Liyuan (Leslie) Ren awarded 2014 Jubilee Silver Medal for Science

Liyuan (Leslie) Ren won the Jubilee Silver Medal for Science at last week's convocation. This award is is presented to the to Science graduating undergraduate at each convocation. Congratulations Liyuan!

Here is the citation that was read out at the convocation:

Liyuan (Leslie) Ren, this year's winner of the UVic Jubilee medal, has earned a remarkable, perfect 9.0 graduating GPA in the combined Financial Mathematics and Economics Major, one of UVic's most demanding undergraduate programs.

Liyuan came to UVic in 2009 from Tianjin, China. She began her studies by taking a challenging mix of Mathematics, Statistics and Economics courses, earning early academic distinction by winning the 2010 UVic Mathematics Competition. She continued to demonstrate her academic excellence by winning numerous academic prizes and scholarships including the UVic President's scholarship and UVic Faculty Scholarship (twice for each), and the David Zalinger Statistics Scholarship.

According to her professors, Liyuan is "an ideal student, showing strong insight, devouring the material and being eager for more". Others have praised her unusual ability to meld excellent computational skills and deep understanding with a flair for both written and verbal communication. Her explanations are always "to-the-point and very well-argued" notes one of her Economics professors. An undergraduate summer research supervisor praised her "discipline . . . and . . . outstanding research skills". Everyone who has ever taught Liyuan remembers her warm smile radiating from the audience.

Liyuan will taking a Master's Degree in Mathematical Finance at the University of Toronto this fall. In support of her graduate studies, Liyuan has been nominated for the prestigious National Bank Women in Financial Markets Scholarship. She will make a terrific ambassador for UVic in Toronto, and we wish her the greatest success in her studies there next year.