Baskets are shown off by Elsa Woodhall, who works at the UW bookstore. She's moonlighting this week at the staff association craft show, which winds up today in the Davis Centre lounge (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.). A percentage of proceeds -- from Santas, angels, pine cones, paintings and woodwork -- goes to UW scholarship and bursary funds.

CEIT founded on a rock

Anybody who can't be at the site in person can get a view over the Internet, thanks to the faculty of science webcam. The rock show was originally planned for earlier this week, but was postponed because the rain slowed work on the building's foundations.

The slab of metamorphic rock, called gneiss, will be a major feature in the exhibit atrium of the CEIT, Russell said. Jose Melo, owner of Allstone Quarry Products Inc., of Schomberg, Ontario, said that if everything goes according to plan, this will be the tallest rock successfully extracted and installed from the company's quarry.

"Standing up a 30-foot rock will be a most difficult task," said Melo, whose quarry is located in Bigwood Township, north of the French River near Sudbury. The rock will be placed in a slot in a special foundation using a 180-tonne crane. The rock will be held in place by the crane while a special epoxy is poured and allowed to set, holding the vertical rock in place.

Monolith: A single block of stone, esp. one of notable size. (Oxford English Dictionary)

The gneiss monolith will then be covered with plastic while construction takes place around and above it. The plastic will be removed when the building is complete in the summer of 2003.

Gneiss from near Sudbury -- pictured on a web site from the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay.

Russell said he chose the gneiss for the exhibit atrium because it could be extracted in one piece -- big enough to rise from the basement to the second floor without support other than the foundation.

Gneiss is a coarse- to medium-grained banded rock formed from still-older igneous or sedimentary rocks during regional metamorphism. Rich in the minerals feldspar and quartz, gneiss also contains black or white mica, along with other iron and magnesium silicate minerals. As well, the monolith contains numerous thin bands of quartz and feldspar, which are separated by bands of sparkling mica flakes. The rock was originally part of Earth's first super-continent, Laurentia, which formed between 1.8 and 1.4 billion years ago. The super-continent then split apart. A mountain building episode began with the collision of the two parts of the super-continent between 1.2 and 1.1 billion years ago.

Russell said the type of alteration experienced by this rock indicates that the pressures and temperatures which altered it were similar to those found about 25 kilometres below a modern mountain range such as the Himalayas.

The Grenville mountain range covered southern Ontario about 1.2 and 1.1 billion years ago, but has long been eroded away. The gneiss was altered at least twice as the ancient mountain range developed. "Today you can see the remnants of these former mountains exposed along parts of the eastern shores of Georgian Bay," Russell said.

Four more Canada Research Chairs

That brings the number of CRCs approved for Waterloo to ten. And more are coming, says the vice-president (university research), Paul Guild: "We have three that are currently being reviewed by Ottawa and intend to submit two or three new nominations for the December 3 competition." He noted that every chairholder proposed by UW has been approved by the government so far.

A federal news release says there are now 365 Canada Research Chairs across Canada. "Two thousand will be established by 2005."

Said a statement from Tobin: "Universities are pivotal to Canada's new knowledge-driven economy because of their role in advancing the frontiers of knowledge and understanding. By investing in our researchers through initiatives such as the Canada Research Chairs Program, the Government of Canada is promoting leading-edge research and innovation, providing exciting opportunities for Canadian researchers, and attracting the best research minds in the world to Canadian universities."

There are two "levels" of chair. Those at Tier 1, for more senior researchers, bring $200,000 a year for seven years, renewable indefinitely. Those at Tier 2 bring $100,000 a year for five years, renewable once. In most cases, chairholders also receive research funds from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, matched by the Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund.

Here are the four new chairholders from Waterloo:

• Jean Duhamel (pictured above), chemistry, Tier 2.
• Holger Kleinke, chemistry, Tier 2.
• J. Ian Munro, computer science, Tier 1.
• Alexander Penlidis, chemical engineering, Tier 1.

Remembering Bob Cressman A memorial service will be held tomorrow for Bob Cressman, a system support specialist in UW's department of information systems and technology, who died November 21 (not November 22 as I said in the Bulletin earlier this week). The service begins at 2 p.m. Saturday at St. James-Rosemount United Church on Sherwood Avenue in Kitchener. There will be visitation today, 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m., at the Edward R. Good funeral home in Waterloo. Cressman had worked at UW since 1968, was widely known and is much missed. "In the days following Bob's death," a colleague tells us, "e-mail messages poured into IST from those groups across campus to whom Bob had provided years of dedicated support. The messages expressed their deep sympathy and shared loss." An appreciation by co-worker Brian Cameron was published in this week's Gazette.

Computing courses are offered

• Web-based Training to Learn Computer Skills

• Web-based Course Management: Quizzes
• Web-based Course Management: Discussions
• Course Web Page Creation
• Introduction to Maple
• Keeping Up With Your Research Literature - Electronically!

• Parallel Computing on SGI Origin

Choirs and more choirs

On the other hand, admission is free to a performance by UW's instrumental chamber ensembles, Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Grebel chapel.

The UW chamber choir will perform Saturday night at 7:30 at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, also in downtown Kitchener: "Music for Christmas, Sacred and Profane". Tickets for that one are $8, students and seniors $5.

Back on campus, the chapel choir, university choir and chamber choir will give their annual free concert in the Davis Centre great hall next Wednesday, December 5, at 12:15.

Miniature art will be on sale at miniature prices starting at 4:00 today in the fine arts department, East Campus Hall. After previews since Tuesday, the annual sale is beginning, and is "the best yet", claims department chair Art Green. "Well over a thousand miniatures are on offer, and it is accompanied by a silent auction -- which is also much larger than last year's version. A beautiful selection of works of art are in the auction, contributed by faculty and staff members, graduates, and others (including many artists with national and international reputations) who wish to support the department. The selection is vast and there's something for everyone. Prices start at five bucks for miniatures, and go as high as people want to take them in the silent auction." The sale and goes until 8 tonight, continuing Saturday from 1:00 to 5:00 and then Monday and Tuesday during the day. The silent auction ends with "a fun finale, featuring our special guest Jane Urquhart", on Saturday night from 7 to 9. Proceeds go to support sessional teaching.

Happening, under a cold rain

The music department offers a piano masterclass this afternoon, led by performer and adjudicator Guy Few. It runs from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Conrad Grebel University College chapel; spectators are welcome.

Happening tonight in the Math and Computer building, as described by math student Albert O'Connor (who does his DJ work as "PhatAlbert"):

A small portion of the 3rd floor will undergo a transformation into an exhibition of technology and music. Music skillfully crafted from algorithms and circuitry will be mixed by DJs and created real time by live performers. Skilled techno artist from across this campus will gather to show off many different breeds of electronically generated music. House, jungle, trace, drum and bass, hardcore, and knob frobbering madness are just some of the different types of sounds that will emanate from the 3rd floor. An audio system and light system has been specially designed will be set up for the evening. Using computers to drive projectors, audio visualizations will paint the walls, as skilled designers alter the space to one more fitting of such an electronic showcase. We will be selling cotton candy, glow sticks, water, and pizza for all to enjoy. The evening will start at 8:00 and go till 2:00 a.m. All are welcome and it is free.

Meanwhile, there's an end of term party at the Graduate House tonight, with music by the Pandemonium Blues Band starting at 9 p.m.

Tomorrow brings the William Lowell Putnam mathematics contest, at campuses across North America, including this one. UW's participants have presumably signed up by now (and are presumably not going to stay up until 2 a.m. watching techno music on the walls), but last-minute information should be available from Ian VanderBurgh in the faculty of math, e-mail iwtvande@math.

Sunday brings the staff association's Winterfest celebration, at the Columbia Icefield. Also Sunday afternoon, a group from the UW retirees' association will be off to London to see "Miracle on 34th Street" at the Grand Theatre, with lunch at the Elmhurst Inn in Ingersoll.

CAR