Talent

Researchers at the Cheriton School of Computer Science have applied machine learning to identify tumour-specific antigens, which could help make personalized cancer vaccines practically feasible and more accurate.

In cancer, when a mutation occurs in a cell’s DNA, a substitution takes place. This substitution is flagged as an invader by our immune system and is referred to as a neoantigen, a mutated peptide that appears on the surface of cancer cells.

C100’s Fellowship program highlights Canada’s most promising early-stage entrepreneurs. The 2021 cohort features four University of Waterloo connections. From Velocity alumni to chief technology officers, many of these individuals are the face of Canada's future entrepreneurial sector. The University of Waterloo fosters an entrepreneurial atmosphere, providing many incubation and acceleration programs, connection, support systems and much more.

To Dr. Louise Schaper, Amazon’s plan to start selling health-care services is a gamechanger.

“If you can afford to pay for it great, but what happens to people who can’t pay for private health care?” she asked.

Every year, more than 4.5 million people need blood transfusions in Canada and the United States. That amounts to about 36,000 RBC units per day for the US alone. Transfusions are needed for trauma response, surgery and cancer care. The medical system relies on a complex system of blood donations to meet that need. Without a sufficient, reliable supply of safe blood, the health-care system comes into jeopardy.

As the global pandemic enters its second year, research is showing women with children are spending significantly more time in caregiving and housework than their male counterparts. This is true in the corporate and service worlds as it is in academia. This is also true for dual-career couples in which women still bear the larger burden of what is traditionally accepted as “women’s work.” 

Two ambitious School of Accounting and Finance (SAF) alumni were bold enough to start a venture amid a tumultuous global economic environment.  

> Adnan Khan (MAcc ’17)
> Fineas Tatar (BAFM ’20)

Before his start at Waterloo, Chester Dawes (BMath ’99, PDAcc ’99) didn’t know what a high-powered career in finance could look like. To begin with, his parents emigrated from Jamaica in the early ‘70s to start a new life; Chester and his two brothers grew up going to schools in Canada where most kids did not look like them. As a child growing up in an immigrant family environment, Chester’s career goals were quite humble: “My measure of success was a career where I could go on a vacation and not worry about where the money came from.”  

Entertaining students with his band at University of Waterloo’s on-campus pub helped launch the career of an engineering alumnus who is the musical director and lead guitarist for Canadian rock musician Shawn Mendes.   

Zubin Thakkar, now a platinum-selling producer, recording engineer and songwriter, formed Prize Fighter about 15 years ago with several other Waterloo students.

A fan-favourite at The Bombshelter, better known as The Bomber, Prize Fighter released its first CD at the pub, which closed its doors in 2018.