Central to the University of Waterloo’s mission is the creation and dissemination of knowledge. As new scholars, graduate students are expected to disclose and publicly defend their research results to ensure review from their peers and acceptance and inclusion of their findings in open scholarly discourse.
At times, graduate students may wish to protect their research results, particularly when they contain material of commercial or marketable value, or when restricted by a publication agreement. Similarly, students may require accessibility accommodations or engage in sensitive research areas which may present personal risks. These unique circumstances may result in a thesis and/or thesis defence being Held Without Public Disclosure.
The following theses have been submitted to the Faculty of Science Graduate Office and are available, unless otherwise noted, for review by any member of the University during the display period only. The display period is the time between the posting of the thesis and the examination date.
November PhD Defences
Monday, November 9, 2026 at 1:00:00 PM
PhD Candidate: Mingjian LYU
Title: Long-wavelength mid-infrared generation based on two-color nonlinear amplification
Supervisor: Donna Strickland
Department: Physics and Astronomy
Location/Method: PHY 352
Thursday, November 12, 2026 at 9:00:00 AM
PhD Candidate: Jersey Allyson FONTZ
Title: Restoring invaded wetlands: Vegetation recovery and seeding efficacy
Supervisor: Rebecca Rooney
Department: Biology
Location/Method: Remote via MS TEAMS
Tuesday, November 24, 2026 at 11:00:00 AM
PhD Candidate: Kent UENO
Title: Distributing Entanglement in Rydberg Atom Chains using Perfect State Transfer
Supervisor: David Cory and Alexandre Cooper-Roy
Department: Physics and Astronomy
Location/Method: Remote via MS TEAMS
December PhD Defences
Friday, December 4, 2026 at 2:00:00 PM
PhD Candidate: Lauren BLANC
Title: The Design and Development of Divalent Cathode Materials for Mg-, Ca-, and Zn-Ion Batteries
Supervisor: Linda Nazar
Department: Chemistry
Location/Method: C2 361
Monday, December 7, 2026 at 2:30:00 PM
PhD Candidate: Rachel MCNAMEE
Title: Accumulation and effects of microplastics in freshwater biofilms
Supervisor: Rebecca Rooney
Department: Biology
Location/Method: Remote via MS TEAMS
Tuesday, December 8, 2026 at 1:00:00 PM
PhD Candidate: Wenxuan LI
Title: Late Carboniferous to Permian Tectonic Evolution of Southern Beishan Orogenic Collage, NW China: Constraints from metamorphism, magmatism and deformation in Shiyao Complex
Supervisor: Shoufa Lin
Department: Earth and Environmental Sciences
Location/Method: Remote via MS TEAMS
Monday, December 14, 2026 at 10:00:00 AM
PhD Candidate: Ruofei ZHENG
Title: Ultrafast Exciton Dynamics and Nanoscale Optical Characterization of Monolayer WS2
Supervisor: Germán Sciaini
Department: Chemistry
Location/Method: C2 361
Recently Held PhD Defences
Thursday, October 1, 2026 at 11:00:00 AM
PhD Candidate: I-Hsuan YEH
Title: Dopant–Carrier Exchange Coupling in Mn2+-Doped Metal Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals
Supervisor: Pavle Radovanovic
Department: Chemistry
Location/Method: C2 361
Tuesday, October 6, 2026 at 9:30:00 AM
PhD Candidate: Shilpa GORLA
Title: Determining the role of fluid flow on lens biomechanics
Supervisor: Vivian Choh
Department: School of Optometry and Vision Science
Location/Method: Optometry Bldg Rm 350
Thursday, October 8, 2026 at 10:00:00 AM
PhD Candidate: Jesus BETANCOURT
Title: Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase-Activating Polypeptide for Advancing Crustacean Aquaculture: Immunomodulatory, Antibacterial, and Growth-Promoting Effects in Litopenaeus vannamei
Supervisor: Brian Dixon
Department: Biology
Location/Method: Remote via MS TEAMS
Friday, October 9, 2026 at 1:30:00 PM
PhD Candidate: Wenxue ZHANG
Title: Ground state simulations of chains of confined rotors with dipolar interaction
Supervisor: Pierre-Nicholas Roy
Department: Chemistry
Location/Method: C2 361
Friday, October 16, 2026 at 1:00:00 PM
PhD Candidate: Cailum STIENSTRA
Title: Beyond Mass Spectrometry: Learning Orthogonal Chemical Representations for Scalable Structure Elucidation
Supervisor: Scott Hopkins
Department: Chemistry
Location/Method: C2 361
Monday, October 26 2026 at 1:00:00 PM
PhD Candidate: Tristan FRASER
Title: Applying Neural Network Emulators to Void-Galaxy Clustering
Supervisor: Will Percival
Department: Physics and Astronomy
Location/Method: PHY 352
Tuesday, October, 27 2026 at 1:00:00 PM
PhD Candidate: Athanasios KOGIOS
Title: Towards the Semiclassical Limit of Spinfoam Models
Supervisor: Robert Myers
Department: Physics and Astronomy
Location/Method: PHY 352
October MSc Defences
Friday, October 30, 2026 at 9:00:00 AM
MSc Candidate: Sana AHMAD
Title: Microbial impacts on metal cycling in secondary minerals
Supervisor: Janine McCutcheon
Department: Earth and Environmental Sciences
Location/Method: EIT 3142
November MSc Defences
Monday, November 23, 2026 at 2:00:00 PM
MSc Candidate: Donnie SONIER
Title: Evaluating the Immune Response of Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar L.) When Coinfected With Piscine myocarditis virus (PMCV) and Parasitic Sea lice (Lepeoptheirus salmonis)
Supervisor: Brian Dixon
Department: Biology
Location/Method: Remote via MS TEAMS
Recently Held MSc Defences
Tuesday, September 8, 2026 at 9:00:00 AM
MSc Candidate: Parinaz RAFATI
Title: Modeling and characterization of a tunable coupler- flux qubit ultrastrongly coupled to an open transmission line
Supervisor: Adrian Lupascu
Department: Physics and Astronomy
Location/Method: PHY 308
Wednesday, September 9, 2026 at 9:30:00 AM
MSc Candidate: Lauren WEEKS
Title: Age and Sex Differences in Eastern Whip-poor-will Ecology (Antrostomus vociferus)
Supervisor: Liam McGuire
Department: Biology
Location/Method: B1 266
Friday, September 11, 2026 at 12:00:00 PM
MSc Candidate: Catalina MORALES GUTIERREZ
Title: Single-photon indistinguishability of nanowire quantum dots for entanglement swapping
Supervisor: Michael Reimer and Thomas Jennewein
Department: Physics and Astronomy
Location/Method: Remote via MS TEAMS
Friday, September 11, 2026 at 2:30:00 PM
MSc Candidate: Taylor CEY
Title: Spatially Confined Superposed Unruh-DeWitt Detector Trajectories
Supervisor: Robert Mann
Department: Physics and Astronomy
Location/Method: Remote via MS TEAMS
Tuesday, September 15, 2026 at 9:00:00 AM
MSc Candidate: Luke SCHOFIELD
Title: Microbiology of pre-saturated gap fill bentonite compacted in pressure vessels
Supervisor: Josh Neufeld
Department: Biology
Location/Method: B1 266
Tuesday, September 15, 2026 at 1:00:00 PM
MSc Candidate: Tristan LICSKAI
Title: Crystal Structures and Nonlinear Optical Properties of Semiconducting Main Group Chalcogenides
Supervisor: Holger Kleinke
Department: Chemistry
Location/Method: C2 361
Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 2:00:00 PM
MSc Candidate: Rahaf GEISA
Title: Exploring the Biomolecular Encapsulation and Surface Bioconjugation Properties of the Supramolecular Protein: Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin
Supervisor: John Honek and Thorsten Dieckmann
Department: Chemistry
Location/Method: C2 361
Thursday, September 24, 2026 at 9:00:00 AM
MSc Candidate: Nimesha Nadeeshani WEERASINGHE MUDIYANSELAGE
Title: Investigation of the Hydrogen Peroxide Signaling Pathway in the Proposed Halogen Cyclic Reaction Mechanism
Supervisor: Qing Bin Lu
Department: Physics and Astronomy
Location/Method: Remote via MS TEAMS