Silicon Valley entrepreneur backs new talent in McGill Engineering

Dean of Engineering Christophe Pierre with Dr. Ronald Chwang, BEng'72
Photo credit: Owen Egan

A successful venture capitalist and entrepreneur, Dr. Ronald Chwang, BEng’72, has a keen eye for knowing where to invest money. After an executive career with Acer Group, Ronald transitioned to the venture capital world in 1998. As Chairman and President of iD Ventures America, he has managed over $350 million of venture capital investments in technology start-up companies based in Silicon Valley, the greater Boston area and the Asia Pacific region.

Now, Ronald and his wife, May Seto, BEd’75, are personally investing $1 million in world-class emerging scholars at McGill. The couple’s generous gift will endow two Chwang-Seto Faculty Scholar Awards which will foster the research and development activities of outstanding junior professors in the Faculty of Engineering.

After growing up in Asia, Ronald chose McGill both to further his education and to experience life where there were four seasons. “My education and experiences at McGill were invaluable,” he says. “This university introduced me to my spouse, ice hockey and Montreal smoked meat!” Ronald credits the Faculty of Engineering for mentoring his class of electrical engineers in the honours program, which influenced him to pursue post-graduate studies at the University of Southern California. He obtained his PhD in electrical engineering in 1977 at USC, supervised by Professor Clarence R. Crowell, himself a three-time McGill graduate (BA’49, MSc’51, PhD’55).

“McGill’s Faculty of Engineering has contributed much to society, both in Canada and the world. I can personally attest to that. May and I are very pleased to support the Faculty’s efforts to attract bright, talented people to do great research and teach future generations. McGill has a long and impressive history which we both appreciate. My sister and three of May’s siblings are also proud to claim McGill as their alma mater.”

The first two recipients of the Chwang-Seto Faculty Scholar Awards will begin their work at McGill this fall (see right-hand column).

Competition is fierce among the world’s elite schools to recruit exceptional faculty members. Christophe Pierre, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, explains the importance of the Chwang-Seto gift: “The key building block of a superior education is the quality of the professors available to teach and conduct research. That is why this very generous gift from Ronald and May means so much to us. Their endowment will help McGill Engineering to compete with other top institutions across the globe in attracting the highest caliber of professors – men and women who possess the expertise vital to the education of our students.”

The Chwang-Seto Faculty Scholar Awards will help pay for such items as lab expenses, graduate student support, technicians’ salaries, publications costs, and undergraduate research projects. These two new positions bring to seven the number of Faculty Scholar opportunities now available in the Faculty of Engineering.

-Allyson Rowley, BA’77, with files from Ken Whittingham.