Complex will take Science to "the next level"

with material from a media relations office new release.

The ground may have been frozen, but the shovels still went in as a ceremony marking the new Science Teaching Complex took place yesterday morning. Pictured above are (l-r) Ophelia Lazaridis, Mike Lazaridis, Feridun Hamdullahpur, Terry McMahon, Bill Power, and Diana Kim.

The earth was turned to mark the new home for undergraduate studies in the Faculty of Science - a five-storey, 120,000 square-foot building that will be located between the two current Biology buildings. The complex will be dedicated to the undergraduates, providing resources they need to succeed while they study at Waterloo, and reflects the growth in demand for the faculty's successful undergraduate programs in recent years.

The new building was the culmination of teamwork, shared vision, and a commitment to science, said dean Terry McMahon, who acted as master of ceremonies at the groundbreaking. "This building will take us to the next level."

"It gives me great pleasure to host today's groundbreaking ceremony for this exciting addition to our campus," said Feridun Hamdullahpur. "This university is committed to help our students reach their full academic potential, our faculty to continue their tradition of research and teaching excellence, and the Faculty of Science to expand on its distinguished and critical role in training the great researchers of the future. I am particularly grateful to Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis for their vision for science and tremendous contributions to the University of Waterloo by making this building a reality."

Construction of the new building was made possible with the generous support of $10 million by Mike Lazaridis, co-founder and vice chair of the board at Research In Motion, and his wife Ophelia. Both attended yesterday's ceremony.

"Ophelia and I are deeply committed to helping the University of Waterloo remain at the forefront of scientific discovery and technological innovation that we believe will transform the Waterloo region into the Quantum Valley," said Lazaridis. "We are pleased that this project will contribute to that goal.”

Remarks were also delivered by associate dean and professor Bill Power and biomedical sciences graduate Diana Kim, who is now the faculty's undergraduate recruitment co-ordinator.

The Science Teaching Complex will include a suite of lecture rooms, including a 425-seat amphitheatre, the largest on campus, a 300-seat lecture hall, as well as three additional 150-seat teaching rooms. First-year teaching laboratories, student lounges, meeting rooms and a student café are also included in the building designed by ZAS Inc. Architects, NXL Architects, MCW Consultants, JMR Electric Ltd. and Read Jones Christoffersen Consulting Engineers.

“This ambitious, student-centred facility will bring our undergraduates together in the core of campus," said McMahon."We consider this to be the new home for science students, a hub of activity where they can gather, collaborate and work towards their educational goals.”

Bondfield Construction Company is expected to take roughly two years to complete the building, with a target opening date of April 2015.

Photograph by Light Imaging.

 

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An Advent calendar that's out of this world

by Christian Aagaard.

Mike Fich knows where to find an out-of-this-world Advent calendar.

A professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Fich heads a group at Waterloo that makes up the lead Canadian institution on the Herschel Space Observatory project. The European Space Agency launched Herschel on May 14, 2009.

Herschel sends back stunning images of dust clouds, galaxies and other objects as it peers deep into space with “eyes” tuned to wavebands ranging from far-infrared to submillimetre. Fich’s European colleagues have turned some those images into an online Advent calendar. There are no chocolates behind those digital doors, but it is sweet stuff for sky-watchers, loaded with high-calorie information.

“Every day comes up with another picture, another story,” Fich says, adding these are among the best images Herschel has sent so far.

Next year, Herschel will run out of helium, used to super-cool the components that make those remarkable images possible. But scientists will spend years and years going through the observatory’s data.

“So we expect to see lots more stuff happening,” Fich says.

 

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Genealogical collection finds home at Grebel

by Jennifer Konkle, communications co-ordinator, Conrad Grebel University College

A lifetime of persistent and meticulous research into the lives and family histories of Amish Mennonites has been donated to the Mennonite Archives of Ontario at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo.

Lorraine Roth (left) first became intrigued with genealogy as a teenager in the 1940s, and spent the ensuing decades reading and corresponding widely. She even travelled to Europe to unearth archival documents and taught herself to read old German script. Her published genealogies were soon followed by local histories, such as "Willing Service: Stories of Ontario Mennonite Women" (1992) and "The Amish and Their Neighbours", about Wilmot Township (1998).

“Everyone says ‘where does the time go?’ but how many of us actually stop to record and tell the stories of people in our families and local communities?” says Grebel Archivist Laureen Harder-Gissing (pictured above, browsing through Roth's diaries). “Lorraine’s gift is her ability to pay attention, to search out those facts and stories. Through the generous donation of her collection, the public can continue to benefit from her work.” In addition to genealogy files on over 100 Amish family names and research files for her history books, the collection reflects her experiences as a mission worker in Honduras, a Goshen College student, and a world traveler.

Lorraine had long expressed the desire that the Mennonite Archives of Ontario become the archival home for her research. In November, 21 boxes of files were moved from her residence in Tavistock to the archives in Waterloo. Here they will be stored until they can be properly preserved and eventually made available to the public. “The opening of Roth’s collection for research will likely coincide with the opening of the Lorraine Roth Archives Reading Room in our new facility in 2014,” says Harder-Gissing.

Friends who wanted to honour Lorraine Roth’s contribution began raising funds to name the new reading room in her honour at a fundraising dinner in Tavistock on year ago. They are $10,000 away from meeting their goal of $75,000! Donations to this fund are still being accepted. Contact Fred W. Martin at fwmartin@uwaterloo.ca or 519-885-0220 x24381 to contribute.

Grebel’s plans for the expanded Library and Archives can be found online.

 

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Friday's notes

Human Resources has reported that retired professor Peter Hinchcliffe (right) died on November 20. Professor Hinchcliffe began working at the university in September 1966. He was an associate professor in the department of English at St. Jerome's University until his retirement on September 1, 2001. He played an important role in the founding of The New Quarterly, a literary journal based at St. Jerome's, and the magazine has an award named in his honour.

Professor Hinchcliffe was predeceased by his wife Judith, who was also a professor of English at St. Jerome's, in 2003.

On Tuesday, December 4, University of Waterloo School of Architecture graduate Alison Brooks was named Architect of the Year at the annual Building Design Architect of the Year awards. Brooks, who is the principal at Alison Brooks Architects, won the Housing category of the awards program, and was also selected 'best of the best' winning the Schueco Gold Award for having made "the most significant contribution to British architecture in the last year."

"Congratulations to Alison and her colleagues," said architecture director Rick Haldenby. "This is a splendid achievement."

Credit where credit is due: The artwork featured in last Thursday's story about the Federation of Students' arts symposium was created by Meaghan Mechler.

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