He subsequently earned a medical degree from the University of Ottawa, which led him through various residencies, research fellowships, and practices. Rosengarten currently serves as an associate professor of medicine in addition to his position as associate dean at McGill.

As associate dean, Rosengarten says he has aimed to create a medium for three-dimensional photography online, an initiative that hearkens back to his childhood hobby of photography. In classes he taught at McGill, Rosengarten introduced both videotaping and live-streaming.

Born on the other side of the border in New York City, McDonald grew up in Greenwich Village, a neighborhood in Manhattan. But when she was 16, she traveled to France for the first time, an experience that she says shaped the rest of her career.

A newfound passion for France would lead her to study abroad for a year at the Université de Paris before she graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1964. She later earned her Ph.D. from Yale University in 1969.

McDonald’s fervor for all things French was one of many factors that united her and Rosengarten in matrimony 23 years ago in Montreal. They both love France, and to this day, they say they go regularly—especially to Paris.

“It’s another lifestyle. It’s just such a wonderful city of people that are all different,” Rosengarten says. “There’s so much culture and so many things going on.”

France would attract both of them in different ways. A technician and cardiologist, Rosengarten researched human heart-rate variability for two years in Paris and, one summer, worked at French technology company Saunier Duval.

Meanwhile, for McDonald the literature aficionado, France provided a wealth of material—most important to her were lengthy volumes of Marcel Proust, she says.

“I’ve reread and reread and reread Proust,” McDonald says. “Once you get into it... it’s all-enveloping.”

A DREAM DEFERRED

The thought of being House Masters first struck McDonald and Rosengarten about a decade ago, but they say that a particular family arrangement prevented the thought from becoming reality.

In his role at McGill, Rosengarten spends his time in Cambridge only every other week. But that commuting arrangement, which disrupted Master-related plans in the early 2000s, is set to end in July. McDonald says this “dovetailed perfectly” with the House Master search.

“We both have great careers, so we actually were able to maintain the two careers simultaneously, but after 15 years of commuting, I’ve sort of had it,” Rosengarten says.

“So when we were offered this position and the opportunity to work with young people and young minds, it just seemed like there was no choice,” he adds.

Rosengarten says he is unsure about his future at McGill. He says that he hopes to continue his efforts to expand the use of three-dimensional imagery on the Internet in a technical advisory role.