, Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, Metallurgical and Engineering Physics

  • First 25 students graduate

  • Faculty of Engineering born in 1958