The Eco-Research Project is a three-year study, worth $2.1 million from the federal government, that's part of the national "Green Plan Initiative" of environmental research. As well as faculty and technicians, the UW project involves some 35 graduate students from such fields as biology, urban and regional planning and systems design engineering, all working on "interactions between humans and the ecosystems associated with the sustainable, beneficial uses of water within the bioregion of the Grand River watershed".
(No, a watershed is not a place where you keep water, the way a woodshed is where you keep wood. It's the territory drained by a river -- in this case, the Grand, which meanders past Kitchener and drains several counties, including Waterloo Region.)
Many of the Eco-Research grad students have their work on display today in DC 1301. And next door in room 1302, some of the grads will give talks, starting at 9:30 with Dean Fitzgerald of biology on "the use of fish communities and populations in assessing environmental impacts". The 1 p.m. session includes James Madden of sociology on "The West Side of Waterloo: a case of sustainable development?" Altogether there will be eight talks and and four other presentations, including remarks by George Francis of the environment and resource studies department, who's "principal investigator" for the project.
NEW ON UWINFO is a document from the UW library that got publicity a few weeks ago when it was signed: the "tri-lateral statement of intent" about cooperation between Waterloo and the libraries at the University of Guelph and Wilfrid Laurier University. Find it by looking under "Documents", or through the Electronic Library.
OFF TO MONTREAL? I would appreciate a note from anybody at UW who's going to the Learned Societies meetings in Montreal a few weeks from now, and especially anyone who's presenting a paper there. (Object: publicity.) The Web page prepared by U de M with information about the Learneds is now easily accessible through UWinfo -- look under "Campus News".
Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
(519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
credmond@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca