News

Motivated by prior research that reports elevator buttons as a huge source of contamination, a new study co-authored by Waterloo Faculty of Math student presents a touchless elevator concept to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Prior research shows that elevator buttons produce the highest rate of bacterial contamination (97 per cent) and can house more germs than toilet stall surfaces. However, for many people (especially health-care and front line workers), elevators are a daily necessity.

Camelia Nunez will further the innovation agenda in the Faculty of Mathematics by supporting entrepreneurial activities and facilitating meaningful collaborations between researchers and external partners, when she assumes the role of Director of Innovation and Research Partnerships on August 4th.

Nunez will promote the faculty’s mathematical innovation and entrepreneurship growth by raising the research profile, initiating and developing industry relationships, and ensuring more research funding.

A world-leading University of Waterloo spinoff company, that decodes blood samples for potential treatments for illnesses like cancer and COVID-19, is expanding operations with the help of a $5-million USD investment.

Bin Ma, a University of Waterloo computer science professor who cofounded Rapid Novor in 2015, says the company’s technology is the most advanced in the world when it comes to deciphering the complex workings of antibody proteins, a process called sequencing.

Suppose you’re an archivist, librarian, or historian who’s trying to document and preserve for posterity a narrative of the COVID-19 pandemic or the ongoing Black Lives Matters protests. You’ll naturally be gathering documents from the web, and with tools available today it won’t be difficult to accumulate thousands or even millions of relevant records. How can you make sure that a scholar down the road can actually use the material that you’ve collected?

Irene Melgarejo Lermas has never been one to shy away from a challenge. At the recommendation of a friend who studied at Waterloo, she moved from her native Spain to study quantum field theory at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC). In addition to tackling a complex subject in her second language, she was assigned to teach a class of 200 undergraduate students during her first semester. “I didn’t have any teaching experience at the time,” she remembers.

Tracing apps are here, many people have them on their phones already, and governments are endorsing them in every part of Canada – but do they work?

We are sad to share the news that Peter Ponzo passed away peacefully on July 5, 2020 after a battle with bone cancer.

Peter became an Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo in 1964. Peter was known for his ability to make calculus so simple and logical. “His lectures were something to behold,” said Ron Dunkley, once Associate Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics. “He was a fabulous teacher with a beautiful way of expressing calculus.”

Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science professor Marius Hofert and David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science professors Sergey Gorbonuv, Gautum Kamath and Jian Zhao have each been awarded a Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Accelerator Supplement (DAS).

John Cabeen Beatty III (November 27, 1947 – July 2, 2020)

John Cabeen Beatty III passed away peacefully in his sleep in the early morning of July 2, 2020 at his home on Gabriola Island, British Columbia. He was born in New York City on November 27, 1947. His father was a lawyer and later a member of the Oregon State Legislature and a judge. His mother was a founding research scientist at the Oregon Primate Research Center whose public service included membership on the Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council under three consecutive governors.

Two faculty members have been awarded the 2020 Faculty of Mathematics Golden Jubilee Research Excellence Award. Pengfei Li and William Slofstra are each awarded $2,500.