August 12, 2003

Tuesday, August 12, 2003

UW mourns philosophy grad student
Prof's satellite goes up tonight
HR won't distribute August pay slips

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

UW mourns philosophy grad student

Friends in UW's department of philosophy remembered Ardeth Wood (left) last night, after a body thought to be hers was found beside Green's Creek in suburban Ottawa.

Ottawa Citizen
CTV
Toronto Star
Wood, a graduate student in the department, had been missing since Wednesday. Several people from UW went to Ottawa to join what became a massive search, started after Wood left for a bike ride from her family's home in Orleans, east of the city, and didn't return.

Sunday her bicycle was found in the creek, and yesterday searchers found a body nearby. Police have not formally identified it, but the search for Wood was called off, and family and friends were mourning last night.

Extensive coverage in the Record this morning includes a big front-page photo of Wood with her boyfriend, Krystan Pawlikowski, also a grad student in philosophy. The paper quotes a number of friends in philosophy about Wood's common sense, kindness, loathing of violence -- and love of bicycling.

"We will be putting extra appointments aside," Lorraine Nesbitt of UW's counselling services said this morning, "for anyone who feels they would like to speak with a counsellor." Counselling can be reached at ext. 2655.

While there had been some speculation that Wood had met with an accident -- a heavy rain came up while she was apparently cycling along the creekside path -- Ottawa police said yesterday they are looking for a man in his early 20s who had been seen approaching women in the area. They released a description and composite drawing.

[SCISAT logo]

Prof's satellite goes up tonight -- from the UW media relations office

Chemistry professor Peter Bernath will lead a team of international scientists studying depletion of the ozone layer with information gathered from a satellite to be launched tonight.

Bernath is mission scientist and principal investigator for the SCISAT satellite, which will be launched at about 10 p.m., Waterloo time, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. An L-1011 aircraft will release a Pegasus XL rocket and 15 minutes later, the rocket's third stage will separate, launching SCISAT into orbit. The satellite, built by Bristol Aerospace of Winnipeg, weighs about 150 kilograms and is powered by a single solar panel. It will circle the earth 15 times a day, some 650 km above the surface.

The mission's goal is to take a variety of measurements in the stratosphere and troposphere, sending back information that will advance scientists' understanding of ozone depletion, particularly above the Arctic.

"Our atmosphere and climate are changing and at least a part of these changes is due to human activities," said Bernath. "The SCISAT-1/ACE (Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment) mission will improve our understanding of the chemical processes that control the creation and destruction of ozone in the upper atmosphere. . . .

"For example, we are able to provide global measurements of all the major greenhouse gases: water, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane. Increases in the amounts of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are a major cause of global warming."

SCISAT will provide improved measurements relating to global ozone processes and help policy makers assess existing environmental policy and develop protective measures for improving the health of the atmosphere and prevent further ozone depletion.

Launch coverage will be accessible from NASA's web site, and will be shown on a big screen in Chemistry II room 361 starting at 8:30 tonight.

Bernath has been preparing for today's launch since February 1999, when the Canadian government announced the selection of the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) as the scientific mission of SCISAT. With the title of "Mission Scientist", he heads a team that includes scientists from Canada, the United States, Belgium, Japan, France and Sweden.

Says a news release: "The ACE mission will work in conjunction with other instruments and missions planned by NASA, the European Space Agency, and other international partners over the next decade to gain a better understanding of the chemistry and dynamics of the atmosphere that affect the Earth's protective ozone layer. The analysis of the large amount of data that will be collected will lead to a more informed assessment of international environmental policies such as the Montreal Protocol for the elimination of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

"The overall objective of the ACE mission is to improve our understanding of the depletion of the ozone layer, paying close attention to what is happening over Canada and the Arctic. The measurements obtained by the ACE-FTS and MAESTRO instruments will be combined with data gathered by ground-based, balloon-based and other space-based projects in order to obtain the best possible information to predict future trends relating to the ozone layer and its depletion. . . .

"Canadian scientists are world leaders in studies of the atmosphere related to ozone depletion. The Canadian Space Agency is flying another Canadian instrument called OSIRIS on Odin, a Swedish satellite launched on February 20, 2001. This instrument also measures the global amount of ozone and its findings will be compared with the ACE mission results. . . .

"Canadian scientists first started measuring ozone levels over Canada in the 1930s. In the 1980s this continued research led to the discovery that the ozone layer over Canada was being depleted. Scientists have found indications that over the past 20 years the total average ozone level over Canada has declined by six per cent. Of additional concern is the severe 20-40 per cent ozone depletion observed in the Arctic in early spring.

"Maintaining and enhancing Canada's expertise in ozone research is crucial. Canada's northern geography makes it one of the most vulnerable countries in the world when it comes to the effects of ozone depletion in the Arctic region."

Student awards office closed
"To meet critical deadlines," a memo advises, the student awards office in Needles Hall will be closed all day tomorrow (Wednesday). It will open as usual at 10 a.m. on Thursday. "We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause."

HR won't distribute August pay slips

Many UW staff and faculty members won't be getting any more pay slips -- those monthly printouts that show total salary, deductions, and the net pay going into a bank account.

They'll still be getting paid (next monthly payday comes August 29), but the paperwork is going to be a thing of the past, except by special request.

The human resources department warned of the planned change last November, when it launched the secure 'myHRinfo' web site that lets individuals view, and sometimes change, some of the information HR has on file about them. For the past several months, it's been possible to view current and past monthly or biweekly pay information.

Now, that'll be the way most employees find out how much is going into the bank each payday. A memo from HR, being distributed this week, announces that "Effective August, 2003 paper pay advices will no longer be printed and distributed by Human Resources.

"If you wish to continue to have your pay advice printed by Human Resources and sent to you on campus, please send a written memo to Dianne Llewellyn, Human Resources, GSC as soon as possible. (Note: If you have already advised us in writing, you do not need to write again.)"

The memo also notes that detailed instructions on how to use myHRinfo are available on the HR web site.

CAR

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