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Nendel, Max (B.Sc. (major: mathematics, minor: economics), 2012, M.Sc. (major: mathematics, minor: economics), 2014, both at University of Konstanz) joined the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science on December 1st, 2024, as an Associate Professor. Max obtained his PhD in mathematics from University of Konstanz in December 2017. In June 2021, he was appointed as a junior professor of Mathematical Economics and Finance at Bielefeld University's Center for Mathematical Economics. He has been PI in the Collaborative Research Center 1283 and in the Research Training Group 2865. His research activities are primarily concerned with model uncertainty in economics, finance, and actuarial science with a focus on the valuation of financial and insurance products under model uncertainty using non-linear partial differential equations. In addition, he has worked on mathematical topics related to regulatory policymaking, risk measures, and mean field games. In the past, he was guest lecturer at Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla and Konstanz University of Applied Sciences.

The Department of Statisitcs and Actuarial Science would like to congratulate David Awosoga for representing the Faculty of Math as valedictorian for the Class of 2024.

David, who was supervised by Samuel Wong for his MMath Data Science, will continue his education with a PhD in Statistics.

To learn more about David, please continue reading the Bridging knowledge and action to create real-world solutions article.

Maity, Subha (B.Stat, 2016; M.Stat, 2018, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata; Ph.D. (Statistics), 2024, University of Michigan) has joined the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science on October 1st, 2024, as an Assistant Professor. Before that, Subha Maity was a Research Associate at the University of Pennsylvania. His primary research focuses on transfer learning and algorithmic fairness, with a broader focus on problems at the intersection of statistical theory and machine learning. His current research focuses on developing statistical methods for addressing distribution shift using pre-trained models.

Professor Mu Zhu has been named one of the 2024 University Research Chairs.

Mu's initial research interest was dimension reduction. In the early years of his faculty career, he devoted much attention to efficient kernel machines for rare target detection and ensemble methods for variable selection. He also worked on algorithms for making personalized recommendations, and applications of machine learning to healthcare informatics.

While ensemble learning continued to captivate his curiosity, in more recent years Mu has explored a hodgepodge of different topics—such as evaluation metrics, protein structures, transactional networks, and genetic epistasis. He also wrote a textbook for data science students. At present, he is studying various problems about dependence modeling, large covariance matrices, and generative neural networks.

His appointment was effective July 1, 2024.

Originally announced on the Daily Bulletin.

MacDonald, Peter W. (BMath (Statistics & Pure Mathematics), 2017, University of Waterloo; MMath (Statistics), 2018, University of Waterloo; PhD (Statistics), 2023, University of Michigan) has joined the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science on July 1, 2024 as an Assistant Professor. Before returning to Waterloo, Peter was a postdoctoral scholar at McGill University (2023-2024). Peter's research is focused on statistical network analysis. His specific research interests include latent space modeling of multilayer, multiplex, and dynamic network data, as well as inferential methods for comparing samples of networks. He also has interests in post-selective inference and multiple hypothesis testing.

Congratulations to Cecilia Cotton and Jordan Hamilton, recipients of the 2024 Distinguished Teacher Awards from Waterloo’s Centre for Teaching Excellence. Since 1975, the award has been given annually to four exemplary instructors from across the university who have a “record of excellent teaching over an extended period at Waterloo, usually at least five years.”

Read the full article on the Faculty of Mathematics website.

Two professors from the Faculty of Mathematics have been named NSERC Canada Research Chairs. Ruodu Wang, professor of actuarial science and quantitative finance, has been named a Tier 1 NSERC CRC in Quantitative Risk Management, and Aukosh Jagannath, assistant professor of statistics and actuarial science, has been named a Tier 2 NSERC CRC in Mathematical Foundations of Data Science.

Continue reading on the Faculty of Math website.

More than 150 students participated last week in the second annual Scotiabank Data Science Discovery Days.

The event, which took place both online and on campus from January 26 to February 2, invited Waterloo students to analyze large volumes of data in projects that would emulate the real work data scientists di every day. This year, the event focused on “Using AI to derive business insights from customer feedback.”

Read the full article on the Faculty of Math site.