Dr. Kseniya Garaschuk to receive the 2021 Graham Wright Award for Distinguished Service

OTTAWA — The Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS) is pleased to announce that Dr. Kseniya Garaschuk (UFV) has been named the recipient of 2021 Graham Wright Award for Distinguished Service.

Kseniya Garaschuk has made distinguished contributions to the Canadian mathematical community and, in particular, to the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS) in numerous ways.  She served on the CMS Student Committee (StudC) as Chair from 2009 to 2015, as Student Director on the CMS Board of Directors from 2009 to 2013, as Associate Editor of A-Taste-Of-Mathematics Editorial Board from 2016 to 2020, has been on the CMS Notes Editorial Board since 2018 and on the CMS Education Committee since 2014, where she has also participated in many Teaching in Excellence and Adrien Pouliot award selection committees. One of Kseniya’s most important roles within the CMS has been her involvement with Crux Mathematicorum. She works tirelessly on this project because she believes in the importance of the publication within the international mathematical community.

Amanda Malloch, a close colleague of Kseniya, said,

I had the pleasure to work on this project alongside Kseniya as Editorial Assistant while Kseniya was on maternity leave. I got to experience firsthand just how much work she had to put into removing the backlog, which is especially impressive since she completed this while completing a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of British Columbia and then later working as a faculty member at the University of the Fraser Valley.

As a graduate student, Kseniya began organizing and running annual CMS Math Camps in addition to other university outreach events. Many of the large StudC intitatives (all of which continue to this day) were founded by Kseniya, including the poster sessions held at CMS semi-annual meetings, Notes from the Margin (the StudC newsletter) and the introduction of Guidebook, the electronic conference brochure which is still used at CMS meetings.

President of the Canadian Mathematical Society, Dr. Javad Mashreghi praised Dr. Garaschuk’s commitment and service to the CMS:

Dr. Garaschuk’s application, accompanied by several glamorous letters, was enthusiastically viewed by the members of selection committee. She has kept a strong and friendly tie with CMS staff as well as with numerous other members of mathematics community for almost two decades.

Kseniya regularly participates in local and national conferences, organizes events, and publishes the results of her research. She receives excellent feedback from her students and her peers. She was one of the lead organisers of the Fraser Valley Math Education Sq’ep (2019 and 2020), a community-building event that explores Indigenous ways of learning and knowing with connections to mathematics. She was also a lead organiser of CMS COVID-19 Research and Education Meeting held last July.

Dr. Garaschuk finished her undergraduate studies at Simon Fraser University, where she continued her studies and received her Master’s degree in mathematics in 2008. Kseniya completed her Ph.D. at the University of Victoria in 2014 and holds the position of Assistant Professor at the University of the Fraser Valley since 2016.

About the Graham Wright Award for Distinguished Service

The Graham Wright Award for Distinguished Service is presented annually to an individual who has made sustained and significant contributions to the Canadian mathematics community, particularly through their involvement with the CMS. This award is named in honour of Dr. Graham Wright (Ottawa) who served as the CMS Executive Director and Secretary from 1979 to 2009.

For information about past recipients visit: Graham Wright Award for Distinguished Service

About the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS)

Founded in 1945, the CMS is the main national organization whose goal is to promote and advance the discovery, learning and application of mathematics. The Society’s activities cover the whole spectrum of mathematics including scientific meetings, publications, grants, math camps and national and international mathematics competitions, as well as awards and prizes that recognize outstanding achievements.

For more information, please contact:

Prof. Javad Mashreghi (Laval) President & Chair CMS Distinguished Awards Selection Committee chair-dasc@cms.math.ca

or

Dr. Termeh Kousha Executive Director Canadian Mathematical Society director@cms.math.ca