Two University of Waterloo researchers, Drs. Ihab Ilyas and Laura Hug, are being recognized as a Royal Society of Canada (RSC) fellow and a member of the RSC College.
"Recognition from the RSC is an outstanding acknowledgement of research excellence," says Dr. Charmaine Dean, vice-president of Research and International at Waterloo. "This year's awardees from Waterloo have made significant contributions in the areas of artificial intelligence and environmental microbiology, crucial fields of scientific discovery that will dramatically impact future generations. At Waterloo, we are proud to lead the charge in addressing complex global challenges through our Global Futures framework. Congratulations to Dr. Ilyas and Dr. Hug on their outstanding achievements."
Founded in 1882, the RSC comprises the Academy of Arts and Humanities, Academy of Social Sciences, Academy of Science and the RSC College. The RSC recognizes excellence, advises the government and the larger society, and promotes a culture of knowledge and innovation in Canada and with other national academies around the world.
Ilyas, a professor and computer scientist in the Faculty of Mathematics, and Hug, a professor and Canada Research Chair in the Faculty of Science, are joining more than 100 Waterloo researchers who have been inducted as fellows and RSC College members since 1958.
They will join 103 new fellows and 55 new members of the RSC College who will be inducted at a ceremony held during the 2024 Celebration of Excellence and Engagement conference in Vancouver, British Columbia on November 8.
Ilyas and Hug represent two of the outstanding Waterloo researchers who are committed to solving the most pressing challenges of our time. They continue to build on the University's strengths while delivering new directions and solutions needed for humanity to thrive in a complex future. Learn about their academic and industry contributions as they join the incoming cohorts of the RSC fellows and the new members of the RSC College.
Waterloo's new Royal Society of Canada Fellow
Dr. Ihab Ilyas, a professor in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, whose research focuses on big data and database systems, with special interest in machine learning for data quality and enrichment, information extraction, and probabilistic and uncertain data management.
As a computer scientist, he is especially known for his pioneering research in artificial intelligence for managing and cleaning data at scale. Ilyas' contribution to the industry includes being a co-founder of Inductiv, a Waterloo-based startup using AI for structured data cleaning. Inductiv has since been acquired by Apple to improve the data used by Siri - an AI-powered virtual assistant that's part of Apple's operating systems for its wide range of devices.
He has also co-founded two other projects: Tamr, a leading startup using machine learning for large-scale data integration; and HoloClean on GitHub, an open-source platform using machine learning in error detection and repair. HoloClean has been used by Fortune 500 companies, banks, census bureaus, large international insurance firms and was the basis for Inductiv.
Ilyas has previously been appointed as a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, a NSERC-Thomas Reuters Chair on Data Quality, and in 2021, a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Ilyas also received the prestigious C.C. Gotlieb Computer Award in 2024, for his outstanding work in building large-scale machine learning systems, which have significantly advanced computer science and engineering.
As an internationally recognized scholar and computer scientist, Ilyas' work has been featured in leading journals, including ACM Transactions on Database Systems, VLDB Journal and the Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment.
Ilyas will be joining the Academy of the Arts and Humanities as a fellow of the RSC.
Learn more about Ilyas on the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science website.
Waterloo's new Royal Society of Canada College Member
Dr. Laura Hug is a professor in the Department of Biology and a Canada Research Chair in Environmental Microbiology. Hug's additional roles include being the associate director of the Waterloo Centre for Microbial Research and founder of the Hug Research Group. Her research seeks to define microbial diversity and function at contaminated sites, primarily at municipal landfills, that could often have hundreds or thousands of different species.
Hug is also the principal investigator of the Mitigation of Methane Emission Hot Spots from Municipal Landfills project, funded through the Environment and Climate Change Canada's Climate Action and Awareness Fund.
Landfills contribute 20 per cent of Canada's methane emissions and a priority target for emission reduction. As part of the five-year interdisciplinary research project, Hug and her team assess the impact of hot spots associated with Canadian landfill infrastructures and improve how we measure greenhouse gases. By creating these tools, cities can more effectively monitor and cut down on landfill emissions, and help Canada achieve its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.
As an internationally recognized scholar in environmental microbiology, Hug's work has been featured in major news outlets including the New York Times and The Atlantic. Hug's research aims to expand our understanding of the tree of life and the impact that human activities have on the environment. Her work using a meta-omics (DNA, RNA and protein) approach on landfill microbiomes has contributed to real-world solutions for anthropogenic environmental impacts.
Hug is also associated with the American Society for Microbiology and the International Society for Microbial Ecology.
Learn more about Hug on the Department of Biology website.
