Talent

Whenever Osose Itua gets on a plane, she’s awestruck by its power to lift off and fly. Her well-travelled childhood from Nigeria to Malaysia to Canada, impressed upon her the wonders of transportation and fuelled her desire to become an engineer.  

Curious about how trains, planes and cars work, Itua thought she’d study mechanical engineering. But in her investigation of various universities and their degree programs, she came across mechatronics engineering at the University of Waterloo and something just clicked.

Completing a PhD is at once the end and the beginning of a journey of exploration and discovery in a student’s academic career.

The biggest hurdle for many PhD students is the formal dissertation defence, while the convocation ceremony itself is often a moment of reflection on their journey and where they plan to go from here. That, and a time of celebration.

Join us as we celebrate the accomplishments of some of this year’s graduating PhD students who will be crossing the stage at the 2023 Spring Convocation.

The University of Waterloo is recognizing three graduate student researchers who have made a significant contribution in their respective fields with the award of a Governor General’s Gold Medal.

The Governor General’s awards are presented to outstanding students at different academic levels. Bronze medals are awarded to promising secondary-level students. Collegiate bronze is awarded to diploma-level students. Silver medals are awarded at the undergraduate level.

As part of celebrations for spring convocation, the University of Waterloo proudly welcomes a new group of honorary doctorates.

Honorary doctorates are bestowed upon exceptional people who have contributed to the Waterloo community or to the country at large. Including some of Canada’s finest artists, entrepreneurs, scientists, philanthropists and distinguished public figures, an honorary doctorate is among the highest recognitions of extraordinary service and excellence the University bestows.

Recipient of a 2023 University of Waterloo Distinguished Teaching Award, Skrzydlo uses universal design for learning (UDL) to make her courses more inclusive.

Dr. Will Percival is a primary science coordinator for the Euclid space mission, set to launch from Cape Canaveral this July.

Percival is the Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis Distinguished Chair in Astrophysics, director of the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics and a full professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

As Percival explains, the Euclid satellite and the mission it will undertake are designed to solve a specific problem in astrophysics and cosmology. 

A doctoral candidate in the School of Planning and a graduate educational developer with the Centre for Teaching Excellence, McDougall has first-hand experience with learning disabilities.  

On Friday, May 26, the University of Waterloo held its inaugural Celebrating Black Communities event at Federation Hall. The evening’s program featured a reception and a sit-down dinner, followed by a keynote address and a fireside conversation with the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, former 27th Governor General of Canada and current chancellor at United College.

For those who subscribe to what’s known as the social model of disability, disability is a form of human diversity and should be thought of as an identity, just as we think of race, gender and sexual orientation as identities.

Yet disability is often thought of primarily as something that is wrong with a person or something that needs fixing through medical interventions, what is called in disability studies the medical model of disability.