Cheriton School of Computer Science Professor Peter A. Buhr has won a Faculty of Mathematics Award for Distinction in Teaching. Each year, up to two awards are conferred to faculty members who have demonstrated outstanding pedagogical skills and a deep commitment to education of students.
Professor Buhr joined the University of Waterloo in 1986. His primary research area is programming languages, specifically concurrency, polymorphism, concurrent monitoring, visualization and debugging, and persistence.
In his more than three decades of teaching at the University of Waterloo, Professor Buhr has mentored hundreds of undergraduate students, some of whom have become professors themselves, among them Martin Karsten, Associate Director of the Cheriton School of Computer Science.
“I have known Peter since 1994 when I took his class — CS342: Concurrent Programming — as an undergraduate exchange student visiting the University of Waterloo from the University of Mannheim,” said Professor Karsten. “Experiencing Peter’s teaching in the classroom has been no less than a life-changing experience for me because it led me to a first research project and ultimately my academic career.”
Former students describe Professor Buhr as an “engaging and effective lecturer,” with a “strong dedication to student success” and a commitment to “continuous improvement.”
“Congratulations to Peter on receiving a Faculty of Mathematics Award for Distinction in Teaching,” said Raouf Boutaba, Professor and Director of the Cheriton School of Computer Science. “This recognition is richly deserved. Year after year, Peter is noted as an enthusiastic professor whose teaching and supervisory excellence has inspired our students.”
Professor Buhr emphasizes that the teaching and instructional assistants, instructional support coordinator and computing staff all share in the credit for the award. “I am just one component in a multi-part effort for delivering an amazing learning experience at Waterloo,” he says.
The second 2023 Faculty of Mathematics Award for Distinction in Teaching went to our colleague, Professor Alexandru Nica, in the Department of Pure Mathematics.