Talent

Dr. Lai-Tze Fan
Professor, Sociology and Legal Studies
> Canada Research Chair in Technology and Social Change
> U&AI Lab

Digital technologies play an integral role in our everyday lives, and since the rapid growth shows no signs of slowing down, Dr. Lai-Tze Fan cautions about the many invisible aspects to the technologies we use.

Dr. Leia Minaker
Professor, School of Planning
> Future Cities Institute

Cities drive the global economy and are home to vibrant and diverse communities. Yet they’re also facing complex challenges. From rising housing costs and aging infrastructure to climate change, the disruptive impacts of technology and an aging population, the need to address overlapping issues has never been higher.

Dr. Linda Nazar
Professor, Chemistry
> Canada Research Chair, Solid State Energy Materials
> Ontario Battery and Electrochemistry-research Centre

As electric vehicle (EV) adoption speeds up, Canada's capacity to produce batteries is struggling to keep pace with the growing demand. 

Jeff Shiner (BMath ’92)
Alum, Mathematics
> CEO, 1Password

From its beginnings as a small startup of just 20 employees, 1Password has grown under the leadership of CEO Jeff Shiner into a global powerhouse.

When Dr. Mihaela Vlasea’s (BASc ’08, PhD ’14) high school teacher encouraged her to apply to Waterloo’s inaugural mechatronics program, she didn’t imagine that less than 20 years later, she’d be a renowned expert in additive manufacturing (3D printing). 

“I didn't really know what mechatronics was, and there was nothing to base my enthusiasm around at that time,” she says, “but I was really intrigued that Waterloo had put this together because every time they put a new program together, it skyrockets into success.” 

Global and individual health care is experiencing disruption through a variety of technologies. Building disruptive technologies is at the core of what we do, and since our inception, the University of Waterloo has also been disrupting the boundaries of health. In 2024, the University opened the doors of the Innovation Arena, a new collaboration space within the Health Sciences Campus in downtown Kitchener, to further streamline commercialization pathways for businesses, fast-track delivery of health technologies and drive Canada’s next wave of economic growth.

In the current age of technological disruption, Waterloo students are striving to understand the needs of the business world and tackle the biggest challenges they face. Leveraging the University’s world-class co-op program, students gain valuable experience working at one of more than 8,000 employers connected to Waterloo. 

This past year, students, alumni, researchers and staff made significant strides in addressing global challenges and advancing technology. These top 12 stories of 2024 highlight some of Waterloo’s transformative work shaping the future.

Professor Jimmy Lin has been named a 2024 Fellow of the Association for Computational Linguistics in recognition of his significant contributions to question answering and information retrieval.