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Burnaby campus

The main campus is located atop Burnaby Mountain, on Traditional Coast Salish Lands, including the Tsleil-Waututh (səl̓ilw̓ətaɬ), Kwikwetlem (kʷikʷəƛ̓əm), Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw) and Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm) Nations. The campus is at an elevation of 365 metres, overlooking the Burrard inlet to the north. All major departments in the university are housed at the Burnaby campus. The library on the main campus is called the W. A. C. Bennett Library, named after the Social Credit Premier of B.C. who established it. The campus also has two gym complexes, named the Lorne-Davies Complex and Chancellor's Gym. An international-sized swimming pool is located within the Lorne-Davies Complex. Since the School for the Contemporary Arts relocation to the Woodward's location, the Burnaby campus production theatre has been vacant. Located within the heart of the campus are the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and three art galleries. The campus has been awarded numerous architectural awards over the years, including the gold medal for Lieutenant-Governor 2009 Awards in Architecture and the 2007 Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's Prix du XXe siècle.

The Burnaby campus is composed of a vast complex of interconnected buildings spanning across 170 hectares (420 acres) of land on Burnaby Mountain, from the eastern end of the campus to the western side, where the UniverCity urban village is located. The campus consists of the following buildings:

Due to the contemporary Brutalist architecture of the Burnaby Mountain campus, many buildings, including the WAC Bennett Library and Academic Quadrangle have been used for location shots in various films and television programmes over the years.

Each campus has its own library, the largest of which is the W.A.C. Bennett Library based on the SFU Burnaby campus, which holds over 2.7 million print and microform volumes.

SFU also has a Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, which holds many exhibits created by students as part of the museum studies courses offered in the Department of Archaeology. Archaeological collections arising from excavations and other research by faculty, staff and students are housed in the museum. Several large wooden sculptures ('totem') poles from the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria represent the major art traditions of the indigenous coastal peoples of British Columbia. The museum holds an extensive collection of Indonesian wayang kulit shadow puppets and ethnographic objects from around the world. The museum's image collection holds over 120,000 35 mm slides and digital images of archaeological and ethnographic interest.

The SFU Library's Digital Collections provide internet access to digitized documents from a number of archival collections, such as Harrison Brown's Xi'an Incident collection, and the history of British Columbia and Western Canada in general, including documents from the Doukhobor migration from the Russian Empire to Saskatchewan and then to British Columbia assembled for donation to the university by John Keenlyside. Other highlights of the collection include The Vancouver Punk Collection, which includes more than 1200 posters as well as photographs, zines, and ephemera, the British Columbia Postcards Collection, and more than 9800 editorial cartoons from Canadian newspapers.

Simon Fraser University's art galleries include: SFU Gallery on the Burnaby campus (established 1970), Audain Gallery at the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts in Vancouver (established 2010), and Teck Gallery at Harbour Centre in Vancouver (established 1989). SFU Galleries stewards the Simon Fraser University Art Collection, which includes, in its holdings of over 5,500 works, significant regional and national artworks spanning the last century.

The Bill Reid Centre for Northwest Coast Art Studies at SFU houses a collection of 50,000 objects, primarily digital images and digitized textual documents, which document the art, culture and history of different First Nations cultures of the Northwest Coast. The collection includes explorers' drawings, sketches, paintings and original photography.

The SFU Burnaby campus provides residence to 1766 SFU and FIC students in six different areas, all located on the western side of the campus.

UniverCity is an urban community located on top of Burnaby Mountain, adjacent to Simon Fraser University. It has won several awards for sustainable planning and development. Envisioned in 1963 by Arthur Erickson and Geoffrey Massey, the area adjacent to the university was not officially rezoned for development until 30 years later. Development of the community began in early 2000, when Simon Fraser University commenced construction on a new residential and commercial area occupying approximately 81 hectares (200 acres) adjacent to the campus. As of September 2011, approximately 3000 people live in UniverCity. The main commercial district on University High Street now houses restaurants, stores, and a 20,000 square foot Nester's Market. A new elementary school, University Highlands Elementary, opened on September 1, 2010. Several new residential developments are currently in progress, including the construction of a 12-storey high rise in the heart of UniverCity.

Research

In 2020, Simon Fraser University received a sponsored research income (external sources of research funds) of C$167.256 million, the 17th highest in Canada. In the same year, the university's faculty averaged a sponsored research income of $188,600, while graduates averaged $34,000.

Simon Fraser's research performance has been noted by several bibliometric university rankings, which uses citation analysis to evaluates the impact a university has on academic publications. In 2019, the Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities ranked Simon Fraser 378th in the world, and 16th in Canada. In University Ranking by Academic Performance's 2018–19 rankings, the university placed 362nd in the world, and 15th in Canada.

SFU also works with other universities and agencies to operate joint research facilities. These include Bamfield Marine Station, a major centre for teaching and research in marine biology; TRIUMF, a powerful cyclotron used in subatomic physics and chemistry research. SFU is also a partner institution in Great Northern Way Campus Ltd in Vancouver. In March 2006, SFU approved an affiliation agreement with a private college for international students to be housed adjacent to its Burnaby campus. This new college named Fraser International College, which was in the Multi Tenant Facility (now renamed as "Discovery 2 Building") located in Discovery Parks Trust SFU site, is now moved into "Discovery 1 Building" after Discovery Parks Trust returned the building to Simon Fraser University. The MODAL Research Group, based at Simon Fraser, partners with multiple Canadian universities and arts organizations to carry out multi-disciplinary research in the arts with an emphasis on the study of artistic learning and engagement.

In 2008, SFU has the highest publication impact among Canadian comprehensive universities and the highest success rates per faculty member in competitions for federal research council funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

In 2017, Simon Fraser University entered into an agreement with Huawei to receive cloud computing equipment.

In 2022, Simon Fraser University announced the creation of the cross-disciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Neurotechnology (INN) research hub to empower neuroscience-related research and collaboration across the university.

Notable alumni

As of 2023, the university's alumni network included over 180,000 graduates from over 140 countries. Alumni have received a number of academic awards. As of 2011, four SFU graduates have been named Rhodes Scholars, including Joel Bakan.

SFU faculty and alumni have won 43 fellowships to the Royal Society of Canada, three Rhodes Scholarships and one Pulitzer Prize. Among the list of alumni includes three premiers of British Columbia (Glen Clark, Gordon Campbell and Ujjal Dosanjh), Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini, Prime Minister of Lesotho Pakalitha Mosisili, and Max Planck Institute director Robert Turner.

Another notable alumni was humanitarian and cancer research activist Terry Fox, an athlete and an alumnus of SFU who embarked on the run across Canada to raise money and awareness for Cancer research. Fox's Marathon of Hope had a lasting legacy, with the Terry Fox Run being held around the world in commemoration of his efforts. In 2001, SFU conferred an honorary degree to Betty Fox, mother of Terry Fox and honorary chair of the Terry Fox Foundation.

Other notable alumni from the university include:

Barbara Adler, musician, poet, and storyteller

Victor Ai, Chinese businessman

Mimi Ajzenstadt (born 1956), Israeli criminologist; President of the Open University of Israel

Francesco Aquilini, owner of the Vancouver Canucks and Rogers Arena

Mahamudu Bawumia, former vice president of Ghana; former deputy governor, Bank of Ghana

Bettina Bradbury, professor emerita in the Department of History and Gender Studies at York University and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

Cam Broten, former leader of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party

Gordon Campbell, former premier of British Columbia

Ian Campbell, Squamish Nation chief

Calvin Chen, Taiwanese actor, singer, host

Jim Chu, former chief constable of the Vancouver Police Department

Glen Clark, former premier of British Columbia

Marc Dalton, current MLA for Maple Ridge-Mission

Taylor Dick, a biomechanist who now works for the University of Queensland

Dino Patti Djalal, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia

Andrea Donaldson, theatre director and dramaturge

Ujjal Dosanjh, former premier of British Columbia

Bill Dow, actor, and professor of Theatre and Mythology at SFU

Vera Etches, physician and Ottawa's medical officer of health

Ann Marie Fleming, filmmaker, writer, and visual artist

Cary Fowler, American agriculturalist

Julia P. Gelardi, American royal historian

Lyn Hancock, photojournalist and author

Leon Hatziioannou, Canadian football player

Ed Hill award-winning stand-up comedian

Zabeen Hirji, former chief human resources officer for the Royal Bank of Canada

Karilynn Ming Ho, artist

Curtis Hodgson, professional lacrosse player

Hafeez Hoorani, Pakistani physicist

Carol Huynh, Olympic gold medalist

Daniel Igali, Olympic gold medalist

Marianne Ignace, linguistics professor at Simon Fraser University and Director of SFU's Indigenous Languages Program and First Nations Language Centre

Sut Jhally, communications professor and media expert

Dan Kearns, Canadian football player

Steve Kearns, Canadian football player

Roger Kettlewell, Canadian football player

Salleh Said Keruak, Malaysian politician and former Chief Minister Of Sabah

Jónína Kirton, poet

Vincent Kok, actor, director, and scriptwriter

Jenny Wai Ching Kwan, MLA for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant

Isabel Ge Mahe, vice president and managing director of Greater China, Apple Inc.

Sonija Kwok, actress and Miss Hong Kong 1999

Michelle Lang, journalist

Minh Le, creator of the popular Half-Life mod Counter-Strike

Ken Lum, artist

Marco Marra, scientist, director of Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Agency

Rachel Marsden, internationally syndicated columnist and talk-show host

J. J. McCullough, YouTuber

Loscil (Scott Morgan), musician, member of Destroyer

Victor Montagliani, Canadian Businessman, President of CONCACAF and member of the FIFA Council

Pakalitha Mosisili, prime minister of the Kingdom of Lesotho

Mark Okerstrom, 2004 – President/CEO of Expedia Group

John Oswald, Canadian composer best known for coining the term for Plunderphonics, the practice of making new music out of previously existing recordings

Antony Page, dean of the Florida International University College of Law

Carmen Papalia, artist

Deanna C. C. Peluso, musician and composer

Álvaro Santos Pereira, former Minister of Economy, Labour, Transport, Public Works and Communications of Portugal.

Justin Ring, former CFL football player

Melissa Roxburgh, actress Manifest (TV series)

Mehdi Sadaghdar, electrical engineer, host of ElectroBOOM

Alice L. Pérez Sánchez, organic chemist, medical researcher

Maha Al-Saati, independent filmmaker

Kelly Sheridan, the voice for Barbie in the Barbie film series from 2001 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2015

Kathy Slade, artist

Glen Suitor, sportscaster, former Canadian Football League player

Sam Sullivan, former mayor of Vancouver

Elsie Sunderland, environmental chemist; professor at Harvard

Milun Tesovic, computer programmer and internet entrepreneur; founder of MetroLyrics

Shashaa Tirupati, Canadian playback singer, songwriter, and music producer

Jay Triano, lead assistant coach of the Charlotte Hornets

Margaret Trudeau, former wife of Canadian former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau

Robert Turner, scientist, director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences

David Usher, singer and songwriter

John G. Webb, interventional cardiologist, performed the first transapical TAVI in 2006

Zella Wolofsky, Canadian modern dancer and HCI researcher

Choi Woo-shik, South Korean actor

Yohana Yembise, Indonesian Minister of Women Empowerment and Child Protection

Ryan Grantham, Canadian former actor and convicted murderer

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