St. Jerome's honours past president

a news release from St. Jerome's University

Graduates who attended St. Jerome’s University during the tenure of Norman Choate, CR (right), gathered on Saturday, September 16, to dedicate the outdoor area enclosed by the men’s residence and administration building as Choate Common.

Fr. Choate, who now enjoys his retirement in Florida, was in attendance, along with over 120 people, many of them graduates who attended during his term as a lecturer in sociology (1964-67), university chaplain (1974-79) and president (1979-89).

During his tenure, several important initiatives were launched including the St. Jerome’s Centre for Catholic Experience, which continues to provide lectures and life-long learning opportunities on a variety of faith-based topics each year, and the construction of Siegfried Hall, the principal lecture theatre and worship space at St. Jerome’s.

The event began with the dedication ceremony in the afternoon and ended with a buffet dinner at which graduates, along with current and retired faculty and staff, spoke of Fr. Norm’s pastoral influence, his defence of academic freedom and his clear commitment to students. Myroslaw Tataryn, the Acting President and Academic Dean, addressed how that legacy of presence remains vital today. Fr. Norm ended the evening by affirming his continuing appreciation and admiration for the students whom he had befriended during his tenure at St. Jerome’s and for the collegial relationship between St. Jerome’s and the University of Waterloo.

A permanent plaque will be erected in Choate Common within the coming weeks.

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Convocation guests are announced

from the UW media relations office

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, is among those receiving honorary degrees at UW's fall convocation, to be held Saturday, October 21.

A former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada well known for her capacity to deal with difficult problems in the world, Arbour will be awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree at the convocation ceremony for graduates in the faculties of applied health sciences and arts, starting at 10 a.m. in the Physical Activities Complex. She will address the graduates.

While a member of the Ontario Supreme Court, Arbour was appointed in 1996 by the Security Council of the United Nations to the challenging job of chief prosecutor of war crimes for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. She played a key role in turning the International Criminal Tribunals into effective instruments for justice in those trouble spots.

In 1999, she was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. Her commitment to humanitarianism was underscored by her decision in February 2004 to leave her position on the Supreme Court to become the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Also at the morning convocation ceremony, the following honorary degrees will be awarded:

George Elliott Clarke will receive an honorary doctor of letters degree. A UW graduate skilled in English literature, creative writing and leadership, Clarke has made widely recognized contributions to the establishment of African Canadian literary culture. He has worked extensively to articulate the experience of African Canadians in the fields of poetry, fiction, drama, opera, journalism and academic scholarship, as well as in political activism, public speaking and formal/informal teaching.

Larry Green will receive an honorary doctor of science degree. A leading researcher and innovator, Green has advanced the field of health promotion and disease prevention around the world. His most influential book, Health Promotion Planning: An Educational and Environmental Approach, integrates the fields of health education and public policy to enhance planning in major population interventions. He was the first director of the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in the Department of Health and Human Services.

More honorary degrees will be awarded at the convocation ceremony for graduates in the faculties of engineering, environmental studies, mathematics and science, beginning at 2 p.m.

Pierre Borne will receive an honorary doctor of engineering degree and address the graduates. A top French expert in the field of systems engineering, continuous systems and discrete event systems, Borne is recognized around the world for many outstanding academic contributions. He is the founding head of the department of automation and industrial information systems at l'École Centrale de Lille, one of France's prestigious schools of engineering.

James Murray will receive an honorary doctor of mathematics degree. An emeritus professor at the University of Washington, Murray is a pioneer in the field of mathematical biology, including advances in the modelling and analysis of factors behind the spread of rabies. He has identified new areas of research in mathematical biology and his ideas have been applied to a number of pattern formation problems in developmental biology, wound healing and problems in modelling the growth of cancers.

Marilyn Jacox will receive an honorary doctor of science degree. The author of more than 175 scientific publications, Jacox is a scientist emeritus of the U.S. National Institutes of Standards and Technology in Washington, D.C. She has written a key book on spectroscopic data for transient molecules, such as free radicals, ions and other molecules having a transient existence. Her pioneering work helped to establish the field of matrix isolation spectroscopy for studying such molecules.

Also at the morning convocation ceremony, retired political science professor Ashok Kapur will be recognized as a distinguished professor emeritus. In the afternoon ceremony, retired faculty members John Reeve, of electrical and computer engineering, and John Vanderkooy, of physics, will receive distinguished professor emeritus titles.

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Flashes on a stormy morning

Award-winning playwright and mathematician John Mighton (left) is this year’s guest speaker at the seventh annual Silversides Theatre Artists Series, hosted today by UW’s department of drama and speech communication. Everyone is invited to a discussion between Mighton and Gerd Hauck, the department chair, starting at 12:30 in the bookstore, South Campus Hall. A general discussion will follow; there is no admission charge for the event. Mighton, whose plays have been performed across Canada, Britain, Europe, Japan and the United States, is winner of the $100,000 Siminovitch Prize in Theatre for 2005 as well as three Dora Awards (for theatre production in Toronto) and two Governor General’s Awards for drama. His latest play, Half Life, won a Dora in 2005, and the original Necessary Angel production of this play is being remounted in 2007 in Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver. Other notable works include Scientific Americans, A Short History of Night, Body and Soul, The Little Years and Possible Worlds, which was made into a film in 2000. Mighton received his doctorate in mathematics from the University of Toronto, was awarded an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship for research at the Fields Institute, and is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto. He created the Junior Undiscovered Math Prodigies (JUMP) project with a group of volunteers to help children learn mathematics. The interplay between imaginative and scientific impulses is a recurring theme in his theatrical work.

September was “an average month” for temperature, says Frank Seglenieks of the UW weather station, but it all depends on what you count. Night-time lows were warmer than usual, by some 12.7 degrees on average, but daytime highs were cooler, by 1.5 degrees, and that’s what people notice most, he observes. What was moderating the temperatures? Clouds, he explains: it was the cloudiest September since the weather station started keeping records eight years ago. “Having an abundance of cl0oudsd causes the daytime temperatures to be lower because of the lack of direct solar heating. . . . We had 117.2 mm of precipitation this month compared to an average of only 87.5. . . . There were only 8 days this month when it didn’t rain.”

The current Warrior Athlete of the Week, male variety, is Marko Agatonovic, a third-year electrical engineering student, who played in the number 1 position for the tennis Warriors during the season that’s just ended. During the OUA championships last weekend, Marko won every match he played and led his team to the Bronze Medal. On the women’s side, the Athlete of the Week is first-year mechanical engineering student Tiffany Terrier, who was a big part of the golf Warriors’ success last week, collecting three individual gold medals, two team gold medals and a team bronze.

The alumni office has added to the merchandise available to UW grads with a line of baby bibs inscribed “University of Waterloo future grad”. . . . The UW United Way office (phone ext. 3–3840) would like to hear from “any students on campus who would like to help us out for any student-run event for the United Way”. . . . Saturday’s Homecoming fun run, organized by applied health sciences, attracted 61 runners, whose results (and in many cases photos) are now displayed online. . . .

In the department of Germanic and Slavic studies, David John, who has held many administrative roles in the past, is acting department chair for the six months of July through December. . . . Paul Thagard of UW’s department of philosophy has been named a Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society, one of just two philosophers in the world to achieve that honour. . . . Lillian Startek, who was a food services assistant in Ron Eydt Village from 1979 to her retirement in July 1987, died September 25. . . .

Joel Norris of central stores (jdnorris@admmail) is looking for staff or faculty members to play “fast-paced recreational hockey” on Sunday mornings at the Columbia Icefield. . . . The space utilization office sends word that when the little building now under construction near Matthews Hall is complete in a few months, it’ll be officially called the Photovoltaic Research Centre, PRC for short. . . . There are “two quad rooms” still available for the staff association’s November 10-12 shopping trip to Erie, Pennsylvania, but reservations must be made within the next couple of days (e-mail fraser@healthy). . . .

Ontario municipal elections are coming up at the beginning of next month, which in Waterloo Region means lots of campaigning for lots of seats. Local voters will elect a Regional Chair and members of Regional Council; mayors and councillors for Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge and the four townships; and members of public and Catholic boards of education. "How would you like to help get the student vote out?" asks a memo from Michelle Zakrison, president of the Federation of Students. She's inviting applications for the Feds' Government Affairs Commission, to work with her and others on "informing students about the upcoming election on November 13".

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Girls just wanna do lab work, and they’ll get a chance on Saturday, October 14, when more than 300 girls in grades 7-10 (plus many parents) turn out for this year’s Go Eng Girl event. It’s UW’s share of an activity being held at 13 engineering schools across Ontario, with a goal of showing the wide range of programs and careers that are available in engineering, and encouraging young women to consider studying engineering. The girls will be meeting female engineers and getting some practical experience (last year they built water filters and hydraulic arms). The event is free, and spaces are still open.

CAR

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