Prestigious Governor General’s Gold Medal awarded to alumnus Dr. Tejinder Singh

The Governor General Gold Medal, one of the highest honours in academia and research in Canada, is awarded to Dr. Tejinder Singh, who graduated in 2020 from the Faculty of Engineering, has received the medal for highest standing in a doctoral program. It is the most prestigious award a graduate can attain in a Canadian university. The university nominates only one PhD graduate with highest academic standing from all fields of study. This medal celebrates the impactful research and scholarly excellence.

Tejinder Singh’s PhD research has gained him visibility at both the national and international level. He has published more than 24 research papers in leading journals and received numerous awards, including the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship, Young Engineer Award by European Microwave Association and the President's Graduate Scholarship. Tejinder’s research mainly focuses on developing novel miniaturized on-chip wireless and microwave devices based on emerging phase-change materials for use in 5G and upcoming 6G wireless communication systems. Tejinder’s work has paved the way for these technologies in Canada, and allowed him to develop a new generation of devices that are smaller, lighter weight and have superior performance when it comes to power consumption. He has also won the national Brian L. Barge Microsystems Integration Award, and multiple best paper awards at international conferences such as IMS, EuMW, and IMWS. The potential applications for Tejinder’s devices include, sending and receiving large amounts of data, use in autonomous vehicles, biomedical applications, satellite communications for deep space research and more.

Tejinder first became interested in computers when he was very young. He was only ten when he assembled his first computer. “Whatever I achieved during my PhD was a direct result of my curiosity and my passion for learning,” Tejinder says. “Since my research was in a field I enjoyed, it never felt it like a burden.”

He received a PhD in electrical and computer engineering, under the supervision of Professor Raafat Mansour, from the University of Waterloo in 2020. Tejinder credits his success to support from his supervisor, Dr. Raafat Mansour, and his wife and fellow researcher, Navjot Khaira. He expresses great appreciation for his parents and siblings who have always supported his dreams of becoming a scientist. “During my PhD studies, I was working to build something useful with real world technological applications, not simply working to complete degree requirements. A lot of what I did was for my own curiosity and satisfaction.”

Tejinder addressed the fellow doctoral graduates in Spring 2021 Convocation. His inspirational speech is available of UWaterloo’s YouTube Channel.