Waterloo prof flexes intellectual muscles

Kelley Teahen, CPA

History professor Whitney Lackenbauer (left) is taking part in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games – via a podcast about “Canada and the Changing Circumpolar World.”

Intellectual Muscle is an education program created by Vancouver 2010, the Globe and Mail, and the University of British Columbia as part of a wide range of cultural and educational activities related to the Olympic celebrations. As part of the program, academics from across Canada were invited to record short lectures about topics related to winter and the Olympics.

The official website for the Vancouver 2010 Games describes these “university dialogues” as “an eclectic and often provocative series of podcasts on topics related to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. From October 2009 to January 2010, 32 short lectures by prominent and up-and-coming Canadian intellectuals were recorded at universities across Canada and made available online as part of Intellectual Muscle.” To hear the podcasts, click on the button at right.

Lackenbauer, currently chair of the history department at St. Jerome’s University, was one of four co-authors honoured in 2009 with the Donner Prize for their book, Arctic Front: Defening Canada in the Far North.

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Brad Moggach is next Feds president

Voting in the Federation of Students election finished Thursday; the results were announced on Friday afternoon. The new Feds president for 2010-11 will be arts student Brad Moggach (left), who won with 746 votes. His nearest rival,  Matthew Colphon, received 631 votes; the current president, Allan Babor, took 455 votes.

The rest of "Team Yellow" were also elected: Nikki Best, vice-president internal; Sarah Cook, vice-president administration and finance; and Nick Soave, vice-president education, who was earlier acclaimed. Results for other candidates, including senators, are on the FEDS website.

In its latest online issue, Imprint predicted a sweep by Team Yellow, based on the results of its own daily polls. "For the first time in recent memory, Imprint has conducted a daily popularity poll for the Feds election candidates," writes editor-in-chief Michael Davenport. "The purpose was to attempt to track how each candidate's campaign influenced their popularity — perhaps the data would even allow Imprint to predict the winner." He cautions that "the poll is admittedly unscientific and should be taken with a grain of salt."

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Professors on sabbatical

Here’s another list of Waterloo faculty members who are on sabbatical this term, along with their plans for using the time, as reported to the university’s Board of Governors. All these sabbaticals began January 1, and all are six months long  unless otherwise noted.

Uzma Rehman, psychology: “My sabbatical will give me the opportunity to pursue research with collaborators at both the national and international level. I will get the opportunity to provide hands-on supervision to a joint project that is underway at Queen’s. I also intend to travel to Indiana University to monitor joint projects that are currently underway, as well as to design future collaborations.”

Eric Reardon, earth and environmental sciences: “Most of my sabbatical will be spent in Waterloo collaborating with two professors (Dr. Q. Guo, CUG Wuhan, and Dr. M. Hong, Jilin U.) who are coming to Waterloo in 2010 to work in my research laboratory on several environmental contaminant problems. The first three months will be spent visiting researchers and their graduate students at several US and European institutes.”

Efrim Boritz, accounting and finance (twelve months): “Continue research on XBRL Infrastructure requirements with Won No of Iowa State University; begin project on professional judgement in accounting and auditing; complete works in progress and submit for publication; produce 4th edition of E-Business: A Canadian Perspective on a Networked World for Pearson with Gerald Trites.”

Murray McArthur, English language and literature: “During my sabbatical, I will continue my research on invention or innovation in Modernism through the intertextual or replicative relations between the literary and cultural traditions of the Greek Odysseus and the Latin Ulysses and two foundational Modernist texts, James Joyce’s Ulysses and T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land.”

Anthony Endres, earth and environmental sciences (twelve months): “Conduct ongoing geophysical research projects on shallow soil moisture monitoring, characterization of immiscible contaminants (e.g., gasoline) in aquifers and the evaluation of frozen materials. As part of this work, I will be collaborating with researchers at the University of Swansea and the Institute of Chemistry and Dynamics of the Geosphere Forschungszentrum Jülich.”

Clare Mitchell, geography and environmental management: “I am requesting this leave to initiate preparation of a SSHRC Standard Research Grant, analyze the 2006 demographic census data to further my research on ‘Transformation of the Canadian Countryside’, and prepare two manuscripts based on data that have been collected by my graduate students on ‘Creative Destruction in Canada’s Rural Settlements’.”

Mustafa Yavuz, mechanical and mechatronics engineering: “To research on high-temperature superconducting nanoscale electronics, and nanojoining for hybrid electronics, at Texas A&M University, TOBB-Economy and Technology University (ETU, Ankara, Turkey), Interational Superconductivity Technology Center (ISTEC, Tokyo, Japan) and University of Wollongong (NSW, Australia).”

Monica Barra, chemistry: “During my sabbatical leave I plan to remain in Waterloo to focus on research and the writing of scientific articles. I will participate in a couple of international scientific meetings, and also plan to spend a portion of the leave revising and developing course notes and online material for various courses.”

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Waterloo on the Great Wall and other notes

In the fall 2009 term Kevan Osmond (left) and Jorge Adib, fifth-year math/business double degree students, “were lucky enough to study at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and travel throughout Asia,” writes Kevan. Here they are standing on the Great Wall, forming the letter W for Waterloo.

A logo design by Ray Wang, a fourth-year Waterloo architecture student, was chosen by the Ontario Association of Architects Council from among 20 submissions to represent the Changing Face of Architecture Conference to be held May 5 – 8 in Windsor, Ontario.

The Warriors rallied for Haiti at two special Warrior Pride nights recently, reports an article by Adam McGuire in the February issue of Warrior Extra from the Athetics department. "On February 6 at the Warriors men’s volleyball game, and again on February 10 at the men’s and women’s basketball games, fans were encouraged to . . .  dig deep and donate to the relief fund for the people of Haiti. Both Warrior Pride nights had games and contests during breaks in play, with all proceeds going to the UNICEF Haiti relief fund. There were also a number of donation areas around the games for fans to make their contributions.” Fans can also make donations online by visiting www.unicef.ca and searching for “Warrior Pride” on the Search for a Fundraiser page. There is also a donation box at the front desk of the offices of the Department of Athletics in the Physical Activities Complex.

There is a role for optometrists to help their patients quit smoking, but few take advantage of the opportunity. That’s part of the results of a research study led by Ryan Kennedy, a doctoral student in psychology, reported in the January 2010 issue of Optometry Times. School of Optometry faculty members Marlee Spafford and Matt Iley collaborated in the study. The researchers found that although few smokers are aware of the link between smoking and eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, optometrists perceive several barriers in the way of becoming involved in smoking cessation. The full story is here.

Finally, an addition to our "Olympic hopefuls and helpfuls" story on Thursday. We had more than one torchbearer: Sharlene Mohlman, a fourth-year student in political science, carried the torch in Kitchener on December 27.

CPA staff

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