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Daily Bulletin

Alan George to be acting provost

It's a familiar face: Alan George (right), who served as provost from 1988 to 1993 and is currently UW's dean of mathematics. He'll become acting VP and provost on January 1. President David Johnston gave the news yesterday morning to executive council -- the Wednesday morning meeting of deans and other top UW officials -- and then issued an announcement.

"I'm tremendously pleased that Alan has accepted the call to serve," Johnston said. "He is a very capable individual who has a wide range of administrative experience in the kinds of tasks and challenges that face the vice-president (academic) and provost. I know we'll be in good hands as the search goes on."

Over the next few weeks, he said, George "will consult with the faculty of mathematics to identify someone to serve as acting dean of mathematics during his absence".

George received his PhD from Stanford University and joined UW's computer science department in 1971. He was made full professor in 1977 and served as dean of mathematics from 1980 to 1986. After two years as a Distinguished Scientist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, he returned to UW as vice-president (academic) and provost in 1988. He became interim dean of math again in 1998 and was named to a full five-year term as dean starting July 1, 2000.

George is well known for his research in large sparse matrices and other areas of computer science, and holds millions of dollars in research grants in that field

Remembrance Day observations November 11, Remembrance Day, this year falls on a Saturday. UW will, as always, be represented at the civic service held at the cenotaph on Regina Street; Martin Van Nierop, director of information and public affairs, will be there to lay a wreath in the university's name. On-campus commemorations are planned both Friday and Saturday. Friday: 10:45 a.m., Chapel of St. Bede, Renison College; 11 a.m., Carl Pollock Hall foyer. Saturday: 10:50 a.m., Wesley Chapel, St. Paul's United College.

Labs lose source of fresh cow eyes -- by Barbara Hallett

Researchers at the UW school of optometry were left without a source of cattle eyes which have been provided by the company for nearly 10 years. Efforts are underway to locate another supplier, but in the meantime, says dean of graduate studies and optometry researcher Jake Sivak, the closing is "causing havoc" in laboratories, which use some 1,000 eyes per year for research.

The use of bovine eyes from slaughtered cattle is part of an ongoing effort to find a reliable replacement for the controversial Draize test, which uses live rabbits to study the impact of chemical irritants on the eye.

Researchers at the school of optometry have developed an alternative process in which a scanning laser is used to quantify changes in the focusing ability of the cattle eye lens after a chemical is introduced.

"The short-term aim is to reduce use of the Draize test," says Sivak. While no alternative has yet been adopted, his process using bovine eyes is being used to perform preliminary screening of new products. Finding a Draize substitute is the long-term goal, he adds, and research is now focused on demonstrating the effectiveness of the test on cattle eyes in an industrial setting, and on its use with non-transparent products such as toothpaste and shampoo.

"Getting rid of the Draize is a difficult task," says Sivak. "It's still the recognized method of validating a new chemical product. Efforts have been made in Europe to outlaw the Draize, and in fact, it's a lousy test. It's subjective, and it only works if a substance is very damaging." Animal rights activists have charged that the test is inhumane and causes needless pain and suffering to the rabbits.

Under an agreement with MGI, the school of optometry paid a fee per eye for the packers to remove and refrigerate eyes from cattle. Optometry researchers picked up the eyes with an hour or two following slaughter, and placed them in a special culture container in an incubator to keep them alive for testing.

With funding from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council and industrial partners such as Bausch and Lomb, the cattle eyes are used not only to develop an alternative to the Draize eye irritation test, but for research into the effects of ultraviolet light on cataract development, and for contact lens studies.

UW helps train high-tech teachers

Next summer 20 teachers and 20 students will take part in week-long sessions at Acadia (focused on immersion in all aspects of technology use in the school) and Waterloo (where participants will design, develop and evaluate learning support software for their classes). In addition to the training week, teams will receive continuing assistance to share ideas, continue technical development, evaluate projects and to share the resulting learning support systems with other Clarica scholars.

The program was announced Tuesday in Toronto at the annual conference of the TeleLearning Network of Centres of Excellence.

Says Hubert Saint-Onge, Clarica's senior vice-president, strategic capabilities: "The Clarica Scholars Program is the first nation-wide program in Canada that will help teachers and students to work in new ways by bringing tools used in the workplace into the classroom. . . . By linking the strengths of these two universities, each with their own different experiences and learnings, a strong partnership has been formed to carry forward this new program for Canadian educators and their students."

"We're looking forward to this opportunity for our departments at the University of Waterloo to interact with leading teachers and students on a national level", said Tom Carey, director of the Centre for Learning and Teaching Through Technology. "We've been working with our own students and instructors to develop high quality learning support software, and now we can share this expertise with our secondary school partners."

Clarica (formerly Mutual Life) has committed total funding of $600,000 for the two-year program.

Arts faculty promotes study abroad

Karpiak is in charge of exchange programs for arts, which connect UW with a number of universities in the United Kingdom, including Lancaster University, the University of Newcastle, the University of Sussex, and the University of Ulster in Ireland.

He adds: "Individual departments within the arts faculty also offer students a variety of opportunities to study in Austria, Croatia, France, Germany, and Spain, while university-wide programs include exchanges with France, Germany, Israel, and Taiwan."

Karpiak, a faculty member in Germanic and Slavic, was recently appointed co-ordinator of international exchange programs in the arts faculty, replacing Jim Walker of the history department.

Arts students interested in study abroad and exchange opportunities available to them in the 2001-2002 academic year are invited to attend an information meeting on student exchange programs in the faculty of arts on Thursday, November 16, at 4:30 in Humanities room 373. More information is available from Karpiak at ext. 3118, e-mail rkarpiak@uwaterloo.ca, or Susan Andrews at ext. 2001, e-mail sandrews@uwaterloo.ca.

Adams Mine lecture, and other events

Today she will discuss the rise and fall of the now-shelved plan to ship millions of tonnes of Toronto's garbage to the Adams Mine open pit near Kirkland Lake. Described as one of the most dynamic environmentalists of the province, Lloyd will discuss the issue from a northerner's perspective and suggest "better ways to take responsibility" for resolving waste management issues, said environment and resource studies professor Greg Michalenko. environment and resource studies.

Northwatch, founded in 1988, has co-ordinated northern opposition to the Adams Mine project. Lloyd is co-chair of Mining Watch Canada, co-chair of the Canadian Environmental Network's Mining Caucus and Nuclear Waste Working Groups, as well as past co-chair of Great Lakes United's Mining Impacts Working Group and past chair of the Canadian Environmental Network's Forest Caucus.

Her visit is sponsored by the Environmentalist-in-Residence program, based in the ERS department. The program is dedicated to bringing noted environmental experts and activists to work directly with students and build additional links between the university and community to serve the public interest.

Also today:

The Entrepreneurs' Association presents a talk by Mike McGuin of KBL Capital Partners at 5:30 tonight in Davis Centre room 1302. His topic: "Venture Capital -- Tackling Your Dream".

The Arriscraft Lecture series in the school of architecture continues with a talk by Jeremy Sturgess of Calgary (7 p.m. in the "green room", Environmental Studies II).

On the 62nd anniversary of Kristallnacht, events continue in recollection of the Holocaust. Tonight the Waterloo County Holocaust Education Committee presents a talk by Edward Carter-Edwards, a Canadian airman who was shot down over Europe and ended up in the Buchenwald death camp. Since the war's end, the committee says, "his mission has been to talk of what he saw . . . to describe the ravaging consequences of racism and prejudice in Nazi-occupied Europe." His talk will start at 7:30 in Davis Centre room 1351.

Meanwhile, it's been Holocaust Education Week in Toronto for some two weeks now. Robert Jan Van Pelt of the school of architecture spoke there last night about his appearance as a witness against Holocaust denier David Irving, and speaks again today (4 p.m. at Ryerson) under the title "How Do We Know What We Know About the Holocaust?", which sounds like a reprise of the lecture he gave at UW last year.

Journalist Robert Fulford will speak at 8:00 tonight in the Humanities Theatre, launching the new Imprint Lecture Series. "Fulford has a long and impressive resume," says Ryan Merkley at Imprint Publications, "including over a decade as the editor of Saturday Night, and as a columnist for the Globe and Mail and the National Post. The lecture is free, but tickets are available for reserved seating at the Humanities box office."

Tomorrow brings a political event: the New Democratic Party candidates in Kitchener-Waterloo (Richard Walsh-Bowers, Wilfrid Laurier University psychology professor) and Kitchener Centre (Paul Royston, a fourth-year mathematics student at UW) will speak on post-secondary education issues at 1:30 in the third-floor "comfy lounge" of the Math and Computer building.

CAR

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca | (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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