University of Waterloo Faculty of Mathematics

The Faculty of Mathematics is one of six faculties of the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, offering more than 500 courses in mathematics, statistics and computer science. The faculty also houses the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, formerly the faculty's computer science department. There are more than 31,000 alumni. History The faculty was founded on January 1, 1967, a successor to the University of Waterloo's Department of Mathematics, which had grown to be the largest department in the Faculty of Arts under the chairmanship of Ralph Stanton (and included such influential professors as W. T. Tutte). Initially located in the Physics building, the faculty was moved in May 1968 into the newly constructed Mathematics and Computing (MC) Building. Inspired by Stanton's famously gaudy ties, the students draped a large pink tie over the MC Building on the occasion of its opening, which later became a symbol of the faculty. At the time of its founding, the faculty included five departments: Applied Analysis and Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Combinatorics and Optimization, Pure Mathematics, and Statistics. In 1975 the Department of Applied Analysis and Computer Science became simply the Department of Computer Science; in 2005 it became the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science. The Statistics Department also was later renamed the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science. The Department of Combinatorics and Optimization is the only academic department in the world devoted to combinatorics. The second building occupied by the Mathematics faculty was the Davis Centre, which was completed in 1988. This building includes a plethora of offices, along with various lecture halls and meeting rooms. (The Davis Centre is also home to the library originally known as the Engineering, Math, and Science [EMS] Library, which was originally housed on the fourth floor of the MC building.)