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| Shadow cast on Willie's death |
Thursday, February 4, 1999
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The $1.5-million Lyle S. Hallman Institute for Health Promotion will focus on advanced health research and service to the community, while the $1-million Lyle S. Hallman Professor in Health Promotion will provide the academic and community leadership to promote healthy living.
Both the new institute and professorship will be based in the faculty of applied health sciences, a leader in developing effective strategies for health promotion and graduating students skilled in helping Canadians change their lifestyles.
"Lyle Hallman is one of this community's greatest benefactors, and we are profoundly thankful to him for this magnificent gift," said UW president James Downey, in making the announcement Wednesday. "We are also pleased and honoured that an institute and a professorship at the University of Waterloo will bear his name.
"This is the largest private gift Waterloo has ever received, and potentially the most important. Health is society's greatest preoccupation, and any university that aims to be a great university in the 21st century must have a salient presence in the field of health -- either in medicine or in life enhancement. Waterloo has already established a strong beachhead in the latter, and this splendid gift will enable us to strengthen our teaching and research and extend the scope of our outreach programs," Downey added.
The Lyle S. Hallman Institute for Health Promotion will focus on advanced health research and service to the community. The Hallman Professor in Health Promotion will evaluate the effectiveness of health promotion programs in altering human behaviour and stimulate new research on lifestyle management initiatives within the institute.
Senior officials of the Watpark consortium appeared at the board of governors meeting to describe the vision for the park at an open information session. The consortium is led by Euromart International Bancorp Inc. and Co-operators Development Corp.
One of the chief spokesmen at the meeting was Michael Nobrega, head of an infrastructure funding corporation that falls under the umbrella of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System. Nobrega said that OMERS, one of the biggest funds in Canada, is very keen on the UW park.
But he stressed for the board that the key for this to become a successful project is that it must be shown to be "commercially feasible." He said that a strong pertnership with city and regional governments must also be evident for the park to be attractive to outside investors. One of the tenants for the first phase of the park, to spread off the existing North Campus entrance behind the Icefield, would be a hotel. He said serious discussions are under way with the Marriott hotel chain.
Consultant Joe Berridge, Urban Strategies Inc., also the chief planner involved in the Campus Master Plan several years ago, said the first phase of the park would cover 100 acres. This would be grouped around a large circle, or rotunda, which would afford "great views" for tenants.
Berridge noted that while the park's businesses would be planned with good adjacent parking, the plan also calls for retail, cafes and pedestrian walkways. He said "an attractive walk to the main campus" is a major feature.
Future buildings were described as "generally 2 to 4 storeys," with a variety of square footage. Larger facilities will encompass 100,000 square feet and up. All businesses would be on put a lease plan, probably 10 to 15 years in length.
Landing two or three major tenants of an international stature is the key for the project to get off the mark successfully in the next 6 months to a year. Marketing for the park is already under way, through Royal LePage's commercial real estate branch. This will spread abroad, through North America, Europe, Hong Kong and South America, via major real estate companies like Cushman & Wakefield in the U.S.
Among the winners of the 1999 Steacie Fellowships and Doctoral Prizes are Barbara Sherwood-Lollar, who earned her PhD at UW under the direction of earth sciences professor Shaun Frape, and Hoan Huu Pham, whose winning doctoral research was carried out with UW electrical and computer engineering professor Arokia Nathan.
Sherwood-Lollar, founder and director of the University of Toronto's Stable Isotope Laboratory, received one of four NSERC Steacie Fellowships, awarded to university researchers who are earning international recognition in their fields. Known as an "environmental super sleuth", she is an authority on how gases and fluids form and move within the earth, and on how both natural and man-made chemicals can be identified and tracked in ground water. She has pioneered a new approach to stable isotope research that involves looking at the isotopic signatures of individual polluting compounds, which are sometimes present in concentrations as low as a few hundred parts per billion.The impact of her research has been profound both nationally and internationally.
This year marks the 35th year that the Steacie awards have been made, with the honours list now topping 100 and including many of the country's most distinguished researchers. The award includes a two-year, $180,000 payment to the university for the fellow's salary, thereby freeing him or her to pursue advanced research full-time and take advantage of an opportunity to obtain increased research funding from NSERC.
Pham was one of four Doctoral Prize Winners (award category: engineering). The functioning of many electronic microsystems including ultra large scale integrated circuits, sensor arrays and microelectromechanical systems depends on how the various parts and components in the system interact electrostatically. Pham succeeded in producing an engineering tool that provides an accurate and complete analysis in three dimensions of the charge and potential behaviour of structures that are large and complex or arbitrarily shaped.
The Doctoral Prizes carry a $5,000 cash award, with each winner also receiving a silver medal. Pham is currently at the Institute for MicrosystemTechnology, University of Freiburg, Germany.
The NSERC Steacie Fellowships and Doctoral Prizes will be presented in a ceremony in Ottawa in the spring.
Happening in the co-op department today: school of optometry director Graham Strong will speak on "Blind Workers in the 20/20 Workplace" as part of the Chew on This series of lunch hour talks for employers who are conducting interviews on campus. A workshop on "Interview Skills: Preparing for Questions" will be offered from 1:30 to 3 p.m. in Needles Hall room 1020. From 5 to 7 p.m., representatives from SAS Institute (Canada) will attend an employer information session for engineering, mathematics and science students at the University Club.
Igor Herbut, from the Dalhousie University department of physics, will speak today at 3:30 p.m. in Physics room P308 on "Superconductor-insulator quantum phase transition: localization vs. superfluidity in two dimensions". Herbut is a candidate for a physics faculty position.
Undergrads can meet their candidates for Federation of Students offices this evening at an election forum at 6 p.m. in the Village 1 cafeteria. A final forum will be held tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. in the Burt Matthews Hall lounge.
The UW Progressive Conservative campus association and the engineering society are sponsoring a visit this evening by Jim Wilson, Ontario minister of energy, science and technology. He will speak at 7:30 p.m in Carl Pollock Hall room 4362. A question and answer session and reception will follow.
It's duelling dramas tonight with the drama department's production of Fool for Love playing at 8 p.m. in Hagey Hall Studio 180, and the FASS debut of The F.A.S.S. Files: The truth is WAY out there! at 8 p.m. in the Humanities Theatre also in Hagey Hall.
Looking ahead, power to the Optometry Building will be down tomorrow morning from 6 to 7 a.m. to allow the connection of "new electrical cables to existing secondary switch gear". Off for the hour will be electrical, heating, cooling and ventilation systems.
Barbara Elve
bmelve@uwaterloo.ca
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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