Comic relief: There was no shortage of clown noses at a noontime workshop on Monday on "Humour in the Workplace", organized by the UW Recreation Committee and led by Deb Loyd. Verna Keller of the UWRC says turnouts have been good: "Entertaining Like a Caterer had close to 100 employees in attendance," she reports. On the schedule for January 19: a session on personal finance under the title "Beat the Tax Man". Or perhaps he'll just have a good laugh?

Back to top

Medical prof to hold geriatrics chair

UW and three funding partners have announced the appointment of a leading specialist in geriatric medicine to a new research chair that will usher in enhanced health care for seniors in the local area and eventually across Canada.

Waterloo, together with philanthropist Ronald Schlegel, the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network, and the Ontario ministry of health and long-term care, introduced George Heckman (left), who specializes in aging and cardiovascular disease, as the Schlegel Research Chair in Geriatric Medicine. The $1-million research chair will produce research that will improve the delivery of health care to seniors in Waterloo Region and Wellington County.

Heckman, currently an assistant professor of medicine at McMaster University, specializes in chronic disease management in community, residential and long-term care settings. He joins Waterloo as an associate professor in the department of health studies and gerontology, where he will collaborate with established experts in aging, health, and well-being. He also plans to maintain ties with researchers from McMaster, with opportunities to strengthen links between McMaster's expertise in chronic disease management and Waterloo's initiatives in illness prevention and health promotion for older adults.

"As the Schlegel Chair, my focus will be on conducting research that will benefit frail seniors," said Heckman. "Frailty and chronic diseases can be managed in a proactive way, with the primary goal being to keep seniors as functional as possible wherever they choose to live, reduce the need for ER visits and hospitalization, and ultimately to reduce the pressures on long-term care. We hope the work will serve as an example for other communities."

The new research chair will collaborate with the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network in order to develop an integrated model of health care for seniors. The work will cover an inventory of current services to identify barriers and potential solutions for their integration, along with developing a list of senior-focused health initiatives.

"In Dr. Heckman's role as geriatric lead for Waterloo Wellington, he will provide leadership to coordinate services and programs for our senior population," said Sandra Hanmer, chief executive officer of the LHIN. "He will work with geriatricians, family physicians and other community providers to develop and implement a plan that will address health care needs for seniors and their families."

The collaboration will also allow for ongoing evaluation of services as they are being delivered to seniors. Findings and innovative practices emerging from the research will be widely distributed for other jurisdictions to learn from experiences and successes in Waterloo Region and Wellington County.

"Not only will Dr. Heckman's knowledge and expertise improve outcomes in elderly care. This integrated health care approach will also provide valuable learning opportunities for nurses, ancillary health care workers, medical students and the residents," says Ashok Sharma, chief of staff for Grand River Hospital and St. Mary's General Hospital, in welcoming him to the joint medical staff.

The new chair is one of five Schlegel Research Chairs in Aging, first announced in May 2008. Four of the research chairs on aging will be based at UW and a program chair for enhanced seniors' care is located at Conestoga College. One of the chairs at Waterloo has been filled by Safa Elgamal, a physician from Egypt, who explores the impact of physical activity in slowing the progression of Alzheimer's disease in the early stages.

Major funding for the chairs comes from a $4 million donation by Schlegel, president of Winston Park and Oakwood Retirement Communities. The money is on top of his initial $2-million donation to help found the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging.

"I am pleased to provide funding to promote research in geriatric medicine that will improve the quality of life and quality of care for our seniors," said Schlegel, a former professor at Waterloo. "We need to stop treating chronic disease and conditions as if they occur in isolation and instead take a more comprehensive treatment approach to medical care in later life. We are especially pleased to hire Dr. Heckman, a leader in geriatric medicine."

Back to top

Inter, multi, cross or trans, and more

“A new cross-disciplinary student network” will have its first gathering this afternoon, says a note from Ashley Kelly, a graduate student in the English department’s rhetoric program. She gives the lowdown: “Collaborating Across Disciplines is a group of students whose focus is to bridge the gap that exists between scholars from the humanities, sciences, and engineering faculties. We have come together to help other graduate students find new opportunities to engage in multi- and cross-disciplinary research. Don't know what, exactly, that means? Well, we're providing an opportunity for you to find out. CAD presents a unique opportunity for graduate students, staff, and faculty from across campus to meet and mingle with people from other faculties. Please join us Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Grad House Green Room for our inaugural event. Our featured guest speaker, Dr. Paul Thagard, will be presenting at 5:30. There will be food and refreshments. Feel free to come for the talk or drop in later. We would love to meet anyone currently engaged in what they would define as inter-/multi-/cross- or even trans-disciplinary work, those who are interested, or those who just want to find out what we are all about. This event is proudly supported and sponsored by the Department of English Language and Literature and the Graduate Studies Endowment Fund.”

A bit belatedly, official results are available from the referendum held by UW graduate students on a proposed expansion of the Health Services building, and a fee to pay for it. It was reported earlier that undergraduates had voted in favour of the project, and so did grads, but not enough of them. Graeme Turner, vice-president (communications and organization) of the Graduate Student Association, says there were 554 Yes votes and 152 No votes. “Unfortunately, as there were 4,158 eligible voters, for a referendum to pass 15% of all eligible voters (i.e. 624) have to vote in favour of the question. According to the bylaws of the Graduate Student Association, this deems the referendum to have not passed. The GSA Council and Board will be examining their options for moving forward in the coming months.”

Say goodbye today to the roadway that leads up between the Modern Languages building and Environment I towards the Arts Lecture Hall. It'll be closed off as of tomorrow, as crews install construction fences and prepare to erect the new Environment III building. "Pedestrian access to Environment II will be the main entrance by the ring road and the loading dock area," says Don Haffner of the plant operations department. "PAS road, north side, is not affected. Vehicle access will be through the kiosk at Needles Hall and around the top end. Bike racks and bollards will be removed. Delivery and handicap vehicles will have access to the loading docks." When the job is finished, he adds, the roadway "will be realigned to the north", that is, closer to the Theatre of the Arts wing of Modern Languages. In all the bustle, a bus stop that's currently outside EV2 will be lost; buses will stop at Needles Hall instead, a little further north on the ring road.

Don't — repeat, don't — tell the Bank of Nova Scotia your password. They don't really want it anyway, but online scammers (specialists in "phishing") do. "Members of the UW community continue to receive scam e-mails pertaining to their personal finances," says Sergeant Alan Binns of the UW police, taking up the refrain often repeated by computer security experts in information systems and technology. "E-mails of this nature should be immediately deleted. Scotiabank again sends its reassurances that they do not solicit customer information by this means." He suggests keeping in mind the importance of protecting personal information and particularly PIN numbers "at a time when they will be considering what Christmas gift to purchase for me" . . . wait, what?

Back to top

Other notes in the November gloom

The Warriors captured the Ontario University Athletics badminton title in competition at York University on Saturday, defeating the University of Toronto Varsity Blues in the semifinal and the Western Mustangs in the gold medal round. As the showdown arrived, an OUA sportswriter reports, “the Mustangs and Warriors found themselves tightly matched. The Warriors controlled the men’s singles with Andrew Tai-Pow and Andrew Zhuang taking their games in straight sets. The Mustangs responded with Jennifer Lam and Choi-Fong Cho dominating in women’s singles. By the time the doubles rolled around, the teams were tied 3-3. Throughout doubles play, the Warriors began to pull past the Mustangs as they took both men’s matches. Waterloo’s pairing of Amanda Carruthers and Carmen Tsang set the Warriors up for the deciding game as they tallied a sixth point for their team. The pressure was on the Mustangs as they fought to keep the gold in Western’s hands for the fifth year running. Both sets saw long rallies as the Mustangs and Warriors exchanged points. In the end, Waterloo’s Dorothy Lui and Shanaz Currim clinched the win by a final score of 8-5.” Carruthers was named OUA’s female Athlete of the Week for her role in the victory.

Imprint, the student newspaper, launched a magazine-style supplement called Clock Tower on Friday, with the mission of "connecting UW to the local community through art, entertainment, and culture". The magazine included an article explaining the symbol of the clock tower that now stands in Kitchener's Victoria Park, and that formerly crowned the old City Hall at the corner of King and Frederick Streets. Inevitably it also tells the story of how the historic building was replaced, in the early 1970s, by a modern commercial development — and how the deal, kept secret till the last minute, was brought to public attention through investigative reporting by the Chevron, Imprint's predecessor. "As students in the area," writes Julia Guns, "we play an important role in the vitality of what the clock tower in Victoria Park represents: community, participation and the creativity of the human spirit."

Sharron Pruss (right) will officially retire on December 1, ending a career in UW's food services that began in November 1988 (most recently she's been "area manager" based in Village I). • UW students who take Wilfrid Laurier University courses got an e-mail message this week from WLU's registrar telling them how to use the facility on the WLU website to report absence caused by the H1N1 flu. • Yesterday's Daily Bulletin said Jatin Nathwani was a faculty member in electrical and computer engineering; in fact he's based in civil and environmental engineering, with cross-appointments to management sciences and the faculty of environment, but no role in E&CE.

Recent achievements as reported in the engineering faculty's e-newsletter: "“Doctoral candidate Dan Cluff and his supervisors, mechanical engineering professors Steve Corbin and Robert Gorbet, won the Sensortech Best Student Paper Award at the CANSMART 2009 workshop held recently in Montreal. The award was presented for the paper co-authored by the three entitled Powder metallurgy fabrication of hybrid monolithic SMA actuators. . . . Rabiah Rizvi, an undergraduate environmental engineering student, has captured first prize in the annual Transportation Association of Canada student paper contest. The paper was based on research Rizvi did during a work term she spent at Waterloo Engineering’s Centre for Pavement and Transportation Technology. Rizvi presented the paper at TAC’s annual conference held recently in Vancouver.”

“We're desperately looking for far-sighted (hyperopic) people,” writes Alisa Sivak, communications coordinator in UW’s Centre for Contact Lens Research. (Desperately looking? Far-sighted? Get it?) Seriously now: the centre wants “hyperopic people aged 18-35, to participate in a short discussion group (1.5 hours) about glasses. You may be hyperopic if you have been told that you are "far sighted"; you have trouble reading a book without your glasses; your glasses magnify your eyes; you wear glasses to help with headaches; your prescription starts with a ‘+’ sign. Participants will receive $40 cash at the end of the discussion group. And we'll provide snacks, too! For more information about this study, please call 519-888-4742.”

CAR

Back to top