100 Notable alumni of
University of Waterloo
Updated:
The University of Waterloo is 534th in the world, 201st in North America, and 16th in Canada by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from the University of Waterloo sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. 1 individual affiliated with the University of Waterloo won Nobel Prizes in Physics.
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Kevin O'Leary
- Occupations
- financiertelevision personalityphotographerbusinesspersontelevision producer
- Biography
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Terrence Thomas Kevin O'Leary, also known as Mr. Wonderful and Maple Man, is a Canadian businessman, investor, journalist, and television personality. From 2004 to 2014, he appeared on various Canadian television shows. These include the business news programs SqueezePlay and The Lang and O'Leary Exchange, as well as the Canadian reality television shows Dragons' Den and Redemption Inc. In 2008, he appeared on Discovery Channel's Project Earth. Since 2009, he has appeared on Shark Tank, the American version of Dragons' Den.
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Vitalik Buterin
- Occupations
- programmercomputer scientistphilanthropist
- Biography
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Vitaly Dmitrievich Buterin, better known as Vitalik Buterin (Russian: Вита́лик Буте́рин, born 31 January 1994), is a Russian-Canadian computer programmer, and co-founder of Ethereum. Buterin became involved with cryptocurrency early in its inception, co-founding Bitcoin Magazine in 2011. In 2014, Buterin deployed the Ethereum blockchain with Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio, and Joseph Lubin.
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Chamath Palihapitiya
- Occupations
- venture capitalistengineerpodcasterbusinessperson
- Biography
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Chamath Palihapitiya is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian and American venture capitalist, engineer, SPAC sponsor, founder and CEO of Social Capital. Palihapitiya was an early senior executive at Facebook, working at the company from 2007 to 2011. Following his departure from Facebook, Palihapitiya started The Social+Capital Partnership, through which he invested in several companies, including Yammer and Slack. He is a co-host of a technology podcast, All In, along with David Sacks, Jason Calacanis, and David Friedberg.
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Chris Hadfield
- Enrolled in the University of Waterloo
- 1982-1983 graduated with Master of Engineering in mechanical engineering
- Occupations
- camera operatorexecutive producerguitaristastronautaircraft pilot
- Biography
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Chris Austin Hadfield is a Canadian retired astronaut, engineer, fighter pilot, musician, and writer. The first Canadian to perform extravehicular activity in outer space, he has flown two Space Shuttle missions and also served as commander of the International Space Station (ISS). Prior to his career as an astronaut, he served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 25 years as an Air Command fighter pilot.
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Rupi Kaur
- Occupations
- poetwriterscrivenerillustrator
- Biography
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Rupi Kaur is a Canadian poet, illustrator, photographer, and author. Born in Punjab, India, Kaur immigrated to Canada at a young age with her family. She began performing poetry in 2009 and rose to fame on Instagram, eventually becoming a popular poet through her three collections of poetry.
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David Visentin
- Occupations
- real estate agent
- Biography
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David Visentin is a Canadian actor, realtor and commentator. He is best known for his role as a co-host of W Network's and HGTV's Love It or List It, with co-host Hilary Farr.
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Mike Lazaridis
- Occupations
- electrical engineerbusinessperson
- Biography
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Mihal "Mike" Lazaridis OC OOnt FRS is a Canadian businessman, investor in quantum computing technologies, and co-founder of BlackBerry, which created and manufactured the BlackBerry wireless handheld device. With an estimated net worth of US$800 million (as of June 2011), Lazaridis was ranked by Forbes as the 17th wealthiest Canadian and 651st in the world.
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Donna Strickland
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicist
- Biography
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Donna Theo Strickland is a Canadian optical physicist and pioneer in the field of pulsed lasers. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018, together with Gérard Mourou, for the practical implementation of chirped pulse amplification. She is a professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.
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Disguised Toast
- Occupations
- gamervideo bloggertelevision produceronline streamerYouTuber
- Biography
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Jeremy Wang, better known as Disguised Toast, is a Taiwanese-Canadian streamer, YouTuber, and Internet personality. He got his start on YouTube, creating videos about the digital card game Hearthstone. Wang later began streaming on Twitch, before signing an exclusive streaming contract with Facebook Gaming in November 2019. In November 2021, Wang announced his return to streaming on Twitch.
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Rasmus Lerdorf
- Years
- 1968-.. (age 56)
- Occupations
- computer scientistengineerprogrammer
- Biography
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Rasmus Lerdorf is a Danish-Canadian programmer. He co-authored and inspired the PHP scripting language, authoring the first two versions of the language and participating in the development of later versions led by a group of developers including Jim Winstead (who later created blo.gs), Stig Bakken, Shane Caraveo, Andi Gutmans, and Zeev Suraski. He continues to contribute to the project.
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Christine Kuo
- Occupations
- actorfilm actortelevision actor
- Biography
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Christine Kuo is a Taiwanese-Canadian actress based in Hong Kong. She is of mixed Dutch, Korean and Taiwanese aborigine parentage. She was the winner of the Miss Chinese Toronto Pageant 2008 and Miss Chinese International Pageant 2009.
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Karl Ting
- Occupations
- television presenter
- Biography
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Karl Ting Tze Long is a Hong Kong actor and television presenter. Ting joined TVB after winning first-runner up, Mr. Photogenic, and Most Liked by Audience awards at the Mr. Hong Kong 2016 contest. He was the first Mr. Photogenic, and the youngest contestant to win the most awards in the contest's history.
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Steve Smith
- Occupations
- film directortelevision actorscreenwriteractor
- Biography
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Steven Smith Jr. is a Canadian actor, writer and comedian. He is best known as the co-creator and star of the sketch comedy show The Red Green Show (1991–2006), for which he portrayed the title character.
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Rob Stewart
- Occupations
- film directortelevision actorfilm actoractor
- Biography
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Rob Stewart is a Canadian actor, known for the lead role of Nick Slaughter in the action-comedy television series Tropical Heat, and his recurring roles as Roan in Nikita and Khlyen in Killjoys.
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Chris Williams
- Occupations
- directorscreenwriterfilm producerfilm directoranimator
- Biography
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Chris Williams is an American-Canadian animation film director, screenwriter and voice actor who is best known for directing the films Bolt (2008) and Big Hero 6 (2014) and co-directing the film Moana (2016) for Walt Disney Animation Studios, and for directing the film The Sea Beast (2022) for Netflix Animation.
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Erik Demaine
- Occupations
- computer scientistuniversity teachermathematician
- Biography
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Erik D. Demaine is a Canadian-American professor of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a former child prodigy.
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Bardish Chagger
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Bardish Chagger is a Canadian politician who served as a Cabinet minister from 2015 to 2021. A member of the Liberal Party, Chagger has sat in the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for the riding of Waterloo since the 2015 federal election.
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David Eby
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
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David Robert Patrick Eby is a Canadian politician and lawyer who has been serving as the 37th and current premier of British Columbia since November 18, 2022, and has been serving as the leader of the British Columbia New Democratic Party (NDP) since October 21, 2022. A member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Eby has represented the riding of Vancouver-Point Grey since 2013. From 2017 to 2022, he served in the John Horgan cabinet as attorney general.
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Veronica Ivy
- Occupations
- track cyclistLGBTQI+ rights activistphilosophertelevision producer
- Biography
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Veronica Ivy, formerly Rachel McKinnon, is a Canadian competitive cyclist and transgender rights activist. In 2018, she became the first transgender world track cycling champion by placing first at the UCI Women’s Masters Track World Championship for the women's 35–44 age bracket.
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Peter McLaren
- Occupations
- sociologist
- Biography
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Peter McLaren is a Canadian-American scholar and Emeritus Professor of Urban Education at the University of California, Los Angeles, having taught at UCLA from 1993 until 2013. Prior to that, he taught at Miami University of Ohio (1985-1993). Most recently, he served as a Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies at Attallah College of Educational Studies, Chapman University (2013-2023) until his retirement, where he was Co-Director of the Paulo Freire Democratic Project and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice. He is the Honorary Director of the Center for Critical Studies in Education at Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China. According to Stanford University's database, McLaren belongs to the top 2% of the world’s most influential scientists.
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Ingrid Mattson
- Occupations
- university teachermotivational speaker
- Biography
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Ingrid Mattson is a Canadian activist and scholar. A professor of Islamic studies, she is currently the London and Windsor Community Chair in Islamic Studies at Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. Mattson is a former president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and was described as "Perhaps the most noticed figure among American Muslim women" in a 2010 New York Times article.
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Evi Nemeth
- Years
- 1940-2013 (aged 73)
- Enrolled in the University of Waterloo
- In 1969 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- engineercomputer scientistwriterprofessor
- Biography
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Evi Nemeth was an engineer, author, and teacher known for her expertise in computer system administration and networks. She was the lead author of the "bibles" of system administration: UNIX System Administration Handbook (1989, 1995, 2000), Linux Administration Handbook (2002, 2006), and UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook (2010, 2017). Evi Nemeth was known in technology circles as the matriarch of system administration.
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Naomi Snieckus
- Occupations
- actor
- Biography
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Naomi Snieckus is a Canadian actress, best known for her regular television role as Bobbi in Mr. D and her appearance as Nina in Saw 3D. She is also a podcast host.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
- Enrolled in the University of Waterloo
- Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- astrophysicistcosmologistastronomer
- Biography
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is an American theoretical cosmologist and particle physicist at the University of New Hampshire. She is also an advocate of increasing diversity in science.
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Robert Tibshirani
- Occupations
- university teacherstatisticianacademic
- Biography
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Robert Tibshirani is a professor in the Departments of Statistics and Biomedical Data Science at Stanford University. He was a professor at the University of Toronto from 1985 to 1998. In his work, he develops statistical tools for the analysis of complex datasets, most recently in genomics and proteomics.
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Cyd Ho
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Cyd Ho Sau-lan is a former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (Legco) for the Hong Kong Island constituency.
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Roberto Ierusalimschy
- Occupations
- docentcomputer scientistvisiting professornon-fiction writer
- Biography
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Roberto Ierusalimschy is a Brazilian computer scientist, known for creating the Lua programming language. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro where he has an appointment as a full professor of informatics. He did a post-doc at University of Waterloo in 1992 and was visiting professor at Stanford University in 2012. He is the leading architect and the author of Programming in Lua. He also created LPeg, a Lua library for implementing parsing expression grammars.
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Iyinoluwa Aboyeji
- Years
- 1991-.. (age 33)
- Occupations
- entrepreneurbusinesspersoninternational forum participant
- Biography
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Iyinoluwa Samuel Aboyeji is a Nigerian entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Andela, and the former managing director of Flutterwave. Aboyeji was cited as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine in 2019.
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Reza Farajidana
- Occupations
- politicianengineer
- Biography
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Reza Faraji-Dana is a reformist Iranian politician and the former minister of Science, Research and Technology under President Hassan Rouhani. He served as president of University of Tehran, and as the former president of the Iranian branch of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
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Rick Green
- Occupations
- film directorscreenwriteractormodel railroadercomedian
- Biography
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Richard "Rick" Green, CM OOnt BSc is a Canadian comedy writer, producer, director and performer. He is most well known as co-creator of The Red Green Show, creator of ADD & Loving It?!, creator of History Bites, founder of Rick Wants to Know, and co-founder of comedy troupe The Frantics. Green also hosted Prisoners of Gravity on TVOntario.
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Heather Moyse
- Occupations
- track cyclistrugby sevens playerrugby union playermotivational speakersprinter
- Biography
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Heather Moyse is a Canadian athlete and two-time Olympic gold medalist, representing Canada in international competition as a bobsledder, rugby union player, and track cyclist and competing at the Canadian intercollegiate level in rugby, soccer and track and field.
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James K. A. Smith
- Occupations
- theologian
- Biography
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James Kenneth Alexander Smith is a Canadian-American philosopher who is currently Professor of Philosophy at Calvin University, holding the Gary & Henrietta Byker Chair in Applied Reformed Theology & Worldview. He is the current editor-in-chief of the literary journal Image.
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Fred Li
- Occupations
- politicianjustice of the peacesocial worker
- Biography
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Fred Li Wah-ming SBS JP is a former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong representing the constituency of Kowloon East. He was a member of the Kwun Tong District Council for Tsui Ping.
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George Elliott Clarke
- Occupations
- writernovelistlibrettistpoetliterary critic
- Biography
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George Elliott Clarke, is a Canadian poet, playwright and literary critic who served as the Poet Laureate of Toronto from 2012 to 2015, and as the 2016–2017 Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate. His work is known largely for its use of a vast range of literary and artistic traditions (both "high" and "low"), its lush physicality and its bold political substance. One of Canada's most illustrious poets, Clarke is also known for chronicling the experience and history of the Black Canadian communities of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, creating a cultural geography that he has coined "Africadia".
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Dave Dryden
- Occupations
- ice hockey player
- Biography
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David Murray Dryden was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender, who created and first used the modern goaltending mask, consisting of fibreglass and a cage. From 1962 to 1980, he played nine seasons in the National Hockey League for the New York Rangers, Chicago Black Hawks, Buffalo Sabres, and Edmonton Oilers, and in the World Hockey Association between 1974 and 1979 with the Chicago Cougars and Edmonton Oilers, as well as for other smaller teams in other minor leagues.
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Ian Goldberg
- Years
- 1973-.. (age 51)
- Occupations
- cryptographercomputer scientist
- Biography
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Ian Avrum Goldberg is a cryptographer and cypherpunk. He is best known for breaking Netscape's implementation of SSL (with David Wagner), and for his role as chief scientist of Radialpoint (formerly Zero Knowledge Systems), a Canadian software company. Goldberg is currently a professor at the Faculty of Mathematics of the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science within the University of Waterloo, and the Canada Research Chair in Privacy Enhancing Technologies. He was formerly Tor Project board of directors chairman, and is one of the designers of off the record messaging.
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M Jagadesh Kumar
- Born in
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India - Occupations
- university teacheracademicacademic administrator
- Biography
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Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar is an Indian academician, electrical engineer and education administrator. He is currently the chairman of University Grants Commission, since February 2022. He is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT Delhi. Kumar also served as the VC of JNU from in January 2016 to 2022.
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James Lau
- Occupations
- international forum participantpolitician
- Biography
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James Henry Lau Jr. or Lau Yee Cheung is a Hong Kong government official. He was Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury from 2017 to 2020.
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Anne Innis Dagg
- Occupations
- women's rights activistzoologistwriter
- Biography
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Anne Christine Innis Dagg is a Canadian zoologist, feminist, and author of numerous books. A pioneer in the study of animal behaviour in the wild, Dagg is credited with being the first to study wild giraffes. Her impact on current understandings of giraffe biology and behaviour were the focus of the 2011 CBC radio documentary Wild Journey: The Anne Innis Story the 2018 documentary film The Woman Who Loves Giraffes, and the 2021 children’s book ‘’The Girl Who Loved Giraffes and Became the World’s First Giraffologist’’.
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Filomena Tassi
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
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Filomena Tassi is a Canadian politician who has served as the Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario since August 31, 2022. A member of the Liberal Party, Tassi represents the riding of Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas in the House of Commons, taking office following the 2015 federal election. She served as the Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Receiver General for Canada from 2021 to 2022, as the Minister of Labour from 2019 to 2021, and as the Minister of Seniors from 2018 to 2019.
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Arda Ocal
- Occupations
- wrestler
- Biography
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Arda Ocal is a Canadian television personality, broadcaster, announcer, and writer. He previously worked in WWE under the stage name Kyle Edwards, as well as the host of Aftermath TV on Sportsnet 360 and The MSG Hockey Show on MSG Network, as well as various current sports coverage on ESPN and TRT World.
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Reza Roosta Azad
- Occupations
- chemical engineer
- Biography
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Reza Roosta Azad was an Iranian academic who was the chancellor of Sharif University of Technology, serving from 2010 until 2014.
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Lionel Leong
- Years
- 1962-.. (age 62)
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Lionel Leong or Leong Vai Tac, local Chinese, is a political figure of the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.
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Cole Pearn
- Occupations
- racing driver
- Biography
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Cole R. Pearn is a Canadian former NASCAR crew chief and stock car racing driver. He competed in CASCAR (now Pinty's Series) for three seasons from 2001 to 2003. He also was a 3 time Canadian Go-Kart Champion, Delaware Speedway Track Champion and winner of the Great Canadian 300 in 2006. He last served as the crew chief for Martin Truex Jr.'s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Pearn led Truex to the Cup championship in 2017.
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Jesse Thistle
- Born in
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Canada - Occupations
- historianwriterteacher
- Biography
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Jesse Thistle is a Métis-Cree author and assistant professor in the department of humanities at York University in Toronto. He is the author of the internationally best-selling memoir, From the Ashes. From the Ashes is considered one of the "most notable" 100 books Simon and Schuster U.S and all its 31 international imprints has published between 1924-2024, and the only Canadian book to make the list over the publisher's history. Thistle is also a PhD candidate in the history program at York University, where he is working on theories of intergenerational, historic trauma, and survivance of road allowance Métis people. This work, which involves reflections on his own previous struggles with addiction and homelessness, has been recognized as having wide impact on both the scholarly community and the greater public.
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Brad Bradford
- Enrolled in the University of Waterloo
- In 2012 graduated with urban planning
- Biography
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Brad Bradford is a Canadian politician and urban planner who has represented Ward 19 Beaches—East York on Toronto City Council since 2018. Bradford ran for mayor of Toronto in the 2023 by-election, placing eighth.
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Celeste Anderson
- Occupations
- reality television participant
- Biography
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Celeste Anderson is a Canadian competitive gamer and reality television personality, known for being the winner of the first season of the TBS reality show King of the Nerds for which she was awarded $100,000.
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Jonathan Schaeffer
- Occupations
- poker playercomputer scientistartificial intelligence researcheruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Jonathan Herbert Schaeffer is a Canadian researcher and professor at the University of Alberta and the former Canada Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence.
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Brad Templeton
- Occupations
- entrepreneurengineerinternational forum participant
- Biography
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Brad Templeton is a Canadian software developer, internet entrepreneur, online community pioneer, publisher of news, comedy, science fiction and e-books, writer, photographer, civil rights advocate, futurist, public speaker, educator and self-driving car consultant. He graduated from the University of Waterloo.
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Tom Duff
- Occupations
- engineercomputer scientist
- Biography
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Thomas Douglas Selkirk Duff is a computer programmer.
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Lisa Bentley
- Occupations
- triathleteteacher
- Biography
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Lisa Bentley is a Canadian triathlete. She has been competing on the Ironman race series since late in the 1990s. In 1988, Bentley was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. Despite this, she has won 11 Ironman competitions. In 2006, Bentley placed third at the Ironman World Championship, her best showing and finished second at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater, Florida three weeks later.
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Václav Chvátal
- Occupations
- computer scientistuniversity teachermathematician
- Biography
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Václav Chvátal ( Czech: [ˈvaːtslaf ˈxvaːtal]) is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and a visiting professor at Charles University in Prague. He has published extensively on topics in graph theory, combinatorics, and combinatorial optimization.
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Heather Dale
- Born in
- Canada
- Occupations
- songwritersinger
- Biography
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Heather Dale is a Canadian Celtic folk musician, author, entrepreneur, and filker who was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association's Hall of Fame in 2020. Much of her music draws on Celtic and Arthurian legend, but she also incorporates influences and instruments from other genres, including world music. She runs her own independent record label, Amphis Music, from its office in Toronto, Ontario.
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Mark Tilden
- Years
- 1961-.. (age 63)
- Occupations
- scientist
- Biography
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Mark W. Tilden is a robotics physicist who produces complex robotic movements from simple analog logic circuits, often with discrete electronic components, and usually without a microprocessor. He is controversial because of his libertarian Tilden's Laws of Robotics, and is known for his invention of BEAM robotics and the WowWee Robosapien humanoid robot.
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Mohammad Hajiaghayi
- Occupations
- computer scientist
- Biography
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Mohammad Taghi Hajiaghayi is a computer scientist known for his work in algorithms, game theory, social networks, network design, graph theory, and big data. He has over 200 publications with over 185 collaborators and 10 issued patents.
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William Reeves
- Enrolled in the University of Waterloo
- In 1974 graduated with bachelor's degree in mathematics
- Occupations
- computer scientisteffects animatortechnical supervisor
- Biography
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William "Bill" Reeves is a Canadian animator and technical director known for working with John Lasseter on the animated shorts Luxo Jr. and The Adventures of André and Wally B.
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Steve Joordens
- Occupations
- psychologist
- Biography
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Steve Joordens is a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto Scarborough. He teaches introductory psychology and a seminar course on the scientific study of conscious and unconscious influences. Joordens research areas include conscious and unconscious influences, memory, and the effective use of technology for education.
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Liz Sandals
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Liz Sandals is a politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2003 to 2018 who represented the ridings of Guelph—Wellington and Guelph. She served in cabinet as the President of the Treasury Board until January 17, 2018 and previously served for three years as Minister of Education in the government of Kathleen Wynne.
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Thomas Christopher Collins
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishopCatholic deacon
- Biography
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Thomas Christopher Collins is a Canadian cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was the Metropolitan Archbishop of Toronto from 2007 to 2023, the Bishop of Saint Paul in Alberta from 1997 to 1999, and Archbishop of Edmonton from 1999 to 2006. He was elevated to the rank of Cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI on February 18, 2012.
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G. D. Yadav
- Years
- 1952-.. (age 72)
- Occupations
- chemical engineer
- Biography
-
Ganapati Dadasaheb Yadav is an Indian chemical engineer, inventor and academic, known for his research on nanomaterials, gas absorption with chemical reaction and phase transfer catalysis. He served as the vice chancellor of the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai (erstwhile UDCT) from 2009 until November 2019. He is currently the Emeritus Professor of Eminence at ICT Mumbai.
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Jim Estill
- Years
- 1957-.. (age 67)
- Occupations
- philanthropistbusinessperson
- Biography
-
James Andrew Estill, is a Canadian technology entrepreneur, executive, and philanthropist who has been serving as president and CEO of home appliance manufacturer Danby Products Ltd since 2015. During the course of his career, Estill has invested in 150 start-up companies and received international attention in 2015 for offering to sponsor the resettling of 50 Syrian refugee families in Canada. In recognition of his philanthropic efforts, Estill received the Order of Ontario in June 2017 and was named to the Order of Canada in July 2018. He also received an Everyday Heroes Award from the Global Hope Coalition in 2017.
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Colin Carrie
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Colin Carrie is a Canadian politician. He is a current member of the House of Commons of Canada, representing the riding of Oshawa in the province of Ontario for the Conservative Party of Canada.
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Wendy Hui Kyong Chun
- Years
- 1969-.. (age 55)
- Occupations
- cultural criticmedia scholar
- Biography
-
Wendy Hui Kyong Chun is the Canada 150 Research Chair in New Media in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. She is the founding Director of the Digital Democracies Institute at Simon Fraser University, established in 2020. Previously, she was Professor and Chair of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University. Her theoretical and critical approach to digital media draws from her training in both Systems Design Engineering and English Literature.
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Raja Choudhury
- Occupations
- film director
- Biography
-
Raja Choudhury is a National Film Award (India) winning documentary film maker, architect, public speaker, spiritual teacher on The Shift Network, and designer of multimedia installations and events and Web sites, some of which have received Webby Awards. He produces international documentary films on Indian wisdom, history and consciousness. Films he has made include Spirituality in the Modern World, I Believe:Universal Values for a Global Society, The Modern Mystic, The Quantum Indians, Yoga: Aligning to the Source and most recently India's official global film celebrating the International Day of Yoga entitled Yoga Harmony with Nature which was released on 21 June 2015. He is currently producing a new film with WTTW Chicago PBS called America's First Guru on Swami Vivekananda and the arrival of Yoga and Hinduism into the popular American conversation in 1893. Raja is on the faculty of The Shift Network online teaching subjects on Indian Wisdom. Raja is also a teacher at A Thousand Suns Academy teaching advanced programs and workshops in Indian wisdom and meditation.
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Deb Roy
- Born in
- Canada
- Occupations
- engineercomputer scientist
- Biography
-
Deb Roy is a Canadian scientist, tenured professor at MIT, and the director of the MIT Center for Constructive Communication. Roy received a bachelor of applied science in computer engineering from the University of Waterloo, and a PhD in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT. He previously was the executive director of the MIT Media Lab and directed the Cognitive Machines group at the Media Lab, and the Laboratory for Social Machines.
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Joëlle Pineau
- Occupations
- university teacherartificial intelligence researcher
- Biography
-
Joëlle Pineau is a Canadian computer scientist and Associate Professor at McGill University. She is the global Vice President of Meta's Artificial Intelligence Research department, also known as FAIR, and is based in Montreal, Quebec.
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Gaston Gonnet
- Occupations
- businesspersoncomputer scientist
- Biography
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Gaston H. Gonnet is a Uruguayan Canadian computer scientist and entrepreneur. He is best known for his contributions to the Maple computer algebra system and the creation of a digital version of the Oxford English Dictionary.
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Mike Watson
- Occupations
- poker player
- Biography
-
Michael Watson is a Canadian professional online poker player from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador who won a World Poker Tour title in July 2008. He also finished 2nd in the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em – Mixed Max (Event #58) of the 2014 World Series of Poker.
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Gary Goodyear
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Gary T. Goodyear is a Canadian politician. He was a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 2004 to 2015, having been elected to represent the riding of Cambridge as a Conservative in 2004. On October 30, 2008 he was named Minister of State for Science & Technology within Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Cabinet. Goodyear was re-elected in the May 2nd elections in 2011 and returned to Stephen Harper's cabinet as Minister of State for Science & Technology. He was replaced in this capacity by Greg Rickford on July 15, 2013.
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Ricardo Baeza-Yates
- Enrolled in the University of Waterloo
- 1986-1989 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- engineerresearchercomputer scientistchief technology officer
- Biography
-
Ricardo A. Baeza-Yates is a Chilean-Catalan-American computer scientist that currently is the Director of Research of the Institute for Experiential AI at Northeastern University in the Silicon Valley campus. He is also part-time professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona and Universidad de Chile in Santiago. He is an expert member of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, a member of the Association for Computing Machinery's US Technology Policy Committee as well as IEEE's Ethics Committee.
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Elizabeth Witmer
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Elizabeth Witmer is a former Deputy Premier of Ontario, Canada. She was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 until 2012, representing Waterloo North and later Kitchener—Waterloo as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party.
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Andrew Telegdi
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Andrew Peter Telegdi, PC was a Canadian politician. He was a Liberal Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of Canada from 1993 to 2008, representing Waterloo and the successor riding of Kitchener—Waterloo.
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Bryan May
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Bryan J. May is a Canadian politician who was elected in the 2015 and 2019 Canadian federal elections to represent the electoral district of Cambridge as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of Canada. He is a member of the Liberal Party.
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Douglas N. Walton
- Occupations
- philosopher
- Biography
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Douglas Neil Walton was a Canadian academic and author, known for his books and papers on argumentation, logical fallacies and informal logic. He was a Distinguished Research Fellow of the Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation, and Rhetoric (CRRAR) at the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and before that (2008–2014), he held the Assumption Chair of Argumentation Studies at the University of Windsor. Walton's work has been used to better prepare legal arguments and to help develop artificial intelligence.
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David Tse
- Enrolled in the University of Waterloo
- In 1989 graduated with Bachelor of Science in systems engineering
- Occupations
- university teacherelectronic engineer
- Biography
-
David Tse is the Thomas Kailath and Guanghan Xu Professor of Engineering at Stanford University.
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Don Boudria
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Don Boudria is a former Canadian politician and current senior associate at Sandstone Group, an Ottawa-based executive advisory firm. He served in the House of Commons of Canada from 1984 to 2006 as a member of the Liberal Party of Canada, and was a cabinet minister in the government of Jean Chrétien.
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William J. Cook
- Occupations
- university teachermathematician
- Biography
-
William John Cook is an American operations researcher and mathematician, and Professor of Combinatorics and Optimization at the University of Waterloo.
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Imre Simon
- Occupations
- computer scientistuniversity teachermathematician
- Biography
-
Imre Simon was a Hungarian-born Brazilian mathematician and computer scientist.
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Roger Valhammer
- Years
- 1984-.. (age 40)
- Enrolled in the University of Waterloo
- 2006-2007 studied religious studies
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Roger Valhammer is a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party. He served as chief commissioner of Bergen from 2019 to 2022, and previously served as city commissioner for schools, kindergartens and sports between 2018 and 2019.
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Gabe Zichermann
- Years
- 1974-.. (age 50)
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
-
Gabe Zichermann is a Canadian-American author, public speaker, and businessman. He has worked as a proponent of leveraging game mechanics in business, education, and other non-entertainment platforms to increase user engagement in a process called gamification.
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Stephen W. Scherer
- Occupations
- university teachergeneticist
- Biography
-
Stephen Wayne "Steve" Scherer is a Canadian scientist who currently serves as the Chief of Research at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and distinguished University Professor at the University of Toronto. He obtained his PhD at the University of Toronto under Professor Lap-chee Tsui. Together they founded Canada's first human genome centre, the Centre for Applied Genomics (TCAG). He is a Senior Fellow of Massey College at the University of Toronto. In 2014, he was named an esteemed Clarivate (previously Thomson Reuters) Citation laureate in Physiology or Medicine for the “Discovery of large-scale gene copy number variation and its association with specific diseases.”
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Garfield Dunlop
- Years
- 1939-.. (age 85)
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Garfield Dunlop is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1999 to 2015 who represented the riding of Simcoe North. He resigned from the legislature in 2015 in order to provide a vacancy so that former PC leader Patrick Brown could seek a seat in the legislature.
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Peter Braid
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Peter Braid is a Canadian businessman and former politician, who served as the Member of Parliament for Kitchener—Waterloo from 2008 to 2015. While in office he served as Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure and Communities. He is a member of the Conservative Party of Canada.
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Nancy Reid
- Occupations
- university teacherstatisticianmathematician
- Biography
-
Nancy Margaret Reid is a Canadian theoretical statistician. She is a professor at the University of Toronto where she holds a Canada Research Chair in Statistical Theory. In 2015 Reid became Director of the Canadian Institute for Statistical Sciences.
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Ron Dembo
- Years
- 20th Century
- Occupations
- economistbusinessperson
- Biography
-
Ron Samuel Dembo is an academic and entrepreneur.
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Robert Kitchen
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Robert Gordon Kitchen is a Canadian politician of the Conservative Party elected as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of Canada to represent the federal electoral district of Souris—Moose Mountain at the 2015 Canadian federal election.
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Mustafa Akgül
- Years
- 1948-2017 (aged 69)
- Occupations
- engineer
- Biography
-
Mustafa Akgül was a Turkish computer scientist who was the key figure of the acceptance of the Internet in Turkey.
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Karen Redman
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Karen Redman is a Canadian politician who currently serves as the chair of the Region of Waterloo. Previously, she was a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1997 to 2008, representing the riding of Kitchener Centre for the Liberal Party. She served as Chief Government Whip in the 2004 to 2005 Parliament, and was the Chief Official Opposition Whip in the 2006 to 2008 parliament. She was defeated in the 2008 federal election. She was elected to Waterloo Regional Council in the 2014 municipal election and has been the Waterloo Regional Chair since 2018.
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Garth Gibson
- Born in
- Canada
- Occupations
- engineercomputer scientist
- Biography
-
Garth Alan Gibson is a computer scientist from Carnegie Mellon University. Gibson's developed the RAID taxonomy of redundant data storage systems, along with David A. Patterson and Randy Katz.
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Simon Raab
- Occupations
- scientistinventorpainterbusinessperson
- Biography
-
Simon Raab is an American contemporary artist, entrepreneur, inventor and scientist.
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Chris Best
- Occupations
- Canadian football player
- Biography
-
Chris Best is a former Canadian football guard who played 10 seasons for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League. He played CIS Football at Waterloo, as well as playing four seasons in the United States at Duke University. He graduated from Duke University in 2005 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and is currently finishing his master's degree from the University of Waterloo.
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Daria Gaiazova
- Occupations
- cross-country skier
- Biography
-
Daria Gaiazova is a Canadian cross-country skier.
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Ravi Sood
- Years
- 1976-.. (age 48)
- Occupations
- financier
- Biography
-
Ravi Sood is a Canadian financier and venture capitalist. He was raised in Waterloo, Ontario, and resides in Hong Kong. He received a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Waterloo. He is the co-founder and former CEO of Navina Asset Management and its predecessor company Lawrence Asset Management, which at its peak controlled over $800 million in assets globally.
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Chris Friel
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Chris Friel is a politician in the Canadian province of Ontario. He was the mayor of Brantford from 1994 to 2003 and was re-elected to the same position in the 2010 municipal election. He was defeated in the 2018 municipal election by Kevin Davis.
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Jonathan Seet
- Occupations
- singer-songwritercomposerrecord producer
- Biography
-
Jonathan Seet is a Singaporean-born Canadian singer-songwriter, composer and producer.
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Wayne Cao
- Years
- 1946-.. (age 78)
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Wayne Cao is a Canadian politician and former member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, where he represented the district of Calgary-Fort as a Progressive Conservative. He was first elected in the 1997 provincial election and was re-elected four times. He is perhaps best known as the sponsor of the legislation that led to the enshrining of Alberta. In April 2008, he elected as the Legislature's Deputy Speaker and Chair of Committees and served in that position for the 27th Legislature. Mr. Cao also served as a member of the Standing Committee on Resource Stewardship.
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Steven J. Cooke
- Occupations
- biologistmarine biologistichthyologistecologist
- Biography
-
Steven J. Cooke is a Canadian biologist specializing in ecology and conservation physiology of fish. He is best known for his integrative work on fish physiology, behaviour, ecology, and human-dimensions to understand and solve complex environmental problems. He currently is a Canada Research Professor in Environmental Science and Biology at Carleton University and the Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal Conservation Physiology.
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Charles Colbourn
- Occupations
- engineercomputer scientistmathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
-
Charles Joseph Colbourn is a Canadian computer scientist and mathematician, whose research concerns graph algorithms, combinatorial designs, and their applications. From 1996 to 2001 he was the Dorothean Professor of Computer Science at the University of Vermont; since then he has been a professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Arizona State University.
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Doug Stinson
- Occupations
- engineercomputer scientistmathematiciancryptographer
- Biography
-
Douglas Robert Stinson is a Canadian mathematician and cryptographer, currently a Professor Emeritus at the University of Waterloo.
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Liane Davey
- Occupations
- oratorwriterpsychologist
- Biography
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Liane Margaret Davey is a psychologist, author, public speaker, and business strategist.
