News

Professor Ross Willard has been awarded the Faculty of Mathematics Award for Distinction in Teaching. This award is given annually to teachers in the Faculty of Mathematics who have consistently demonstrated outstanding pedagogical skills and a deep commitment to our students’ education. Up to two awards are given annually. Professor Matthew Scott (Applied Mathematics) also received the award this year. Congratulations!

Akshaa Vatwani has been chosen to receive the inaugural Department of Pure Mathematics Post-Doctoral Fellow Teaching Award! This award will be given annually to one post-doctoral fellow and is based on outstanding teaching. Congratulations, Akshaa!

Bailey Gu has won the Governor General Silver Medal! This medal is awarded to an undergraduate student graduating with the highest academic standing. Information on past winners can be found at this link: https://uwaterloo.ca/math/medal-winners/governor-general-silver-medal.

Bailey was honoured by Dean Stephen Watt and Associate Dean Serge D'Alessio at the Faculty of Mathematics Convocation Dinner. Congratulations, Bailey!

Congratulations to Pure Math Professor Jason Bell who has won a 2018 Faculty of Mathematics Golden Jubilee Research Excellence Award. The award was established to recognize the outstanding research contributions of faculty members within the Faculty of Mathematics. 

Congratulations, Jason!

On Tuesday, May 29th the Department of Pure Mathematics hosted a coffee and chat with University of British Columbia's Math Professor, Dr. Malabika Pramanik. All women in mathematics graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty members were invited.   

Pure Mathematics PhD student Sam Harris won the 2018 Huawei Prize for Best Research Paper by a Mathematics Graduate Student. This award recognizes the impact of his paper Connes’ embedding conjecture and winning strategies for quantum XOR games with a prize of $4,000.

Congratulations go to Anton Mosunov who is a winner of the UW Amit & Meena Chakma Awards for Exceptional Teaching by a Student!  

Anton is a PhD student of Cam Stewart and is already a truly outstanding teacher. He previously won the Pure Math Department award for teaching by a graduate student.

Professor Matthew Kennedy has been chosen to receive the inaugural Faculty of Mathematics Research Excellence Award! This award, which, going forward, will be awarded annually to one or two early or mid-career faculty members, is based on a body of work developed over the past five years, or for a single influential paper published in the past five years. Congratulations, Matt!

Matthew Harrison-Trainor will be taking up an NSERC Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at Waterloo in the fall.  He will be working with Pure Mathematics Professor Barbara Csima.  Harrison-Trainor was an undergraduate student at Waterloo and is currently completing his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. For more about the prestigious NSERC Banting PDF program see https://banting.fellowships-bourses.gc.ca.

Congratulations to Pure Mathematics Professor and Mathematics Faculty Teaching Fellow, Brian Forrest, for winning the Fields Institute Margaret Sinclair Memorial Award. This award recognizes an educator in Canada who has demonstrated innovation and excellence in mathematics education at any level. Brian was cited for his outstanding teaching at all levels, curricular development, and creation of the Masters of Mathematics for Teachers program. Earlier in the year, Brian was also awarded the MAA Seaway Section's Clarence F. Stephens Distinguished Teaching Award.