December 9, 2002

Monday, December 9, 2002

Students honoured for volunteer work
Book introduces top researchers
Profs played a role in mouse study
Some of what's happening this week

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

The most boring celebrities of the year

Students honoured for volunteer work

Ten winners of the President's Circle Awards for Volunteerism had dinner with UW president David Johnston last week (below) and were presented with $250 cheques to recognize volunteer activity that ranges from the Solar Technology Education Project to cardiac rehabilitation.

[Group photo] Citations for all the winners will be published in the Gazette shortly, but meanwhile, here are their names and just a word about where their volunteer activity has been concentrated:

Andrea Coren, health studies, Waterloo Region Lung Association and Girl Guides of Canada.

Jeff DeLoyde, environmental (civil) engineering, Solar Technology Education Project, Climate Change Caravan, Food Not Bombs.

Sara Ehrhardt, systems design engineering, Engineers Without Borders.

Scott Griffiths, systems design engineering, Engineers Without Borders, Habitat for Humanity.

Sandy Kiang, environment and resource studies, UW Sustainability Project.

Sarah Luckhardt, kinesiology, Hardy Hearts, Federation Orientation Committee.

Sara Marshall, kinesiology, Orientation, Canada Day, Athletics (therapist).

Ruth Tschin, biology (graduate student), Navigators, Food Bank, Oasis Outreach Ministries.

John Vellone, electrical engineering and sociology, UW Campus Response team.

Amir Zaheer, mechanical engineering (graduate student), International Student Shadow Program, Ontario Summer Games.

The annual volunteer awards are sponsored by the President's Circle, a society of people from on and off campus whose individual support for UW amounts to at least $1,000 a year.

A cheerful note about vomiting
The much-publicized Norwalk virus could be affecting people on campus, although there isn't a confirmed case, says Linda Brogden, occupational health nurse in UW's health services.
"The Norwalk virus usually occurs with a sudden onset and usually lasts 24 to 48 hours," she writes." Symptoms usually include watery diarrhea, vomiting, cramps, headache, fever, chills, sore throat.
"The Norwalk virus has always been around. This year there seems to be more of it around, or at least in the media. Our region has recently been affected by the virus. Although we have not had a confirmed laboratory case of this virus on our campus, we have been seeing some flu-like symptoms that could be considered Norwalk."
She says the best method of preventing Norwalk infections is simple: "Frequent thorough hand-washing. If Norwalk virus is suspected, be sure you are symptom-free for 48 hours prior to returning to class or work." There's more information on her occupational health web site.

Book introduces top researchers

A new collection of essays showcases some of Canada's most cutting-edge researchers, including two from UW, and was edited by two of this university's leaders: former president James Downey and university secretary Lois Claxton.

The collection is a Canadian first, featuring the work of 33 pioneers in their field, says David Strangway, president and chief executive of the Canada Foundation for Innovation, which developed it.

[Book cover] The title needs very careful typing: inno'va-tion and inno'v@-tion2: Essays by Leading Canadian Researchers. The project is presented in two complimentary formats: a CFI web site containing eight interactive essays, and 25 essays in traditional book format published by Key Porter Books. The essays feature stories of researchers who specialize in areas ranging from aquaculture and healthcare, to quantum physics and climate change.

"This collection of essays recognizes those who create and advance innovation in Canada," Strangway said. "Our greatest appreciation and admiration should be reserved for our nation's researchers. They are at the core of our most valuable and essential partnership -- without them, there would be no innovation to speak of."

Downey, who was president of UW 1993-99 and is now director of the Waterloo Centre for the Advancement of Cooperative Education, explained that contemporary research "is more than ever a collaborative enterprise. Little of value is accomplished in any field of research today that doesn't involve the convergence of expertise from a number of cognate disciplines."

Among the essays is one on "A New Method of Cleaning Groundwater" by Robert Gillham, a professor of hydrogeology in the earth sciences department at UW since 1974. His research interests are in the area of contaminant transport and remediation in groundwater. "The Promise of Quantum Computing" is an essay by Michele Mosca, an assistant professor in the department of combinatorics and optimization and deputy director of the new Institute for Quantum Computing. He has made major contributions to the theory and practice of quantum information processing, and is a founding member of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.

The book project began two years ago with Strangway's vision to tell Canadians about the world-class, cutting-edge research taking place in the country. "Today, thanks to the collaborative efforts of the editors and the researchers, who were identified with the assistance of the federal granting councils, the vision has become a reality," the CFI release said.

The collection of essays "illustrates and celebrates these unique individuals whose research is helping to transform Canada into one of the most innovative countries in the world," it adds.

Profs played a role in mouse study -- from the UW news bureau

Two Waterloo professors, a UW graduate and a "spin-off" company were involved in the international study of mice and human genomes.

[Nature cover] An article published in the journal Nature has been front-page news around the world, showing there are links between the genetic codes of mice and humans. This is expected to advance medicine and help to better understand human evolution. It has given researchers another mammal to compare humans with that will give insights into diseases and biology.

Some 250 researchers and scientists were involved in the research in the genome program that began in 1999 and is still under way, said Daniel Brown, a UW computer science professor. He worked on the project while doing post-doctoral studies at Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, before coming to UW last year.

Also taking part in the project were computer science professor Ming Li and his company, Bioinformatics Solutions of Waterloo, along with Bin Ma, a former UW PhD student who is now at the University of Western Ontario.

The research found the genetic sequence of mice is about 2.5 billion DNA letters long, compared with 2.9 billion for humans. Both have about 30,000 genes, with only a few hundred unique to one species or the other, but the types of genes in each organism are basically the same.

Armed with this information, attempts to mimic human diseases by disabling mouse genes should be more successful, the research findings show. More than 90 per cent of genes associated with disease are identical in humans and mice.

Some of what's happening this week

With two-and-a-bit weeks to go until Christmas, people are in the mince pie mood. Accordingly, the annual lunch buffet at the University Club is being served today through December 20; there will also be a dinner buffet this Wednesday and next Wednesday, at $21.95 (the lunch tariff is $14.50). An alternative to the Club will be the Festival Room in South Campus Hall, where a buffet at $12.75 will be served tomorrow through Friday at noontime.

Remembering the Montréal victims
I wrote on Friday that there was no organized memorial event happening on campus to mark the 13th anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnique shootings. "Just wanted to let you know," says a note from Nicole Shadbolt, a don in Ron Eydt Village, "that there is indeed a silent memorial. The Ron Eydt Village central complex is full of white balloons. White is, of course, the colour of the ribbons worn in memory of the massacre and in protest against violence against women. The balloon memorial was organized by Katie McIntosh, a don here in REV."
The survey research centre hosts a one-day workshop today: "Small Area Estimation: Methods and Applications", led by J. N. K. Rao of Carleton University, "one of the world's foremost experts in survey methods". Everyone is welcome; "the workshop will be useful to statisticians, health scientists, economists and social scientists working with spatially indexed data. Students are particularly welcome." The event starts at 9 a.m. in Math and Computer room 5158.

The UW-based Waterloo Public Interest Research Group sponsors a talk tonight downtown: "A First Nations Perspective on Temagami". The speaker is Alex Mathias, a native of the Temagami area in northern Ontario, where proposed large-scale logging is a longstanding controversy. He'll speak at 7:00 tonight at the Working Centre, 43 Queen Street South in Kitchener.

Tomorrow morning, the LT3 technology centre offers a workshop: "The Future of Innovative Learning Spaces at UW". Details are available from Tracy Penny Light of LT3, phone ext. 3899.

Tomorrow afternoon brings an open meeting about the brand new "self-service information system" for faculty and staff, myHRinfo. All employees are invited, although "seating is limited" (the session is in Davis Centre room 1302) and "more sessions may be scheduled" in the new year. Tomorrow's event starts at 2 p.m.

Also for employees are two "Know Your Workplace" sessions in the occasional series offered by the human resources department. A session tomorrow deals with the UW pension plan; next Tuesday, December 17, it's the benefits program. Both sessions will start at 12 noon in Davis Centre room 1302.

And Wednesday -- with a second session a week later, December 18 -- the Employee Assistance Program presents "Reducing, Releasing and Managing Anger", a lunchtime presentation by Dave Mackay of counselling services. The location is Rod Coutts Engineering Lecture Hall room 307; preregistrations go to Johan Reis in health services.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
December 9, 1968: Ted Fisher, director of the school of optometry, is installed as president of the American Academy of Optometry, the first person from outside the United States to hold that office.