Talent

A serious passion for physics was what drew Parshant Utam to study Mathematical Physics at the University of Waterloo. Little did he realize that the University’s entrepreneurial atmosphere would lead him to become a co-founder of viral smartphone app that is pure fun.

Parshant came to Waterloo as an international student from Pakistan, fascinated by theoretical physics. He was drawn by the presence of both the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum computing and the nearby Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.

Join Vivek Goel's Presidential Installation ceremony virtually on Monday, November 8, 2021, at 4 p.m.

As my time as president draws to a close at the end of the month, I want to thank this great community at the University of Waterloo: our students, faculty, staff, retirees and alumni, as well as all of our valued partners in the community and around the globe.

A group of Global Business and Digital Arts students have received Highly Commended honours from the prestigious Royal Society of Arts (RSA) Student Design Awards for their project, Medley.

When students conduct research, they expect to encounter a wide range of documents, theories and perspectives to support their critical inquiry, but what they probably don’t expect to encounter is an historical image of themselves.

Two faculty members at Waterloo Engineering – Dean Mary Wells and Nadine Ibrahim, a civil and environmental engineering lecturer – added their voices this year to an annual publication given to graduating engineering students.

Years of study, hard work, headaches and triumphs have culminated in 1,298 students completing a math degree from the University of Waterloo. We offer sincere congratulations to all math students convocating.  

To help commemorate the occasion, we took a trip down memory lane with Kyle Adams, one of this year’s math grads, who shared the twists, turns and highlights of his academic journey.   

For Kyle, there was no question about where he should study math. As he put it, “Where else but Waterloo?”

The Governor General Gold Medal, one of the highest honours in academia, will be awarded to two exceptional University of Waterloo graduate students. Tejinder Singh, who graduated last fall from the Faculty of Engineering, will receive the award for highest standing in a doctoral program. Sara Leanne Wyngaarden, who is graduating this spring with an MSc in Health and Health Systems, will receive the award for highest standing in a master’s program. Awards like this allow our community to celebrate the impactful research and scholarly excellence of outstanding students.

Switching from Science to Arts might sound terrifying to some students, but that’s exactly what May Nemat Allah decided to do after her first year of undergraduate studies. While she had enjoyed studying drama in high school, she initially chose to focus her university career on another area of interest: chemistry and biology. Yet theatre remained close to her heart, and she had a happy accident of stumbling upon the University of Waterloo’s Theatre and Performance program.

As 457 undergraduate and 86 graduate students from the Faculty of Health prepare to virtually cross the stage this spring to convocate, we celebrate the hard work, perseverance, friendships and community it took to arrive at that moment – especially during a year that threw out the rule book on how courses should be delivered, how research is performed and how we interact socially with our peers.

We asked some of our award-winning graduates what it took for them to find success in a tough environment and what advice they would give to others who are currently studying.