Awards, Honours and Rankings

In 2021, co-operative education employers provided meaningful opportunities to help University of Waterloo students advance their careers — even as the impacts of the global pandemic continued. Whether they worked remotely, in-person or in a hybrid setting, students made an impact across multiple industries.

While many of the students graduating this week have their sights set on fresh new horizons, Manouchka Bucktowar, who completed a BSc in Science and Aviation with a Physics specialization, has already experienced the horizon in ways few people ever will.

Bucktowar is one of approximately 15 students graduating from the University of Waterloo aviation program this year.

An international student, travelling halfway across the globe from the small island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, Bucktowar was drawn to the University of Waterloo by its strong reputation.

Studying something you love makes it a joy to complete a degree program.

That’s how Alia Fatima describes her time working on a degree in Geography and Environmental Management in the Faculty of Environment at Waterloo.

“I’m passionate about making the world a better place, and I’ve come to see how environmental policy has a direct influence on communities,” she says. “In the end, it all comes down to people. I’m interested in human geographies and in the ways that environmental impacts affect people.”

Oluwakemi (Kemi) Amodu is dedicated to advancing the reproductive and sexual health of the Hausa women in displaced persons camps in northern Nigeria.

Five incoming students at Waterloo Engineering are starting their studies with $100,000 in backing from a prestigious scholarship program.

Subha Azrin and Krishna Patel of computer engineering, Norman Chen and Michael Xu of software engineering, and Jonathan Zhou of mechatronics engineering are among 10 campus-wide Schulich Leaders Scholarship winners at the University of Waterloo.

The new 2022 Fellows elected to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS) were announced last week and include David Edwards, professor in the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy and Ronald Schlegel, professor emeritus in the Faculty of Health and founder of the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging.

For the eleventh year in a row, the University of Waterloo is welcoming a group of exceptional first-year students who were awarded a Schulich Leaders Scholarship.

The Schulich Leaders Scholarship is Canada’s largest annual science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) scholarship. There are 100 recipients throughout Canada, with individual scholarships valued at $80,000 and $100,000.

We caught up with Iris Redinger (BAS ’21), a recent Waterloo grad from the Waterloo School of Architecture. This summer, she was competitively selected as one of five winners of the Mitacs Entrepreneur Award for her startup Material Futures that uses biotechnology to reduce the environmental impact of the fashion industry.

It’s all about reputation, which is all about quality. 

It was the reputation of the University of Waterloo’s computer science school that attracted Raouf Boutaba to a faculty position 23 years ago. Today, he is the director of the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, a school that punches far above its weight in international rankings and draws top students and faculty researchers from around the world. 

Everybody knows Waterloo is among the best in the world for computer science, engineering and math.

Tourism management and water research probably don’t come to mind when you think of the subjects where Waterloo excels globally.

A new ranking of universities by subject says you should think again, and that Waterloo is world-class in areas you might not even know happen here.