Major academic milestones in the careers of faculty members were celebrated Wednesday as Waterloo Engineering hosted its inaugural Faculty Commencement Day in the Engineering 7 event space.
The event recognized faculty members who have received tenure, and promotion to associate professor and full professor, and those advancing from lecturer to continuing lecturer. New faculty members, who bring fresh ideas and enthusiasm, novel research focuses and the potential for future achievements, were also welcomed into the Waterloo Engineering community.
As part of Faculty Commencement Day, faculty members wore their Academic Regalia, displaying a range of institutional colours including Waterloo convocation academic dress. June will feature a series of Convocation events including Class of 2020 on June 11, Class of 2021 on June 12, and Class of 2022 on both June 17 and 18.
Adel Sedra, who served as dean of engineering from 2003 to 2012, spoke at the special event about his academic career and offered career advice from his experiences as a faculty member, a provost and a dean.
Recognized during the first Faculty Commencement Day were:
School of Architecture
New faculty members:
- Mohamad Araji
- David Fortin
Faculty members who received tenures and promotions:
- Anne Bordeleau - promoted to Professor
- David Correa - receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor
- Elizabeth English - promoted to Professor
- Jane Hutton - receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor
Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business
New faculty members:
- Hong Victor Cui
- Horatio Morgan
Faculty members who received tenures and promotions:
- Wayne Chang - promoted to Continuing Lecturer
- Marc Hurwitz - promoted to Continuing Lecturer
- Shavin Malhotra - promoted to Professor
Olga Vechtomova (right) was promoted to Professor in the Department of Management Engineering.
Department of Chemical Engineering
New faculty member:
- Hamed Shahsaven
Faculty members who received tenures and promotions:
- Marc Aucoin - promoted to Professor
- Eline Boghaert - promoted to Continuing Lecturer
- Jeff Gostick - receiving tenure
- Tizazu Mekonnen - receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor
- Michael Pope - receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor
- Mary Robinson - promoted to Continuing Lecturer
- David Simakov - receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor
- Aiping Yu - promoted to Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
New faculty members:
- Konstantinos (Costa) Kapsis
- Pezhouhan Tavassoti-Kheiry
- Amy Li
Faculty members who received tenures and promotions:
- Rania Al-Hammoud - promoted to Continuing Lecturer
- Hassan Baaj - promoted to Professor
- Chris Bachmann - receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor
- Dipanjan Basu - promoted to Professor
- Nandita Basu - promoted to Professor
- Jeff Casello - promoted to Professor
- Bryan Tolson - promoted to Professor
- Scott Walbridge - promoted to Professor
- Shunde Yin - receiving tenure
Stephen Smith (centre) was promoted to Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
New faculty members:
- Ayman El-Hag
- Michael Fisher
- Patrick Huang
- Gennaro Notomista
- Mahla Poudineh
- Yash Vardhan Pant
- Jeffrey Zarnett
Faculty members who received tenures and promotions:
- Michal Bajcsy - receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor
- Mark Crowley - receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor
- Werner Dietl - receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor
- Sebastian Fischmeister - promoted to Professor
- Arie Gurfinkel - promoted to Professor
- Nachiket Kapre - receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor
- Christopher Nielsen - promoted to Professor
- Hiren Patel - promoted to Professor
- Michael Reimer - receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor
- Stephen Smith - promoted to Professor
- Lan Wei - receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor
- Derek Wright - promoted to Continuing Lecturer
Department of Management Engineering
New faculty members:
- Saeed Ghadimi
- Sirisha Rambhatla
- Jangho Yang
Faculty members who received tenures and promotions:
- Brian Cozzarin - promoted to Professor
- Stanko Dimitrov - promoted to Professor
- Lukasz Golab - promoted to Professor
- Fatma Gzara - promoted to Professor
- Mark Hancock - promoted to Professor
- Mehrdad Pirnia - promoted to Continuing Lecturer
- Mark Smucker - promoted to Professor
- Olga Vechtomova - promoted to Professor
Former dean Adel Sedra offered career advice based on experiences during his distinguished career.
Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering
New faculty members:
- Yue Hu
- Peng Peng
- XiaoYu Wu
Faculty members who received tenures and promotions:
- Kyle Daun - promoted to Professor
- Baris Fidan - promoted to Professor
- Adrian Gerlich - promoted to Professor
- Kamyar Ghavam - promoted to Continuing Lecturer
- Allyson Giannikouris - promoted to Continuing Lecturer
- Charles Kwan - promoted to Continuing Lecturer
- David Mather - promoted to Continuing Lecturer
- Andrew Milne - promoted to Continuing Lecturer
- John Montesano - receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor
- Kevin Musselman - receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor
- Sean Peterson - promoted to Professor
- James Tung - receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor
- Mihaela Vlasea - receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor
- John Wen - promoted to Professor
- Serhiy Yarusevych - promoted to Professor
Department of Systems Design Engineering
New faculty members:
- Lisa Aultman-Hall, Department Chair
- Ewen MacDonald
- Katja Mombaur
- Taisiya Sigaeva
Faculty members who received tenures and promotions:
- Matt Borland - promoted to Continuing Lecturer
- Shi Cao - receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor
- Andrea Scott - receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor
- Thomas Willett - receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor
- Alex Wong - promoted to Professor