Recipients of the Faculty of Mathematics Alumni Achievement Medal

Bonnie Foley-Wong, Founder, CEO, Pique Ventures
BMath 1997, MACC 1997 Masters of Accounting

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics 
Alumni Achievement Medal

Bonnie Foley-Wong helps leaders strategically plan for the future and make informed and empathetic decisions. She currently leads the Sustainable Investment team in Canada at Mercer, one of the world’s largest investment consulting and asset management firms.

Bonnie is the founder of Pique Ventures and founding investor in Pique Fund, which invested in eight women-led technology ventures and realized two exits to date. She received a Startup Canada Entrepreneur Promotion Award and YWCA Women of Distinction Award for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in recognition of Pique Ventures’ impact.

Bonnie led investment strategy for a not-for-profit’s $300M investment program, financed more than $1 billion dollars in private capital in Europe and North America, and advised business leaders as a corporate finance advisor and auditor. She is the author of Integrated Investing: Impact Investing with Head, Heart, Body, and Soul. She has been published in Business Insider, Inc., Forbes, and Huffington Post.

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Judy Dinn, CIO, TD Bank
BMath 1994, Business Administration  

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics 
Alumni Achievement Medal

As CIO, Judy is responsible for technology strategy, planning, delivery and ensuring the security and stability of the TD Bank technology portfolio. She plays a critical leadership role in driving transformational change across the organization so that TD can deliver digital products and services to its customers. She is an avid supporter and sponsor of women in technology as a mentor. She co-founded the organization Think About Math with the University of Waterloo, which supports high school girls continuing with STEM.

Judy is the Chair of the Individuals with Diverse Abilities platform at TD and is passionate about building inclusive workplaces where everyone has a voice and feels valued. She practices meditation daily and is a licensed nutritionist and yoga instructor. Her education from Waterloo has been a foundation to helping her open doors to various opportunities and she has leaned on the math and computer skills throughout her career.

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Kevin Kimsa, Managing Partner, Climate Innovation Capital
BMath 1988, Statistics/Computer Science      

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics 
Alumni Achievement Medal

Kevin Kimsa has spent 34 years working in the technology industry.  He founded and operated three software companies, including Solect Technology Group (1993-2000), a customer care and billing platform, and AudienceView Ticketing (2002-present), one the world’s largest primary ticketing companies with over 4500 venues under management.

In the venture capital community, he has held several roles including managing director at Omers Ventures (2013-15), co-founder and managing partner at ScaleUP Ventures (2016-present), and co-founder and managing partner at Climate Innovation Capital (2019-present). Climate Innovation Capital focuses on the decarbonization of the economy.

Kevin has sat on the Board of more than 40 organizations, including numerous private tech companies. He co-owned the Ottawa Renegade football club and the Toronto Rock lacrosse club.  He co-produced numerous theatrical productions. In April 2003, he was named one of the Top 40 Under 40 in the Report on Business magazine. Living in Toronto, Kevin is married with six children.

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Mohammad Taghi Hajiaghayi                                             
MMath 2001, Computer Science  

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics 
Alumni Achievement Medal

Mohammad T. Hajiaghayi is a Guggenheim fellow, ACM fellow, IEEE fellow, AAAS fellow, EATCS fellow, Blavatnik honoree, and Jack and Rita G. Minker Professor of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, College Park. He has also received EATCS Nerode Prize, ONR Young Investigator Award, NSF CAREER award, as well as Northrop Grumman and Google Faculty Award (twice), several awards from DARPA, AirForce and ONR.

He received his Master’s from UWaterloo, his PhD from MIT, and was a post-doctoral fellow at CMU. He has been employed as a research scientist at top research labs such as Overstock, AT&T Labs, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and IBM. His main area of research is algorithmic framework design and he is editor-in-chief of Algorithmica. He designs efficient online, game theory, approximation, fixed-parameter, streaming and parallel algorithms for big and complex games and networks, and often tests them in the real world for practical situations.

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Rudy Karsan, Managing Partner, Karlani Capital
BMath 1979, Actuarial Science

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics 
Alumni Achievement Medal

Rudy Karsan has been a unicorn builder, entrepreneur investor, CEO, actuary and mentor for over three decades. He has been a managing partner at Karlani Capital since 2014. A lifelong learner and “doer,” he embraces emerging technology with boundless excitement. Give him a great idea and a stellar team to work with, and he will help grow it into a transformative enterprise. Rudy’s first unicorn was Kenexa, an enterprise HR SaaS company that he took public in 2005 and then sold to IBM in 2012 in a record deal. He has been recognized multiple times for his entrepreneurial and humanitarian achievements and is the author of a New York Times bestselling book on employee engagement, We.

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Ashwin Vadivelu, Director, Strategy and Origination, EllisDon Community Builders
BMath 2016, Business and Math Double Degree                                      

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics 
Young Alumni Achievement Medal

Ashwin is a CFA Charterholder and director with EllisDon Community Builders (EDCB), a team which focuses on developing affordable and supportive housing projects across Canada. Prior to helping start EDCB, Ashwin was a project finance professional with EllisDon Capital, where he structured and developed infrastructure and real estate transactions —leading and closing projects with capital costs more than $300M and raising more than $800M in private debt and equity across the healthcare, justice and transportation sectors.

Ashwin is an expert financial modeler and has been a guest speaker on financial modelling for the Master of Real Estate and Infrastructure program at the Schulich School of Business. Prior to joining EllisDon, Ashwin completed terms with the Debt Capital Markets and Equity Derivatives groups at Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets. Ashwin holds a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University.

Outside of work, Ashwin is heavily involved within the community, exemplified through being a recipient of the Top 30 under 30 award from the Tamil Canadian Centre for Civic Action in 2021. Ashwin is a board member of Hope4Child Relief Mission, a CRA-registered charity focused on education & livelihood in Sri Lanka, and was also a Board Member for the Canadian Tamil Professionals Association, where he spearheaded the first corporate sponsorship for the group.

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Henry Shi, Co-Founder, Super Inc.
BCS 2014, Computer Science 

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics 
Young Alumni Achievement Medal

Henry Shi is the founder of Super.com (formerly Snapcommerce), a mobile commerce and fintech superapp with more than 30 million members with $100M in funding and more than $1B in total sales. They help customers experience more of what life has to offer, regardless of income or circumstance. Previously, Henry was an ex-Google engineer who graduated in the top 1 per cent of his class at Waterloo and has a Masters in Machine Learning from GATech. His entrepreneurial accomplishments have been recognized by Forbes’ 30 Under 30, EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year and Deloitte Fast 500.

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Dr. Karima Ladhani, Founder, CEO, Barakat Bundle
BMath 2010, Business and Math double degree                                   

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics 
Young Alumni Achievement Medal

Dr. Karima Ladhani is a social entrepreneur, women’s health advocate, innovation consultant and investor. She is the Founder and CEO of Barakat Bundle, a social enterprise that creates life-saving health and education bundles for mothers and newborns in need in South Asia.

She is currently a visiting scientist at Harvard University where her work has impacted health and education policymaking across 30 countries.

She mentors entrepreneurs from across the African continent, India and the United States through her work at Next Health Accelerator, Aspen Digital Equity Accelerator, Builders + Backers, and as an entrepreneur in residence at Georgetown University.

Dr. Ladhani is a graduate of Harvard University (PhD, MPH), University of Waterloo (BMath), and Wilfrid Laurier University (BBA). She has received numerous accolades including 2022 Women’s Forum Rising Talent, Top 50 South Asian Founders to Watch, 40 under 40 Public Health Catalyst Award, Aspen Ideas Festival Global Voices Scholar, Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business Award, Harvard Business School New Venture Award, LinkedIn For Good Award, WeWork Creator Award.

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Dr. Joy Jiang, Associate Professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
PhD 2018, Statistics

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics 
Young Alumni Achievement Medal

Dr. Joy Jiang is a tenured associate professor in the Division of Public Health Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine. She obtained her PhD in Statistics in 2018 at the University of Waterloo and subsequently pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Jiang has made major contributions to original statistical methods research, with a particular focus on breast cancer risk prediction using medical images. She is actively working on novel methods that capitalize on the exploding volume of data to improve our understanding of the breast cancer pathway.

Her work has been recognized and funded by the National Institute of Health where she was awarded the NIH MERIT Award in 2021. This year, Dr. Jiang was recognized as a member of the Forbes 30 under 30 in Healthcare for her development of statistical methods for precision oncology.

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Vy (Ngoc) Le, Director, Canada Life
Bmath 2011, Business and Math Double Degree

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics 
Young Alumni Achievement Medal

Vy is a seasoned actuary and a risk management leader with a strong business and growth mindset. She is currently a director at Canada Life, leading the financial risk management oversight within Canada.

As a fellow alum of the double degree Mathematics and Business Administration program from University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, Vy continues to pursue a lifelong journey of academic study and accreditation including FSA, FCIA, CERA, CFA and MBA. She is completing a Master of Computer and Information Technology.

She is an active volunteer with various actuarial organizations including the Society of Actuaries, the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and the Actuarial Foundation of Canada. In 2020, she started the “V Life Journal - Actuarial, Career & Lifestyle” Youtube channel. One of her goals is to promote the actuarial profession and guide young professionals with their career planning related to math, data and tech.

Eddie Cheng
MMath 1990, PhD 1995, Combinatorics & Optimization

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics 
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his dedication to support the future generation of mathematicians, and his contributions to the fields of combinatorial optimization, integer programming and network analysis.

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Keith Farlinger, CEO, BDO International Limited 
BMath 1977, Mathematics and Accounting

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics 
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his successful career as a corporate leader in the accounting industry, and active participation in his local community. 

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Sam Pasupalak, Co-Founder & CEO, Maluuba Inc.
BCS 2012, Computer Science

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics 
Young Alumni Achievement Medal

for his entrepreneurial achievements and his contributions to the fields of artificial intelligence and machine language understanding.

Brian Arbogast, Director of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
BMath 1986, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics 
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his inspirational, and groundbreaking work helping to improve living conditions of others in the developing world.

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Patrick Hayes, Co-Founder and Vice President, Engineering, SigOpt Inc.
BMath 2012, Computer Science 

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics 
Young Alumni Achievement Medal

for his vision, entrepreneurship, and innovation as co-founder of Sigopt.

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Niky Kamran, Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, McGill University
PhD 1984, Applied Mathematics

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics 
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his work in fields of geometrics analysis, differential geometry, and mathematical physics.

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Dora Vell, CEO, Vell Executive Search
MMath 1987, Computer Science

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics 
Alumni Achievement Medal

for her work promoting women in tech companies, community volunteerism, and corporate leadership.

Joanna Duong, Founder & CEO, Henkaa Inc.
BMath 2004, Systems Management

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Young Alumni Achievement Medal

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Glenn Ives, Chair of Deloitte
BMath 1984, Mathematics and Accounting

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

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David Mckay, Chief Executive Officer, Royal Bank of Canada
BMath 1987, Mathematics and Business 

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

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William Zhou, Co-founder & CEO, Chalk.com
BMath 2015

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Young Alumni Achievement Medal

Erik Demaine, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MMath 1996, PhD 2002, Computer Science

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Young Alumni Achievement Medal

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John Hele, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Metropolitan Life
BMath 1980

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

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Raees Hussain-Aamir, Vice President of Strategy & Business Management, Bank of Montreal
BMath 2004, Operations Research

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Young Alumni Achievement Medal

for his innovative style of leadership, his dedicated commitment to mentoring young leaders, and his championing diversity initiative in the workplace.

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Francis Zwiers, President & Chief Executive Officer, Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium
BMath 1974, Statistics and Computer Science

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his inspirational leadership in the application of statistical methods to the analysis of observed and simulated climate variability and change.

Charles Lee, Professor, Stanford University
BMath 1981, Mathematics and Accounting

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his academic leadership and research in accounting and finance, and for his pivotal role leading Barclays Global Investors.

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James Udall, Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer, Quickmobile Inc.
BMath 1979, Computer Science

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his entrepreneurial and inspirational leadership over the past 35 years in high technology research and development.

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Matei Zaharia, Chief Technology Officer, Databricks
BMath 2007, Computer Science

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Young Alumni Achievement Medal

for his academic leadership in the area of computer systems for large-scale data processing, and for his entrepreneurial spirit that led to the development of widely used open source software, including the Spark processing engine. 

Jennifer Chu-Carroll, Research Staff Member & Manager, IBM T.J. Watson Research Centre
MMath 1991, Computer Science

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for her academic leadership in artificial intelligence research, her pivotal role on the IBM team that developed Watson, and her commitment to promoting careers in computer science and STEM disciplines.

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Hamoon Ekhtiari, Director, Studio Y at MaRS
BMath 2009, MACC 2009, Information Systems Management

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Young Alumni Achievement Medal

for his innovative style of leadership and his dedicated commitment to creating young leaders who thrive in the new economy and impact the world around them.

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Jane E. Kinney, Partner, Deloitte & Touche
BMath 1982, Mathematics and Accounting

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for her inspirational leadership and mentorship, and for her business contributions in the area of financial enterprise risk management.

Brendan Calder, Adjunct Professor & Corporate Director, Rotman School of Management
BMath 1969

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his academic leadership and dedicated commitment to Canadian society.

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Ilya Grigorik, Software Engineer Manager, Google Inc.
BCS 2007, Computer Science

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Young Alumni Achievement Medal

for his entrepreneurial leadership and his dedicated commitment to enhancing web performance.

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Michael Jutan, Research & Development (R&D) Engineer, Industrial Light & Magic
BMath 2007, Computer Science

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Young Alumni Achievement Medal

for his creative leadership and passion for combining computer science and art.

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Geeta Tucker, Chief Financial Officer, Agriteam Canada
BMath 1995, Mathematics and Accounting

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for her innovative style of leadership, and for her dedication to improving the lives of people around the world through her passion for accounting and finance.

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Thomas Valcke, Clinician & Head Coach, International Baseball Federation and World Children's Baseball Fair
BMath 1985

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his dedication and commitment as a champion of baseball in Canada and around the world.

Catherine Boivie, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Inventure Solutions & Senior Vice-President of Information Technology, Vancity
BMath 1972

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for her entrepreneurial leadership in information technology and dedicated commitment to today's society.

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William John Cook, Elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering,
and Chandler Family Chair in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech
PhD 1983, Combinatorics & Optimization

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his academic leadership and dedicated commitment to Canadian society.

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Virginia Dybenko, Executive of Strategic Initiatives, Wilfrid Laurier University
MMath 1972, Pure Mathematics

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for her academic leadership and dedicated commitment to Canadian society.

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Randall Howard, General Partner, Verdexus; Chairman, Iotum; and
Executive Chair, Maintenance Assistant Inc. 
BMath 1975, Computer Science

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his entrepreneurial leadership in information technology and dedicated commitment to Canadian society.

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Ivan Hubac, 1989 Professor and First Associate Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Comenius University
PhD 1971, Applied Mathematics

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for hs academic leadership and dedicated commitment to Canadian society.

Michael Trick, Associate Professor of Operations Research, Carnegie-Mellon University
BMath 1982, Computer Science

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

Abdel El-Shaarawi, Research Scientist, National Water Research Institute at the Canada Centre for Inland Waters
PhD 1973, Statistics

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for all of his remarkable achievements in the study of the environment.

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Robert G. Hogan 
BMath 1976, Actuarial Science

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his outstanding professional and business career. 

Charmaine Dean, Professor in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Simon Fraser University
PhD 1988, Statistics

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

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Michael Egan, Founder & Former Chairman, InSystems Corporation
BMath 1974

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

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Greg Kiessling, President, Up Capital Ltd; Founder, Bullfrog Power; and Past Co-founder, Chairman & CEO, Sitraka Inc.
BMath 1984, Computer Science

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

Satish Rai, Vice-Chair, Toronto Dominion (TD) Asset Management
BMath 1986, Computer Science

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his business acumen and remarkable professional achievements in the financial sector, and actively engouraging diversity in the workplace.

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Robert Tibshirani, Professor in Statistics, Stanford University
BMath 1979, Statistics

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his fundamental research and extraordinary academic accomplishments as one of the foremost statisticians in the world.

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John Wetmore, Retired Vice President, IBM.com Americas
BMath 1973, Applied Analysis

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his exemplary leaership and advocacy in the area of e-business, and his active participation in the life of his community and university.

Jane Gentleman, Director, Division of Health Interview Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics
PhD 1973, Statistics

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for her outstanding leadership and distinguished and wide-ranging research contributions in the statistical sciences, and for her advocacy for the status of women and health issues.

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William R. Pulleyblank, Vice President, IBM Center for Business Optimization
PhD 1973, Combinatorics & Organization

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his exemplary leadership as a research manager, his outstanding research contributions to combinatorial optimization, and his dedicated service to the research community. 

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Carsten Thomassen, Professor of Mathematics, Technical University of Denmark
PhD 1976, Combinatorics & Optimization

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his fundamental research and extraordinary academic accomplishments as one of the foremost graph theorists in the world.

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Frank Ka-Ming Yam, Chief Executive, Focus Strategic Group Inc.; IT Sector Advisor, Hong Kong Government; Local Advisor, Political Consultative Committee; and Ambassador, Hong Kong Tourism Board
BMath 1988, Accounting/Information Systems

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his pioneering work and extraordinary leadership promoting IT governance and security around the world, and for his many contributions to the community of Hong Kong.

Allan S. Edwards, Senior Vice President & Appointed Actuary, Great-West Life and London Life
BMath 1973, Actuarial Science

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his professional contributions to the Canadian insurance industry, the actuarial profession, and his strong commitment to community service endeavours.

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E. Richard Shillington
BMath 1971, MMath 1973, PhD 1979, Statistics

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his significant contributions to public policy analysis, and his advocating on behalf of those in need.

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Stephen C. Smith, Senior Vice President, Air Canada 
BMath 1976, Actuarial Science

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his remarkable professional achievements, exemplary leadership and business acumen in the Canadian airline industry.

David Cheriton, Professor of Computer Science and Head of the Stanford University Distributed Systems Group 
MMath 1974, PhD 1978, Computer Science

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his extraordinary research contributions in high-performance scalable distributed systems, internet architecture and hardware-software interaction, and the successful commercialization of his research results.

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Richard Kane, Professor of Mathematics, University of Western Ontario
MMath 1969, PhD 1973, Pure Mathematics

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his academic excellence, his continuing contributions to the education of others, and his dedicated leadership to the Canadian mathematical community.

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Nancy Reid, Professor of Statistics and Past Chair, University of Toronto 
BMath 1974, Statistics

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for her internationally recognized research accomplishments in the field of statistics, and for her outstanding contributions to university education and professional societies. 

James Brierley, President, Canadian Life and Health Operations, Munich Reinsurance Company
BMath 1976, Actuarial Science

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his outstanding professional accomplishments in a company that is a world leader in reinsurance, and his dedication to his profession and University.

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Lynn Curtin Lange, Branch Manager & Investment Advisor, CIBC 
BMath 1986, Accounting

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for her professional contributions in the financial services industry, and her active participation in community and public service endeavours.

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Ross Prentice, Vice President & Director, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre
BSc 1967, Mathematics

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his outstanding contributions to the areas of statistics and health as one of the foremost biostatisticians in the world.

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Neil Robertson, Faculty Member in the Department of Mathematics, Ohio State University 
PhD 1969, Mathematics

is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal

for his academic accomplishments, particularly his pioneering work in graph theory, and his profound influence in the area of combinatorics.