Daily Bulletin

Earth sciences profs honoured

Paul Karrow, currently a professor of earth sciences, and Owen White, now retired from the department, received the E. B. Burwell Jr. Award for Urban Geology of Canadian Cities, published as "special paper 42" by the Geological Association of Canada, which they edited. Says the GSA citation: "The 59 authors, including the editors, discuss the engineering geology of 25 cities. It represents a 7-year effort to bring together papers that cover Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. The editors proposed to revisit those cities included in the 1971 Geological Survey of Canada project to create a geotechnical data bank on Canadian cities with a population of at least 50,000. The charge to the authors was to summarize the geology and engineering geology of a city, review the current status of the geotechnical data bank, and discuss the fate of the 1971 compilation. . . .

"The Burwell Award is presented annually to the authors of a published work of distinction, which advances our knowledge concerning the principles or practice of engineering geology. Urban Geology is a work of distinction because each paper provides pertinent data to practitioners that work in these cities. . . . Urban Geology of Canadian Cities will be the standard reference for years to come."

Accepting the award at a GSA meeting, Karrow gave some background on his work as an engineer and geologist, recalling that working for the Ontario department of mines in 1963, he hired White as a senior assistant; how they worked together at UW for a time; and how in 1984, after White had moved to the Ontario Geological Survey, he in turn hired Karrow to do a geological mapping of the Brampton area.

"This award," he said, "is a highlight of my life and career."

The other GSA honour was the O. E. Meinzer Award, given to Ed Sudicky, currently chair of UW's earth sciences department. The specific papers, dealing with transport in heterogeneous and fractured media -- that is, the way water and pollutants move through the ground -- were the basis for the award, but the citation also stresses Sudicky's teaching. (He's pictured below with the bowl symbolizing his award.)

"Ed is a terrific supervisor who cares deeply about his students," the award citation said. "Ed also likes to have numerous research meetings and discussions; however, formality is not his strong suit in these cases. The preferred venue is the Grad House."

Said former Sudicky student Carl Mendoza, praising his mentor: "A significant part of research requires knowing the history: what has been done before and by whom. Ed has an amazing system. As most of us do, he subscribes to a number of journals and he collects reprints. The journals sit on the shelf and the reprints sit in a box on the floor. In 1992, the stack was twice as high as the box. If asked about a specific topic or reference, Ed either directs you to an issue on the shelf, plus or minus a couple, or dives into the stack at a particular elevation. Invariably he is within a few papers of the intended reference."

Sudicky didn't deny it when he replied to the citation. In fact, he revealed that as chair of the department, he uses much the same filing system. "The one important change I've made is that most memos go into the so-called circular file instead of a box, and hence the pile never gets very high."

He told his audience: "It would not be proper for me to be standing here without recognizing the major contribution of my co-authors. Darin Burr, Motomu Ibaraki and René Therrien are all former graduate students who molded a few of my modeling ideas discussed over a beer into theses upon which the cited papers are based. . . . I have been particularly blessed to be associated with so many talented and hard-working graduate students."

Course serves Chernobyl hosts -- by Michelle T. Lehmann

The objective is to introduce a modern vocabulary to help people develop conversational skills through the study of grammar, useful phrases, dialogues, and readings, said Zina Gimpelevich, a faculty member in GSLL. Aspects of the cultural environment will also be discussed throughout the course.

"The experimental course has seven students enrolled, and we anticipate its growth through word of mouth," Gimpelevich said. "We are quite happy with the development of the course and the material because it is very thorough in using examples and exercises." The instructors and authors of the course manual are Robert Karpiak, Ireneusz Szarycz, and Gimpelevich herself.

She said a number of the people interested in the Russian course offered through distance education are members of the Canadian Relief Fund for Chernobyl Victims of Belarus, an organization she helped to launch a decade ago. "Canadian families are inquiring about such a course because of the language barrier they must deal with when hosting a child from Belarus," Gimpelevich explained. The CRFCVB aims to assist victims of the 1986 nuclear disaster. The founding members, Joanna Survilla, Pauline Smith and Gimpelevich, are all people of Belarusian descent who say they wanted to know the truth about the incident and to help those people who have been forced to live with contaminated land, food, and water.

"The effects of the Chernobyl disaster are still a grim fact of life for the people living in the regions of Belarus, the Ukraine, and Russia," said Gimpelevich. "As the organization has grown over the years, we have been able to extend aid to other affected areas."

The fund focuses on the most vulnerable portion of the Belarusian population: children. "With the help of Canadians, about 600 children each year have the chance to live Canadian lives for a few weeks," said Gimpelevich. "This time lets the children relax, have fun, and improve their overall well-being."

The organization also assists hospitals in Belarus with basic medicines and materials, while doctors and medical researchers are able to work with Canadian specialists on health problems related to the Chernobyl zone. The CRFCVB, consisting of 32 groups across Canada, more than 1,000 active volunteers and 21 members on the volunteer board of directors, is completely dependent on local community fundraising.

"For the past decade, members of the CRFCVB have encountered a level of human kindness that is a unique and memorable experience for both the Canadian families and the visiting children," Gimpelevich said. "I try to be useful whenever I can, and I know I'm chained to the organization for life."

Talk on 'connectedness agenda'

Globalization and the "Information Revolution" are combining to restructure competitive advantage and trade growth. Technological improvements are breaking down barriers of time and distance and redefining the notion of competitiveness by placing importance on the quality of both skills and new ideas. What does it take to succeed in the Global Knowledge-Based Economy? To stay ahead we must place our efforts on developing information and computer technology skills and on making lifelong learning a reality.

The Connectedness Agenda is a $240M, six-part strategy to make Canada the most connected country in the world by linking Canadians to the Information Highway and to each other. Through programs like SchoolNet, The Community Access program (CAP), and the Smart Communities Program, Canadians will have a national public access network to the tools and learning resources to be knowledge workers.

Doug Hull, Director General, Information Highway Applications Branch, Industry Canada, is responsible for implementing key elements of the Canada national access strategy, including the effort to link all schools, libraries and rural communities to the Internet by the year 2000. He also has responsibilities related to fostering the conversion of public services for electronic service delivery and for stimulating the emergence of world class telelearning and telehealth sectors in Canada.

Other events and news, briefly

The department of Germanic and Slavic languages and literatures has a visitor today: Charles Ruud of the University of Western Ontario. Says a memo from the department: "He will be showing the documentary film 'An Ordinary President' (about the Belarusian president, Aliaksandr Lukashenka). The film is in Russian but Professor Ruud will do a simultaneous translation into English. This film received first prize at the Cannes Festival. There will be a question period following the film." The showing starts at 1:30 today in Humanities room 373.

Reinhold Schuster (left)of the civil engineering department and the school of architecture is the guest of honour this afternoon at a reception in Needles Hall. He's being honoured with the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany; German consul-general Wiprecht von Treskow will be at UW to present the award today.

An advertisement from the City of Waterloo that appeared last week: "Attention Lakeshore Residents: A Public Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 30, 1999 at 7:00 p.m. in the Large Meeting Room at Albert McCormick Arena to discuss the proposed development of a Research and Technology Park on the University of Waterloo North Campus. Representatives of the proposed development will be in attendance to answer questions and present information from the background studies."

Tomorrow morning, the personal safety advisory committee will meet at 9:00 in Needles Hall room 3043.

Co-op students who are still without employment for the January-to-April work term will be glad to hear that "an additional, previously unscheduled job posting will be available on December 1. Posting #7 will be up on the CECS bulletin boards by 12 noon and will expire at 8:00 p.m."

Ralph Krueger, distinguished professor emeritus in UW's department of geography, died on Sunday. Krueger, who had come to UW in 1962, retired in September 1991. He is survived by his wife, June. The family's notice says a private memorial service is to be held.

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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