Wednesday, July 15, 2026

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• Writing and Communication Centre marks 50 years as Director Clare Bermingham earns national leadership recognition
• Sustainable stretch: Creating the perfect ooey-gooey cheese melt

Writing and Communication Centre marks 50 years as Director Clare Bermingham earns national leadership recognition

Clare Bermingham, Director of the Writing and Communication Centre (WCC), has received national recognition as the inaugural recipient of the Canadian Writing Centres Association's Excellence in Leadership and Service award. The award profile attests to how Clare has enacted "foresight, collaboration, and an unwavering commitment to people-centred practice” to shape “the WCC into a national leader while fostering a culture in which staff and students alike can thrive.”  

As the WCC prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary in September, this recognition carries special significance. Clare’s achievement highlights the ways WCC’s remarkable transformation mirrors the University of Waterloo's broader commitment to creating equitable and sustainable conditions for learning, growth, and human potential. 

The WCC traces its roots to 1976. Originally conceptualized as the Writing Clinic, it was initially responsible for administering an English language proficiency exam. Over the past five decades, it has evolved to support our globally oriented campus through robust student-centred pedagogy that emphasizes the writing process, rhetorical context, disciplinary discourse, and the development of student self-awareness and agency. Following a major University task force in 2012, the centre was reimagined under Clare’s leadership beginning in 2014 and renamed the Writing and Communication Centre in 2017. Since then, the WCC has supported undergraduate and graduate students from all Faculties through highly impactful individual appointments, a wide range of innovative programing, and "standard-bearing resources.” 

A hallmark of Clare’s leadership has been the ability to anticipate change rather than simply respond to it. This forward-thinking mindset was evident when the WCC became the first student support unit at Waterloo to publish guidance on generative AI (Using ChatGPT and Other Text-Generating Artificial Intelligence, launched in 2023). Under Clare's leadership, the WCC has consistently been at the forefront of emerging issues in higher education, often shaping institutional and disciplinary conversations before they become widely established. Consequently, as the award profile highlights, colleagues across Canada “look to the WCC for guidance and clarity on how to approach teaching and supporting student writing.” 

Clare has also fostered a culture of collaboration and care that colleagues across the University deeply value. WCC staff describe a culture where high standards and genuine care for wellbeing coexist rather than compete. Beyond the WCC, numerous university leaders praise her skill at building consensus across complex, cross-functional teams, even when bringing initial skeptics on board with major changes.  

Responding to the award, Clare reflected on the collective nature of the achievement: "I'm incredibly humbled to be honoured by my amazing colleagues from across the country, all of whom are accomplished in and inspirational for the work they do. Leadership is not a solo venture, and I'm hugely grateful to the Writing and Communication Centre team at the University of Waterloo for their trust, collaboration, and imagination. Nothing we do is possible without all of us."  

Stay tuned for details about events celebrating the WCC’s 50th anniversary this fall! 

Sustainable stretch: Creating the perfect ooey-gooey cheese melt

This article was originally published on the Faculty of Science's website.

From the stretchy, elastic pull of fresh mozzarella as you pick up a piping hot piece of pizza, to the creamy ooze and velvety, decadent nostalgia of a comforting mac and cheese, the characteristics of the much-loved food staple cheese are undeniably familiar.

However, this also makes cheese hard to replicate in sustainable ways without the need for dairy.

University of Waterloo biochemistry alum Mathew Li (BSc ’24) is the Research Operations Associate at AuX Labs, a company working towards creating the classic stretch of cheese in a vegan, sustainable way. Using yeast and partnering with craft breweries, they are developing alternate methods to create the dairy protein casein, which is responsible for the stretchy cheese texture that we know and love.

“As someone who’s an avid cheese enjoyer, I was really interested in seeing what products we can make using alternative, non-dairy proteins,” says Li. “Using fermentation, we’ve created a cheese indistinguishable from traditional cheese, but that is more sustainable because it doesn’t rely on the carbon footprint of large amounts of dairy livestock.”

Li uses the hands-on experience he gained from Science’s lab courses and his coop terms to work in precision fermentation developing food products. He is currently developing a method to make casein by controlling the fermentation of yeast. Controlling variables including temperature, pH, and the amount of each material added, Li helps determine the optimal conditions to use yeast to create the exact same casein protein as found in dairy.

In his role, Li covers the process and logistics of scaling up reactions to take the company’s casein development from small scale to production. Partnering with micro-breweries, AuX Labs is using empty brewing tanks, which can hold several thousand litres, to run their fermentations.

“Almost everything that I do on a daily basis, I have had some experience or some exposure to in a Waterloo chemistry lab,” he says. “Going into the biochemistry program, I didn’t really know what to expect as a career path, but my first coop term was in food manufacturing. I found it really interesting and after that, I sought out more opportunities in this space following graduation.”

Li learned upon his graduation from Waterloo that the startup AuX Labs was hiring through networking with colleagues from his coop term in precision fermentation. In the startup ecosystem, Li says that he enjoys the rapid pace and change, as it keeps his days interesting and non-repetitive. He also enjoys the flexibility of the role, describing it as similar to being in school. There are overarching goals, and times when things are very busy, but he also has the ability to set his own schedule to get his goals and tasks completed on time.

As for Li’s favourite way to enjoy cheese, “pizza is definitely just a classic, but there’s also something really satisfying about eating from a bag of shredded cheese in front of the fridge at 3 a.m.”