Daily Bulletin

Nine awards for new faculty

Most of the funding will go to pay grad students, post-doctoral fellows and other young researchers working with the PREA winners, who must be faculty members in the first eight years of their career.

Among the winners is John McPhee of the systems design engineering department, who will receive $100,000 from the government and $50,000 from Waterloo Maple. Other PREA winners this time come from the departments of chemistry, biology, combinatorics and optimization, electrical and computer engineering, chemical engineering and earth sciences, and are being funded from various sources in industry and within UW.

"The Premier's Research Excellence Awards recognize and pay tribute to our best and brightest young researchers," industry minister Jim Wilson said. "They are the Nobel Prize winners of the future, and I'm pleased that this awards program will help attract and keep them here in Ontario. By doing so, the awards help Ontario reverse the brain drain and set us on a course to the forefront of scientific and technological advancement."

And post-secondary education minister Dianne Cunningham also made a statement: "The Premier's Research Excellence Awards point to the importance of Ontario's universities and colleges as key centres of research -- centres that can help Ontario foster innovation and turn ideas into new opportunities for economic development. The awards also open up opportunities for graduate students and other young scientists."

Andrew Barker of the UW research office said the nine winners this time were chosen from among 21 applications submitted by Waterloo researchers. It's the third batch of winners to be announced since the PREA program was introduced in 1998.

New recipients of the awards from Waterloo:

• James F. Geelen, combinatorics and optimization, "for research into matroidal structure, a concept based on graphs and matrices, and its applications".
• Robert Linnen, earth sciences, "for research in experimental petrology applied to understanding the formation of mineral deposits".
• Tajinder Manku, electrical and computer engineering, "for research into radio frequency (RF) and microwave integrated circuits, RF system design, high-speed package modeling and characterization, and computer-aided design modeling and RF extraction of high-speed devices and circuits".
• John McPhee, systems design engineering, "for fundamental research into the dynamic modelling, analysis, and design of physical systems using linear graph theory and algebraic computing".
• Michele Mosca, combinatorics and optimization, St. Jerome's University,, "for advancing the theory and practice of processing quantum information".
• Patricia M. Schulte, biology, "for research on the genetics and molecular biology of adaptive variation in fish".
• João Soares, chemical engineering, "for expanding the use of polyolefinic materials and advancing the understanding of coordination single-site polymerization".
• Scott Taylor, chemistry, "for research into the design and synthesis of drugs and inactive compounds called prodrugs and the application of antibodies as prodrug activators".
• En-hui Yang, electrical and computer engineering, "for research contributions to information theory and multimedia data compression".

Book links war with justice -- by Avvey Peters

The book concentrates on 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant's just war theory, which is, as Orend explains in his introduction, "a system of ideas explaining when and how a state can behave morally when it comes to the beginning, middle and end of warfare." Further, he writes that "Kant has made an invaluable contribution to just war theory, a contribution that ought to be recognized in a way that has yet to gain any widespread attention."

Orend explains that Kant's just war theory is significant for two reasons: "first . . . that a philosophical giant like Kant wrote insightfully about the real-world problem of war; and second, that in particular he turned our attention towards the nature of justice in the post-war environment."

For his own part, Orend hopes his book will add a new dimension to the current debate on war and international justice. "I hope that my book marks a turning point in interpreting Kant on this issue. Also, I hope it gets noticed for its own refutation of realism and pacifism, and for its contribution to our understanding of what justice requires in the immediate post-war environment, for instance in terms of a just peace settlement."

Orend's book is timely in that it addresses issues like "a permanent court for war crimes trials, the termination phase of war, protecting human rights in the midst of war, and the controversy surrounding trends towards world-wide norms of justice and governance."

The book is a revised version of Orend's doctoral dissertation, and has gained the attention of Michael Walzer, described as the leading living authority on the issue of morality and war. Walzer, a professor with the Institute of Advanced Studies, Princeton, says the book is "an important contribution to the philosophical analysis of morality and war."

Orend's next project is a book about Walzer himself, to be titled Michael Walzer on War and Justice. It will be published by the University of Wales Press this fall.

The talk of the campus

The Math Society presents its version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" at 6:30 tonight in the third-floor "comfy lounge" of the Math and Computer building. "This will be run much like the Millionaire show on TV," says MathSoc president Duncan McGregor, "exept our prize scale is a bit lower."

The public is invited to join students in Anu Banerji's "Art, Architecture and Cities of the East" course (Architecture 249/Planning 311) at an evening of Indian classical music tonight at 7 p.m. in the Environmental Studies I courtyard. Featured in the concert are Partha Bose, sitar; Subhajyoti Guha, tabla; and classical vocalist Esha Bandyopadhyay. The Calcutta-based musicians are well-known in India, and have toured extensively in North America, performing last year at Harbourfront in Toronto. Admission is by donation.

This month's book of the month from the teaching resources and continuing education (TRACE) office is Designing Courses for Higher Education, by Susan Toohey. The book, says TRACE, "provides practical assistance as well as many examples of innovative practice and interviews with academics involved in course design". It was published last year by SRHE and the Open University Press. Like hundreds of other books about post-secondary teaching, it can be borrowed from the TRACE library in the Math and Computer building.

James Brice, manager of the University Club, sends word that the Club has reopened after a two-week closure. People can make reservations through its new web site.

This year's Ontario Engineering Competition will be held in the last week of February 2001 at the University of Guelph, and it's high time for UW student teams to be putting their projects together, says Fakhri Karray of the department of systems design engineering. He's the UW organizer for the OEC (and the Canadian Engineering Competition, which follows in March in Victoria). "The Dean of Engineering will sponsor two official UW teams for each category, with (ideally) one team coming from each of the two streams," Karray writes. The categories: entrepreneurial design, corporate design, editorial communication, explanatory communication, parliamentary debate, team design. More information is available on his web page.

Finally . . . the Volunteer Action Centre is looking for people to help Habitat for Humanity finish building a house in Waterloo or be part of a blitz build in Kitchener. "Skilled and unskilled volunteers are needed for one or more days during the week of July 17-22 in Waterloo. The blitz build in Kitchener takes place August 14-26 and August 28 to September 15. Skilled trades people needed include carpenters, electricians, plumbers and drywallers. Unskilled volunteers who are willing to learn and help where necessary are also important to the success of the build. Volunteers must be at least 16 years of age and have their own work boots." More information: call 746-9875.

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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