Class Notes Winter 2026

Lloyd Switzer (BMath ’88): Lloyd Switzer is Chief Procurement Officer for Telus, which recently made the Corporate Knights’ 2026 Global 100 list. The list evaluates firms on environmental, social and governance performance. Read more

Leila Wong (BMath ’86): Leila Wong is Chief of Human Resources at Celestica Inc., which recently made the Corporate Knights’ 2026 Global 100 list. The list evaluates firms on environmental, social and governance practices. Read more 

Dave McKay (BMath ’87): Dave McKay, President and CEO of RBC, is leading efforts to expand the bank into the Middle East as Canada looks to diversify trade and attract foreign investment. Read more 

Glenn Ives (BMath ’84): Glenn Ives is the Director of the Kinross Gold Corporation, which recently made the Corporate Knights’ 2026 Global 100 list. The list evaluates firms on environmental, social and governance performance. Read more 

Edward Lycklama (BMath ’84): Edward Lycklama serves as Executive Chair of Pattern Discovery for Teamworks, a sports operations platform. Recently, Teamworks bought hockey analytics platform Sportlogiq. Read more 

Cheng Chih Sung (MMath ’86): Cheng Chih Sung has been appointed non-executive independent chairman of Singapore Exchange Regulation, overseeing regulatory governance and capital markets oversight. Read more 

Brad Dever (BMath ’96): Brad E. Dever, Chief Commercial Officer and Managing Director at CloudAvanti, was appointed to oversee the company’s commercial expansion across North America. Read more 

Michele Mosca (BMath ’95): Michele Mosca, Professor at the University of Waterloo and quantum security expert, warns that practical quantum computing could break current public-key encryption systems within the next decade. Read more 

Also, Michele explains that Canada often fails to commercialize its quantum breakthroughs domestically, forcing reliance on imported technologies. Read more 

Charles Clarke (Math ’96): Charles Clarke, Professor of Computer Science and Associate Dean of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, argues that over-reliance on AI tools risks limiting students’ long-term skill development. Read more 

Wendy Kei (BMath ’91): Wendy Kei has joined General Fusion as a strategic advisor to support governance, audit oversight and financial reporting. Read more

Craig Kaplan (BMtah ’96): Craig Kaplan, professor at the Cheriton School of Computer Science, was named a 2025 Distinguished Member by the Association for Computing Machinery for his pioneering contributions to the design and modelling of computational geometric patterns. Read more

Nathan Hoel (BMath ’08): Nathan Hoel, Co-Founder and CTO of BinSentry, helped secure $25 million USD in growth capital to scale AI tools that monitor feed inventory for livestock farmers. Read more

Stephanie Simmons (BMath ’08): Stephanie Simmons, Founder and Chief Quantum Officer of Photonic, raised $180 million CAD to commercialize networked quantum computing technology. Read more 

Anil Sabharwal (BMath ’00): Anil Sabharwal, Vice President of Product at Google, was appointed to Atlassian’s board to provide strategic guidance on product leadership. Read more 

Aleksandar Gargenta (BMath ’01): Aleksandar Gargenta is Senior Director of Engineering at Pano AI, which was recently recognized in the Global Cleantech 100 for developing AI systems used to detect and prevent wildfires. Read more 

Francis Lau (BMath ’06): Francis Lau, Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Lucida Capital, has achieved outsized returns by running a no-leverage, single-manager hedge fund. Read more

Michael Gregson (BMath ’09): Michael Gregson, CTO and Co-Founder of Velix, raised $2 million in pre-seed funding to scale fintech tools that automate shipment tracking and billing. Read more 

Shirley Hung (BMath ’06): Shirley Hung was appointed as a Permanent Magistrate in Hong Kong effective December 10, 2025. Read more

Simone Reitzes (BMath ’05): Simone Reitzes, Managing Director at the Medicus Pension Plan, was recognized as one of Wealth Professional’s 2025 Top 50 Leading Women in Wealth for her leadership in helping healthcare professionals translate variable incomes into durable retirement outcomes. Read more

Scott Hong (BMath ’06): Scott Hong was promoted to Partner in Pantheon’s Client Solutions Team and Head of South Korea, leading client engagement in the region. Read more

Qasim Mithani (Math ’15): Qasim Mithani, Co-Founder and CTO of Depthfirst, raised $40 million in Series A funding to expand AI-powered cybersecurity tools. Read more 

Jairaj Sethi (BMath ’11): Jairaj Sethi, Co-Founder and CTO of Substack, is expanding the platform’s presence in Canada as part of its global growth strategy. Read more

Roger Wang (Math ’16): Roger Wang, Co-Founder of Inferact, raised $150 million in seed funding to commercialize LLM inference technology. Read more 

Alexandra Findleton (BMath ’17): Alexandra Findleton was named Head of Flow Reinsurance at Venerable, where she will lead the company’s efforts to expand its variable annuity flow reinsurance business and support its broader growth strategy. Read more 

Ruslan Nikolaev (BCS ’20): Ruslan Nikolaev is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of fintech startup Float, which recently secured nearly $100 million CAD in debt as it hopes to expand the scope and flexibility of its financial products for Canadian small businesses. Read more

Hassan Ismail (BMath ’25): Hassan Ismail, the co-founder of Yellowcake, a defence tech startup, argues that Y Combinator's initial decision to not invest in Canadian startups was justifiable, though he understands their reversal. Read more

Griffin Keglevich (BCS Incomplete): Griffin Keglevich is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Float, which recently secured nearly $100 million CAD in debt as it hopes to expand the scope and flexibility of its financial products for Canadian small businesses.. Read more 

Kevin Bai (BCS Incomplete): Kevin Bai, co-founder and CTO of Slash, was featured on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 2026 finance list. Read more 

Laura Pierson (MMath ’24): Laura Pierson, a Math instructor at Art of Problem Solving, was listed among the 54 finalists named by the Hertz Foundation for the 2026 Hertz Fellowships. Read more 

At the Google-UWaterloo Symposium, Students showed how AI can enhance education and career development. 

Recent master’s graduate Yelizaveta Brus, former postdoctoral researcher Rungroj Maipradit, Professor Earl T. Barr of University College London, and Professor Shane McIntosh of the Cheriton School of Computer Science  receives ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award at ASE 2025. 

Students take a closer look at the University of Waterloo’s beloved network of pedestrian tunnels and bridges, and reminisce of the math tunnels taking down for the construction of the cutting-edge M4. 

Waterloo Blockchain  students showcased their creativity, resilience and blockchain expertise to win $25,850 USD at ETHGlobal Buenos Aires. 

Muhammad Sulaiman, Mahdieh Ahmadi, Mohammad Salahuddin, Raouf Boutaba, Aladdin Saleh win 2025 CNOM Best Paper Award. 

Dr. Mu Zhu, professor of Statistics and Actuarial Science and a University Research Chair, was appointed first associate dean for AI Strategy. 

Zhiyang Cheng wins Mehta-Jenner Climate Change Mitigation Graduate Scholarship. 

Dr. Martin Karsten and Peter Cai developed a process to reduce the amount of energy needed to run data centres. 

Dr. Helen Chen teamed up with Bing Hu, a PhD candidate in computer science, to build a machine learning model; this demonstrates collaboration between computer science, math and medical research. 

A team of quantum information researchers solve longstanding “no cloning” problem with encryption workaround, fully quantum ‘cloud services’ now a potential reality. 

Burcu Karabina named one of Vevox’s top 50 voices in higher education for 2026. 

George Seara turns a Waterloo computer science degree into a career in professional audio engineering. 

A group of three Waterloo researchers engineer bacteria capable of consuming tumours from the inside out. 

A first-year Waterloo student developed a program capable of tracking the real-time speed of street cars in Toronto.  

New study finds that extremophile bacteria and archaea can share strikingly similar genomic signatures when adapted to the same extreme environments, 

New research from the University of Waterloo found that light and snow interactions provides new insights into how pollution can affect vegetation growth and impact ecosystems. 

Congratulations to Dr. Yu-Ru Liu on her receipt of the 2026 Canadian Mathematical Society Krieger-Nelson Prize. 

Congratulations to Dr. Rahim Moosa, whose research on the geometry of solutions to algebraic differential equations was featured at the 2025 Bourbaki Seminar. 

We honour the memory of David Keith, who passed away on October 10, 2025, and the many ways they enriched our lives.

We are sad to announce that on September 19, 2025, at the age of 86, Clif Young, born in Stratford, Ontario, passed away. 

It is with great sadness that we convey the news of the death of Neil Maharaj.

We announce with deep sorrow the passing of Florence Aman on December 20, 2025.

It is with great sadness that we share news of the passing of Harry Fainsilber on May 26, 2015. 

With sorrow, we share the passing of Arthur Hobbs on October 25, 2020. 

We are deeply saddened to announce the peaceful passing of Michael Ohlman on February 28, 2026, in North Bay.