Research resources and awards for faculty

The Faculty of Mathematics Golden Jubilee Research Excellence Award was established to recognize the outstanding research contributions of our colleagues. The research accomplishments of our world-class faculty are presented at the fall Faculty Reception and provides a mechanism for promoting and encouraging research within the University of Waterloo.

This award provides $2,500 for one or two early or mid-career faculty members in the Faculty of Mathematics.

Eligibility:

1. The award may be based on a body of work developed over the past five years, or for a single influential paper published in the past five years, measuring the quality, quantity and impact of the work.
2. Nominee should be early or mid-career faculty.
3. Members of the Math Research Excellence Award committee are ineligible.
4. Chairs/Director, Associate Deans, and the Dean are ineligible while holding their administrative positions.

5. Winners would not be eligible for the next four competitions. Researchers who have had release time for the purpose of research (for example, Steacie and Killam winners) would not be eligible until two years later after their term has ended. 

Nomination and selection process:

The unit Chair/Director or delegate are to nominate people for the award and there is a limit of one nominee per department/school. The deadline to submit the nomination packages each year is May 17 (if the deadline falls on the weekend, then the deadline is automatically extended to the next business day). The nominator should forward the nomination package of their nominee to the Math Research Office (mathres.office@uwaterloo.ca).

The nomination package must include:

1. A letter of nomination (limited to two pages) indicating the candidate’s career stage and a discussion, as appropriate, of candidate’s research achievement in relation to peers at the same career stage; quantity and quality of contributions; leadership in research community; research impact in (or outside) of discipline; awards received; etc.
2. The candidate’s full CV.  

The recipient of the award is selected by the Faculty of Mathematics Research Excellence Award Adjudication Committee in November and an announcement to follow in December. 

Award Winners:

• 2020: Pengfei Li (Statistics and Actuarial Science) and William Slofstra (Pure Mathematics)
• 2019: Jesse Hoey (Computer Science), Laura Sanità (Combinatorics and Optimization) and Ben Webster (Pure Mathematics)
• 2018: Jason Bell (Pure Math), Luke Postle (Combinatorics and Optimization), and Daniel Vogel (Computer Science)
• 2017: Matthew Kennedy (Pure Math) and Ruodu Wang (Statistics and Actuarial Science)

The Faculty of Mathematics owes much of its reputation and stature to the quality of its eminent professors. The Faculty of Mathematics recognizes exceptional scholarly achievement and pre-eminence in a particular field of knowledge through the designation “Math Faculty Research Chair” - a title which may be held for up to five years. The number of such appointments does not generally exceed 5 per cent of the tenured faculty, underlining the highly prestigious nature of the Math Faculty Research Chair designation. A faculty member with this title will receive a teaching reduction of one course and $50,000 in research funding per year. The Math Faculty Research Chair title and benefits will be relinquished if another major research chair is awarded.

At steady state, the intention is to make at most three appointments each year. The number of appointments will be reviewed annually by the Dean in consultation with the Dean’s Advisory Council and the program will be reviewed after an initial period of five years.

Nomination and selection process:

1. A head of Department/School may forward nominations of faculty members per calendar year to the Dean and the Associate Dean Research, who will make the final decision.
2. A nomination package must include:

   1. Nomination letter from the head of the department/school

   2. A curriculum vitae

   3. A short, non-technical description of the nominee's scholarly contributions

   4. A description of the research program to be conducted during the five-year period of the chair, including expected outcome and impact (maximum three pages including references)

   5. The names of three external referees

   6. Budget including planned expenditures

   7. Any other documentation the department/school considers necessary to make a compelling case.

3. Nominations must be received by the end of May of each calendar year. Chair appointments will be announced before the end of June and will commence July 1st.