News

The Department of Applied Mathematics is proud to announce the launch of the Dieter Schwarz Chair in the Physics of Information and AI, held by Professor Achim Kempf. This appointment was made possible through a landmark philanthropic donation from the Dieter Schwarz Foundation, one of the largest non-profit foundations in Germany.

Professor Sue Ann Campbell was one of two co-chairs organizing the Third Joint SIAM/CAIMS Annual Meetings (AN25) in Montréal, July 27-August 1, 2025. The meetings featured 12 prize presentations, an Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) Workshop, and a Workshop Celebrating Diversity, among other special events. The 2025 CAIMS*SCMAI Research Prize was awarded to Professor Anita Layton. Among the minisymposia was one on “Hybrid Dynamical Systems, Control, and Applications” in honour of Professor Xinzhi Liu's 70th birthday and one on held in memory of Professor Siv Sivaloganathan.

Professor Kirsten Morris was one of two co-chairs of the SIAM Conference on Control and Its Applications (CT25), which was held jointly with the AN25 meetings in Montréal, July 27-August 1, 2025.

Professor David Del Rey Fernández was one of three co-chairs organizing the 15th International Conference on Spectral and High Order Methods (ICOSAHOM 2025) in Montréal, July 13-18, 2025.

A minisymposium “Mathematics and its Applications in Medicine and Beyond” was held at the Third Joint SIAM/CAIMS Annual Meetings (AN25) in Montréal in memory of Professor Siv Sivaloganathan, former chair of the Department of Applied Mathematics. There were seven presentations spanning a wide range of topics as a tribute to Siv’s advocacy for interdisciplinary research and ability to bring people together. The minisymposium was co-organized by Applied Math professors Anita Layton and Sue Ann Campbell.

A minisymposium in honour of Professor Xinzhi Liu’s 70th birthday, “Hybrid Dynamical Systems, Control, and Applications,” was held at the Third Joint SIAM/CAIMS Annual Meetings (AN25) in Montréal to celebrate his pioneering contributions to hybrid dynamical systems over the past four decades. A member of the department since 1990, Prof. Liu has advised many students who now hold faculty positions at leading research universities and key roles in industry. Featuring eight presentations, the two-part event showcased advances at the intersection of hybrid systems, control theory, and their applications, with invited speakers from academia and industry presenting new theoretical, computational, and applied perspectives. The minisymposium was co-organized by Applied Math Professor Jun Liu, along with Professors Peter Stechlinski (University of Maine, U.S.) and Kexue Zhang (Queen’s University, Canada), both alumni of Applied Mathematics.

Applied Mathematics members Professor Marek Stastna, Professor Francis Poulin, and Dr. Alain Gervais organized the inaugural Quantitative Climate Science (QCS) summer school at the University of Waterloo, July 21-25, 2025. This event included a series of six QCS seminars held over three days with guest speakers from Environment and Climate Change Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, workshops, and networking opportunities for undergraduate and graduate trainees.

Professor Rémi Abgrall of the Institut für Mathematik & Computational Science Universität Zürich delivered the Spring 2025 Applied Math distinguished lecture, “Virtual finite element and hyperbolic problems: the PAMPA algorithm.” Professor Abgrall is renowned for his groundbreaking work on numerical methods for PDEs, particularly for computational fluid dynamics.

Congratulations to Professors Jun Liu and Joe West for being recognized with Outstanding Performance Awards. The awards are granted to faculty members across the University of Waterloo for exceptional scholarship and teaching.

Congratulations to Applied Mathematics professor David Del Rey Fernández for receiving one of this year’s three Golden Jubilee Research Excellence Awards. The awards are granted to recognize outstanding research at the Faculty of Mathematics.

Congratulations to Applied Mathematics professor Henry Shum, one of two recipients of the Award for Distinction in Teaching in 2025. The award has been granted to two recipients in the Faculty of Mathematics each year since 2007 in recognition of outstanding pedagogical skills and commitment to students’ education.

Congratulations to five graduate students in Applied Mathematics who have been selected as recipients of the Ontario Graduate Scholarships (OGS) or the Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology (QEII-GSST) in the 2025-2026 competition. The OGS and QEII-GSST are prestigious awards given in recognition of academic excellence, research potential, and leadership qualities.