Faculty of Science remembers Carey Bissonnette

Carey Bissonnette, a Continuing Lecturer in the Faculty of Science’s Chemistry department, died on Wednesday, May 29.

“He was a talented instructor, a Distinguished Teacher, our Science Senior Teaching Fellow, an advocate for high-quality teaching and learning within the Department, the Faculty, the University and further afield,” writes Bill Power, Chair of Chemistry. “He was passionate about Chemistry, and about teaching it well, and was a force for changes that supported an outstanding learning environment for all of his many students. He did so many things so well, and without seeking any help, we are only just learning all he did now. For all he did and for all he represented, he will be greatly missed by us all, and especially for those of us who had the pleasure and privilege to work closely with him.”

An alumnus of Waterloo who received a BSc in 1989 before getting his PhD from Cambridge in 1993, Bissonnette joined the University in 1995 as a lecturer.

In 2005, Bissonnette received a Distinguished Teaching Award and was cited for his inspiring and challenging lectures, one-on-one conversations with students, and involvement in high school curriculum and the Chem 13 News exams for high school students.

Bissonnette served as the Chemistry department’s teaching fellow from 2012 to 2016, and from 2016 onward was the Senior Teaching Fellow for the Faculty of Science. He was also an undergraduate advisor for the Chemistry department for more than 20 years. Bissonnette played a key role in the development of the University's 2011 report on deep learning at Waterloo.

Most recently, Bissonnette was awarded a $25,000 NSERC PromoScience award for “Secondary School Online Resources and Teacher Professional Development.”

The Chemistry department has posted a full tribute to Bissonnette on its website.

Visitations will be held on Sunday, June 2 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Henry Walser Funeral Home at 507 Frederick Street in Kitchener.

The memorial service will be held on Monday, June 3 at 10:30 a.m. at the funeral home.

If you are grieving or need any support, there are people who can help. Please contact any of the following resources:

For students:

For employees:

Employee and Family Assistance Provider (Homewood Health) - 1-800-663-1142

Occupational Health - Linda Brogden at ext. 36264 or Karen Parkinson at ext. 30338

Executive actions in California and beyond

It’s Friday, May 31. Do you know what your president is up to?

It’s been a busy and active time for President Hamdullahpur on and off campus. Here is a non-exhaustive list of the President’s recent activities and a look ahead at what's on his calendar.

May began with the President taking part in an expert panel at the Canadian University Boards Association conference hosted at Queen’s University on May 4. Joined by fellow university presidents from across Canada, President Hamdullahpur shared his thoughts on the global and national challenges facing Canadian universities and the opportunities within them.

The President traveled to Queen’s Park on May 7 with other University of Waterloo leaders to meet with ministers and other members of provincial parliament to discuss Waterloo’s unique legacy of innovation and economic impact for Ontario.

The beginning of the spring term at the University also means the time to plan for the next year is well underway and the President was joined by Waterloo’s Executive Council from May 8-9 to take a look back and also discuss new initiatives for the University moving forward. This annual retreat has been an essential part of Waterloo’s ability to work together, across Faculties and departments, to chart a strong path forward for our institution.

The third President’s Pop-up Café took place on Monday, May 13 as President Hamdullahpur, Associate Vice-President, Academic, Mario Coniglio, Associate Vice-President, Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs, Jeff Casello, and Associate Vice-President Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion, Diana Parry, met with undergraduate and graduate students for an informal discussion on topics from co-op to student mental health and emerging teaching techniques.

President Hamdullahpur welcomed the Young Presidents’ Organization Canada to campus on May 14, as the influential group of 75 members toured the University, our innovation ecosystem and listened to an engaging panel discussion on research, the power of co-op and experiential learning at Waterloo.

After being honoured with the inaugural President’s Student Leadership Awards, undergraduate student Munaza Saleem and graduate student Takin Tadayon were hosted for lunch by the President and the Vice-President, Academic and Provost, Jim Rush, on Wednesday, May 15 as a thank you for all that they’ve done for our University community.

The President traveled to the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio conference from May 20-23 as an invited participant with other global higher education leaders.

With thousands of University of Waterloo alumni and entrepreneurs located in California, President Hamdullahpur traveled to San Francisco on May 29 to meet with local alumni and take part in an alumni event hosted at the offices of Velocity alumni, Embark Trucks.

What’s next on the President’s schedule?

The Faculty of Environment will be celebrating its 50th anniversary at a special alumni dinner on Friday, May 31, and the President will be welcoming the group of distinguished faculty, alumni and staff who have helped make the Faculty what it is today.

The President will be taking part in additional Alumni Weekend activities, including the Anniversary Lunch with alumni celebrating 25, 50 and 55 years, and the Iron Ring Obligation Renewal Ceremony on June 1.

The next Board of Governors meeting is to be held on Tuesday, June 4, where the President will help lead the meeting and take part in the discussion of important University matters.

From June 5-7 the President will be traveling to Germany to take part in the Global University Leaders Council Hamburg conference where university leaders from around the world will come to discuss the place of universities in society.

On Alumni Weekend, thinking back to where it all began

This article is an excerpt from a blog post by alumnus Al Aitchison (BMath ’69). Al will celebrate his 50th anniversary of graduation at Alumni Weekend, which is being held on campus tomorrow. As he prepares to reunite with his classmates, he pauses to reflect on the joy of his student days.

The year was 1964. The Beatles were leading the British invasion, Bob Dylan was playing acoustic folk music at the Newport Folk Festival, and James Bond in Goldfinger was playing in movie theatres. In business news the first Ford Mustang rolled off the production line and IBM announced the System/360. University students marched through Times Square, New York, as well as in San Francisco, Boston, and other U.S. cities in the first major student demonstrations against the Vietnam War. And in September of that year, 100 of us registered for the first co-operative mathematics program in Canada.

Math co-op appealed to most of us for the same reason — we were seeking a quality education while getting a head start on a new career. At the time, computer science was a very new field and it was common knowledge that at the University of Toronto, a CS “major” would first use a computer in third year — at the University of Waterloo, we worked on computers after the first six weeks of first year (remember those six weeks using electronic calculators!).

We were very close as a class — most other co-op programs were in Engineering, and other Math programs didn't have the work term focus and thrice-annual moves that we had — so we tended to keep together as a group. Our work terms saw most of us head to Toronto, Montreal, or Ottawa. We rented a three-bedroom apartment in Toronto — three of us from the “A” term and three from the “B” term — and proceeded to confuse the landlord every four months as three somewhat familiar cars replaced the three other cars they were just getting used to in the parking lot.

Read the full post on the Impact Stories website.