Friday, June 2, 2017

Honorary degree recipients named

Sam Altman, the president of Y Combinator —considered the world’s most powerful startup incubator — will be among the distinguished recipients of honorary doctorates at the University of Waterloo's spring convocation ceremonies later this month. Y Combinator (YC) has had a role in the growth of many billion-dollar companies. A number of companies that went through the University of Waterloo’s Velocity program have also gone through YC, including Thalmic Labs, Vidyard, Pebble, and Bufferbox.

Altman, also co-chairman of OpenAI, a non-profit company that conducts research on artificial intelligence, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Engineering degree. He will address convocation at the Faculty of Engineering ceremony taking place at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 17.

Other honorary doctorate recipients include:

John Frank is an epidemiologist, teacher of public health professionals and one of Canada's most passionate advocates for strengthening the public health system. He is director of the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy. In 2000, he was appointed inaugural scientific director of the Institute of Population and Public Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He will receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws at the Applied Health Sciences ceremony on Tuesday, June 13.

Pat Roy Mooney has had a five-decade career as a champion of the protection of plant genetic resources and the livelihoods of the world's small-scale farmers. He is co-founder and executive director of the ETC Group — an international civil society organization, and instrumental in placing these agricultural sustainability issues on the global agenda in ways that have brought real societal change. His work has influenced the design of governance frameworks in matters of agricultural biodiversity, seed technologies, responses to climate change, and farmers' rights. He will receive an Honorary Doctor of Environmental Studies degree on Tuesday, June 13.

Ingrid Mattson is a professor and Windsor Community Chair in Islamic Studies at Huron University College at Western University. A Waterloo alumnus, she became an innovative leader in the field of Islamic Studies. Mattson established the first graduate program for Muslim chaplains to be accredited in the United States while she was professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary. Through both her academic work and her activism, she has gained great respect as a female leader within the wider Muslim community and has worked extensively in the area of interfaith relations. She will receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree at the Faculty of Arts ceremony on Wednesday, June 14.

John Clague is professor and Shrum Chair in the Department of Earth Sciences at Simon Fraser University. His research activities cross both the geosciences and engineering and has led to significant refinements in the quaternary chronology and climate change history of western North America through application and testing of new dating techniques. His work on the correlation of earthquake and tsunami events has helped scientists to use the geological record to predict future events, and his research has appeared in high impact international journals. Known as a passionate teacher, supervisor and meticulous editor, the third edition of his textbook Natural Hazards has been adopted for use at many universities. He was named by Canadian Geographic Magazine as one of Canada's top 100 modern-day trailblazers in 2015. Clague will receive an Honorary Doctor of Science degree on Thursday, June 15.

Stephen Scherer is director of the Centre for Applied Genomics and senior scientist in genetics and genome biology at the Hospital for Sick Children, and is professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics. Scherer is also director of the McLaughlin Centre at the University of Toronto. A Waterloo alumnus, he has made groundbreaking discoveries that have directly contributed to better outcomes for people suffering from disease. Standing out among his many accomplishments is the specific contribution to the discovery of genome-wide Copy Number Variation (CNV) and its relevance in human disease. Scherer will receive an honorary Doctor of Science degree on Thursday, June 15.

Efim Zelmanov is the Rita L. Atkinson Endowed Chair in Mathematics at University of California, San Diego, and a distinguished professor at the Korea Institute for Advanced Study. Widely regarded as one of the greatest algebraists of all time, Zelmanov has worked in numerous disciplines within noncommutative algebra and he has made substantial contributions in particular to the theory of Lie and Jordan Algebras and to infinite group theory. He has won numerous awards, including the highest honour in mathematics, the Fields medal in 1994. Zelmanov will receive an Honorary Doctor of Mathematics degree on Friday, June 16.

Terry Lyons is Wallis Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and director of the Oxford-Man Institute for Quantitative Finance. A phenomenal mathematician, one major pioneering contribution was the introduction and development of the theory of rough paths, which has application in a variety of fields. His research in mathematical finance has focused on understanding and managing risk in financial markets. He is seen as a champion for extending the influence and application of mathematics, have been a proponent for several initiatives to boost mathematics research and teaching. Lyons will receive an Honorary Doctor of Mathematics on Friday, June 16.

Chunli Bai is president of the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), the most important academic position in China. He is one of the pioneers in the field of nanoscience and is a highly acclaimed academic who has achieved international stature through his outstanding academic accomplishments in nanoscience and nanotechnology. His main scientific contributions include the development of new experimental techniques and methodologies and their application to chemistry and molecular science research. His work led to the earliest technological tools in China for manipulating single atoms and molecules, and characterizing surfaces and interfaces. He will receive an Honorary Doctor of Engineering degree on Saturday, June 17.

Göran Andersson has been a leading figure in the European power engineering research community for more than 30 years. Combining industry and academic experience, he has advanced important strategies to accommodate imminent penetration of sustainable energy sources, and developed models to forecast fluctuations in energy pricing as a result. His group was one of the first to introduce the Energy Hub concept, now used worldwide to address complex control challenges related to integrating electric vehicles into current and future grid systems. Throughout his career, Andersson has remained deeply committed to student mentorship and service to his profession. Andersson will receive an Honorary Doctor of Engineering degree on Saturday, June 17.

All ceremonies will take place in the Physical Activities Complex (PAC) on the Waterloo campus. For more information, please visit the website for spring convocation 2017.

Play games in the Games Institute Arcade Saturday

by Cayley MacArthur.

The Games Institutes invites all Waterloo students and the wider community to a 'PLAY' event this Saturday, June 3. Come out to play games made at Waterloo by Waterloo students.

This event is a continuation of our LEARN & MAKE event, the Game Jam, which occurred last weekend. On Saturday between 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Student Life Centre (here), we will be showcasing a variety of digital, mobile, and physical games created by undergrads, graduate students, and researchers at the University in an open arcade environment, to show people what is possible if you choose to pursue games at Waterloo (and to spread awareness that studying games is a great option!). Come out and join us, it's going to be a lot of fun!

This event is absolutely free, and open to the public. There is free parking available during the weekend in X Lot. 

Keystone Picnic today and other notes

The annual Keystone Picnic takes place today from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the DC Quad, and the weather looks perfect. Lunch will be served at 11:45 a.m. on a first-come, first-served basis, so be sure to grab your food ticket (which should have been emailed to you last week), which is also your ballot for a chance to win door prizes.

Don’t forget to enter the Trivia Contest for a chance to win dinner at Proof Kitchen + Lounge and a night’s stay at the Delta Hotel. The always-popular dunk tank is back again this year, with a great lineup of colleagues who can’t wait to go swimming. More picnic details can be found on the Keystone webpage.

Human Resources is reporting that a number of retirees have died recently, including:

• Dorothy Devison, who joined Waterloo in November 1964 and retired as Assistant Manager of the Bookstore in October 1991. She is survived by her spouse Charles. 
• Johannes Feldhusen, who started at the University in September 1967 and retired as Kitchen Porter in Food Services in September 1978. He is survived by his spouse Brigitte.
• Hans Bormann, who began working at Waterloo in March 1978 and retired as Senior Shop Technician in the Engineering Machine Shop in July 1996. He is survived by his spouse Annegret.