OCTOBER 2018
Students joined Facebook’s Rico Mariani (BMath '88) for a rousing Ask Me Anything where he shared career advice such as, "If you want to be a true leader, you need to set others up to win. Their wins are your wins, and you find that people want to be on your team." Event was moderated by Computer Science Club President, Zichuan Wei.
NOVEMBER 2018
Fall Open House brought over 5,000 prospective students and their families to the Math buildings on November 3. From information sessions to sample lectures, from tours to a contest workshop, faculty, staff and student volunteers introduced to the Faculty of Mathematics to excited high school students.
There were also two distinguished lectures this month. One featured Sergey Norin as part of the Tutte Distinguished Lecture Series on November 2, and the second featured Marc Morin, co-founder of Auvik Networks as part of the CryptoWorks21 Distinguished Lecture Series on November 27.
Alumni Ivan Gudov (BMath ’10), Bashar Jabbour (BMath ’14), Karen So (BMath ’17), and Tina Wang (BMath ’15) joined us for a Mathematical Studies Alumni Career Panel to talk to students about their successful careers since graduation. Thank you to everyone who participated in this networking event. We also travelled to Seattle to celebrate the 314 day of the year at the Microsoft Visitor Center with our alumni in the area. Dean Stephen M. Watt, along with Professor Benoit Charbonneau, joined in for some family fun.
DECEMBER 2018
Several faculty members travelled to Vancouver to attend the Canadian Mathematics Society (CMS) Winter Meeting in Vancouver. There, the Centre for Education of Mathematics and Computing was the recipient of the Adrien Pouliot award and Ian VanderBurgh gave the award lecture. Our Canada 150 Research Chair Anita Layton (Applied Mathematics) delivered a Plenary Lecture. Ten other faculty members led sessions including: Brian Forrest, Nico Spronk, David McKinnon, Ruxandra Moraru, Brett Nasserden, Matt Satriano, and Xu Robert Yang of Pure Mathematics; Henry Wolkowicz of Combinatorics and Optimization; Giang Tran of Applied Mathematics; and Carmen Bruni of the Cheriton School of Computer Science.
A delegation of math alumnae (and alumni) joined President Feridun Hamdullahpur and Professor Donna Strickland in Stockholm to witness the historic events surrounding her induction as a Nobel Laureate including her Nobel Lecture at Stockholm University.
We are also proud to note that Kenneth Davidson (Pure Mathematics) was named in the Inaugural Class of CMS Fellows, as were three of our alumni: Donald Dawson (BMath '85); Gerda DeVries (BMath '89); and Shawn Godin (BMath '87). Congratulations to all four fellows.
A delegation of math alumnae (and alumni) joined President Feridun Hamdullahpur and Professor Donna Strickland in Stockholm to witness the historic events surrounding her induction as a Nobel Laureate including her Nobel Lecture at Stockholm University. 
JANUARY 2019
On a cold and snowy Friday, faculty, staff and student volunteers came together to build an omnitruncated dodecaplex in the Bruce White Atrium in the Mathematics 3 building. The “barn raising” of the omnitruncated dodecaplex was an opportunity for students to learn in a hands-on manner about geometry.
February 2019
Math celebrated the 32nd Annual Awards Banquet on February 7 by presenting just under $2 million in math undergraduate scholarships were awarded this year. Congratulations again to all of our illustrious students that were recognized and thank you to our generous alumni and friends that make it possible. 
Dean Stephen M. Watt (Ph’D ’86), Randall Howard (BMath ‘75), and Sam Pasupalak (BCS ‘12) were featured speakers at the Waterloo Innovation Summit in London, England. The audience of leaders from the worlds of academia, business and politics are calling for a more rapid and expanded investment into fundamental science to ensure society capitalizes on the unexpected outcomes of deep research.
“The person who can bet on the 30- to 50-year ideas are the ones who will change the world,” Howard said. Not only are these ideas the ones that will “bend the universe,” they are ideas that will pay back investors many times over.
Students crowded into the Davis Centre lecture hall for a fireside chat with global entrepreneur, visionary and tech leader Brice Nkengsa, (BSE’12). Nkengsa is the co-founder of Andela, a startup that is solving the global technical talent shortage by building the next generation of tech leaders in Africa. He shared that part if the motivation for launching Andela was that he had seen that "brilliance is evenly distributed around the world. Opportunity is not.” The event was ably moderated by Sumit Pasupalak (BSE’13), CEO and Co-Founder, Ubiq Inc.
MARCH 2019
On March 8, 2019 the Faculty of Mathematics, in collaboration with the Women in Mathematics Committee, HeForShe Committee, and the Women in Computer Science Committee, celebrated International Women’s Day by hosting a Pacesetter Forum. This spectacular event offered students the opportunity to experience a unique, fast-paced afternoon where alumni, friends, and faculty shared career advice in areas ranging from soft skills to technical skills, entrepreneurship to leadership, industry to academic, and everything in between!
That evening, Waterloo Applied Math Professor and Canada 150 Research Chair Anita Layton shared with an audience of over 320 how to enable success at the President’s International Women's Day Dinner. "One day I hope that girls will grow up wanting to be presidents, not princesses,” said Layton.
Despite the cold, thousands of prospective students and their families attended March Break Open House on March 9. At this point, high school students have applied to university, and this is our opportunity to convince them that Waterloo is the university for them. Our faculty, staff and student volunteers did everything they could to make our guests feel welcome.
Far from Waterloo, we held the inaugural Dean’s Lecture to properly ring in Pi Day with our alumni in Hong Kong. The sold-out event featured Professor Florian Kerschbaum the Director of the Waterloo Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute and other cybersecurity experts. 
Creator of Ethereum and Cofounder of Bitcoin Magazine, Vitalik Buterin was on campus as part of the Cheriton School of Computer Science’s Distinguished Lecture Series. In his talk, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains: Combining Mechanism Design and Computation, he reminded the audience that blockchains aren’t just about cryptocurrency. That they should “go and try to build something. Really. Enjoy!”
Rounding out the month, venture capitalist, TEDx speaker, and BMath'79, Nooruddin (Rudy) Karsan, visited campus to for an initimate fireside chat with students. Students were invited to learn about Rudy's interesting career trajectory from actuarial science to venture capitalist and his thoughts on the future of work. Panel was moderated by Randall Howard (BMath’75), Founder and General Partner at VERDEXUS.
Upcoming events
April 6 - Think About Math! Workshop Toronto, ON
April 12 - Think About Math! Workshop Waterloo, ON
April 25-26 – Waterloo Conference in Statistics, Actuarial Science and Finance – This conference series will bring top Canadian and international scholars, as well as relevant industry leaders, in the broad fields of statistical, actuarial and financial studies, to present and discuss the most cutting-edge advances in the respective fields.
May 11 - Think About Math! Workshop Vancouver, BC
May 12 – Inaugural Women in Mathematics Day. Please share your celebration plans with mathalumni@uwaterloo.ca
May 27 - Statistical Society of Canada (SSC) Annual General Meeting and Conference - Alumni and Friends Evening Reception - Stay tuned to the Math Events page for details.
May 31 – Master of Actuarial Science (MACTSC) 10th Anniversary – We invite past and current students, faculty, and industry supporters to celebrate their hard work over the past decade.
June 1 - Alumni Weekend – The Faculty of Mathematics will present an engaging lecture series entitled, On the Shoulders of Giants, showcasing two faculty founders followed by a talk from by a researcher doing cutting edge work in that area. The two founders we are featuring this year will be – Bill Tutte and Wes Graham. Stay tuned to Mathematics Alumni Weekend events page for details.
June 13 - Recognizing Excellence Lecture Series - The Faculty of Mathematics is exceptionally proud of our alumni for their outstanding accomplishments, innovation, and achievements within their research, communities, and professions. The Recognizing Excellence lecture will allow us to showcase discussions presented by this year’s Alumni Achievement and Graham Medalists. It is a day not to be missed! Stay tuned to the Math Events page for details.
June 14 - 2019 Spring Convocation
