Good evening:

It is my pleasure to welcome Prof.  Margaret Wright, a soon to be 
Waterloo alumni.  (clap)

Margaret received her PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University
in 1976, and (it seems that they keep their best graduates - like we do here
at  Waterloo)
she remained there in its famed Department of Operations
Research until 1988. 
Margaret started out working with Phillip Gill and Walter 
Murray. They did central work in
developing practical algorithms for Optimization, including a classic
book called "Practical Optimization".
They were joined by Mike Saunders (from New Zealand) in 1979 and 
"Gill-Murray-Wright-Saunders" became affectionately known as the 
'gang of four' of Optimization. This group
had (and continues to have) a tremendous impact on the field of Optimization.

Subsequently she spent 14 years with the Computing
Sciences Research Center at Bell Laboratories, rising to Head of the
Scientific Computing Research Department in 1997.
Currently, she is
Chair of the Computer Science Department at New York University.

Margaret has received many honours for her research and
service to the mathematical community. For example:
She served as President of the Society for Industrial and Applied
Mathematics (SIAM) in 1995-6, and serves and has served on numerous
senior federal government advisory committees and editorial boards. She
was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1997, and was
chosen Emmy Noether Lecturer by the Association of Women in Mathematics
in 2000. She was selected as the Forsythe Lecturer by the Stanford
Computer Science Department in 2000 as well. In 2001 she received the
American Mathematical Society Award for Distinguished Public Service.

The question is how does she manage to do all this??

As many of us have seen over the years Margaret is known to be
conscientious and meticulous. Before her talk today she made sure that
everything was in order including the overhead and having a proper drink at
hand just in case.

I am told that when she first moved to Bell
Labs in New Jersey, a new feature she had to deal with was snow.
The first time it snowed she phoned one of her colleagues because she was
worried about getting it cleared away immediately. She then hired someone
and got the job done efficiently - thus we see her ability to delegate.
As another example of how meticulous she is:
I have been told that she (actually) stops at every stop sign. 
So -- when I heard that our Dean,
Alan George, will be picking her up at the airport
and dropping her off, I was not surprised. I am sure that he realized she
might drive at the speed limit on our 401 highway which might prove to be life
threatening. Or ... perhaps she was successful at delegating again ....?

Welcome again  Margaret Wright.