It was an honour to carry the mace and lead the procession as we celebrated the 112th convocation on June 17th. Congratulations to the 1013 new graduates, honorary Doctor of Mathematics Barry Mazur, J. W. Graham Medalist Tas Tsonis, Distinguished Professor Emeritus Johnny Wong, Honorary Members of the University David Taylor and Frank Zorzitto, student award winners Raymond Cheng, David Choi, Minyang Han, Jimmy He, Tor Myklebust and Xuling Wang, with special thanks to valedictorians Isabel Jiayo Ji and Wai Ho Christopher Ng. It was a proud day for us all.
External honours to share:
- Ilham Akhundov was recently awarded the Taraggi Medal by the Azerbaijan Republic
- Mary Thompson received a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LL.D.) from Western University
- Applied Mathematics undergraduate student Gabin Urbancic was awarded the 2016 Daniel G. Wright Undergraduate Scholarship by the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society.
I’m pleased to announce new support for the READI (Risk Management, Economic Sustainability and Actuarial Science Development in Indonesia) initiative. Sun Life will donate CAD $500,000 to establish a Fellowship in International Actuarial Science, to be launched by University of Waterloo in 2016 with the goal of contributing to the development of the actuarial science field in Indonesia.
Incoming undergraduate students and their families have been invited to our campus on July 21 for Math 101 – to experience a day in the life of a Math student and learn about Faculty supports and services.
Many of you knew Pino Tenti, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Applied Mathematics. Sadly, he passed away on June 10 following a short battle with gastric cancer.
Memorial scholarships have recently been set up in memory of Prof. Tenti, as well as CS student Gaby Barsky, who passed away last year.
Welcome to Jessica Won, new Assistant to the Chair in the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization.
Stephen Watt, Dean
Faculty of Mathematics
University of Waterloo
