Staff member in science is mourned

Memorial arrangements are being made for Richard Vollans (left), recruitment and marketing co-ordinator in the Faculty of Science and a well-known colleague in many networks across campus. Vollans died suddenly overnight Saturday after taking ill late last week. He was 40.

Vollans joined Waterloo in 2005, collaborating with colleagues in science and in the marketing and undergraduate recruitment office to introduce thousands of students each year to the university’s science programs.

“Richard really cared about helping students make the right choice for their future and was passionate about communicating the excitement of science,” says Tina Roberts, director of MUR. “Most recently, at the Ontario Universities Fair, Richard engaged more than 50 people to be on hand at the Science booth, and worked enthusiastically over three days sharing the Waterloo science story. Richard brought new ideas to our collective undergraduate recruitment team, and we could always count on his humour and good nature to lighten the mood. We are sorry to lose him at such a young age, and we know that his contributions will continue to help our recruitment efforts.”

Says Terry McMahon, the dean of science: “Richard was an important and dedicated member of our team. Anyone who worked with Richard knows what an incredible individual he was and how valuable his contributions to the faculty have been. He is irreplaceable and will be enormously missed by all of us who worked with him.”

In addition to his contributions on campus, Vollans was active in theatre in Guelph and surrounding communities, providing summer and March Break camps for young people and, more recently, serving on the board of the Guelph Arts Council.

He is survived by his wife Wendy, young daughters Alex and Elizabeth, parents Katherine and Brian, and siblings Kathleen and Daniel.

Plans are underway for a memorial gathering in Waterloo in the next few days. Event and memorial donation details are expected to be available soon.

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Visiting geneticist gives two lectures

An award-winning genetic scientist will speak to local high school students about his research on Rett syndrome at a talk in the Humanities Theatre this morning. Adrian Bird will speak under the title “A Scientific Journey: From Blue Skies Research to Neurological Disease”. He will also give a scientific lecture in the afternoon entitled “CpG Signalling in Health and Disease”.

Bird is one of this year's recipients of the Gairdner International Award, regarded as Canada's most prestigious medical research prize. As part of the Gairdner's mandate to communicate the work of medical researchers to others, Gairdner awardees visit universities across Canada to provide lectures on their areas of expertise.

"We are pleased to welcome Adrian Bird to the University of Waterloo," says Terry McMahon, dean of science. "Professor Bird has made significant discoveries in his research, and his talk will encourage students to consider continuing their studies in science."

His morning talk will focus on DNA methylation and its importance in the regulation of gene expression. DNA methylation is a biochemical process that plays a crucial part in the normal development for higher organisms. 

Bird will also talk about how he followed this DNA methylation research to understand a significant neurological disease called Rett syndrome, which affects the grey matter of the brain almost exclusively in females. His laboratory established a mouse model of Rett Syndrome and showed that the resulting severe neurological phenotype can be cured.

He holds the Buchanan Chair of Genetics at the University of Edinburgh and is director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology. He graduated in biochemistry from the University of Sussex and obtained his PhD at Edinburgh University.

Primary sponsor for both talks is the Gairdner Foundation, which was created to recognize and reward the achievements of medical researchers whose work contributes to significantly improving the quality of human life.

Out of the 298 individuals from 13 countries who have received the Gairdner Award, 76 have gone on to win the Nobel Prize.

Additional sponsors for the high school talk include the Government of Ontario, Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the university. The afternoon lecture is sponsored by the Government of Ontario, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the university.

The talk for high school students begins at 10:30 a.m., and the scientific lecture at 2 p.m., also in Humanities. Both lectures are open to the public; admission is free and registration is online.

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Letter to a horse shows value of United Way

by Kirsty Budd for the United Way campaign

The Therapeutic Riding Program at Pride Stables is one of the many agencies in Kitchener-Waterloo that are supported by the United Way, and by faculty, staff and retirees who contribute to this month’s United Way campaign.

The mission of the program, based on Pioneer Tower Road in Kitchener, is to provide safe, high quality riding program for persons with disabilities. The program fosters personal growth and improvement through the use of horses as a medium for development and therapy.

Dana is one of the youngsters who visit Pride Stables to ride Mister (photo above), a gentle white pony, and she thinks he’s “the best trotter she’s ever seen”. The participants in the Therapeutic Riding Program are encouraged to write letters to the horses. In Dana’s meticulously written letter to Mister she tells him how she loves when he whinnies and how much fun she has riding him. She ends her letter with “pats, horse shoes and love”.

Dana is one of the 350 special needs children and adults who have a special bond with one of the horses and benefit immeasurably from the program. Since 1974 Pride Stables has seen persons of all abilities benefiting from riding. They each get something different from the program. For some it’s a chance to improve balance and coordination, for others it’s about gaining independence and confidence. But as executive director Heather MacKneson notes, “the most important thing is they get to be themselves and have fun”.

Pride Stables and some 250 volunteers take care of the 27 horses that are ridden as a medium of therapy. The combination of the horse's movement, which simulates the human walking motion, and its higher body temperature, serves to supply passive heat massage to the riders' muscles, thereby either relaxing spastic muscles or stimulating lax muscles. Participating in weekly lessons also builds special friendships between the rider, their horse, volunteers and staff members.

Participants come once a week and ride for an hour. It’s a class setting with roughly six riders, at least six volunteers and an instructor. Each class varies as the riders are encouraged to learn at their own pace. They work through everything from stretches to steering and trotting. The horses can play games — “red light, green light” is a favourite.

“The program makes sure the riders are getting good exercise, but they don’t even notice because they’re enjoying it so much,” says MacKneson . “The riders really thrive in this environment. The United Way helps with the funding of the Therapeutic Riding Program, and we couldn’t do it without them. The funding means we can focus on taking care of the horses, growing the programming and making it even better for our riders.”

The university’s United Way campaign, with a goal of raising $210,000 for community programs across the Kitchener-Waterloo area, continues through the end of October. Faculty, staff and retirees are invited to contribute through payroll or pension deduction. As of late last week, the campaign had raised $135,513, not quite two-thirds of the goal, the United Way office reported.

CAR

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