The Brock community is mourning the passing of Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Thomas Wolf.

Driven by his own curiosity and passion for education, Wolf dedicated his career to “spreading the joy of solving mathematical patterns and puzzles to young people by supporting them, organizing camps and creating a stunning mathematics award for the Niagara Science Fair,” said his wife Beate Wolf.

He began his time at Brock in 2001, taking on leadership roles over the years, including Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics from 2013 to 2016 and Interim Department Chair in 2020.

Wolf’s commitment to sharing his love of math went beyond the classroom, earning him the Faculty of Mathematics and Science’s (FMS) Student Experience, Recruitment and Outreach award in 2016.

His mission to make math fun led him to launch Caribou Contests in 2009. What started as a local challenge for elementary school students is now a global online platform offering resources and competitions covering kindergarten to Grade 12.

Caribou Contests now have thousands of children and youth participating in multiple languages around the world. The platform aims to be an engaging tool for classrooms settings, after-school tutoring, home-schooling, mixed-learning environments and distance learning.

Wolf also launched a mathematics camp in 2014, helped to initiate the Accelerate Mathematics Study Stream, organized the Brock Weiqi (Go) Club, and served as a judge for the Niagara Regional Science and Engineering Fair for more than 20 years.

Recognized as an international leader in symbolic computation, Wolf published numerous papers and other works spanning several areas in mathematics and computation, including symmetries of differential equations, classifications of integrable systems, general relativity, software for solving differential and algebraic systems, and computer Go.

“Thomas had all the attributes of a traditional professor, in the very best sense of the term,” said FMS Dean Peter Berg. “He was a wealth of knowledge, always immersed in his field, never lost his passion for mathematics, and cared deeply about the future of young minds.”