![[University of Waterloo]](/images/logobars/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Wednesday, November 9, 2005
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Boy on ladder looking down at girl]](/images/2005/1108ourtown.jpg)
Next week
brings the drama department's first major production of the
season: Thornton Wilder's classic "Our Town". Brad Cook and Emma
Dines rehearse as the opening draws near: performances are Wednesday
through Saturday next week (November 16-19), with a by-invitation
preview on Tuesday, all at 8 p.m. in the Theatre of the Arts.
The Humanities box office, 888-4908, has tickets.
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New Opportunities and two other CFI programs, including the familiar grants for "infrastructure" costs of Canada Research Chairs, are being replaced by a new program, to be called the Leaders Opportunity Fund. It will have more than $300 million to disburse across Canada from 2006 to 2010, "to assist Canadian universities in attracting world-class faculty and retaining top researchers within Canada".
The latest New Opportunities funding, aimed specifically at young faculty members, totals $14.3 million across Canada. "The investments made by the CFI since its creation have had a transformative impact on the research landscape in Canada," said Reg Alcock, president of the treasury board, the federal cabinet minister who helped make this week's announcement. "Our government is proud of these investments, which will not only make the economy more innovative and competitive, but will improve the quality of life of all Canadians."
One of the new grants to UW goes to Ken Stark of the kinesiology department, under the title "High Throughput Research Facility for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipidomics on Chronic Disease." He receives $180,000 to support work on the use of fatty acid profiling to assess disease risk in large clinical trials. These trials could lead to the routine measurement of omega-3 fatty acid levels in blood to determine cardiovascular disease risk.
Specifically, CFI says, the infrastructure will provide for the determination of fatty acids and lipids in various matrices (two-dimensional arrays of values) at a rate five to 10 times faster than conventional methods. Such methodological advancements have the potential to be adapted to analyses of fatty acids, including trans fatty acids in the food supply. The infrastructure will also support detailed mechanistic studies examining the differences in fatty acid and lipid metabolism between males and females.
The other grant is $78,927 to Daniel Smilek of the psychology department for "A Portable Laboratory for Studying Human Attention in the Real World." Despite the clear importance of attention in everyday life, CFI explains, little is known about how human attention operates and fails in real-world situations. The funding will provide technology to develop a portable laboratory for studying how visual attention operates in complex, real-world settings.
The technology will make it possible to study how various bodily processes work together in the act of attending in real-world situations, as well as to study collaborative attention in everyday tasks. The work will set a new standard for attention research and will have significant impact on public policy (for example, safety regulations) and on technology design (for example, human factors engineering).
![[Halinski in Canadiens uniform]](/images/2005/1103halinski.jpg)
The funds that UW staff and faculty members donate for "scholarships
and bursaries" go to real students, the Keystone
Campaign makes clear in a profile posted recently to its
web site. It introduces second-year mechanical engineering
student Michael Halinski (right), beginning with the claim that "sibling
rivalry" is what made him choose Waterloo as his university.
His older sister had started her university career in applied health sciences, so Michael had to choose engineering, the profile says. "Of course, he was also keenly interested in the discipline! . . . The Grimsby native has been enjoying the prestige of his program. 'When I was introduced to my new co-workers on a recent work term, I was met with immediate recognition of UW's excellence,' he says."
What do you like best about UW? "The co-op program. It's a great chance to apply what I learn in class. Financially, it's a huge help because it means I can pay for most of my schooling, and it's also a great chance to travel -- with opportunities across Canada and beyond! I also find it refreshing to be a part of UW's multi-cultural campus community."
How did the student award you received help you? "Receiving a $4,000 UW Faculty and Staff Engineering Entrance Scholarship was a major factor in my decision to attend UW, but I was also faced with some tempting offers from other universities -- $12,000 from Western and $8,000 from Queen's. The scholarship was helpful because my first work term was not until eight months after I started at UW, and it was a long time without income."
What do you do in your spare time? "I've grown up playing hockey and this term I'm the captain of an intramural hockey team. When I was finishing high school, I was offered athletic scholarships to American universities for hockey. Continuing to train for 25 hours a week on top of school work was pretty daunting, so I decided to channel my energy into academics. But I still enjoy a friendly game now and again! I'm also organizing a beach volleyball tournament for my St. Jerome's residence."
| WHEN AND WHERE |
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Flu shots for students, faculty, staff and family members,
today through Friday, 10 to 5, Student Life Centre multipurpose room.
Noon-hour concert: Cheryl Pauls, "Classical and Contemporary Piano", 12:30, Conrad Grebel University College chapel. Career workshop: "Business Etiquette and Professionalism", 4:30, Tatham Centre room 1208, registration online. Club Projects information session organized by Federation of Students to make administering a student club easier, 5 p.m., Student Life Centre room 2134. Health literacy briefing: faculty and students from health studies and gerontology speak on "Toxic Prose Syndrome: The Importance of Health Literacy for Older Adults", 7 p.m., Kitchener Public Library main branch. Jewish studies program and Waterloo Region Holocaust Education Committee present "Children of a Vanished World", performance with life-sized photographs, dramatization and live music, discussion with producer and composer to follow, Thursday 7:30 p.m., Humanities Theatre, admission free. Artist's talk: Kirsten Abrahamson on her show "Diary: Of a River", Thursday 7 p.m., UW art gallery, East Campus Hall. Remembrance Day observances Friday 10:45 at St. Bede's Chapel, Renison College, and in Carl Pollock Hall foyer. |
| POSITIONS AVAILABLE |
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On this week's list from the human resources department:
Longer descriptions are available on the HR web site. |
The arts faculty's Research Seminar Month continues today with a session titled "The Division of the Disciplines: Historical Perspectives". Naomi Sunderland of the dean's office explains: "Participants will discuss the origin and development of academic disciplines in universities from Medieval times onward. Participants will illustrate that 'interdisciplinarity' is not a new thing at all." Speakers are Bruno Tremblay, philosophy professor at St. Jerome's University, on "The Division of the Disciplines during the Golden Age of Medieval University Education"; David Porreca of classical studies on "Isaac Newton as the Most Accomplished Alchemist in History"; and Christine McWebb of French studies, on "From Humboldt to Hubble: Disciplinarity as Expanding Universe". The seminar starts at 3:00 in Humanities room 373, and everybody is welcome, although reservations are appreciated (nsunderl@uwaterloo.ca).
Jared Ehgoetz and Blyth Gill of the Warrior men's rugby team have been named to the Ontario University Athletics all-star team at season's end. . . . Mathematics and software engineering students held a by-election last week to choose a member of students' council, the Federation of Students governing body, and gave the post to Al-Noor Karim. . . . A mock LSAT (that's the Law School Admission Test) will be offered on campus November 17, and students can register by e-mailing uw_lro@hotmail.com. . . .
Catherine Kaufman, a former member of UW's staff, died October 31. She was a food services assistant, who worked for the university from September 1978 to her retirement January 1, 1986.
Jim Bookbinder of the department of management sciences is editor of a special issue on "Global Logistics" for the journal Transportation Research. It includes papers on Europe, Asia, and the North American free trade area, dealing with research on production-distribution supply chains in those regions, as well as international logistics in general.
![[Graham]](http://www.graphics.uwaterloo.ca/photo/archivesimages/19991015.jpg)
Angelo Graham (right) will be retiring shortly after 33 years
on UW's staff -- originally in the library, most recently in the safety
office, where he's a well-known figure across campus from many
consultations on ergonomics and similar issues. A retirement reception
is scheduled for November 30, from 3:30 to 5:30 at the University Club,
and RSVPs are being welcomed now (ext. 3587).
In a listing yesterday the wrong room number was given for the PhD thesis defence of Roudrajit Maji, scheduled for November 29; it should have said CEIT room 1014. . . . Environmental studies undergraduate students have voted (115 to 65, which represents about a 12 per cent turnout) to increase the fee for the Environmental Studies Society from $5 a term to $13. . . . The library has updated some details on the Trellis web site, with the result that search specifications that used to be "date ascending" and "date descending" are now "oldest first" and "newest first". . . .
Ken McKay of the management sciences department is in Japan this week, giving some academic seminars and attending a launch for the Japanese translation of his book Practical Production Control. Co-authored with Dutch researcher Vincent Wiers, the English version was published last year. McKay will also stop in at the Canadian embassy in Tokyo to give a lecture, part of its series for embassy staff and guests, on "Japanese Manufacturing at a Crossroads".
If you're responsible for publicizing an event -- something sponsored by a department, a student club or whatever -- you may want to have it mentioned in the Daily Bulletin, in which case you'd be wise to send details to the editor by e-mail, rather than relying on his well-known clairvoyance. You will also want to have the activity listed in UWevents, UW's online event database, and you can do that yourself, by following the "Submit an event" list on the UWevents web site and filling in a brief form. Keep it clear and brief, suggests the person who's usually responsible for reviewing new UWevents entries.
CAR