Congratulations to Xi He and Graeme Smith on receiving the 2024 Faculty of Mathematics Golden Jubilee Research Excellence Awards.
Established in 2017, the Golden Jubilee Research Excellence Award recognizes faculty members for their outstanding research contributions. The selection is based on the nominee's body of work or a single influential paper from the past five years.
Every year, the Faculty of Mathematics honors one early-career and one mid-career faculty member. Professor He is the recipient of this year's early-career award, and Professor Smith is the recipient of this year's mid-career award.
Xi He
He is an assistant professor of Computer Science who joined the Faculty of Mathematics in 2019.
"I am deeply honoured to receive this award," she says. "It truly motivates me to keep pushing the boundaries of data privacy research. I want to express my sincere gratitude to my family, colleagues, mentors, collaborators, and students for their unwavering support."
Prior to coming to Waterloo, He completed her PhD in Computer Science at Duke University in 2018. Her major research focus is on differential privacy, a rigorous mathematical framework that allows users to collect and share information about a dataset without compromising each data subject's privacy.
"Professor He is an influential academic researcher. Although she is one of our youngest faculty...she is poised to lead paradigm shifts in privacy and security research," says Raouf Boutaba, chair of the Cheriton School of Computer Science. "Congratulations, Professor He on receiving such a distinguished award!"
You can read more about He in the full profile from Computer Science.
Graeme Smith
Smith is an associate professor of Applied Mathematics who joined the University last July.
“I’ve barely been in Waterloo for a year, so it’s very nice to have this vote of confidence from my new colleagues,” Smith says. “I’m happy to thank my new colleagues for creating such a lively and welcoming research environment.”
Smith is jointly appointed in the Department of Applied Mathematics and the Institute for Quantum Computing. Prior to coming to Waterloo, Smith was a professor at JILA (formerly the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics), a joint institute of the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
His research concerns the theory of quantum information and computing. “Basically, I’m interested in the fundamental limits nature (and specifically quantum theory) places on information transmission and processing,” he says.
“I am proud of Graeme Smith for winning a Golden Jubilee Award,” says Hans De Sterck, chair of Applied Math. “Graeme joined the Department of Applied Mathematics a year ago and this award just confirms how strong of a researcher he is with outstanding contributions to the field of quantum information at the very leading edge internationally.”