Two new student awards – the Laurie Hendren Memorial Prize and the Laurie Hendren Memorial Scholarship, both dedicated to supporting students in the School of Computer Science – have been presented for the first time. Both were generously funded by Prof. Prakash Panangaden in memory of Laurie Hendren (1958-2019), his late wife and fellow McGill professor.
“Teaching meant a lot to Laurie, so I thought student awards were the best way to honour her,” says Prof. Panangaden. “These are among the first awards of merit specifically for students in McGill’s School of Computer Science, and I want them to strive for excellence.”
Rosie Zhao, BSc’21, was awarded the Laurie Hendren Memorial Prize upon graduation in Spring 2021; William Pires, a third-year Computer Science major, received the Laurie Hendren Memorial Scholarship in Fall 2021.
“The award was a surprise, but the name was immediately recognizable,” says Zhao. “I didn’t have the chance to attend [Hendren’s] classes, but I knew her by her many accolades and accomplishments. She’s really inspiring.”
A Joint Honours student in computer science and math, Zhao also received the Edward Rosenthall Memorial Prize in Mathematics. She’ll continue her McGill studies with a master’s degree in computer science, to be supervised by Panangaden. “I’m really grateful to him, and to everyone involved in setting up the award.”
Pires was a McGill Pharmacology major before switching to Computer Science. He hopes to do a master's and eventually a Ph.D. in Theoretical Computer Science. “This scholarship will help me finance my studies,” says Pires. “It means a lot to me, especially after this special academic year that has sometimes been very challenging.”
R. Bruce Lennox, Dean of Science, considers the awards a fitting tribute. “The generosity of this gift strongly parallels the generosity that Laurie herself brought to her work with students,” says Dean Lennox. “She brought extraordinary energy and insight to students’ learning experience – whether in the classroom, as a research advisor, or as an academic administrator. This energy and insight came from her need to share what she knew with those who came to learn from her.”
Profs. Hendren and Panangaden were married for over 30 years. They met at Cornell University and both joined the McGill Faculty of Science in 1990: Hendren as an Assistant Professor and Panangaden as an Associate Professor. Their parallel careers created “a bit of a rivalry,” jokes Panangaden. Highly respected and much decorated, they would both win the Faculty’s Leo Yaffe Award for Excellence in Teaching, and be named Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada and the Association for Computing Machinery.
One of Hendren’s honours, the prestigious Coup de Coeur des ministres from Quebec’s Ministère de la santé et des services sociaux, was awarded to Opal, a smartphone app for medical patients that helps them manage their healthcare experience. She contributed to its software development and recruited a team of 15 students to help.
“The whole Opal project meant a lot to her,” says Panangaden. “It wasn’t important research that will one day make an impact – this is helping people today. And in the end it will have the most impact on society.”
Panangaden established the two student awards – to which anyone can contribute – to maintain Laurie Hendren’s connections to the School and the student body. “Her passing is a huge loss to McGill, the field of computer science, and of course the family. But her name will be remembered for decades.”