![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Friday, February 6, 2004
|
Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Campbell in lab]](/images/2004/0206campbell.gif)
It's the annual Rank Prize, one of two awarded each year to "individuals who have made a significant contribution to the sciences, on the one hand of human and animal nutrition and crop husbandry and, on the other, opto-electronics, where an initial idea has been carried through to practical applications that have, or will, demonstrably benefit mankind."
Campbell is being honoured for an article that appeared in the Journal of Comparative Physiology in 1999, with the title "Multifocal lenses compensate for chromatic defocus in vertebrate eyes". Her co-authors are at Lund (Sweden), Tübingen (Germany), and Stanford.
Campbell took a deep breath when I asked her this week to give a simple explanation of what the study is about. "It's about the distribution of the refractive index within the crystalline lens of the fish eye," she said, going on to explain that in a lab in UW's Optometry building, she and her co-workers raised two groups of fish -- Burton's haplo, an African cichlid -- one in bright light, the other in dim light, and watched the eyes develop differently in the two groups.
![[The Gradient Refractive Index]](/images/2004/0206eye.gif)
From a poster explaining Campbell's work |
Researchers can't apply for the Rank Award; a selection committee makes the decision and awards the prize. "You don't even know you've been nominated until the letter arrives," said Campbell, who was looking forward to the trip, seeing her colleagues, and accepting a cheque at Monday's ceremony at the Royal College of Physicians in London. She and the three other researchers will share £50,000 (about $120,000).
"It's a personal award," Campbell noted, not a research grant. And how will she spend her share of it? No decision yet, but "we have jokingly labelled it the Leaky Sailboat Fund!"
![[Student loan changes]](/images/2004/0205throne.gif)
PowerPoint slide
from UW president David Johnston's report to the board of governors
this week outlines plans
announced in the federal
Speech from the Throne the previous day.
|
That (and the description is borrowed from the team's web site) would be UW's entry in the Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race, to be held tomorrow at the Carlington ski hill in Ottawa.
The GNCTR began in 1974, as a joint venture between the American Concrete Institute and the University of Alberta. The event was created as a Canadian version of the American concrete canoe race.
The GNCTR is now hosted annually by a Canadian university, challenging participants to use creativity, skill, and innovation in the design and construction of a concrete toboggan. The winner of the competition, judged primarily on design, speed, and display, gains international recognition and bragging rights as the #1 concrete toboggan team in Canada.
"We won it in 2002," says Melanie Taylor, who was team captain that year and is still involved as UW sends its team off to this year's competition. Displays and preliminary events have been running since Tuesday, and the big race starts at 9:00 tomorrow morning, with each team entitled to two runs down the hill.
Team toboggans are evaluated on the concrete mix, reinforcement, curing, and braking system. Teams are evaluated on spirit, technical exposition, documentation, and aesthetics. In order to be crowned winner, organizers say, a sled must not only be fast, but also innovative and technically sound. The event is sponsored by a number of companies in -- what else? -- the concrete business.
Taylor adds that the UW team will be hoping for a cheering section at Carlington tomorrow, in spite of the weather.
Five of UW's Canada Research Chair holders have been awarded Ontario Distinguished Researcher Awards by the OIT. The awards match funding previously provided by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) to support their work.
As well, a sixth researcher, Michel Gingras, physics, has been given a special award by OIT to complement a previously announced CFI Career Award. He received $150,347 for a project titled "Beowulf Cluster for Condensed Matter Theory."
Gingras, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Condensed Matter Theory and Statistical Mechanics, conducts fundamental research into microscopic mechanisms in materials with magnetic and superconductivity properties. The research aims to significantly increase the understanding of a broad class of materials.
The five Ontario Distinguished Researcher Awards funded by the OIT:
| WHEN AND WHERE |
|
Academic integrity keynote address from Teaching and Learning
Symposium, University of Manitoba,
online at 9 a.m.
Engineering exchange information 11:30 to 1:30, Carl Pollock Hall foyer. Today: Australia, England, Ireland, Wales. Malawi and Uganda: A Canadian's Experience, talk by Rebecca North, biology, 12 noon, multi-purpose room, Student Life Centre. Open lectures as International Celebration Week continues: details online. UpStart theatre festival performances today 12:30 and 8:00, Saturday 2:00 and 7:00, details online. Engineering graduate studies information 3 to 6 p.m., University Club, for students possibly interested in graduate work. Presentations from departments, discussion, refreshments. Warrior Weekend in the Student Life Centre. Tonight, International Fear Factor Food Challenge, "Bend It Like Beckham" showing 7:00, other activities. Saturday, "American Pie" trilogy showings, Spanish dancing lessons, origami, plus broomball tournament at the Icefield. Details online. FASS 2004, "The Brothers FASS", tonight 7:00 and 10:00, Saturday 8:00, Humanities Theatre. Sports: Men's hockey vs. York, 2:00 Saturday, and vs. Brock, 2:00 Sunday, at the Icefield. Volleyball vs. Guelph, Saturday in the PAC, women at 1 p.m., men at 3 p.m. Men's and women's basketball at Guelph, Saturday afternoon. Nordic skiing at OUA championships in Sudbury, today. Track and field at Syracuse, tomorrow. |
The referendum will be held along with the annual Federation of Students election, with voting both on paper (at nine campus polling places) and online next Tuesday through Thursday.
A second question for arts voters will ask: "In the event the above referendum passes, do you support the introduction on the fee statement of all undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts a per-term refundable fee in the amount of: a.$10.00, b.$12.00, c.$15.00, d.$17.00."
| Yesterday I listed the candidates for a UW senate seat representing undergraduate science students. Later in the day I learned that one of the candidates has now withdrawn -- leaving Rebecca Baxter acclaimed as the science senator for the two-year term starting May 1. |
"We'd like to get on board," says Andrew Dilts, Arts Student Union vice-president and chair of the "Yes" committee formed in support of the referendum question. He's one of the many students who has been working for years to establish the fund, and he believes the time may be right for it to fly. At last word, no one had stepped forward to head the "No" committee.
Dilts sees only advantages for students from the endowment fund. "It puts more money in the hands of students," he said, noting the suggested per-term fees are substantially lower than those paid by students in other faculties. The reason: "Because of the sheer volume of students in the arts faculty, more than 5,000."
Even those students opposed to paying an additional fee can't complain, he adds, since they can opt out of the fee during the first three weeks of each term.
CAR