Rebecca Jamieson, president and CEO of Six Nations Polytechnic on the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve, visited the University of Waterloo's Senate last night to present President Feridun Hamdullahpur with a traditional Wampum belt—known as a covenant chain—of the kind that is used to record Six Nations history, to mark the partnership between the two institutions.

Jamieson, a former member of the University of Waterloo's Board of Governors, was introduced by St. Paul's University College principal Graham Brown. St. Paul's entered into partnership with Six Nations Polytechnic several years ago.

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Robert Lemieux named Dean of Science

"I am pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Robert Lemieux as dean of the Faculty of Science for a five-year term," wrote Vice-President, Academic & Provost Ian Orchard in a memo circulated this morning. "The appointment was unanimously recommended for consideration by the nominating committee established under Policy 45 and has been approved by the Board of Governors and Senate."

Senate gave its approval for the appointment of Professor Lemieux as dean and as professor with tenure in the Department of Chemistry, with both appointments commencing July 1. The five-year term will end on June 30. The Board of Governors approved the appointment at a special meeting last Friday.

Lemieux completed his BA (1984) at the Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, and his PhD (1989) at the University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois. A faculty member at Queen’s University since 1992, he currently holds the position of professor in the Department of Chemistry and serves as associate dean (research) in the Faculty of Arts and Science.

His past administrative service includes a one-year term as acting associate dean in the Faculty of Arts and Science and a five-year term as head of the Department of Chemistry.

As a scientist, he has established a multi-disciplinary research program in the chemistry of organic materials that is recognized internationally for its innovative approaches to the design of compounds that form or induce ferroelectric liquid crystal phases found in high-performance microdisplay applications. His contributions to the field of liquid crystals research were recognized by the International Liquid Crystal Society with the 2012 Samsung Mid-Career Award and, earlier in his career, by an Ontario Premier’s Research Excellence Award in 2000 and one of the inaugural Queen’s Chancellor’s Research Awards in 1999.

He has taught organic chemistry and materials chemistry at the undergraduate and graduate levels and received the chemistry departmental teaching award twice (1997, 2007). Over his 22-year career at Queen’s, he has supervised over 30 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

"I wish to add my own support for Professor Lemieux’s appointment," writes Orchard. "As an experienced administrator and respected scholar, he will strategically direct the Faculty of Science for the next few years. In addition, his input as a member of the senior administrative team will be highly valued. I know that Professor Lemieux can count on the support of the entire Waterloo community as he takes up his new challenge."

Professor Lemieux will succeed Terry McMahon, who completes his term as dean on June 30.

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Maintenance work on information systems

Information systems across the University will be undergoing maintenance for the advancement of its requirements for disaster recovery, security and supportability, according to a memo circulated by Information Systems & Technology (IST).

"The University has made significant investments in upgraded data centre facilities and core information technology infrastructure, to address limitations identified in a 2011 audit of Waterloo's Disaster Recovery Plan," the memo says. "A strategic recommendation from the 2009 Information Technology Task Force has been followed; to consolidate campus resource "directories" (known as "active directories", named Nexus and ADS) to enhance service and reduce costs. Finally, campus IT departments, including IST, must secure the University's information systems, by ensuring key components stay within the vendors' support windows, and by applying security patches."

To continue progress on these objectives, IST will contact stakeholders in departments whose systems will be affected to coordinate the maintenance work. "This work may involve only a short scheduled outage or may require more involved planning and testing, and a longer scheduled outage."

There are three primary maintenance activities required:

• After Microsoft support for Windows Server 2003 ends on July 14, 2015, security patches will not be available. These systems will need to be upgraded to a supported operating system, or have their internet access restricted to reduce the security risk;
• Moving servers still in ADS active directory to Nexus, as recommended in 2009. Until all are moved, IST must operate and support two parallel campus directories, requiring additional work and technical infrastructure, and reducing the time IST can commit to new initiatives; and
• Older, single-instance, physical servers would not be easily recovered after a disaster in a core data centre, and may even be difficult to recover from individual hardware failure. These should move to a virtual environment.
  

"In coming months, IST will contact all affected departments with specific information on the maintenance work required on systems," the memo concludes. "We appreciate your understanding and cooperation as we continue this important work."

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Tuesday's notes

The nomination period for the Federation of Students elections has been extended and will now close today at 4:00 p.m. Nomination forms are due at the Feds front desk. Elections will be held from February 10 to 12 for the Federation of Students executive, Student Councillors and undergraduate student senators.

The Water Institute will be hosting Professor Thomas Harter, the the Robert M. Hagan Endowed Chair in Water Management and Policy, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California at Davis, for a Water Institute Lecture entitled "Future of Groundwater Management in California" on Thursday, January 29 at 2:30 p.m. in DC 1302. Professor Harter's research group has done extensive modeling, laboratory, and field work to evaluate the impacts of agriculture and human activity on groundwater flow and contaminant transport in complex aquifer and soil systems.

The Federation of Students will be hosting an Open House event today from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the Student Life Centre Great Hall. Attendees will have an opportunity to learn what the Federation of Students has to offer and what services, employment opportunities, and social activities they can access through involvement with the organization.

The Faculty of Arts Undergraduate Office is hosting a Time Management Workshop for Undergrads on Wednesday, January 21 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in AL 113. Attendees will learn about managing and balancing their school work, social life, rest, and so on, and will get some dinner while they're at it - free pizza will be provided.

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