Awards, Honours and Rankings

The Honourable Roy Romanow, former Premier of Saskatchewan, and Robert Tarjan, a professor of computer science at Princeton University will receive honorary doctorates at the University of Waterloo’s 111^th convocation ceremonies this week.

Romanow, also a former spokesperson and advisory board co-chair of Waterloo’s Canadian Index of Wellbeing, will receive a Doctor of Laws on Friday, October 23 at the ceremony for graduates of the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences and Faculty of Science.

The Governor General of Canada has honoured a Waterloo history professor for her “remarkable contributions” to the understanding of First Nations’ history.

History Professor Susan Roy was awarded a joint Governor General’s History Award along with her collaborators for a multi-site exhibition in Vancouver called c̓əsnaʔəm, the city before the city.

Zhou Wang, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at University of Waterloo, has won an Engineering Emmy® Award for developing computational models that accurately and consistently predict how people view image and video quality, the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences has announced.

To engage students about ways to improve local government, professors might ask them to write an essay on how a bylaw works.

To engage students in her second-year Politics of Sustainable Communities course, recently retired associate professor Mary Louise McAllister called a few members of city staff and councillors and arranged to have students pitch their own sustainability bylaws at a council meeting.

Zhou Wang, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at University of Waterloo, has won an Engineering Emmy® Award for developing computational models that accurately and consistently predict how people view image and video quality.

The Television Academy, based in Los Angeles, California announced the award last week.

Waterloo’s rise in the rankings, from 251-275 a year ago, is the largest rise amongst Canadian universities in the ranking. Waterloo is among just seven Canadian universities ranked in the top 200 in the world by Times Higher Education.

Members have reached a high level of achievement at an early stage of their careers. They represent the emerging generation of scholars and leaders in science and the arts in the country.

"The University of Waterloo is home to talented researchers making world-changing discoveries at all stages of their careers," said Feridun Hamdullahpur, president and vice-chancellor of Waterloo. "I am looking forward to seeing what these remarkable individuals achieve in the years to come and congratulate them on this tremendous honour."

Students from around the world are gathering at the University of Waterloo this weekend for the second round of Hack the North - Canada’s largest international hackathaon.

Bessma Momani, a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo, will receive $225,000 in funding over three years to support her research about Arab-Canadian youth.

The University of Waterloo rose 17 places to be ranked 152nd in the world in 2015, according to Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a UK firm that released an annual ranking of world universities today.