Congratulations to the following Mathematics alumni who have received the Alumni Achievement Medal since 2002. This distinguished group of Mathematics alumni have received this medal in recognition of their professional achievements, community service, or academic excellence. The Alumni Achievement Medal is the highest honour that the Faculty of Mathematics bestows on its graduates.
2018 Medal Recipients
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.
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.
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.
2017 Medal Recipients
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.
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.
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.
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.
2016 Medal Recipients
Joanna Duong, Founder & CEO, Henkaa Inc.
BMath 2004, Systems Management
is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Young Alumni Achievement Medal
Glenn Ives, Chair of Deloitte
BMath 1984, Mathematics and Accounting
is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal
David Mckay, Chief Executive Officer, Royal Bank of Canada
BMath 1987, Mathematics and Business
is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal
William Zhou, Co-founder & CEO, Chalk.com
BMath 2015
is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Young Alumni Achievement Medal
2015 Medal Recipients
Erik Demaine, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MMath 1996, PhD 2002, Computer Science
is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Young Alumni Achievement Medal
John Hele, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Metropolitan Life
BMath 1980
is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal
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.
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.
2014 Medal Recipients
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.
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.
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.
2013 Medal Recipients
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.
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.
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.
2012 Medal Recipients
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2011 Medal Recipients
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2009 Medal Recipients
Michael Trick, Associate Professor of Operations Research, Carnegie-Mellon University
BMath 1982, Computer Science
is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal
2008 Medal Recipients
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.
Robert G. Hogan
BMath 1976, Actuarial Science
is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal
for his outstanding professional and business career.
2007 Medal Recipients
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
Michael Egan, Founder & Former Chairman, InSystems Corporation
BMath 1974
is awarded the Faculty of Mathematics
Alumni Achievement Medal
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
2006 Medal Recepients
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.
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.
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.
2005 Medal Recepients
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.
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.
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.
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.
2004 Medal Recepients
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.
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.
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.
2003 Medal Recepients
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.
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.
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.
2002 Medal Recepients
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.
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.
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.
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.