[4][5] Strangway was quoted as saying, "Peter realized that there was an opportunity to create a university-based institute for advanced research which doesn't exist anywhere else.
[9][10][11] In 2002, the institute appointed as its new Peter Wall Distinguished Professor Dr. Brett Finlay, who teaches in the department of biochemistry & molecular biology, the department of microbiology & immunology, and at the Finlay Lab at the Michael Smith Laboratories at UBC, and whose research led to the developments of vaccines for SARS[12] and E.
The individuals involved in establishing the Peter Wall Institute and in developing its programs looked at a number of different models.
"[7] The most recent director of the institute was Dr. Philippe Tortell, a professor in the Departments of Botany and Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia.
[20] Dr. Tortell resigned in protest against directives from the board of trustees, which he viewed as "wholly inconsistent with its mission and mandate"[21][22] The institute's programs included: