![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
|
Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Coleman]](/images/2004/1117coleman.jpg)
The appointment was approved Monday by the UW senate and announced yesterday by the president after final approval by the board of governors executive committee.
"This is a coup for Canada and UW," said provost Amit Chakma as the appointment was announced. "Tom Coleman's appointment as our new dean of mathematics is consistent with our overall strategy to recruit the very best." Still better, he said, Coleman is one of Waterloo's own -- he received his PhD from UW in 1979.
He called Coleman "a super scholar and strong administrator who has built strong links with industry and has been very involved in outreach activities to establish scholarship centres in China. I am sure that with his leadership we'll see more exploration of these types of activities and strengthening of our industrial linkages."
Coleman is director of the Cornell Theory Center and its spinoff, CTC-Manhattan, based in New York City. With an annual budget of more than $21 million US, the CTC supports research in more than 100 fields, including mathematics, astrophysics, finance, materials and agriculture, by providing high-end cycles for computer-intensive problems, a growing facility for data-intensive problems, and an advisory consulting service.
His own chief interest is the mathematics of finance. "I've been a professor at Cornell for 20 years," he said in an interview two years ago. "My area has been optimization in general -- developing methods, methodology, techniques. I worked on several application areas over the years -- medical problems, genomics problems and molecular problems. Five years ago, when I took over as director of the Theory Center and we decided to open up an office here in Manhattan, I began to become aware of some of the problems in finance and financial engineering, and now everything has shifted there. My entire research team is in finance."
The president's memo announcing the appointment calls Coleman's scholarly record "impressive. His work spans many of the Faculty's areas of interest and has resulted in more than 50 refereed journal publications and six books, including The Solution of Large Scale Optimization Problems (Using MATLAB), now in progress. He has successfully supervised the work of 13 PhD candidates and is currently supervising five others."
The president said the appointment -- recommended by a nominating committee under UW's Policy 45 -- "has extremely strong support within the Faculty of Mathematics. He brings to Waterloo the wisdom, commitment and energy to help lead our Faculty of Mathematics to even greater international prominence and will be a valued member of UW's senior administrative team."
Coleman said by e-mail yesterday afternoon: "This is a very distinguished faculty, with an international reputation, and I am honoured to be asked to play this important role. I look forward to both the fun and the challenge."
He'll be coming with his wife, Yuying Li, also the holder of a Waterloo PhD, and currently a Cornell researcher, who will take a faculty position in the school of computer science.
Alan George, dean from 1980 to 1986 and again since July 1998, will end his term at the helm of the math faculty on June 30.
![[Prospero's arms over all]](/images/2004/1117tempest.jpg)
'The Tempest'
hits the Theatre of the Arts stage
tonight through Saturday at 8:00. (Tickets, 888-4908.) A crowd of
alumni, faculty and staff, and other guests saw a preview performance
last night, sponsored by key donors to the arts faculty and hosted by
the dean of arts. "We are surrounded by the very magic that makes the
University of Waterloo a unique and treasured talent trust: the
student actors and our guests," dean Bob Kerton told them.
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Nominations are requested for "One senator of professorial rank from each Faculty, elected by a vote within that Faculty." At least three nominators are required in each case.
The following individuals are eligible to stand for nomination: Applied Health Sciences: Janice Husted, Steve Prentice, Mike Sharratt, Ian Williams. Arts: Jill Tomasson Goodwin, Mariela Gutierrez, Bob Kerton, Harriet Lyons, Joseph Novak, James Skidmore. Engineering: Roydon Fraser, Keith Hipel, Ed Jernigan, Arokia Nathan, Manoj Sachdev, Adel Sedra, Gerry Schneider, Tony Vannelli. Environmental Studies: Jean Andrey, Ellsworth LeDrew, Thomas Seebohm. Mathematics: Steve Brown, Alan George, George Labahn, David Matthews, Paul Schellenberg, Giuseppe Tenti, Ed Vrscay, Ross Willard, Frank Zorzitto. Science: George Dixon, Robert Le Roy, Wing-Ki Liu, Robert Mann, Bill Power, Ralph Smith, Donna Strickland, Paul Wesson.
| WHEN AND WHERE |
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Craft and toy fair sponsored by Hildegard Marsden Day Nursery,
Wednesday-Friday 8:30 to 4:45, Davis Centre room 1301.
Campus TechShop (Student Life Centre) "focus day" on Targus hardware, 10 to 3. Book launch for Elizabeth Wang's A Memoir: From Mainland China to 43 Years as MP in Taiwan, 11:30 a.m., Renison College, details online. 'Balancing Roles' workshop, chiefly for graduate students, sponsored by teaching resources office, 12 noon, details online. 'Art Songs and Operatic Arias' by Kristina Baron, 12:30, Conrad Grebel University College chapel, free. 'Job Search Strategies' career workshop 3:30, Tatham Centre room 1208. Millennium Scholarship recipients honoured at reception, 4 p.m., Laurel Room, South Campus Hall. Staff association "meet and greet" session 4:30 to 6 p.m., University Club, to continue discussion from last month's open meetings. Free refreshments, cash bar. Warrior men's volleyball vs. McMaster, 7 p.m., PAC. Women's team plays at McMaster tonight. Design at Riverside: opening of new gallery space in the Architecture building, sponsored by Cambridge Libraries and Galleries, reception by invitation, 7 p.m. Aboriginal elders Dan Smoke-Asayenes and Mary-Lou Smoke-Asayenes Kwe available for consultation on campus tomorrow, information 885-1460 ext. 209. Sybase Inc. opening ceremonies for new building in UW Research and Technology Park, Thursday 9 a.m., details online. 'Haiti and the Church' discussion Thursday 10 a.m., Siegfried Hall, St. Jerome's University, information 886-9520. Leather Jacket Day Thursday at the UW Shop, South Campus Hall, 15 per cent discount 11:00 to 3:00. Sociology colloquium: Reza Nakhaie, University of Windsor, "Ascription, Universalism and Rank: Canadian Professors 1987-2000", Thursday 3:30, PAS room 2030. 'Data Day' hosted by South Western Ontario Research Data Centre, Friday 9 a.m. to noon, Wilfrid Laurier University library, details online. |
GIS Day is a worldwide event "for users of GIS technology to educate millions of children and adults about how geography makes a difference in our lives through the technology of GIS and to demonstrate GIS technology at schools and organizations around the world", a flyer explains.
| POSITIONS AVAILABLE |
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On this week's list from the human resources department:
Longer descriptions are available on the HR web site. |
"GIS takes the numbers and words from the rows and columns in databases and spreadsheets and puts them on a map. Placing your data on a map highlights where you have many customers if you own a store. It allows you to view, understand, question, interpret, and visualize your data in ways simply not possible in the rows and columns of a spreadsheet. Today's technology affords massive amounts of data, tremendous speed, new display opportunities, and effective analysis tools."
Students, faculty and staff from all parts of campus are invited to
the Environmental Studies buildings this afternoon to see GIS
in action. An open house in the ES I courtyard, from 1 to 4 p.m.,
promises posters, student projects, a map gallery and refreshments.
At 1:30 there's a "real world applications" demonstration in ES I
room 221, and at 2:30 there's a workshop on "digital data availability"
in room 246. The day's activities are co-sponsored by the faculty of
environmental studies and the University Map and Design Library.
RSVPs are appreciated: gisday@fes.uwaterloo.ca.
CAR