News

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.

Six master’s and seven doctoral Applied Mathematics degrees were awarded in the 2025 Spring Convocation. Congratulations to the graduates!

Congratulations to Anita Layton, a professor at the Department of Applied Mathematics, who has been named the recipient of the 2025 CAIMS*SCMAI Research Prize. The prize is awarded by the Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society (CAIMS) in “recognition of a body of work that had significant impact in mathematics, sciences, or industry.” Layton’s research on renal and cardiovascular physiology “has revolutionized our understanding of basic and translational science regarding the mechanistic and physiological roles played by sex differences in renal and cardiovascular systems, with profound implications in therapeutic and clinical practice.”

Read the full article on the Math Faculty website to learn more.

Applied Mathematics professor and Canada 150 Research Chair of Mathematical Biology and Medicine Anita Layton has been appointed as a University Professor. This designation, given to no more than two faculty members each year, celebrates the “exceptional scholarly achievement and international pre-eminence” of the recipients. The University of Waterloo currently has 16 other active University Professors across all faculties.

To learn more, read the full article on the Math Faculty website.

Sivabal Sivaloganathan, a professor at the Department of Applied Mathematics since 1990 and the chair of the department from 2016 to 2023, passed away on March 2, 2025, after a brief illness. Over his career, Siv made a profound impact on the department and touched the lives of countless colleagues and students at Waterloo and beyond. We will miss him dearly.

Read more about Siv’s life and legacy on the Waterloo News website.

Applied Mathematics professor David Del Rey Fernández has been named the Pratt & Whitney Canada Chair in Industrial Artificial Intelligence. Del Rey Fernández and his team will build on their expertise in robust numerical algorithms and artificial intelligence to develop machine learning-enhanced simulation techniques. The partnership with Pratt & Whitney Canada will provide graduate students with valuable opportunities to engage in real-world industrial research and potential help shape the future of aircraft design and testing.

To learn more, read the full story from Waterloo News.

Zohreh (Zoya) Abbasi, a PhD candidate at the Department of Applied Mathematics, has been awarded the Samit & Reshma Sharma Graduate Scholarship in Mathematics. Zoya is the first recipient of this competitive prize, which was established in 2024 by the Samit & Reshma Sharma Foundation. The scholarship is awarded annually to a student in a thesis-based master’s or doctoral program in the Faculty of Mathematics who “demonstrates outstanding academic achievement & research excellence for graduate studies with most significant practical impact in applied mathematics.” Zoya is also the recipient of an Ontario Graduate Scholarship from the 2024-2025 competition.