Dean's Message - November 2014

Congratulations to the following Mathematics honorees at October's Fall convocation:

Steve Brown, Honorary Member of the University
Frank Tompa, Distinguished Professor Emeritus
Ahmad Abdi, UWaterloo Alumni Gold Medallist
Emily Kozlowski, K.D. Fryer Gold Medallist
Ryan Henry, Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Studies

The inaugural U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities Ranking listed Waterloo Computer Science as first in Canada and eighteenth globally. Waterloo Mathematics was listed as fourth in Canada and eighty-sixth globally. I wholeheartedly agree with Mark Giesbrecht, who commented “regarding these rankings with whatever number of grains/buckets of salt you wish, I do believe this reflects very well on all the great researchers, instructors, students and staff who make this place work so well. Congratulations all around!”

Congratulations also to Math and Business student Gajan Sivabalasingham for his outstanding performance at the Ontario University golf championships, winning individual gold, and also leading the University men's team to the team gold.

Recent social media featured a fun Halloween costume - Bishop Strachan school in Toronto dressed up like Mathematics & Computing Building (MC).

In November we have two talks of particular note in the Faculty:

"Image understanding: A practical perspective from Bing" with Harry Shum, executive vice-president, Technology and Research, Microsoft. This Cheriton School Distinguished Lecture is on Thursday, November 6, 3:30 pm in DC 1302.
"Randomness in geometry - the topology of random real hypersurfaces and percolation" with Peter Sarnak, Princeton University. This Faculty Colloquium is on Thursday, November 13, 3:30 pm in DC 1302, followed by a reception in William G. Davis Computer Research Centre (DC) 1301.

The Bridges Lecture Series features two talks this month:

“The Forest and the Trees” with Craig Kaplan (Computer Science (CS)) and Linda Carson (Fine Arts) on November 7
“How to Hold a Beautiful thing” with Helen Bretzke (Drama and CS) and Peter Taylor (Mathematics) on November 28

These public lectures, celebrating the strong connection between mathematics and the arts, start at 7:30 pm in Siegfried Hall at St. Jerome’s. They are followed by a reception, and everyone is welcome.

Orchestra@uwaterloo members will perform their tenth anniversary concert on November 27 at 8 pm in Hagey Hall.

Finally, Mathematics Society (MathSoc) invites all faculty members to three events this month: