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“Math and medicine are like the two solitudes,” reflected Professor Siv Sivaloganathan, chair of the Department of Applied Mathematics. “They represent two separate cultures and ways of thinking.” When the two combine into mathematical medicine, the results are nothing short of astonishing.

In 1988, Sivaloganathan was a newly minted professor at the University of Alberta.

Professor Anita Layton has been named the 2021 Krieger-Nelson Prize recipient for her exceptional contributions to mathematical research with applications ranging from fluid dynamics to biology and medicine. Professor Layton will receive her award and present a prize lecture during the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS) Summer Meeting in June 2021.

The Krieger-Nelson Prize was inaugurated in 1995 by the CMS to recognize outstanding contributions in the area of mathematical research by a female mathematician.

The University of Waterloo has partnered with five other Ontario universities to increase academic and industry diversity by creating new fellowships for Indigenous and Black students pursuing doctoral degrees in mathematics and engineering to prepare for careers as professors and industry researchers.

Two years into his undergraduate degree at Sichuan University, Chao Qian regretted his decision to study business management. “I came to the realization that management skills are better learned outside of the classroom,” he said. “I wanted to learn something more solid and quantitative. That’s where my journey to Waterloo began.”  

University of Waterloo Faculty of Mathematics professor Ihab Ilyas has been named a 2020 ACM Fellow for his contributions to data cleaning and data integration.

A year into his undergraduate degree at the University of Waterloo’s School of Accounting and Finance, Jonathan Lucki felt pulled in an unexpected direction. “My whole life, I had plans to be an accountant,” he remembered. "I ended up enrolling in the Math/Business Accounting program within the Faculty of Mathematics. But even before university, math had become my favourite subject in school and I found myself writing computer programs in my spare time for fun."

Nine University of Waterloo Faculty of Mathematics professors named 2020 Vector Institute Faculty Affiliates.

The cohort includes both new faculty affiliates as well as those returning for a second term. The new faculty affiliates are Ihab Ilyas and Gautam Kamath of the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science.

Like thousands of other business leaders across Canada, Alex Hoff (BMath ’04) reckoned with the harsh financial reality of a global pandemic at the beginning of 2020. “As a leadership team, we had to scale back and make tough hiring decisions once we realized that we couldn’t grow as quickly as anticipated,” he shared.  

Jinjiang ‘J.J.’ Lian first realized he wanted to become a data scientist while working as a data manager for clinical research at a university healthcare facility in the US. “I noticed that many healthcare workers lacked the skill set to collect and interpret patient data correctly, which negatively impacted patient care,” he recalls. “I decided that whether I ended up in healthcare, tech, or another industry altogether, I wanted to use my data skills to help people.”

Professor Mei Nagappan spends most of his time following digital footprints to see where they lead. “The goal of our research is to make the life of a software engineer slightly easier tomorrow than it is today,” he explained.