Mihaela Vlasea
Professor, Faculty of Engineering
>Research Co-Director, Multi-Scale Additive Manufacturing Lab
Throughout the year, we’re proud to share stories of numerous Black entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, scientists and community builders in the University of Waterloo’s alumni network.
These alumni are shaping the histories of tomorrow, by using artistry for personal expression, making risky career changes, influencing innovation in the entrepreneurial world, combatting societal issues, and forging communities of love and support.
Below, you’ll find a compilation of 15 unique stories that showcase the Black alumni experience at Waterloo. Keep reading to discover the diverse accomplishments and inspirations of our Black alumni.
Named fastest growing tech company in Canada on Deloitte’s 2021 Technology Fast 50, Snapcommerce was co-founded by University of Waterloo alumni Henry Shi (BCS ’14) and Hussein Fazal (BMath ’05). The company has more than 20 million users, $1 billion in sales, and grew by more than 32,000 per cent between 2017 and 2021.
Today the planet is straining under the weight of human development and governments and institutions are searching for innovative answers to protect our planet.
Kelsey Leonard
Professor, Faculty of Environment
> Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Waters, Climate and Sustainability
> Water Institute
Kelly Grindrod
> Professor, Faculty of Science
> School of Pharmacy
Nancy Vanden Bosch
> Professor, Faculty of Arts
> School of Accounting and Finance
> Associate Director of Education for the CPA Ontario Centre for Performance Management Reasearch and Education at Waterloo
Ian Goldberg (BMath ’95)
Professor, Faculty of Math
Cheriton School of Computer Science
> Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute
> Canada Research Chair in Privacy Enhancing Technologies
Christine Muschik
Professor, Faculty of Science
> Institute of Quantum Computing
> Perimeter Institute
Computing evolutions of the past few decades have already taken us from floppy discs to an era of almost instantaneous communication in an internet-connected world.
Ning Jiang
Professor, Faculty of Engineering
> Director, Waterloo Engineering Bionics Lab
> Co-founder and CSO, Brink Bionics
From about the age of 10, Andrew D’Souza (BASc ’08) began to think of inventive ways to earn money. An early entrepreneur, whose family immigrated to Canada from India, D’Souza started providing his neighbours with services such as paper-delivery, lawn mowing and dog walking. Later, he took on part-time jobs to save for university because he wanted to avoid debt.