1,141 Faculty of Mathematics students confer today

Today over the course of two ceremonies, the Faculty of Mathematics adds 1,141 alumni for a total of 38,882 in 106 countries. We also had one University Professor named, one award for leadership, two valedictorians, three medal winners, and three honorary Doctor of Mathematics degrees.

During the morning ceremony, David I. McKay, president and CEO of RBC, addressed convocation and received his honorary degree. A Waterloo alumnus, McKay has helped transform the bank’s retail division and introduced new technology to evolve RBC to focus on changing consumer demands. He champions Canada’s innovation ecosystem and is leading RBC’s support for and partnerships with universities, startups and accelerators.

Anand Pillay, will receive the second honorary doctorate of the morning. His research is in model theory, a branch of mathematical logic, to which he has made profound and lasting contributions. He has been the William J. Hank Family Chair in mathematics at the University of Notre Dame since 2013. 

During the afternoon ceremony, Robert Tibshirani, a Waterloo alumnus and among the top statisticians today, will receive an honorary Doctor of Mathematics and address convocation. His work has shaped the future directions of theoretical and applied statistics. He is a full professor at Stanford University, where he holds appointments in the Department of Biomedical Data Sciences and Statistics.

The faculty is pleased to also hand over the J.W. Graham Medal in Computing and Innovation to Alex Nicolaou. Alex graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics with an Honours BMath in Computer Science and Combinatorics (1993) and Optimization and a MMath in Computer Graphics (1999). He was recognized today for his innovative and entrepreneurial achievements, and his contributions to the field of computer science through his work at Google, and smaller startups.

We also want to congratulate the following honorees:

• Professor Tamer Özsu was named a University Professor, a distinction conferred to academics of exceptional scholarly achievement and international pre-eminence.
• Hannah Watson won the 2018 J. Alan George Leadership Award. This award is given to a graduating undergraduate who enhances the profile of the Faculty of Mathematics on campus, fosters communication between communities, contributes to the social fabric of Math, helps improve the academic environment for fellow Math students, and provides support and participation for university wide activities and groups.
• At the spring ceremonies, one undergraduate representing each of Waterloo’s six faculties receives the Alumni Gold Medal. This year’s recipient is Zhengxu (Billy) Jin in recognition of his academic achievements.
• Shouzhen (Bailey) Gu, with an impressive 99% average takes home the 2018 Governor General Silver Medal.

Thank you to our two valedictorians, Joseph (Joey) Pereira - Bachelor of Computer Science (Honours) and Winnie Luong - Bachelor of Mathematics in Actuarial Science (Finance Option), minor in Statistics for their contributions throughout their academic career and to today’s ceremony.