![[University of Waterloo]](/images/logobars/goldbar.gif)
| Friday |
Monday, October 3, 2005
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Attention focused on his work]](/images/2005/0920lens.jpg)
One of a crowd:
At the Centre for Contact Lens Research, in UW's school of optometry,
graduate student Ronan Rogers tests the wettability of a lens by measuring
how long it takes for a drop of water to spread over its surface. A total
workforce of 52 was on hand in the CCLR this summer, says the centre's
communications coordinator, Alisa Sivak. That's more than ever before
--but no wonder, as "we have been extremely busy with 21 studies at
various stages." The centre is always looking for volunteer participants,
who earn an honorarium as well as a chance to try out the latest lens
designs and solution formulations. There's a pre-screening questionnaire
on
the web. More news from the CCLR: its director, Desmond Fonn, has been
elected president of the International Society for Contact Lens Research.
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The lower level was formerly a senior citizens' centre, which has moved to part of the former St. Mary's High School elsewhere in the downtown area. The upper levels of the building consist of townhouses and apartments operated by Kitchener Housing Inc.
UW took possession of the downstairs space September 1, Huber said, although renovations started during the summer and are continuing. He said UW is paying $1 a year to lease the Victoria School space from the City of Kitchener and Kitchener Housing, and will be responsible for the operating costs. The deal includes use of parking spaces across David Street from the lower-level entrance.
A Centre for Family Medicine, involving six local physicians as well as a pharmacist and other staff, has already opened in part of the UW space, Huber said. Soon to come is an optometry clinic, an outpost of UW's main clinic on Columbia Street. Both facilities are expected to be part of the health sciences campus when it opens at King and Victoria.
Victoria School will also be the site for UW's first venture into pharmacy education, starting this month. As announced earlier this year, the Ontario government is funding an extension of the International Pharmacy Graduate Program at the University of Toronto's Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. The program is officially being offered by U of T "at the downtown Kitchener campus, University of Waterloo", starting October 31.
The IPG program, founded in 2001, has already assisted about 400 pharmacists educated outside North America to meet entry-to-practice requirements. U of T will also be operating a satellite program in Ottawa.
The open house to "share our vision" for the school of pharmacy will be held Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m. in the rotunda of Kitchener city hall on King Street. The school is expected to launch its regular undergraduate program in the fall of 2007.
![[Tremblay]](/images/2005/0914tremblay.jpg)
![[Porreca]](/images/2005/0914porreca.jpg)
Tremblay and Porreca's project deals specifically with the works of medieval theologian and philosopher Albertus Magnus (otherwise known as Albert the Great).
"The importance of Albertus Magnus in the history of Western thought and more particularly of medieval thought cannot be overstated," they say. "He was probably the most prolific author of the Middle Ages, and his works range from ethics, political philosophy, logic, philosophical psychology, natural philosophy, cosmology and metaphysics to botany, mineralogy, zoology, mathematics and theology.
"Moreover, he was at the forefront of the assimilation to the West of Aristotelian and Arabic thought, and one of the first to produce a synthesis of this immense new body of knowledge. His direct influence on famous thinkers like Thomas Aquinas places him at the center of the evolution of Western thought, as does his more than positive attitude toward science and rational thinking in general."
Tremblay and Porreca will use equipment funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario provincial government to produce a searchable electronic database of the 19th century "Borgnet" edition of Albertus Magnus's works, which is the most suitable and accessible version currently available in print form.
"Despite the availability of various other sources, such as images or practical artifacts from daily life, our main access to the thought of past societies remains the written word. Traditionally, scholars interested in understanding past ideas -- whether they be philosophers, historians of science, linguists or theologians, among others -- have depended on hard copies of texts to conduct their research,² Tremblay and Porreca said.
"Now, thanks to the Internet, to which scholars from all around the world and from less wealthy universities have access, texts, once they are turned into e-texts, can be made available instantaneously to a potentially infinite number of scholars."
Tremblay and Porreca will use the digitized collection to conduct their own individual research projects dealing with the evolution of medieval and Western thought in relation to Albertus Magnus and other influential thinkers of the time.
| WHEN AND WHERE |
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Career workshop: "Career Decision Making" 3:30, Tatham
Centre room 1208.
Senate executive committee 3:30, Needles Hall room 3004. PAMI seminar: Mario Ventresca, "Evolving Continuous-Time and Spiking Recurrent Neural Networks on Mutation Landscapes," 4:30, Davis Centre room 1302. Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology presents Entrepreneurship Week events in the Davis Centre Tuesday: breakfast, workshop, noon lunch with keynote address by Stéphane Boisvert, president of Sun Microsystems Canada. Details online. Employee safety orientation session Tuesday 10 a.m., Davis Centre room 1304. Faculty of education talks from overseas institutions, Tuesday 10:30 to 5:30, Tatham Centre, information from career services. Silversides Theatre Artists Series: Astrid Janson, set and costume designer, winner of 12 Dora Mavor Moore Awards, speaks at the UW bookstore, Tuesday 12:00 to 1:30, introduced by Bill Chesney, chair, department of drama and speech communication. Centre for International Governance Innovation presents a panel discussion: "Why Is There Still Hunger?" Tuesday 7 p.m., 57 Erb Street West, free tickets e-mail rsvp@cigionline.org. Faculty of education talks from Canadian institutions, Wednesday and Thursday 10:30 to 5:30, Tatham Centre, information from career services. Architecture lectures: "Private Passions, Public Places", by three prominent critics; first lecture by Max Allen of CBC "Ideas", Wednesday 7:30, Architecture lecture hall, ticket information 621-0460. 'Online resources for new faculty' presentation by Mark Morton, Centre for Learning and Teaching Through Technology, Thursday 12:00, Flex lab, Dana Porter Library, registration online. Faculty of Arts Lecture: Herb Lefcourt, distinguished professor emeritus, psychology, "What Sense Is There in Having a Sense of Humour?" Friday 12 noon, Theatre of the Arts, free. |
§ Mike Lazaridis, founder of Research In Motion, speaks on "the future of communications" at 4:30 in Federation Hall, following a 3:30 "meet and greet" session with RIM staff for students who might want to know more about working for the high-tech company. Attendance is by advance registration online.
§ Rosalind Williams, of the program in science, technology and society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is this year's O'Donovan Distinguished Visitor to the faculty of engineering. She'll speak on "A Tale of Two Centuries: Engineering in 1900 and Technology in 2000" at 7:00 in Davis Centre room 1302.
§ Mark Kielburger, founder of Leaders Today and director of Free the Children, speaks at 8:00 in the Humanities Theatre. His talk -- on "what it takes to be an inspirational leader" -- is sponsored by the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group.
Now on to other things. It's suddenly October, which means the United Way campaign is beginning on campus. Information and pledge forms got to staff and faculty members at the end of last week or will be there in the next day or so, and we'll be hearing much during October about the needs of the fifty-some local agencies that are supported by the United Way. Target for the on-campus campaign this year is $165,000, which will become part of the $5,550,000 to be raised by the United Way of Kitchener-Waterloo and Area over the next few weeks. Meanwhile, special fund-raising events are starting, and the engineering faculty's e-mail bingo, open to staff, faculty and students, begins today.
The President's Circle -- a society of UW's leading individual donors -- will hold a special, by-invitation event tonight in the Lyle Hallman Institute wing of Matthews Hall. Along with a social time in the building's fireplace lounge, they'll hear the dean of applied health sciences, Roger Mannell, speak about his research: "Leisure as Frivolous or a Resource for Health and Well-Being". The event starts at 7 p.m. in the Clarica Auditorium in LHI.
We're also entering Mental Health Awareness Week, and counselling services will have a presence in the Student Life Centre on Tuesday through Thursday ("displays, giveaways, information and resources"). There are also a pair of noontime workshops in the SLC: "Managing Stress Before it Manages You" on Wednesday, "Study Skills 101: Preparing for Midterms" on Thursday.
A memo from information systems and technology notes that the October listing of free short courses (including those in the "Skills for the Academic Workplace" series) is now online. "In October," writes Peggy Day of IST, "we will be offering Intro to Excel, Scientific Computing Using Mathcad or Maple, Database Management Using Access, Technical Animation Using Flash, as well as others." Registration is online.
The continuing education office will offer a course on "Effective Business Communications" on two Mondays, October 17 and 24, a flyer announces. "This highly practical course will give you the skills and expertise to prepare professional business documents . . . how to plan, structure and write clear, concise business correspondence . . . how to write minutes that ensure meetings are productive." Fee for the course is $395, and there's a 50 per cent discount for UW staff. Information: 888-4002.
Federal human resources minister Belinda Stronach spoke at UW's Architecture building in Cambridge on Friday night, at an event sponsored by the local Liberal Party. . . . When UW's board of governors holds its fall meeting on October 25, it won't be the usual Needles Hall location, but in the Architecture building. . . . And in another sign that Waterloo is in Cambridge to stay, while UW as a whole is a member of the Greater Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber of Commerce, the School of Architecture has taken out a membership in the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce. . . .
Voting continues, through Friday, in the election of a staff representative to UW's board of governors.
CAR