Some 80 people turned up at noontime last Tuesday for “Yoga on the Green”, led by Sandra Gibson of health services. The workout was sponsored by the Employee Assistance Program, the UW Recreation Committee, Occupational Health and the Staff Initiative Fund. SPF lip balm, hand towels and granola bars were handed out, and several people went home with draw prizes as well. A number of the participants expressed an interest in weekly outdoor summer yoga, weather permitting, says Linda Brogden of occupational health: “If you are interested in participating in outdoor summer yoga classes, please contact sandra.gibson@ uwaterloo.ca. Signing up will allow you to exercise, reduce stress, enjoy fresh air and feel great.”

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Newcomers of 1985 are feted tonight

Tonight the university celebrates a crowd of staff and faculty members who started work here in 1985, and ended up making a career out of it.

It’s the annual gathering of the 25-Year Club, at which 65 people — including the president of the faculty association, a former union president, computer consultants, engineering faculty members, a custodian and financial administrators — will be congratulated and presented with gifts. They join hundreds of other long-service employees who will also attend tonight’s party.

The 25-Year Club was launched in 1982, when the university reached its own quarter-century mark and honoured the employees who had arrived in the birth year of 1957 and were still on hand. Others have been added to the Club each year since then.

Now it’s the turn of the 1985 arrivals, those who were hired in the year of “We Are the World” and Rick Hansen’s “Man in Motion” tour, the year of New Coke and the Air India explosion, the year laptop computers came into general use. At Waterloo, 1985 saw the beginning of construction on the Davis Centre (and the consequent move of many faculty and staff parking spaces into the new “B lot” off Phillip Street). It’s also remembered as the first year that there was a general cut to departmental budgets, 2.5 per cent off the top as a new fiscal year began.

The glamour field of study in 1985 was biotechnology; left, Murray Moo-Young, director of the new Guelph-Waterloo Biotechnology Institute, shows off a pilot fermentation plant in a building that was still called “Engineering I”.

And 1985 was the year of yuppiedom, which touched Waterloo directly when this university’s turn came up in a series the Toronto Star published about Ontario’s universities. Waterloo is "the suitcase university", reporter Jack Cahill wrote on the Saturday of the Canada Day weekend. "There's not much joy to all of this and there's not much spirit either on a campus where the first loyalty is to 'me' and a hopefully prosperous future. Loneliness is one of Waterloo's big lessons."

The student response was a mixture of outrage and a sort of ironic pride. "Whiz kids at computers without any time for fun," the headline had said; the comeback was to hold a Yuppie Pub in Federation Hall, which had recently acquired its liquor licence. Another creative answer to the "Yuppie" label was the organization of the Varsity Briefcase Drill Team, a dozen young professionals in the crispest of blue suits, swinging their attaché cases in unsmiling, well-rehearsed unison. "Let's do lunch!" they cried at the end of their routine.

That was then, this is now, and the 25-Year Club members will gather at the Physical Activities Complex at 6:00 tonight (it’s an invitation-only gala event). Here are the arrivals of 1985, the newest members of UW's 25-Year Club:

Tonight’s gala event, which starts at 6:00, will also honour the 35-year veterans who came to Waterloo in 1975 and are still serving as staff or faculty. Their names:

The 25-Year Club event is organized by the human resources department (information, ext. 32078).

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Lecture Wednesday on 'synthetic biology'

a news release from the media relations office

Recent advancements in synthetic biology will be explored in a free public lecture and panel discussion on Wednesday.

In May of 2010, biologist Craig Venter and his team of researchers produced the first synthetic cell controlled by an artificially created chromosome. The synthetic cell is being hailed as the first step in producing artificial life forms that could one day generate biological fuels, pharmaceuticals and even food. The breakthrough has also triggered concern over the ethics of creating artificial life and what other potential threats may arise, affecting the environment and living beings, like humans.

Trevor Charles, a professor in Waterloo’s department of biology, will explore this groundbreaking achievement in a lecture entitled "Building Life: The Science of Synthetic Biology".

“I will be examining why this synthetic cell was created and how it is different from conventional genetic engineering,” Charles said. “I will also look at the ethical and safety implications of this research.”

After the lecture, attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions of an expert panel. Panel members include Andre Masella, member of the iGEM synthetic biology team at Waterloo; Kathryn Plaisance, assistant professor in the faculty of environment’s Centre for Knowledge Integration; and Maria Trainer, program director at the Council of Canadian Academies.

“We look forward to welcoming the community to this event and hope it will generate some thought-provoking discussions about synthetic biology,” said David Rose, chair of biology.

The lecture is hosted by the faculty of science and will be held on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in J.R. Coutts Engineering Lecture Hall room 302. RSPS should go to scienceevents@ uwaterloo.ca or ext. 38804.

CAR

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