This glabrous gang are showing the after-effects of a coffee house held in the Ron Eydt Village community centre on November 15. "There were approximately 22 performances, soloists, bands and duets," reports Heather Godelie, residence life coordinator in REV. "The goal was to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society," and along the way heads got shaved atop David Teixeira, Andrew Moull, Rohan Bhargava, Greg Cooper, Tim Costa, Daniel Costa, Sean Nauth, Julie Belman, Monica Pawelec, Katie Wills and (not in the photo) Hayley Martin.

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Renewed funding for Water Network

The federal government has renewed funding for three of its “Networks of Centres of Excellence”, including the UW-based Canadian Water Network.

Also renewed was the Auto21 Network — based at the University of Windsor, but with extensive UW participation — for research into automotive technology. The third network to get new funding is the Stem Cell Network, based at the University of Ottawa. All three groups were promised funding for a further four years, a total of $68.8 million by 2011.

"These networks have stimulated innovation and entrepreneurship, created jobs, improved the health and well-being of Canadians, and positioned this country as a leader in the global knowledge economy," says the federal minister of industry, Jim Prentice. "The renewal of our investment in these organizations for another four years demonstrates our government's commitment to make science and technology a true competitive advantage for Canada."

The decision to renew the three networks “was made after a thorough evaluation of their scientific accomplishments, their future research goals, and their training and knowledge transfer activities,” a news release says. “This review is required for any Network applying for a second seven-year funding cycle. The funding amounts are granted for four years, after which the Networks are re-assessed in a mid-term review.”

It quoted Suzanne Fortier, president of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council: "These Networks were renewed because they meet the NCE Program's high standards for excellence. They have consistently delivered high-quality research, established strong partnerships, and contributed to a strong Canadian economy and society, providing benefits to all Canadians."

Created in 1989, the Networks of Centres of Excellence are partnerships among universities, industry, government and not-for-profit organizations. The NCE Program is managed jointly by the three federal granting agencies — NSERC, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council — in partnership with Industry Canada. Researchers in various disciplines at UW participate in a total of 12 federal NCEs.

The Canadian Water Network, which will receive $5 million a year from Ottawa over the coming four years, was founded in 2001 and now includes 120 researchers and 300 grad students at 37 Canadian universities. Eighteen of the researchers come from UW, more than from any other university. They are part of a campus-wide concentration of 50 professors involved in water issues at UW, among them the holders of three NSERC Industrial Research Chairs and four Canada Research Chairs. CWN’s scientific director, Mark Servos (left), a biology professor, holds the CRC in Water Quality Protection.

Water scientists think in terms of whole watersheds, Servos says. “And we must soon begin to think in even larger terms — we may need to plan for all of southern Ontario, for example, in order to keep water quality and quantity from degrading. To tackle such large-scale challenges we need to have policy, engineering, and basic science all integrated into the solution.”

CWN was created to bring a spectrum of experts to water management issues. “The network’s research areas are public health, watershed protection, and infrastructure,” says Susan Andrews, associate leader of the infrastructure program. “They all overlap to some degree.” A civil engineering professor, her research focuses on chemical and ultraviolet radiation treatments for drinking water, and on the chemical byproducts of treatment. “The network recognizes that, for example, there is also a whole area of the socio-economics of drinking water — scheduling of repairs, priority-setting, public perception — that most engineers don’t think of. CWN brings together people who wouldn’t otherwise find each other.”

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Arts dean focuses on Canada's north

UW’s high-energy dean of arts will give a public lecture tonight, facing an audience from the campus and the local Roman Catholic community but in fact addressing the whole country, since his words will be recorded for use on CBC radio’s popular “Ideas” program.

CBC has broadcast some previous talks from the lecture series sponsored by the St. Jerome’s University Centre for Catholic Experience, and will be back tonight to tape "Losing the Arctic? The Role of the North in Canada's Future”, says Dana Woito of St. Jerome’s.

The dean, Ken Coates (pictured), is giving the 2007-2008 John J. Wintermeyer Lecture, scheduled to start at 7:30 tonight in Siegfried Hall. As always, admission is free.

Coates, who came to Waterloo as dean of arts in July 2006, is a well-known historian specializing in the history of the Yukon and the Canadian North. He writes: “Over the past year, the Canadian North has found itself back in the national headlines. The combination of the threats posed by climate change, the resource potential of the Arctic , and new challenges to Canadian sovereignty in the region has reinvigorated national debate about the future of the North.

“The current interest in the North mirrors earlier debates, reaching back into the 19th century, about Canada 's ability to control its Arctic regions. The country has, in fact, shown episodic and inconsistent interest in the region and has made fewer commitments to the Arctic than other northern countries.

“Far from the headlines, where the emphasis remains on issues of sovereignty or social crisis, a critical transformation has been occurring in the Canadian North. Advances in self-government, remarkable experiments in territorial politics, the completion and implementation of land claims agreement, a growing level of Indigenous-newcomer integration, and the development of a new ethos of regional development and environmental stewardship have created a new sense of optimism across the Yukon , Northwest Territories and Nunavut . This lecture explores the contradictory influences at play in the North at present and comments on the future of this important but little understood part of Canada.”

The Wintermeyer Lecture is supported by a special fund created by family and friends in memory of the late John J. Wintermeyer (1916-94), who represented Waterloo North in the Ontario Legislature and served as leader of the Ontario Liberal Party.

As for “Ideas”, it describes itself as “CBC Radio's premier program of contemporary thought, with an audience of approximately 400,000 listeners . . . broadcast Monday through Friday from 9 to 10 p.m. and heard throughout Canada and the northern United States on the 402 radio stations and transmitters of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

“We cover social issues, culture and the arts, geopolitics, history, biography, science and technology, and the humanities. Most of our programs are documentaries in which thoughts are gathered, contexts explored, and connections made.” The program has been on the air since 1965. A broadcast date for the Coates lecture hasn’t been announced.

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Friday's notes: 1957 and all that

I was pretty sure the photo in yesterday's Daily Bulletin, showing a chemistry laboratory exactly 50 years ago, would trigger some memories for somebody. "I can identify the older bloke at the back," writes Isobel Mackay, retired as UW's coordinator of mature student services and spouse of longtime chemistry professor Don Mackay. She says the instructor at the centre of the photo is Jack Mills, "one of the gutsy characters who pioneered UW". (The last reference to Mills in the files in my office says he was promoted to associate professor of chemistry in 1963.) "The lab, by the way," Mackay adds, "was in a portable which later became the cafeteria." She notes that all the students, in November 1957, would have been members of the original engineering class that had just begun studies at Waterloo College Associate Faculties.

A new issue of the Library Update newsletter, aimed at donors and friends of the UW library, is in print with the news that the past year's "Kresge Challenge" was a success, as well as profiles of some of the researchers who benefit from the library's collections and services. Featured are Mariela Gutiérrez of the department of Spanish and Latin American studies ("I never come away from the Library empty-handed") and graduate student Vic Beaumont of chemical engineering. Some individual donors are spotlighted, and there's a brief item about research by librarian Christy (Branston) Sich into the use of video games to teach research skills. The newsletter closes with an item about financial support received from IBM Canada, and news that "Working with IBM, the Library is now leveraging its new computer resources by acting as a test bed for a potential campus-wide partnership with the IBM-supported World Community Grid."

The days are numbered for Aussies convenience store on the lower level of the Student Life Centre, which is to be replaced by a new store in a higher-traffic area on the building's main floor. "Aussies will be having its final week clearance sale December 3-7," writes Melissa Onn, director of marketing for the Federation of Students, "with seasonal items, gifts, jewelry and more on for 50-70% off regular prices. We'd rather sell it than move it, so come by today for great deals. Aussies will be closing its doors for good on December 7. The Federation of Students' new convenience store will launch in January 2008 with its new location, store hours and product lines! Stay tuned in January for more Grand Opening details."

David DeVidi, president of the faculty association, makes some follow-up observations about UW's hiring of women faculty — a topic referred to in yesterday's Daily Bulletin — in a brief posting to the UW Opinion web site. • The laboratories in computer science have been holding Friday open house sessions, aimed mostly at CS students, and today (3:00 to 4:30) the programming language, information retrieval, and cryptography, security and privacy labs are featured. • Anne Yardley, secretary in the mathematics graduate office, who has worked at UW since 1991 (with an earlier stint from 1974 to 1976), is officially retiring as of December 1.

The safety office is taking registrations for more one-day first aid and CPR training sessions scheduled for December 3, 4 and 5. • Exam-time hours continue at the UW libraries, with the Davis Centre library open 24 hours a day (except Sundays 2:00 to 8:00 a.m.) and the Dana Porter Library open 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily. • The continuing education office will offer a one-day "Introduction to Managerial Accounting" this coming Wednesday, December 5.

The Festival Fare dining room in South Campus Hall will close after the midday meal today, not to reopen until January, except for a Christmas luncheon December 11, 13 and 14 (reservations, ext. 84700). Other on-campus food outlets continue for at least a few more days; full schedules are on the food services web site. There will be a Christmas dinner in Brubakers cafeteria in the Student Life Centre next Thursday, and in the two Village cafeterias on December 13. The traditional Christmas lunch buffet at the University Club starts this coming Monday (and runs five days a week for the ensuing three weeks), and the Club also has a dinner buffet planned, December 12 and 19. And Federation Hall is offering a buffet dinner, plus a DJ for after-dinner dancing, December 1 (that's tomorrow), 7 and 8 (phone ext. 35925).

And . . . today is payday for UW's faculty and most full-time staff, those on a monthly-paid schedule. Because of the Christmas holiday, the December payday will be Friday the 21st, the last working day of 2007. Biweekly paydays, chiefly for Canadian Union of Public Employees staff, and the casual payroll, affecting hundreds of students, will fall on December 7 and 21 and January 4.

CAR

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