2025 CAIMS*SCMAI Research Prize: Anita Layton (University of Waterloo)
The 2025 CAIMS*SCMAI Research Prize is presented to Professor Anita Layton in recognition of her pioneering mathematical work on renal and cardiovascular physiology. She has revolutionized our understanding of basic and translational science regarding the mechanistic and physiological roles played by sex differences in renal and cardiovascular systems, with profound implications in therapeutic and clinical practice. Dr. Layton is also recognized for her extensive and thoughtful leadership in applied mathematics in Canada and internationally.2025 CAIMS-Fields Industrial Prize: Wenyuan Liao (Univesity of Calgary)
The 2025 CAIMS-Fields Industrial Prize is presented to Professor Wenyuan Liao in recognition of his unique talent for developing innovative methods tailored to solve complex industrial problems in many fields. Professor Wenyuan Liao has consistently demonstrated his unique talent for developing innovative methods tailored to solve complex industrial problems in many fields including mathematical modeling of industrial welding, numerical simulation of multiphase flows in petroleum reservoirs and waveform inversion problems in seismic imaging.2025 CAIMS/PIMS Early Career Award: Courtney Paquette (McGill University)
The 2025 CAIMS/PIMS Early Career Award is presented to Professor Courtney Paquette in recognition of her fundamental contribution to the analysis of stochastic optimization algorithms and their applications to machine learning. Courtney's major contributions include developing the first framework to analyze the exact dynamics of multi-pass stochastic gradient descent in high-dimensions, designing the first linearly convergent sub-gradient methods for nonconvex optimization with applications to the phase retrieval problem, and providing deep theoretical insights into the average-case complexity of optimization algorithms.2025 Arthur Beaumont Distinguished Service Award: Jacques Bélair (Université de Montréal)
The 2025 Arthur Beaumont Distinguished Service Award is given to Professor Jacques Bélair in recognition of his outstanding service to CAIMS as President, two-time co-organizer of CAIMS meetings, organizer of other applied mathematics conferences, workshops, seminars and summer schools, and membership in various CAIMS committees, such as the Arthur Beaumont Distinguished Service Award, the CAIMS Research Prize, the CAIMS/PIMS Early Career Award committees, as well as serving as the representative of CAIMS at ICIAM.2025 Cecil Graham Doctoral Dissertation Award: Fanze Kong (University of British Columbia)
The 2025 Cecil Graham Doctoral Dissertation Award is presented to Dr. Fanze Kong for their work on pattern formation in a variety of biologically relevant models. Specifically, Dr. Kong used a combination of analytical tools to probe the conditions under which localized spikes may be observed as stable solutions of reaction-diffusion-advection partial differential equations. These equations arise in a variety of contexts, several of which were explored in the dissertation, including Allee effects in populations living in heterogeneous environments, chemotactic aggregation of cells, both in a static fluid and with flow of the ambient fluid, and mean-field games used to understand collective dynamics in market economics. The analysis of these equations is technically challenging and addresses issues of existence, stability and dynamics of spike solutions using theoretical tools including Lyapunov-Schmidt reductions, PDE estimates, spectral theory, asymptotic analysis, and nonlinear dynamics, supplemented by numerical simulations to illustrate the effects studied. Both situations where a single spike arises and those where multiple spikes coexist were considered. Dr. Kong’s ability to identify and master the mathematics necessary to fully solve complex problems reflects technical expertise, and a remarkable ability to recognize underlying commonalities between equations arising in different contexts. These qualities position Dr. Kong as an emerging star in the field of applied mathematics with research that has immediate and far-reaching impacts both within applied mathematics and across various application domains, ranging from biology to financial systems.