Ontario Agricultural College,
University of Guelph
Alumni Oral History

Rene Van Acker
B.Sc. (Agr.) 1990, M.Sc. 1992

Interviewed by Grace Nelson

Biography
Rene Van Acker is the current Interim Vice President of Research at the University of
Guelph, whose formative years in both his undergraduate and master’s at the OAC
would lead him to become a professor, Associate Dean External, and then Dean of the
OAC.
His work in fundraising has facilitated the establishment of over 20 externally funded
chairs and professorships, garnered over $100 million for the OAC, helped establish the
now Arrell Food Institute and the Guelph Centre for Urban Organic Farming, and has
aided in the development of the new Guelph Turfgrass Institute, the Bioproducts
Discovery and Development Centre, the Guelph Food Innovation Centre, the Animal
Biosciences Abattoir and Meat Lab, the new Honey Bee Research Centre, renovations
to the Arboretum’s Hilton Centre, and the new and expanded Student Federation OAC
Suite in Johnston Hall.
On Monday, October 16th, 2023, he was interviewed by Grace Nelson in collaboration
with the History Department to share his experiences at the OAC to be recorded and
transcribed for the upcoming 150th anniversary of the OAC.

So, to begin, I was hoping we could talk a bit about what led you to
the OAC originally, whether that be your familial connections, if there
was a specific course that interested you, or anything like that?
My original interest was really in being involved in agriculture somehow; I grew up on a
farm, but I didn't want to farm. I wanted to be involved in agriculture somehow, and so
later in high school when I started investigating this, there was really one place to go,
and that was the University of Guelph and OAC. My guidance counsellors in high school
were not in favour of my choice, I don't know why but I ignored them, and I'm glad I did.

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What did you specifically major in while at the OAC? Did you have
any favourite classes or professors?
I was a crop science major. One of my favourite professors was Anne Clark, and she
taught a course in Pasture Management, or something like that. She was a tough
professor, but she was tough because she wanted the best for you and she really
wanted you to squeeze everything you could out of the course, and so I learned a lot
from her in and had a lot of respect for her.
There were a couple of others, one was Duane Falk, who was a barley cereal breeder
and so he taught, I think, it was a plant breeding course. He was super dedicated to his
craft and very enthusiastic about it. Lastly, I would say Clarence Swanton. Clarence was
the weed science professor and I thought he was a great teacher, very dedicated. I
ended up doing a master's with Clarence in weed science. Another would be Jack
Higgins. Jack Higgins was a turfgrass specialist, but he taught one of the first-year
courses that we had - I can’t remember what one he taught, but he was super
enthusiastic and really funny and had great slides. Back then they were slides, like
picture slides.

Did those professors have any influence on your choice to then go on
and become a professor at the OAC?
Absolutely. I think in particular of Duane Falk and Clarence Swanton. Clarence,
because he was my master’s supervisor and I saw him and his job more than my other
professors, and I saw how enthusiastic he was about teaching, and how enthusiastic he
was about supervising graduate students. He did so much to help his graduate students
in terms of getting them connected to the industry, making sure that they went to
conferences, presented in front of people and built foundational skills. I found that
inspiring, and his passion for research in weed science, which ended up being my field
as well. Watching Clarence I never imagined I would be able to achieve that, but it did
become an aspiration.

Back to your first year, or at least your undergraduate experience at
Guelph, were you in residence? How did you find the Guelph
community, both on campus and around it when you first started out?
I was Lennox-Addington, specifically in Addington, the fourth floor. I loved residence, it
was great, it was fantastic. I mean, it was the first time living away from home, and there
was all that excitement around that, like having a fridge in your room. It’s the little things
that are so exciting because you really felt like you were transitioning to becoming an
adult. That independence was so exciting.

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The great thing about residence is that was independence light. You didn't actually have
to cook for yourself, the bathrooms were cleaned, so it was great and you had a chance

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to meet and make friends with a whole bunch of people. I really enjoyed first-year
residence, it was so much fun. You’d have movie nights and you'd go down to the LA Pit
and get those thick milkshakes that they used to have. Everybody would trundle over to
Creelman and get their food and you know, commiserate with each other over
upcoming midterms or biophysics assignments that were driving you crazy or complain
about first-year chemistry, which everybody still does. All that was so important. To
have people commiserate with is very, very important, and to work through some of
those problems or study together.

You already touched on this briefly, but were you involved in any
extracurriculars on campus or were there any special places on
campus you like to frequent?
The Aggies are very social. For sure Aggie Pub - that's not an extracurricular, but it's
sort of like an extracurricular, so you get involved in Aggie Pub. I was involved in
intramural sports. I wasn't an athlete, but really liked intramural sports. We had a
volleyball team, we were terrible, but we really had fun! Later I got involved in College
Royal and me and my now my wife, were in the square-dancing team for a couple of
years and I've never done that since, but really enjoyed it.
So those are the few things that I remember, and just hanging out with the Addington
floor mates, going to what we called the Keg, that is now the Brass Taps, was a
common thing. There were a lot of bars on campus back in those days, Der Keller was
in the basement of Johnston, there was a Boo bar, like a sports bar in the University
Center, along with the Keg, there is the Whipple Tree restaurant that you could go to, so
there was quite a few places - I think they even served beer in Mountain Pizza, not that
it was about beer necessarily. The Bull Ring was a dance place back in those days.
That was a lot of fun.

You talk about your fourth floor Lennox Addington friends; do you
still keep in touch?
There are a couple people: Warren Oughtred, who is a fellow Aggie, and then Gary
Bouck, who went to vet school. Gary and I were roommates through much of undergrad
after we left residence, and he became a specialist vet who now lives in London.
Warren Oughtred took over the family farm just south of Brantford. So, we're not in
touch that much anymore, but still in touch. I consider myself an ’89 Aggie, even though
I was Co-op, so I graduated 90, but I’m still in touch with a lot of my ’89 Aggie
classmates, and in fact, we have our 35th anniversary next year during OAC's 150th
and we're looking forward to a bunch of us being together then.

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You were a Co-op student. What was that experience like for you?
Co-op was great. It was a chance to earn money while you're in school, it was an
opportunity to explore a range of jobs and I always say co-op is a good opportunity to
learn about what you like and about what you don't like. I met my now wife when we
were both interviewing for the same job in our first co-op term back in 1986.
I did a double work term in my very first co-op, which I don't know if I would recommend
that, that was a lot. It was eight months, and I was a sales assistant for BASF, which is
a seed and pesticide company, still are a seed and pesticide company today. So, we
were mentored by a full salesperson for BASF and then we had to do cold calls on
farms. I have so much respect for people who can do that work, I could never do that.
After that I was like, “I will never do this work again,” because it was so hard. It was so
emotionally draining and dogs, you know, showed up on a farmyard. So many dogs, so
many not very nice dogs, lots of nice dogs, but it was an interesting job. So, I learned a
lot about interacting with people in that regard and that I was never going to do that as a
living.
My next two terms I ended up working for the same company, Ciba Geigy, which was
also an inputs company on the research side, looking at weed management research
and that I really liked. I loved those co-op jobs. We worked hard, we sometimes had 18hour days, but there's so much camaraderie and I thought the work was really
interesting. Part of me was thinking this is the kind of stuff I would like to do for a living,
or something in this realm.

What advice do you have for Co-op students?
Do a better job than I did at trying on different kinds of jobs. Your first work term is
usually kind of what you can get but be very deliberate in thinking about what kinds of
skills you want to build and what you think you want to learn through those co-ops and
hopefully your supervisors, your advisors, your employer in those co-op terms are open
to that. Think, “I'd like to do this kind of job or that kind of job,” to explore different kinds
of jobs and situations.

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Now beyond student experiences, you can offer a really interesting
look at the other side of the OAC because you have gone from an
undergraduate then to a master’s, then to professor and then to Dean
of the OAC and now the current Vice President of Research at the
University of Guelph.
So, I was wondering, what were all of those transitions like for you, to
go through all those things. What was that journey?
The journey was certainly one that involved a lot of serendipity, but also a journey
where, at every stage, you do it like you mean it. At every stage, you're not thinking so
much about “Where will this lead, and what will I do next?” but you're very into what
you're doing at that time.
I finished my master’s and then I did a PhD in the UK. I was totally into that, really
worked hard, and then as it was nearing the end, I looked for other opportunities and
was very, very fortunate that it just so happened that somebody at the University of
Manitoba was retiring early in agronomy weed management.
So, a position opened up there. I was able to get that position and then just poured my
life and soul into that position because I really enjoyed it, not thinking about what was
next, and then opportunities come up. Sometimes the timing is not quite right, but
opportunities come up and so after a decade in Manitoba, a position as Department
Chair here in Guelph opened up.
So, I became chair of the Plant Agriculture Department. I was in that position for a
number of years and then a new kind of Associate Dean position came up, the
Associate Dean External in the OAC, and I thought: “Oh, that looks interesting.” I was
able to get that, and then that prepped me for seeing the inside of the Dean’s Office and
doing a lot of fundraising, and that convinced me that I would like to be Dean, but it was
only maybe halfway through seven years of being Associate Dean that I thought, “Oh,
you know, maybe I could [become Dean].” But until then, at each of those stages, I
never thought that I would achieve those stages. I was really into what I was doing and
learning as much as I could and enjoying that and preparing, unwittingly, for
opportunities to come up and when they did, I was fortunate.
This role is a good example. In the middle of July, I was blissful in my job as OAC Dean,
which is a job I love. I can't believe that I get to do that job, but the Vice President of
Research stepped down and the President called me and said, “Hey, guess what I need
you to do for the next year?” I was like, OK, you know, these things happen. But again,
this position is a tremendous learning opportunity. Will I want to do this job for a term, I
don't know yet, because the draw back to OAC is extremely strong. I would say you
prepare yourself for opportunities to come up but don't dwell too much on what those
opportunities might be: you'll know them when you see them and you'll be like, “Oh,
yeah.”

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The other thing I would say, I wish I'd done more of it earlier on, is to think about your
professional development. So, there's your disciplinary skills and expertise, but then
there's your skills around that, your professional skills, your soft skills, your foundational
skills and I wish that earlier on I had pursued more opportunities to build those, maybe
in a formal way, short courses, workshops, one day workshops, whatever. I do that now
more, but I wish I'd done that earlier because it's that combination of your disciplinary
skills plus your foundational skills that really build your capacity much more fully and
prepares you for things like management opportunities.

Now, you touched on this a bit, but you have helped raise over $100
million for OAC as well as helping establish new institutes and
research opportunities. So, this is a bit of a loaded question, but what
has been the most rewarding aspect of your work here at the OAC?
The fundraising has been great, and we've been very fortunate in being able to build
that capacity. In that work, it has also struck us that there are a lot of people beyond our
alumni who are interested in the things that the OAC does and can do, because we
have such a tremendous moral purpose in this college, literally feeding people, for
example. So that's been a great learning experience. Most impactful, I think it always
comes back to students, whether it's the graduate students that I've had the fortune of
being able to advise through my career as a professor, that's always extremely
rewarding and seeing them be successful and go on to do amazing things, and I still
have a have contact with so many of them. That’s always great.
I love graduation, any graduation. It's just the best time, like you see that
accomplishment and you see the pride and the students, and you know they all have
wonderful stories about where they're going, what they're doing next. Their families are
really happy. Graduations really do it for me. It's the most important thing we do in our
education programs and so I really, really enjoy that.
I don't think I can point to one big thing, but I would say graduations, and then that
parses down into keeping [the OAC] and me focused on what I need to be doing and
where we need to be going, what projects we need to pursue and how all of that relates
back to student success. That's maybe a different kind of answer, but that's what's
meaningful to me.

Whether it be from your career or during your time as a student, what
are your favourite memories of your time at the OAC and the
University of Guelph?
There's a number. I mean, one would be meeting my wife, that's a great memory. She's
also an OAC grad, so together we have this huge affinity for this place and lots of great
memories of meeting each other and being with friends. When I was in undergrad,

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doing fun things. In my master’s here at Guelph, there were also a lot of fun things, one
highlight was a weed competition - weed as in weeds in fields and stuff like that, not
weed as in cannabis - but there's still a weed competition and students still go to it to
this day from Guelph. I competed in the North Central competition when I was an
undergrad and I won that competition as an individual undergraduate student. So that
was a highlight for me, I was like, “Wow, this is amazing,” and I think that was a bit of an
eye-opener that I might have a particular capacity in this area.
In terms of working in OAC, I think starting the Food Institute, which became the Arrell
Food Institute, that was a highlight certainly and all of the great things that have
happened through that Institute under the leadership of Evan Fraser. That was a lot of
fun. Achieving my first sort of big donation for a chair; that was convincing Loblaw to
give us $3 million to establish a chair in sustainable food production, pitching straight to
Galen Weston Jr. to do that. That was certainly one of those moments where you're like,
“What the hell am I doing?” Like I'm sitting here in front of Galen Weston Jr., pitching
him. That was a highlight.
Subsequently, I think we now have something like 25 named chairs and professorships
in OAC and every single one of them is a special journey in terms of finding the donor,
the supporter for those to help elevate our faculty into another role. I'll be very excited
when the Honeybee Research Center gets finished, I think that'll be a good feather in
our cap.
You know, this year we opened the new alumni center in Johnston Hall, so for the first
time ever, we have a place where our alumni can come back into Johnston Hall and
visit and grab a cup of coffee or whatever. So those are some highlights. Becoming
Dean of OAC was…I still remember it was a July day when the president, who was
Provost at the time, Charlotte Yates, called me and said, “Oh, can we meet?” and so I
knew that decisions were being made and I remember meeting with her and her saying,
“The committee wants to select you.” I just about fell off my chair and then I walked
around in a daze for like, half the day. I couldn't believe it. I mean the college means so
much and the fact that they were letting me be the Dean of it, it did not seem real. So, I
value it hugely and I feel a lot of responsibility.

Now you touched on the Honey Bee Research Institute. Are there any
other major projects or anything coming up that you're excited for?
There's always things we're thinking about, certainly we want to finish [the Honeybee
Research Institute] but there are a number of other chairs coming up that we have in the
works that are really important. I think the last one I would say is we had that agreement
between OMAFRA (Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs) and the
University of Guelph, and it's a very large agreement, it's hugely valuable. It needs to be
bigger. The agriculture and food industry in Ontario is coalescing in a way I haven't seen
before, and they really want to come together and build a vision for growth of the
agriculture and food sector in this province and I'm looking forward to being a part of
that process, and maybe helping to facilitate that process and then have the OMAFRA

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and University of Guelph agreement be the flagship of the actions towards that vision.
So that's something that's in the works now, it's complicated getting there, but I think
there's an opportunity in front of us that hasn't existed for a long time, so I'm looking
forward to that coming to fruition.

As we wrap up this interview, I was wondering if you had any advice
for any current or future OAC students?
My first advice is come to the OAC. That might sound a bit strange but I'm sincere in
that appeal because we don't have enough students in the OAC specifically. We
continue to have a demand for our graduates that far outstrips our supply and it's a
chronic issue, so the first thing is my wish for students to see programs in the OAC and
to see themselves in those programs in the OAC and who they want to be and what
they want to do and that's easily said, but really hard to do.
So that becomes my foundational wish. And then, once the students are here, squeeze
everything you can out of your experience. I mean, there are so many opportunities and
there's an industry that is excited, that is growing, that wants graduates, that wants coop students, that really wants to build you up and have you be successful so that they
can be successful, so the opportunities are tremendous and they are local, national,
global, whatever you want. Do you want to live in a small town? Great. You want to live
in a big city? Great. You want to go to Singapore? Great. Whatever you want to do, you
can do it through these programs and working somehow, somewhere in that global
agriculture and food sector.
Obviously, I have a lot of enthusiasm, but I see it firsthand. I am constantly interacting
with people who represent various elements of that sector and who are always, always,
always looking for good people. It's never-ending and the opportunities are bigger than
they've ever been.
So first of all, find us and then when you're here, squeeze everything you can out of it. I
would recommend being in a co-op program and also socially, students in our programs
are very social, they have a good time, they make friends. Do that while you're here. A
big part of your university, especially undergrad, is just building yourself in that transition
from dependence to independence.

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