Faculty member John Charles Fields, appointed professor in 1902, was perhaps the most important in developing research at Toronto.

[4] Meanwhile, the first Canadian mathematics journal, Canadian Journal of Mathematics, began publication by the University of Toronto Press in 1949, with faculty members Harold Coxeter and Gilbert de Beauregard Robinson as Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor, respectively.

[6] The department moved from University College to Baldwin House in 1958, and then to Sidney Smith Hall upon its completion in 1961.

In 2006, the Department of Mathematics moved to the sixth floor of the Bahen Centre for Information Technology, located directly behind the Fields Institute.

[3][2] Notable alumni of the Department include Arthur Dempster, Clifford Dowker, Donald Fraser, Irving Kaplansky, Walter Kohn,[15] J. Carson Mark (Ph.D. 1938),[16] Nathan Mendelsohn, John Mighton (Ph.D. 2000),[17] Robert Moody (Ph.D. 1966), Cathleen Morawetz, Gordon Slade, Robert Steinberg (Ph.D. 1948), James Stewart (Ph.D. 1967),[18] and Albert Tucker.