Monday, April 24, 2017

New University Librarian named

"I am pleased to announce the appointment of Beth Sandore Namachchivaya as University Librarian effective 1 August 2017," wrote Vice-President, Academic & Provost Ian Orchard in a memo circulated to Library staff last week. "Beth is currently Associate University Librarian for Research, Associate Dean of Libraries, and Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign."

"Beth brings to Waterloo significant expertise and leadership experience specific to academic libraries, including substantial depth in research and in information technology. At Illinois Beth has led the development of information discovery systems, the digitization and digital preservation programs, and, most recently, scholarly communication and publishing, data curation, and digital scholarship. She boasts a strong record of disciplinary and professional publications as well as grants received (~$10 million as principal investigator or via joint projects). She has been Visiting Librarian at University of California, Berkeley Library and California Digital Library (January-June 2007), and was selected to participate in the Research Library Leadership Fellows program of the Association of Research Libraries (2005-06)."

Namachchivaya is a graduate of The College of Wooster (BA, Linguistics) in Wooster, Ohio, USA and received her AM from the Graduate Library School at the University of Chicago.

As University Librarian, she will be a member of the University’s senior leadership team and will provide overall direction for the delivery of library services and resources to meet the teaching, learning, and research needs of Waterloo’s diverse academic community.

"Please join me in welcoming Beth to the University of Waterloo," the provost's memo continues. "In addition, I would like to express my thanks to each of Annie Bélanger, Alison Hitchens and Sharon Lamont who have together provided very effective leadership for the Library over the past year. Their efforts and strong guidance have been invaluable in continuing the important work of the Library without interruption as well as in spearheading new initiatives for the Library that will benefit the campus for years to come."

Thesis competitors do well in their Fields

This piece was originally published on the Faculty of Mathematics news site.

Back row (from left to right): Erika Pederson-Lorenzen (Fields - organizer), Arvind Gupta (U of T, UBC - judge), Anup Dixit (U of T), Anton Mosunov (Waterloo), Tyrone Ghaswala (Waterloo), Thomas Bury (Waterloo), Alessandro Vignati (York), Ivan Telpukhovskiy (U of T), Helen Cheyne (York), Tom Salisbury (Fields, York - judge), Jean-Marie De Koninck (U Laval - judge). Front row (from left to right): Farid Aliniaeifard (York), Grey Kuling (York), Sawitree Boonpatcharanon (York), Justin Martel (U of T), Pierre Roquet (TEDxUofT - judge)

On April 18^th, The Fields Institute held its inaugural thesis competition in collaboration with TEDxUofT. Doctoral students studying any form of mathematics from across Ontario competed to see who could best present their thesis topic within three minutes.

Three of the eleven student presenters were from Waterloo. Congratulations to Thomas Bury (Applied Math) who placed second, Tyrone Ghaswala (Pure Math) who placed third, and Anton Mosunov (Pure Math) who received an honorable mention.

National Volunteer Week begins

by Alex Farley​

Today marks the start of National Volunteer Week! A week to celebrate the acts of all volunteers on and off campus who support the University, and our communities!

The Office of Advancement is happy to take this week to acknowledge volunteers who support us in many different ways such as events, mentorship, committees and advisory councils, ambassadors and more! Without volunteers on our team, we could not be as successful. We want to take this opportunity to say thank you to the alumni, students, staff and faculty who share their time and talent with us.

Please take a moment to watch our VIDEO and feel free to share it with your colleagues and friends who are making a difference! And follow us on Facebook and Twitter this week to join in the celebration!

Happy National Volunteer Week!

Monday's notes

There is still time to register to attend a book signing event featuring His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada and Tom Jenkins, Chairman of OpenText and Chancellor of the University of Waterloo as they discuss Ingenious: How Canadian Innovators Made the World Smarter, Smaller, Kinder, Safer, Healthier, Wealthier, and Happier. The author event takes place on Tuesday, April 25 at 8:30 a.m. in the Sedra Design Centre in Engineering 5. Seating is limited. The event will also be livestreamed.

The Faculty of Mathematics HeForShe team is sponsoring an Equithon, a gender equity hackathon, that will take place from Friday, May 5 to Sunday, May 7 at the University of Waterloo.

The Equithon is centred on projects that promote gender equity and social issues. Topics include poverty and equity, gendered racism, women empowerment, mental health, and physical disabilities. The event is open to University of Waterloo students from all faculties, of any gender. Sign up at equithon.org. Registration (which is completely free) is open until Wednesday, April 26. Sign up as an individual, or in groups of up to 4 people.

"We are also seeking volunteers!" says a note from the Equithon organizers. "It’s only a four-hour commitment, you get Equithon swag, and you get to work with other students who are interested in promoting equity. Sign up on equithon.org."

As the examination period winds down this week, some Food Services operations will be reducing their hours:

• Brubaker's will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. from April 24 to 30;
• FRSH in the AHS expansion will be closed from April 24 to 28 and then won't reopen until September 5;
• Starbucks in AHS will be closed from April 24 to 28;
• Tim Hortons in the Davis Centre will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. from April 24 to 28;
• Tim Hortons in the SLC will be closed from April 26 to April 28;
• Tim Hortons in UWP closed April 23 and will reopen May 1;
• Williams Fresh Café in Environment 3 will be closed from April 24 to 28;
• The H³ Café in the Hagey Hall Hub will be closed from Wednesday, April 26 to Friday, April 28 and then won't reopen until September 5;
• ML's Coffee Shop has been closed since April 7 and will reopen on September 5;
• the PAS Lounge is closed and will reopen on September 5.

For a full listing of hours and locations, check the Food Services website.