Class notes

Glenn Ives (BMath '84): Appointed to the Board of Directors at NervGen Pharma Corp. Read more...

Kim Tremblay (BMath '84): Arctic Wolf raises financing at a valuation of more than $4 billion in mere months following yet another financing round from Viking Global Investors. Read more...

Roland Sing (BMath '85): A $20.9-million investment and a five-year contract to deploy the SkyWatch Space startup’s new data-management platform on commercial satellites are accelerating growth at the company. Read more...

Susan Heystee (BMath '86): Ouster, Inc., a leading provider of high-resolution digital lidar sensors for the industrial, smart infrastructure, robotics, and automotive industries, announces the appointment of Susan Heystee as Chair of its Board of Directors. Read more...

Kevin Kimsa (BMath '88): API platform Nylas nets $120M Series C round led by Tiger Global Management to automate business communications. Read more...

Gurupdesh Pandher (MMath '89): Appointed to Dean of the College of Business and Social Sciences at West Virginia State University. Read more...

Jason McDermott (BMath '91): Chisel AI Appoints Jason McDermott to President and CEO. Read more...

Steven Woods (MMath '91, PhD '96): Google’s lead engineer, Steven Woods is leaving Waterloo Region Google for venture capital firm Inovia, where he plans on takes his new position next month as partner and Chief Technology Officer. Read more...

Bipasha Chiu (BMath '92): Appointed to Chief Technology Officer at Goodfoods. Read more...

James Russell (BMath '92): Appointed to CEO of TD Insurance. Read more...

Darryl Button (BMath '93): Appointed to President and CEO of Pacific Life. Read more...

Gaurav Upadhya (MMath '93): Appointed to Amex Bank of Canada Board of Directors. Read more...

Sadiq S. Adatia (BMath '94): Appointed to Chief Investment Officer at BMO Asset Management. Read more...

Dieter Shirley (BMath '96): How the Vancouver-based NFT company Dapper Labs launched NBA Top Shot – and pioneered a new multibillion-dollar business model. Read more...

Tamara Patton (BMath '98): Appointed as Independent Director at Nobelium Tech Crop. Read more...

Fabian Uffer (BMath '02):  Appointed to Group Chief Risk Officer at SCOR. Read more...

Sarah Tatsis (BMath '03, MMath '04): Senior Vice-President of IVY Platform Development at BlackBerry speaks on the new partnership between BlackBerry and the University of Waterloo. Read more...

Mark Zekulin (BMath '03): Canopy Growth has entered the U.S. CBD beverage category with the launch of Quatreau, a premium ready-to-drink CBD-infused sparkling water.

Cadillac Fairview Partners with Cannabis Retailer Tokyo Smoke for Multiple Mall Store Locations. Tokyo Smoke is owned by Canopy Growth. Read more...

Krysta Chapman (BMath '06, MACC '06): Appointed to Chief Financial Officer at Winshear Gold. Read more...

Marianne Bell (BMath '07): Toxon Technologies launched its specialized archery technology last year. Today, the Bowdometer is used by several of the top archers in the world competing at the Summer Games in Tokyo. Read more...

Candace Brûlé (BMath '07): Hudbay announces the promotion of Candace Brûlé to Vice President of Investor Relations. Read more...

Jeffrey McKay (BCS '13): PolicyMe, a new digital life insurance platform, will be part of the wave of transformation in the insurance industry. Read more...

Laura McKay (BMath '13): PolicyMe, a new digital life insurance platform, will be part of the wave of transformation in the insurance industry. Read more...

Shuo Tan (BMath '13): Harford Mutual Insurance Group (HMIG), a carrier of commercial insurance announced a partnership with Ecopia AI, a leader in the use of artificial intelligence. Read more...

Roland Sing (BMath '85): Co-Founder & Staff Platform Engineer at Skywatch, winner of the 2021 Technology Fast 50 Program.

Eldon Sprickerhoff (BMath '91): Co-founder of eSentire announced that it has achieved Amazon Web Services (AWS) Level 1 Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) Competency status. Read more...

Edmund Dengler (BMath '91, MMath 94): Co-founder of eSentire announced that it has achieved Amazon Web Services (AWS) Level 1 Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) Competency status. Read more...

Aris Zakinthinos (BMath '92): Chief Technology Officer at Touch Bistro, winner of the 2021 Technology Fast 50 Program.

Ravi Sood (BMath '98): Appointed Director of SPARQ Systems Inc.

Farhan Thawar (BMath '98): Advisor at Ada, winner of the 2021 Technology Fast 50 Program.

Randy Aitken (BMath '00): Assistant Vice President, Risk Strategy at Flexiti Financial, winner of the 2021 Technology Fast 50 Program.

Alex Hoff (BMath '04): Co-Founder & CPO at Auvik Networks, winner of the 2021 Technology Fast 50 Program.

Hussein Fazal (BMath '05): Co-Founder & CEO of Snapcommerce, winner of the 2021 Technology Fast 50 Program. Read more...

Avinash Jamurath (BMath '05): Vice President, Engineering at BitBuy, winner of the 2021 Technology Fast 50 Program.

Fred Ngan (BMath '07): is one of this year’s Social Impact Awards winners. The GenT article shares how he transforms their sense of purpose into tech-driven solutions to some of society’s biggest problems.

Ian MacKinnon (BMath '06, MMath '08): Co-Founder & CTO at Later.com, winner of the 2021 Technology Fast 50 Program.

Alexander Hudek (BMath '10): Litera agrees to acquire leading machine learning contract analysis company, Kira Systems. Read more...

Kasra Zokaei (BCS '10): Vice President, Engineering at FundThrough, winner of the 2021 Technology Fast 50 Program.

Alex Millar (BCS '11): Co-Founder & CTO at Bonfire, winner of the 2021 Technology Fast 50 Program.

Brice Nkengsa (BSE '12): Andela’s Learning Community reaches 100,000 Learners Milestone. Read more...

Antoine Bisson (BSE '13): Co-Founder & CTO at Poka, winner of the 2021 Technology Fast 50 Program.

Nadayar Enegesi (BCS '13): Andela’s Learning Community reaches 100,000 Learners Milestone. Read more...

Afish Mahesaniya (BSE '14): Vice President, Engineering at StackAdapt, winner of the 2021 Technology Fast 50 Program.

Henry Shi (BMath '14): Co-Founder & CTO at Snapcommerce, winner of the 2021 Technology Fast 50 Program. Read more...

Glenn Cooke (BMath '20): Featured in a Waterloo Magazine human interest story, “Graduating from university—36 years after I started.” Read more...

Junhan Fang (PhD '20): Won the Pierre Robillard Award from the Statistical Society of Canada.

Mike Schaekermann (PhD '20): Won the CS-Can|Info-Can Distinguished Dissertation Award.

Nashid Shahriar (PhD ’20): A recent doctoral graduate in computer science who is now an assistant professor at the University of Regina, is a university finalist for the Governor General’s Gold Medal at the doctoral level and also received the Faculty of Mathematics Doctoral Prize.

Seda Albayrak (PhD '21): Selected as the Spring 2021 graduate Valedictorian. Read more...

Guanzhong Chen (BSE ’21): Received the Sandford Fleming Foundation Medal for Academic Excellence.

Shihabur R. Chowdhury (PhD '21): Received the prestigious 2021 Alumni Gold Medal for outstanding academic performance in a doctoral program. Read more here. 

Aaron Coutino (PhD '21): Co-authored a study on how changes in sea levels and hurricane activity played a part in upending the Maya civilization centuries ago, offering a lesson on the effects of present-day climate change. The study was featured on Frobes.com.

Robert John Cummings (BCS ’21): A graduate in computer science, received the Governor General’s Academic Silver Medal, which is awarded to students with the highest standing in an undergraduate degree program.

Ryan Ira Goldford (BMath ’21): Received the Actuarial Science Award for outstanding academic achievement.

Shane Raymond Hickman (BSE ’21): A graduate of the software engineering program, received the Sandford Fleming Foundation Award for Co-operative Proficiency.

Victoria Novakovskaya (BMath '21): This year’s fall convocation valedictorian. Victoria is a recent graduate of the math-business double degree program, a top academic performer and an all-around inspiration. Read more...

Ragini Singhal (PhD '21): A PhD graduate recounts and reflects on her academic journey. Read more...

Spencer Nicholas Whitehead (BMath ’21): A graduate in pure mathematics, received the University of Waterloo Alumni Gold Medal, and is also the recipient of the Jessie W.H. Zou Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research.

Monica Xu (BCS '21): Selected as the Spring 2021 undergraduate Valedictorian. Read more...

Luwei Zhang (BMath ’21): Received the Actuarial Science Award for outstanding academic achievement.

Chris Bauch: From the Department of Applied Mathematics, was featured in a widely syndicated media release on new research examining artificial intelligence and tipping points. Read more here. 

Jun Cai: Won the prestigious Bob Alting von Geusau Prize.

Bill Cook (PhD '83): Is part of a team that won the Amazon Last Mile Routing Research Challenge. Read more here.

Cecilia Cotton (BMath '02, MMath '03): Winner of the Faculty of Mathematics Awards for Distinction in Teaching. Read the news story on the announcement here.

Charmaine Dean (MMath '84, PhD '88): Appointed Chair of the NSERC council. Read more...

Kenneth Davidson (BMath '72): Retired on September 30 after a 43-year-long career at Waterloo. He was one of the most distinguished researchers in the history of the pure mathematics department. He has won so many prizes that it’s simpler just to give a list of greatest hits: the FWR Steacie fellowship, the Killam research fellowship, fellow of the Academy of Science of the Royal Society, a Fields Institute fellow, and an inaugural fellow of the Canadian Mathematical Society. He’s also a university professor and a winner of the award for excellence in graduate supervision. Add to that his excellent teaching and wise and sensible service record, not to mention his sharp sense of humour! Ken is a wonderful colleague that the pure math department and the Faculty of Mathematics will miss terribly.

Barry Ferguson (BMath '82, MMath '92): Retired at the end of July 2021 after 35 years on faculty. Barry’s CEMC career included, among other things, work on math contests and workshops in schools near and far. Additionally, he was an early proponent of computing contests and led Canada’s participation at the International Olympiad in Informatics. Barry was the long-time director of the Mathematics/Teaching undergraduate program until recently and served as associate dean (co-op) for many years. We congratulate Barry on his retirement!

Brian E. Forrest: Named a fellow of the Canadian Mathematical Society.

Urs Hengartner and Daniel Vogel from the Cheriton School of Computer Science featured in The Record on personal data left on discarded hardware. Read more here or check out the feature article on the computer science website.

Xi He: From the Cheriton School of Computer Science, recently published a new book, Differential Privacy for Databases, that focuses on techniques, algorithms and systems for answering database-style queries with differential privacy. Read more here.

Aiden Huffman: Co-authored a study on how changes in sea levels and hurricane activity played a part in upending the Maya civilization centuries ago, offering a lesson on the effects of present-day climate change. The study was featured on Frobes.com.

Spiro Karigiannis: From the Department of Pure Mathematics featured a special Q & A article and video on string theory. Karigiannis kindly participated in a somewhat novel Faculty of Mathematics outreach effort to communicate academic research in an accessible way. Many thanks, Spiro! See more here.

Mohammad Kohandel: Professor and head of the Mathematical Medicine Laboratory in the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Waterloo, helped pioneer the research in the context of the ongoing pandemic.

Anita Layton: Canada 150 research chair and professor of applied mathematics, computer science, pharmacy and biology and associate dean of research and international, was named as one of the top 100 powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network. Congratulations, Anita, on this well-deserved recognition!

She was also a special guest in a recent edition of the Beyond the Bulletin podcast, Math as Microscope.

Anita Layton: Was featured in an article in Clinical Research News for her work on mathematical models and simulations for COVID-19 clinical trials. Read the full article here.

Jimmy Lin: Featured in a media release on new research related to limiting COVID-19 misinformation online. Read more here.

Eduardo Martin-Martinez: 2021 winner of the Math Golden Jubilee Research Award. The award is presented annually by the Faculty of Mathematics and recognizes early and mid-career academic excellence.

Michele Mosca (BMath '95): Featured in the Forbes article '2021 Best Insights From Quantum Computing Top Leaders'

Rodrigo Nogueira (Post Doctorial Researcher): Team develops online search system to limit COVID-19 misinformation. Read more...

M. Tamer Özsu: Received the 2022 IEEE Innovation in Societal Infrastructure Award. Read more here.

Martin Pei (MMath 04, PhD '08): Winner of the Faculty of Mathematics Awards for Distinction in Teaching. Read the news story on the announcement here.

Siv Sivaloganathan: From the Department of Applied Mathematics was featured in a widely syndicated media release for his team’s research on high intensity focused ultrasound as a developing cancer treatment. Read more here.

Sophie Spirkl: 2021 winner of the Math Golden Jubilee Research Award. The award is presented annually by the Faculty of Mathematics and recognizes early and mid-career academic excellence.

Marek Stastna (BMath '95, MMath '97, PhD '01): From the Department of Applied Mathematics and his recently graduated PhD student, Aaron Coutino, were featured in a widely syndicated news release for their research on Yucatan Peninsula hydrology. Read more here.

Stefan Steiner (BMath '87): Professor and department chair of the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science was awarded the 2021 Don Owen Award from the American Statistical Association’s San Antonio Chapter. Read more here.

Mary Thompson (Retired): Named an Honorary Member of the Statistical Society of Canada.

Troy Vasiga (BMath '95, MMath '96, PhD '08): Reappointed as the Associate Dean Admissions and Outreach, Faculty of Mathematics.

Ruodu Wang: Is the first recipient of the Society of Actuaries Actuarial Science Early Career Award. Read more here.

Changbao Wu: Elected as an IMS fellow.

Shenghao Yang, a first-year PhD student in computer science, received the Borealis AI Fellowship.

Julia Zhang (Parent): Achieved the distinction of being named on of 2021 Canada's Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award Winners.
 

A scholarship, valued at $1,200, will be awarded annually to a full-time female undergraduate student entering Year One of any program in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science in the Faculty of Mathematics wherein women are underrepresented. Selection will be based on academic excellence, the Admission Information Form, and contest scores as assessed through CEMC. This fund is made possible by a donation from Anusha Shanmugarajah (BMath '01) to honour her father who encouraged her to pursue a career in technology.

We are saddened to announce that our colleague and friend Farhad Mavaddat, retired Professor at the Cheriton School of Computer Science, passed away peacefully on November 3, 2021 at the age of 80. Read more...

We are saddened to announce that our colleague and friend Michael Best, retired Professor from the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization, passed away peacefully on November 18, 2021 at the age of 76.

Obituary Link

Donald Clysdale died suddenly on August 7, 2021

Don was a graduate from the Faculty of Mathematics, with both an undergraduate and a graduate degree. At his funeral his wife pointed out that upon his undergraduate degree completion he was the top student in his class. His wife of 49 years, Patricia Davies, BMath 1973, is also a mathematics graduate from U of W.

Obituary Link

After a courageous battle with COPD on Tuesday, June 8th John passed peacefully at Markham Stouffville Hospital. Loving husband to April for 37 years. Cherished dad to Bryan and Jennifer. Will be missed by sister-in-law, Linda (Ken) Proudfoot and their family. Predeceased by his parents Samuel and Mary Chamberlain. 

Obituary Link

It is with great sadness that John's family announce his passing on July 19, 2021, at the age of 66. 

He will be remembered for his sense of humour and generosity.

While growing up in Aylmer, John was an avid reader of science fiction, which sparked his interest in all things technological. His learning was always self-inspired. He built his first computer and enjoyed adapting any device to suit his needs.

John attended Fanshawe College to become a Certified Engineering Technologist, later earning a degree in Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, and spending his career at Christie Digital in Kitchener.

In retirement, John became an artist, an avid pool player and enjoyed long trips through the country on his motorcycle. 

Obituary Link