Research resources and awards for faculty

The Mathematics Research Office (MRO) builds and broadens our relationships with funding agencies, sponsors, societies, government agencies, and industry leaders. We develop connections for our world-class researchers, foster interdisciplinary research, and advance innovation.

In the Faculty of Mathematics, our faculty members are supported by the Associate Dean of Research, who facilitates opportunities for our experts to advance their research and career.

The Mathematics Research Office:

Provides information and assistance to faculty for various grant applications, including Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant Program applications from applicants each Fall term.
Facilitates communication to and from the Vice President, University Research at the University of Waterloo.
Facilitates communication regarding research within the Faculty of Mathematics.
Works with the Office of Research to support researchers on campus.

Awards and opportunities for faculty

The Faculty of Mathematics Golden Jubilee Research Excellence Award

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:

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.
Nominee should be early or mid-career faculty.
Members of the Math Research Excellence Award committee are ineligible.
Chairs/Director, Associate Deans, and the Dean are ineligible while holding their administrative positions.
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:

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.
The candidate’s full CV.

The recipient of the award is selected by the Faculty of Mathematics Distinguished Award Committee in June with an announcement to follow in July.

Award Winners:

2022: Aukosh Jagannath (Statistics and Actuarial Science) and Florian Kerschbaum (Computer Science)
2021: Eduardo Martin-Martinez (Applied Mathematics) and Sophie Spirkl (Combinatorics and Optimization)
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 Research Chairs

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.” 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. A faculty member with the title does not get a teaching reduction during a sabbatical or other leave, and the teaching reduction is not necessarily additive with any other teaching reduction. 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:

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.
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 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.

Chairholders:

2021: Kirsten Morris (Applied Mathematics) and Matthew Satriano (Pure Mathematics)
2019: Levent Tuncel (Combinatorics & Optimization) and Richard Cook (Statistics & Actuarial Science)

Dean’s Distinguished Visiting Professorship

The Dean's Distinguished Visiting Professorship (DDVP) is a program at the Faculty of Mathematics of the University of Waterloo. Each calendar year a leading international researcher in Mathematics, Statistics or Computer Science will be selected and invited to be resident for one academic term. During this term the DDVP shall give a public lecture and a full-term course in any area of interest within the Faculty. The course may be taken for credit by graduate or senior undergraduate students.

The Dean’s Distinguished Visiting Professorship provides a stipend of $75,000 CAN for visitors to be a resident throughout a term. The DDVP is selected by a committee representing the Faculty of Mathematics.

Candidates may be nominated by any faculty member at the Faculty of Mathematics. Nominations can be made to the Chair of the selection committee.

For the 2020 DDVP, the nomination deadline is October 1, 2019.

Dean's Distinguished Lecture Series

The Dean's Distinguished Lecture Series is sponsored by the Faculty of Mathematics of the University of Waterloo. These lectures feature prominent researchers in Mathematics, Statistics or Computer Science.

Candidates may be nominated by any faculty member at the Faculty of Mathematics. Please contact the Associate Dean Research and International. There are two nomination deadlines each year, October 1 and February 1 (if the deadline falls on a weekend, then the next business day).