WATERLOO, Ont. (Saturday, June 16, 2012) – More than 5,000 students crossed the stage at the University of Waterloo’s 104th Convocation this week. There were 4,205 undergraduate degrees and 840 graduate degrees handed out at ceremonies taking place over four days, ending today.

Among the highlights:

Waterloo presented eight honorary degrees.

This year saw the first graduating classes from the Management Engineering, Master of Public Service, International Development, and Knowledge Integration programs.

Matthew Daly won the Governor General's Gold Medal for highest standing in a master's program. And Rongxing Lu won the award for highest standing in a doctoral program. Both are from the Faculty of Engineering,

Sue Patrick Breit, who received a Bachelor of Independent Studies, and Jeffrey David Baer of Actuarial Science, won the Governor General’s Silver Medal.

Matthew Harrison-Trainor won the first Jessie W.H. Zou Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research. The award supports undergraduate research in the Faculty of Mathematics, and was given by Professor Ming Li of Waterloo, in honour of his late wife. Harrison-Trainor also received the Alumni Gold Medal for the faculty.

Qiaoyuan Dong was awarded the Alumni Gold Medal at the Faculty of Science’s ceremony. It is the first time a graduate of the Nanjing China 2 + 2 program has received the award. Olivia Szeto is this year's recipient for the Faculty of Arts. Shih-Yuan also won the award for the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, Eric Brian Kennedy is the Alumni Gold Medal winner for the Faculty of Environment, and Isaac Victor Roes received the award for the Faculty of Engineering.

This year marks the final Convocation for Professor Adel Sedra as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering. He is stepping down after nine years in the position.

About the University of Waterloo

In just half a century, the University of Waterloo, located at the heart of Canada's technology hub, has become one of Canada's leading comprehensive universities with 34,000 full- and part-time students in undergraduate and graduate programs. Waterloo, as home to the world's largest post-secondary co-operative education program, embraces its connections to the world and encourages enterprising partnerships in learning, research and discovery. In the next decade, the university is committed to building a better future for Canada and the world by championing innovation and collaboration to create solutions relevant to the needs of today and tomorrow. For more information about Waterloo, please visit www.uwaterloo.ca.

Media Contact:                            
Pamela Smyth
Media Relations Officer
Communications & Public Affairs
University of Waterloo
519.888.4777
psmyth@uwaterloo.ca
www.newsrelease.uwaterloo.ca

Waterloo news release no. 51

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