guelph alumnus magazine, summer 2003
DESCRIPTION
University of Guelph Alumnus Magazine, Summer 2003TRANSCRIPT
It's 100% of their dependents who are really at risk. Life insurance is for the living. Your life insurance could be all that stands between your loved ones and a lifetime of need. You see, it's not really insurance ... it's groceries, utility payments , clothes, car maintenance, loan payments, ren t or mortgage .. . in fac t, it 's everything that your family depends on you fo r right now.
FACT: The death rate of Canadians between the ages of 30 and 49 is 5. 8 per 1, 000. **
If you were one of the 5.8, could your family cope financially without you? The unthinkable can happen. Don't let your family's story be a tragic one. For their securi ty and for your own peace of mind, find out more about the valuable and affordable Term Life, Major Accident Protection and Income Protection coverage designed for alwnni of the University of Guelph.
FACT: In Canada, life insurance represents only 2.4% of household
estate planning.***
Life insurance is an affordable way to maintain your family's net worth after you've passed away.
Consider all the payments you make on a monthly basis. Perhaps you have a mortgage, outstanding credit card balances, car loans or student loans. If you passed away and your family cashed in your assets (home, RRS P's and other investments) to pay all you owe, what would be left? Would it be enough to provide them with a suitab le lifestyle? Think about it.
Thinking ahead and purchasing insurance could make all the difference for your family's financial security.
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Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00p.m. ET, or e-mail us at: am_service@ manulife.com You may also visit www.manulife.com/affinityuoguelph, a Web site designed exclusively for
University of Guelph alumni.
Underwriflen by: Recommended by:
mJ Manulife Financial UNIVER.SITYA lumn 1• <f'GUELPH A S SOC I ATI O N
The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company
According to the Canadian Ownership Rcpon. A BCilChmark for the 21st Century (2000) by LIMRA International, Canadians aged 35 to 55 have an average of3.6 times their annual income in life insurance coverage, while Canadians aged 55 to 64 have only 2.4 times their annual income in coverage. 25% of all Canadian households have no life insurance at all, while 16.5% of Canadians aged 35 to 55 do not own any life insurance coverage.
u Smti stics Canada, Death 1998 - Report 84F02 11 XPI3 . ... Investor Economics The Household Balance Sheet Report- 2001 Edition.
3 message from the
4 in and Around the University
CHANCELLOR
Lincoln Alexander
has been reappointed for an unprecedented fifth
term at U of G, and 14 of
35 Canada Research
Chairs have now been named. Guelph faculty
and students have received numerous hon
ours, including a National Aboriginal Achieve
ment Award to English
professor Thomas King and a prestigious research
award to zoology PhD
graduate Ryan Gregory.
on the Cover
Guelph research in biologically
inspired robotics inspired this
illustration by Louis Fishauf.
SUMMER 2003
RESEARCH
A ROBOTIC EVOLUTION A small group of Guelph researchers is building a reputation in the
development of intelligent personal robots that are inspired by bio
logical systems.
TEACHING & LEARNING
INSPIRATION IS NOT ENOUGH Guelph faculty talk about creativity and strategies they use to help students learn to take risks that will lead to creative work in art, music and literature.
19
PROFILE OF A PRESIDENT
ROZANSKI 'GRADUATES' FROM U OF G
After 10 years as U of G president, Mordechai Rozanski leaves Guelph with memories of campus life, colleagues and alumni friends.
11
alumni Matters
GUELPH alumni are
reaching out to each
other through the Online
Community, where they have access to class bulletin boards, travel advice
and mentoring opportu
nities. Alumni Weekend
will celebrate student/
alumni traditions and the l OOth anniversary of the
founding of Macdonald Institute. And U of G
graduate Robert McLean
perseveres after the Columbia shuttle tragedy.
Summer 2003 1
2 GuELPH ALUMNUS
,.,,~
-/4 ; ~ ~· Quelph alumnus
Summer 2003 • VOLU M E 35 IssuE 2
Editor Mary Dickieson
Director Charles Cunningham
Art Direction Peter Enneson Design Inc.
Contributors Stacey Curry Gunn
Barbara Chance, BA '74
Rachelle Cooper
Lori Bona Hunt
Suzanne Soto
SPARK Program Writers
Andrew Vowles, B.Sc. '84
Advertising Inquiries Scott Anderson
519-827-9 169
519-654-6122
Direct all other correspondence to:
Communications and Public Affairs
Un ive rsity of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario N I G 2W l
Fax 519-824-7962
E-mail m .dickieson@exec. uoguelph.ca
www. uoguelph.ca/news/alumnus/
The Guelph Alumnus magazine is published
three times a year by Communications and
Public Affairs at the Un iversity of Guelph.
Its mission is to en hance the relationsh ip
between the University and its alumni and
friends and promote pride and comm it
ment within the University community. All
material is copyright 2003. Ideas and opin
ions expressed in the articles do not neces
sa rily refl ect the ideas or opinions of the
University or the edi tors.
Canada Post Agreement# 1500023
Pr inted in Canada by Contact
Creative Services. ISSN 1207-7801
To update yo ur alumni record, contact:
Alumni Affairs and Development
Phone 519-824-4120, Ext. 56550
Fax 519-822-2670
E- mail alumnireco rds@uoguelph. ca
UNIVERSITY 9!GUELPH
UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH
message from the President
THIS IS A BITTERSWEET MESSAGE because it
signals the end of my second term as president of
the University of Guelph.
After 10 years at Guelph, it's hard to leave, but I'm
looking forward to a new challenge at Rider University
in New jersey. And I know U of G will be in great hands
with my successor, Alastair Summerlee.
A faculty member in the Depart
ment of Biomedical Sciences since
1988, Alastair has also held a series of
successful administrative positions,
including his current role as provost
and vice-president (academic). A ded
icated colleague and an outstanding
provost, he has already helped advance
the excellence of the University in
numerous ways and will lead it to new
levels of success as your president.
Much of that success will rest, as it
has during my tenure, on the talented
and caring people who make up the Uni
versity of Guelph community-
faculty, staff, students, retirees,
MORDECHAIROZANSKI
family of alumni who have graduated since OVC's first
convocation of students in 1866 and to look forward to
the many future graduates who will emulate their pre
decessors' successes.
jamie-Lee joins a distinguished community of alum
ni that spans the globe and is a tremendous source of
expertise and leadership in society and, closer to home,
in the University community.
Guelph is fortunate to have alumni
who are generous with their time and
support, alumni who want to be
involved with students as mentors and
advisers, alumni who value the heritage
of the campus and take pride in con
tributing to its future.
Over the last decade, I've had the
opportunity to meet and get to know
many alumni. I have valued your friend
ship, advice and support.
You know better than anyone that
U of G is a university rich in history, yet
focused on providing each new
generation of students with the
board members and alumni. SUSTAINED EXCELLENCE highest-quality education.
I remember my own first
impression of Guelph as a
human place where people
shared great pride in the Uni
versity's past and even greater
confidence in its future. Today, I
share that pride and confidence.
AND AN EMBRACE In I 0 years' time, I've also
had the privilege of addressing
more than 18,000 new gradu
ates at convocation. They are
the best evidence of our success
OF INNOVATION ARE
COMMITMENTS THAT WILL
NOT FALTER ON as a university, carrying with
them Guelph's deepest value of
caring for others. It's no secret that U of G is
in the top tier of Canada's
THIS CAMPUS
post-secondary institutions.
Not only are Canada's best students knocking on our
doors, but the national media are also reporting our
successes and we're attracting first-class faculty and staff
from around the world. Sustained excellence and an
embrace of innovation are commitments that will not
falter on this campus.
One of the best examples of this came during win
ter convocation ceremonies when we celebrated a won
derful moment in University of Guelph history. On Feb.
19, Jamie-Lee Brown received a bachelor of arts degree
for her studies in psychology and became the Univer
sity's I OO,OOOth graduate.
That milestone gave us a chance to look back at the
Whatever your year of
graduation, I hope you will
always be interested in your alma mater and will make
the effort to maintain relationships with the classmates
and faculty who influenced your own journey of intel
lectual and personal growth.
I hope you will also recognize yourselves as ambas
sadors and advocates for the University of Guelph and
its mission to discover and disseminate new knowledge.
Education is one of the most important gifts we can
bestow on our society. I am deeply grateful for my educa
tion and the opportunities it has afforded me, including
the opportunity to further my vision of education with like
minded colleagues at the University of Guelph. It has been
a privilege to serve as president of this great institution.
Summer 2003 3
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BAR CODES FOR LIFE
EVERY LIVING BEING
carries a unique DNA
sequence that could soon
be used to identify all species on the planet.
Zoology professor Paul
Hebert and his research
team are proposing to "bar-code" all species,
much like retail products are now tagged on store
aisles. The retail industry's Universal Product
Code system uses 10 digits at each of 11 positions
to create 100 billion different combinations or
bar codes, which are in
turn assigned to specific
products. Hebert notes that DNA is encoded
using four chemical bases
and that the genomes of
most species are millions
of these nucleotides long. He says an examination
of only 45 of these
nucleotide positions can yield close to a billion bar
codes that can be used in
species recognition.
4 GuELPH ALUMNUS
ALEXANDER REAPPOINTED
LINCOLN ALEXANDER HAS BEEN
appointed to an unprecedented fifth term
as chancellor of U of G. The reappointment
was approved by Senate Jan. 28.
position that I love, and I will continue to try
my best to further enhance the image of this
great university."
The former Ontario lieutenant-governor first became chancellor of the University in 1991 and
will begin his next three-year term in October.
During his years as chancellor, he has con
ferred degrees and diplomas on more than 20,000
graduates at convocation. He serves on the University's external relations committee, Board of
Trustees and Board of Governors, and has been
an active public supporter of the University.
"I am tremendously proud and over
whelmed;' says Alexander. "It is a challenging
Canada Research Chairs filled
U OF G HA S N OW received
funding for 14 of the 35
Canada Research Chairs (CRCs) it expects to fill as part
of the federal government's pro
gram to build world-class centres of research excellence.
Federal CRC funding is enhanced through contributions in support of research
infrastructure from the Cana
da Foundation for Innovation
and the Ontario Innovation Trust, making U of G's 14 chairs
worth a total of $23 million.
U of G's newest chair hold-
ers are: Prof. Arend Bon en, formerly
chair of the University of
Waterloo's Department of
Kinesiology. He joined Guelph's
Department of Human Biology and Nutritional Sciences
May 1 as holder of the Canada
Research Chair in Metabolism
and Health. Prof. Joseph Lam, Department
of Microbiology, Canada Research Chair in Cystic Fibrosis and Microbial Biology.
Prof. Barry Smit, Department
of Geography, Canada Research Chair in Global Environmen
tal Change. Bonen is a leading researcher
of transport proteins that act as gatekeepers into muscle cells and
regulate metabolism by control
ling substrate entry into the cell. His research will advance under-
standing of potential therapies
for metabolic diseases. Lam's research also relates to
human health. He is investigat
ing pathogen-host interactions to develop more effective ways
to target and treat deadly
chronic pulmonary infections related to cystic fibrosis.
A world expert on adapta
tion to climate change, Smit is
examining the social and eco
nomic implications of global climate change and how to man
age the associated risks and
opportunities. Until recently, most research related to global
environmental changes has con
centrated on the physical and
biological processes involved.
• • n1vers1 PEOPLE IN THE NEWS • CAMPUS HIGHLIGHTS • UNIVERSITY NOTES
U of G Orchestra was undaunted
ENGLISH COMPOSER
Gustav Holst's most famous work, The Planets, is too large a piece for most Canadian orchestras to perform on their own. But that didn't stop Henry Janzen, conductor of the 45-member U of G Orchestra, from fulfilling his longtime dream of staging the masterpiece. In April, he Jed the orchestra in a performance of the work at Guelph's River Run Centre, accompanied by more than 50 other musicians from the National Ballet, the Canadian Opera Company and local youth and community orchestras.
"I thought this would be a great challenge for the orchestra," says Janzen. "It's a really popular piece of music, so I figured it probably wouldn't be too difficult to persuade extra
AUTHOR RECEIVES ABORIGINAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
PROF . THOMAS KING,
English and Theatre Studies, received a National Aboriginal Achievement Award for 2003 in the arts and culture category.
''I'm really pleased," says King. "So much of the press is about the negative stuff, but these awards are really looking at accomplishments that people have been able to make."
He is the author of four best-
It took two large classrooms with the dividers removed between them
to accommodate rehearsals for The Planets. Henry Janzen conducted
the 100 musicians required to perform the Gustav Holst masterpiece.
players to participate. The reality is, there won't be that many chances in their lifetime for them to play this piece."
Holst's seven-movement masterpiece did, indeed, produce a memorable evening for both musicians and audience, despite the fact that bad weather forced a day's delay in the
Thomas King, centre, with Ontario
lieutenant-governor James Bartle·
man and Cynthia Rathwell of Star
Choice Communications.
performance. "It's a really great piece of music," says Janzen. "The movement 'Mars' is so incessant and has such large brass forces and organ and everything else in it, and it shakes the ground. You feel as if you're caught up in this horrible activity, but it's so powerful and it's totally unstoppable:'
selling novels, two non-fiction books and numerous television, radio drama and fum scripts. He is also the creative force behind CBC Radio's Dead Dog Cafe
Comedy Hour. It is through humour that King has been able to bring First Nations issues to the forefront of Canadian society.
He has also been chosen to give the 2003 Massey Lectures, a national series run out of the University of Toronto and broadcast by CBC Radio. The series began in 1961 .
SHY KIDS
CHILDREN MAY BE a
lot shyer than their parents or teachers think, says Prof. Mary Ann Evans, Psychology. Evans had more than 400 children in grades 5 and 6 describe their shyness and asked each child's parents and teachers to rate the child's level of shyness.
The results showed that about 25 per cent of children report themselves as being shy. But about one-third of the children who rated themselves as shy were not characterized that way by their parents or teachers. "Many teachers and parents don't pick up on these internalized thoughts and feelings," says Evans.
The study also found that these children have lower self-esteem than do children whose shyness was recognized by their parents and teachers.
Summer 2003 5
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in and around the University
MUSCLE PROTEINS
PROF. }OHN DAWSON,
Chemistry and Biochem
istry, hopes that research
ing muscle protein inter
actions will offer clues to
alternative treatments for
cancer. The two proteins
Dawson is studying, actin
and myosin, are common
to all our cells and,
through their interaction,
allow our muscles to con
tract and extend. Because
myosin is critical in the
late stages of cell division,
inhibiting its action could
possibly halt the cell divi
sion that results m
tumour growth.
SOVIET ADVENTURES
PRoF. STEPHEN Hem
han, Languages and Lit
eratures, has received a lot
of attention for his book
of essays about Canadian
literature, When Words
Deny the World: The
Reshaping of Canadian
Writing. The book was
nominated for a Gover
nor General's Literary
Award. His latest book,
Lost Province: Adventures
in a Moldova Family, is
the first mainstream
book written on the for
mer Soviet republic.
6 GuELPH ALUMNUS
Breath strips win Project SOY
M.Sc. student Vicky Lee, second from left, and MBA
student Wilda Lau were a winning combination at
Project SOY this year, capturing top place with their
creation, Flavone Ice, breath strips containing bone·
healthy isoflavones. With them are their project
mentors, food science graduate student Vincent Sy,
a first-place winner at last year's competition, left,
and Massimo Marcone, a technician and adjunct
professor in the Department of Food Science.
undergraduate students Renzo Gomaz, Brian Palmer
and Stephanie Sage for biodegradable planters
called Plant Soylutions.
Food science students Alice Lee, Marie-Claire
Hurteau, Elizabeth Raditsis and Linda Shantz won
third prize for Pastawave, a soy macaroni and
cheese product.
Second place went to biological engineering
Project SOY was initiated in 1996 to harness
the creativity of students in finding innovative new
uses for soybeans, Ontario's number one cash crop.
CASE ADVANCES HUMAN RIGHTS
PATRICK CASE, director
of the Human Rights and
Equity Office, has been
appointed chair of the board of
directors for the Canadian Race
Relations Foundation. He will
take over the position from U
of G chancellor Lincoln
Alexander.
Case has been a leader in
implementing human rights
strategies at the University since
1999. He is also currently co
chair of the equality rights pan
el of the Court Challenges Pro
gram of Canada, serves as an
adviser to several organizations
on equal rights and employ
ment equity, and is teaching a
course on "African Canadians:
Racism and the Law" at
Osgoode Hall Law School.
WARLEY RECEIVES HONORARY DEGREE
RETIRED PROFESSOR T.K.
"Sandy" Warley received an
honorary doctor oflaws degree
at February convocation cere
monies, which also recognized
Canad ian broadcaster Bob
McDonald and author Nancy
Huston.
A faculty member from
1970 to 1991, Warley chaired
the then department of agri
cultural economics and exten
sion education from 1970 to
1974 and was an expert on the
history of international negoti
ations. In retirement, he has
been an active volunteer for the
OAC Alumni Association.
McDonald is best known as
host of the CBC Radio science
program Quirks and Quarks.
Huston, originally from Alber
ta, addresses social issues in her
novels, essays and children's
books. She is currently on fac
ulty at Harvard University.
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS WIN NATIONAL AWARD
U OF G LANDSCAPE archi
tecture professors Cecelia
Paine and Jim Taylor have
received a Nat ional Citation
Award from the Canadian Soci
ety of Landscape Architects
(CSLA) for their CD-ROM titled
Canadian Impressions!Impres-
How much DNA is enough?
WHY DO SALAMANDERS
have 20 times as much DNA as humans do? Ryan Gregory, PhD '03, wants to understand why there's such a variation in the amount of DNA in different animals and what it means for animal metabolism and development.
As part of his PhD thesis in zoology, he compiled the world's largest database of animal genome sizes and made first-time measurements of the genomes of about 400 invertebrates, ranging from insects and spiders
sions canadiennes. The CD-ROM provides a visual digest of 80 executed works oflandscape architecture across Canada.
The project team included landscape architecture graduate students Lorraine Falconer, Dorota Mlynarz and Laureen Snook.
For more information about the CD or the CSLA, visit the Web site www.csla.ca.
RATS AND FUNGI GO UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
TWO UNIVERSITY OF
Guelph professors will have "New Opportunities" to conduct innovative research, thanks to a $346,671 investment from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFJ).
Both new to the University of Guelph, Profs . Francesco Leri, Psychology, and Leonid Brown, Physics, will use the funding to equip their research laboratories.
"A major difficulty for young investigators like myself is to establish a new lab from nothing, but CFI makes it possible;'
to earthworms. His online collection ( www.genomesize.com) includes about 3,000 animals and has become a critical resource for scientists worldwide.
In recognition of that work, Gregory has been
says Leri, who received $148,126 to study drug-motivated behaviour in rats. His studies of the
neurological processes involved in drug relapse include the development of animal models of human drug addiction. He
wants to understand why people who break drug habits often suffer a relapse.
Brown will use his $198,545 in CFI funding to create one of
named the winner of the 2003 Howard Alper Post-doctoral Prize, the most prestigious post-doctoral award made by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). Currently an NSERC post-doctoral fellow at the American Museum of Natural History's Institute for Comparative Genomics in New York City, he plans to return to Canada.
"I am a very proud Canadian and hope to contribute as much as I can to Canadian science and society in the future:'
the most advanced biospectroscopic facilities in North America at Guelph. His research explores the way photoreceptors function in plants and fungi. The life cycles of many plants and fungi are regulated by sunlight, and the organisms possess various photoreceptors - photosensitive proteinsthat detect and use the light.
QUEEN'S JUBILEE AWARDS
MORE THAN 46,000
Canadians have been awarded the Golden jubilee Medal of Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of their contributions to fellow citizens, community or Canada. Among the recipients are former U of G president Bill Winegard, retired rural extension studies professor )im Shute, Animal-Care Services director Denna Benn and political science student John Aimers. Congratulations to these and other members of the U of G family who have been so honoured.
EDIBLE VACCINES
A U OF G RESEARCH
team that includes Prof. Patricia Shewen, Pathobiology, is creating a beef cattle vaccine disguised as alfalfa, a common feed
supplement m the bovine diet. The scientists have genetically modified alfalfa to produce antigens within its greenery. They hope this alfalfa will expose the tonsils of calves to antigens and act as a vaccine against shipping fever, an infection of the lungs and lower respiratory tract by an organism that resides in the tonsils.
RETIRE OVERUSED FARMLAND
GUELPH RESEARCH
ers are looking at the economic benefits of retiring overused farm
land by returning it to a more natural state, with grass and tree cover that will help soil recover. This may also help alleviate public concerns about water pollution, say Prof. Wanhong Yang, Geography, and Prof. Alfons Weersink, Agricultural Economics and Business.
Summer 2003 7
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U of G alumni, partners and fri ecen t gifts to The Campaign for the University of Guelph are notable because of
the stories they tell. Brothers who wanted to support rural youth, a tourism com
pany that values the Guelph graduates in its workforce, a major corporation that
benefits from U of G research - they've all found a way to achieve their personal
and business goals while investing in the future of the University of Guelph.
In recent months, the campaign has grown through the support of the campus community,
industry partners, foundations and friends. Individual gifts from alumni are also demonstrat
ing that the people who know U of G best believe the University's work is worth supporting.
U of G donors me about wanting to do something for Ontario Graduate Scholarships in Sci-
were 4-H fans the agricultural college," says their ence and Technology (OGS/ST) pro-lawyer and friend, Fritz Wigle. "They grams for students with current or past u o' G', New Angelo '"d appreciated the help they received there involvement in 4-H. The OGS/ST pro-
Frank Agro Scholarships will when some of their cows were sick:' grams maximize the impact of private-fund undergraduate and grad- Beginning in fall 2003, the gift will sector investment by providing a two-
uate scholarships for students who establish an annual $4,000 entrance to -one match from public funding. have been involved in 4-H programs. award ($1,000 for each of four years) Each annual scholarship is valued at
The gift of more than $1.15 million for a 4-H member from anywhere in $15,000. comes from the estate of brothers Canada who enrols in an undergrad- U of G's own involvement with the Angelo and Frank Agro, who ran a uate program at Guelph. It will also Canadian 4-H Council extends back champion Holstein breeding and arti- establish an annual graduate scholar- more than 25 years. As a 4-H program ficial insemination business in Water- ship of $3,000 for students in any U of sponsor, Guelph has lent faculty and down, Ont. Their international cus- G program, based on academic and staff expertise and the use of Universi-tomers for semen and bulls included research excellence and demonstrated ty facilities for 4-H programs and events. Cuban leader Fidel Castro. involvement in 4-H activities. Now celebrating its 90th anniversary
Frank died in 1996 and Angelo in In addition, the gift will fund nine in Canada, the 4-H program involves 2000. graduate scholarships through the more than 32,000 youths aged nine to
"Angelo and Frank often talked to Ontario Graduate Scholarships and 21 and 10,500 volunteer leaders.
8 GuELPH ALUMNus
r1ds invest in the future Alumni campaign relies on student callers
0 N THE OTHER END of that phone call just might be a voice from your alma mater.
Following on the success of its on-campus community campaign, and support from industry and research partners, U of G has launched an alumni campaign to help reach the overall goal of $75 million by the end of2003.
Beginning in June, student callers will contact all University alumni to share information about Guelph's major fundraising campaign and to ask for support.
The Campaign for the University of Guelph has already attracted investment from business and industry partners, foundations, volunteers, faculty, staff, students and friends. The University of Guelph Alumni Association made a leadership gift of $500,000 to support the classroom complex, and many individual alumni have also made contributions. Now the entire alumni base of more than 70,000 will be asked to make their donation.
Alumni may designate their campaign gifts as they choose. Priorities for the University-wide alumni campaign are the science and classroom complexes and the Library Learning Commons. In addition, each college has identified priority campaign projects if alumni prefer to direct their gifts to the college from which they graduated.
Bigger kitchen means more students
THE ScHOOL OF Hospitality and Tourism Management (HTM) has received $200,000 from Fairmont
Hotels and Resorts to help finance the expansion of the school's kitchen and teaching restaurant.
"Our company recognizes the University of Guelph as being very progressive and i.Jmovative with its programs;' says Carolyn Clark,
Fairmont's vice-president, human resources. Two out of three of Fairmont's general
managers are graduates of HTM's Advanced Management Program for the Hospitality
Industry. Clark herself took a short custom course in financial management offered by U of G at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler.
President Mordechai Rozanski says the Fairmont gift will allow U of G "to advance our experiential education niche through the expansion of our teaching restaurant, enabling us to increase our enrolment and continue to provide a first -class learning environment to educate the next generation of hospitality and tourism leaders."
The donation is being made as part of The Campaign for the University of Guelph and is the second major gift U of G has received in support of the HTM expansion.
The $3.5-million project will double the restaurant's food production space, and a new multi-purpose atrium will be built for use as an 85-seat dining room, lecture space and special-event facility.
Agilent supports research and teaching
5 CIENCE RESEARCH and teaching at the University of Guelph will be further strengthened through a
recent University campaign gift of $425,000 worth of equipment from Agilent Technologies Canada Inc.
The equipment- a bioanalyzer, two
UV-visible spectrophotometers, a capillary electrophoresis instrument and a liquid chromatograph/mass spectrometer- will provide students with research opportunities in advanced analytical techniques and instrumentation.
College of Biological Science dean Michael Emes says this campaign gift "reinforces firmly the link between an exceptional research environment and our undergraduate programs, in which our students have unparalleled opportunities to experience and participate in what is happening in modern science:'
Patrick Zimanyi, Agilent's Canadian busi-
Summer 2003 9
-
ness team manager, Life Sciences Busi
ness Unit, says educational institutions
such as Guelph "play an important role
in our business by educating the best
and the brightest students to reach their
potential." His company is a subsidiary
of Agilent Technologies Inc., a global
technology leader in communications,
electronics and life sciences.
Prof. David Evans, chair of the
Department of Molecular Biology and
Genetics, uses some of the equipment
for his research on viral proteins. He's
also exploring potential use of the new
instruments for higher-quality DNA
analysis and screening by researchers
in CBS, the College of Physical and
Engineering Science, OAC and OVC.
Currently located in Evans's depart
ment, the equipment will be housed in
a custom-designed laboratory near the
teaching labs in U of G's new science
complex, one of the largest science
facility projects under way in North
America.
Guelph community invests in U of G
THE UNIVERSITY of Guelph
will join forces with the Guelph
Community Foundation in the
first partnership of its kind in Canada.
Called UG2CF, the partnership will
enable Guelph residents and business
es to invest in both the University and
the community.
Gifts to UG2CF will remain in the
foundation's endowment fund in per
petuity, while generating ongoing
financial support for one of Canada's
leading educational institutions. Both
the University and the foundation will
recognize donors and inform them of
the results of their gifts.
Launched in 2000, the Guelph
~ Community Foundation is a philan
:3 thropic organization that builds <! s endowment funds from charitable gifts <! i):i and provides grants to support local
in initiatives in education, health, social
~ services, arts and culture, and the envi
~ ronment.
10 GUELPH ALUMNUS
Students' effort earns scholarship gift
C ROPLIFE CANADA has made
a $20,000 campaign gift on
behalf of a team of seven
Guelph graduate students who won
first prize in a multimedia design com
petition sponsored by the company.
The CropLife gift is being used to
establish a new graduate scholarship
for students in environmental biology
and plant agriculture.
The team won for its CD-ROM on
crop production in Canada, created to
commemorate the 50th anniversary of
Crop Life Canada, which represents the
manufacturers, developers and dis
tributors of plant life science products.
Titled "Fifty Years of Growing Tech
nology;' the interactive program is fea
tured on the Web sites of U of G's
Department of Environmental Biology
and Crop Life Canada and will be offered
as an educational tool for teachers.
Team members were PhD students
Mark Hanson, Cezarina Kora, Diane
Stanley-Horn and Laura Van Eerd from
the Department of Environmental
Biology and mast~r's student Cheryl
Corbett and PhD students Jason Cath
cart and Kris Mahoney from the
Department of Plant Agriculture. They
dedicated their prize to retired Prof.
Gerry Stephenson, who was faculty
adviser for the design project.
Building the future
0 NLY IMAGES ON paper and
builders' blueprints three years
ago, U of G's three current
construction projects are on track and
on budget.
The 52,000-square-foot classroom
complex will be ready for classes in Sep
tember, says Angelo Gismondi, senior
project manager for the science and class
room complexes. The classroom com
plex will accommodate 1,500 students.
The construction of Phase 1 of the
science complex began ramping up in
January 2003 and will create an addi
tional163,000 square feet of teaching
and research space on the Guelph cam
pus. Phase 2, expected to begin in the
fall of 2004, will add a further 210,000
square feet of teaching, research and
ancillary space, including student com
mon space.
Meanwhile, the mechanical and elec
trical work is being completed on the
133,000-square-foot University of
Guelph-Humber building, with work
moving ahead on the installation of win
dows, drywall and flooring. Located in
northwest Toronto, the four-storey build
ing will initially accommodate more than
2,000 students and will be ready in time
to serve the double cohort of students
expected to arrive at Ontario colleges and
universities this September, says David
Trick, chief executive officer for the Uni
versity of Guelph-Humber.
To see regular updates on the progress
of these buildings, visit the Web sites
www. uo guelph. ca!toward201 O.shtml
and www.guelph humber.ca!visitors/
index.shtml.
' RozANSKI
GRADUATES
" I
~ 0 OJ -< , rr-
"' z rn ---< Vl n
L-----------------------------------------------------~ I
'
Guelph's sixth president leaves a 1 0-year legacy of vision, investment and national recognition
By Mary Dickieson
A T HIS 1993 INSTALLATION
ceremony in War Memorial Hall,
Mordechai Rozanski promised he
would be visible on the University of
Guelph campus during his presidency. He
didn't know how visible until some time lat
er when he received a note complimenting
him on his choice of red pyjamas.
"I didn't want to be that visible;' he laughs.
For the past 10 years, Rozanski and his
family- his wife, Bonnie, and their son,
Daniel- have made their home on cam
pus in the 1882 stone cottage known as the
President's House. It's a busy spot, sur
rounded by several student residences and
sitting right across from Creelman dining
hall. And for several years, Student Health
Services was right next door.
Summer 2003 11
'
There's also a bus stop beside the Presi
dent's House that's used by students coming
home from a night out in downtown Guelph.
Like parents sleeping with one ear open, "we
usually hear them getting off the bus in the
early hours every Friday morning," says
Rozanski. "Often they'll sing loudly or caJJ out
their goodbyes. I think they just want
me to know they're home safely."
As most Guelph alumni know,
living on campus is a memorable
experience, but maintaining a nor
mal family life in the midst of 16,000
students surely takes a bit of com
promise and a sense of humour.
With his second term as president
now complete, Rozanski will be mov
ing to New Jersey with his family to
become president at Lawrenceville's
138-year-old Rider University. It's
familiar territory, with Bonnie's fam
ily an hour away in Manhattan and
friends made during the years when
he was an administrator at nearby
Fairleigh Dickinson University and
Wagner College and she was manag-
er of computing at a New Jersey division of
Dassault International.
Like all U of G graduates- Rozanski
chuckles that it's taken him lO years to grad
uate - the Rozanski family will
leave with many fond memories of
the Guelph campus, the friends they
made here and the impact their
experiences at U of G will have on
their future lives. "It's a bittersweet
moment," says Rozanski.
Just to set the record straight,
Bonnie earned her credentials in
much less time, earning an M.Sc. in
computing and information science
from U of Gin 1997.
She may well know the president
better than any other U of G graduate
does, but many alumni have become
his friends and trusted advisers.
"One of my first contacts with
the University of Guelph was Bill
Brock, BSA '58, who chaired the
Board of Governors committee that hired
me;' says the president. "He's been a great
friend to me and to the University. But 1
learned very quickly that Bill's affection for
Guelph is not an exception. We are fortu
nate to have a large family of active and ded-
12 GuELPH ALUMNUS
icated alumni. I hope I have helped the close
to 18,000 graduates of my time to feel that
same kind of pride in their alma mater."
Building that pride starts in first year, says
Rozanski. He has hosted an annual barbecue
for new students and served each year as fac
ulty mentor to aU of G President's Scholar.
DR. RozANSKI's PRESIDENCY
HAS BEEN MARKED BY
CHALLENGE, INNOVATION AND
SUBSTANTIAL GROWTH IN
GuELPH'S ACADEMIC STATURE,
ENROLMENT, FINANCIAL
RESOURCES AND REPUTATION.
HE IS AN EXEMPLARY LEADER
AND A PASSIONATE ADVOCATE
FOR EDUCATION.
Michael Walsh, BA '69, MA '70 and PhD '93
Chair, U of G Board of Governors
He felt a little pride himself when he recog
nized one of those scholars in the recent tele
vision production of The Music Man. "We
were watching the movie at home, and sud-
denly there was Marty Beecroft singing in a
barbershop quartet. It's wonderful to see the
achievements of our young alumni."
Rozanski admits it was difficult to turn
down the Board of Governors' offer to stand
for a third term, "but I believe in renewal;'
he says. "Guelph will benefit from institu
tional renewal, and I will also benefit from
the opportunity to take on a new challenge."
Change has been a regular part of the
president's life. Born in Poland and raised in
Montreal, he studied at McGill University and
then went on to complete a PhD at the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania. A specialist in
modern Chinese history, he spent tin1e
in Asia and was a faculty member and
administrator at several U.S. institu
tions before coming to U of G.
"I'm thankful that Bonnie and
Daniel were willing to share my desire
to come back to Canada for this
important period of our lives," he
says. "I feel a deep sense of gratitude
for the education l received as an
immigrant to Canada, and serving
Guelph offered me a chance to reci
procate. Moreover, I found that the
University of Guelph community
shared my belief that post-secondary
education should not only be of the
highest quality, but also a widely
accessible path that offers limitless
opportunities for successor generations."
That conviction was demonstrated off
campus as well in Rozanski's role as chair of
the Council of Ontario Universities over the
last two years as he led successful
efforts to restore substantial invest
ment in Ontario's 18 universities. In
addition, he headed a 2002 task force
that reviewed Ontario's funding for
mula for the public school system.
The resulting Rozanski Report rec
ommended some $2 billion in
increased funding and has become a
household name across the province.
When asked about the highlights
of his decade at Guelph, Rozanski is
quick to focus on "the U of G family."
"I've had the opportunity to work
with so many wonderful people
faculty, staff, students, alumni, my
colleagues in administration and our
dedicated board members. They've
made my job easier and very reward
ing. I've felt very much at home here, not
just as a resident of the campus but also as
the colleague of others whose goals and aspi
rations are entirely in keeping with my own
views about what a university should be."
Those views meshed early on in Rozan-
-
ski's tenure as he led the University through
a strategic planning process that was high
ly participatory and highly successful. As an
institution, Guelph reaffirmed and articu
lated its key objectives related to learning, research, continuing education, interna
tionalism and collaboration. Those broad
goals became promises to keep and,
later on, quotable quotes picked up
by the national media to explain why Guelph is being recognized as a pre
eminent post-secondary institution.
In 2002, when U of G was named
for the second time as the top com
prehensive university in Canada, Maclean's magazine recognized
Guelph's focus on students and its
reputation for sustained academic excellence, a direct result of the Uni
versity's ongoing planning process. Through successive government bud
get challenges and in response to the concerns of those who invest in pub
lic education, the Rozanski team is
still creating opportunities to advance
the University's quality and stature.
Every team leader looks for ways to support his or her players, and Guelph's longest-serving president is no exception.
Enthusiastic enough to jump in fully clothed
at the opening of the University's
gold pool in 1993, Rozanski has also put his pride on the 50-yard line in
front of a Homecoming crowd to "kick off" U of G's annual United
Way fundraising drive. This spring, he traded his Gryphon red pyjamas
for a jersey to cheer on Guelph's var
sity basketball team at the Canadian
finals in Halifax. Ten years of presidential duties
have included numerous shovels of
sod to turn and ribbons to cut, many of them the result of alumni initiatives and support. He's sold newspapers, dropped pucks and served hot dogs, pizza, coffee and celebratory cakes
all to encourage the Guelph spirit. During Rozanski's term, the Uni-
versity refocused its institutional vision and
set high standards for meeting its academic and social responsibilities. Academic
renewal over the last decade was guided in
part by the advice of alumni and the academic desires of incoming students trying to
find a niche where their interests would fit
the needs of citizenship, society and careers.
Guelph reconfirmed its commitment to
the agri-food sector and rural communities
through a new partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food that
added several research facilities and the agri-
DR. RozANSKI ALWAYS TRIED
TO MAKE SURE THE STUDENT
VOICE GOT HEARD ON CAMPUS
AND WAS ALWAYS PROUD OF THE
FACT THAT GUELPH IS KNOWN
AS BOTH A STRONG ACADEMIC
SCHOOL AND A UNIVERSITY
WITH A FRIENDLY FACE TOWARD
STUDENTS. THAT's WHY I'M
STILL HERE.
Laurie Halfpenny-Mitchell, B.Sc.(Eng.) '97
PhD Program in Biological Engineering
cultural colleges at Alfred, Kemptville and
Ridgetown to the University family. The new University of Guelph-Humber
program- integrating a university hon-
ours degree and a community college diploma- is addressing the increased demand
for post-secondary education in Ontario,
as well as providing new programs of inter
est to students and employers. U of G leaders also planned for enrol-
ment growth on the Guelph campus, while
advancing the University's reputation for
academic quality and taking advantage of
its research strengths in the life sciences.
During the last decade, enrolment has grown from 12,000 to the currel).t 16,600, while the
quality of entering students has risen.
Among comprehensive universities, Maclean's has ranked Guelph first or
second in the calibre of new students
over the past four years.
When the trustees of Rider University hired Rozanski to be that
institution's sixth president, they no
doubt took notice of Guelph's fiscal
record under his leadership: nine consecutive years of balanced budgets;
expansion and diversification of the University's financial resources;
a $40-million increase in research
funding to current annual support of more than $106 million;
growth of the University's endow
ment by some $100 million to a
2002 total of $134 million; a 600-per-cent increase in financial aid to students; and
$250 million in public- and private-sec
tor investment for U of G facilities and
infrastructure. As Rozanski's tenure ends, U of
G is undertaking the most significant
building and renovation activity in
its modern history, supported by a successful $75-million fundraising campaign. On-campus growth is
being guided by a recent review of the University's campus master plan.
It's a campus that Daniel first
explored on a bicycle, where his parents
hosted hundreds of dignitaries and special guests, and where they will say goodbye to their alumni friends in June.
"Our 10 years at Guelph are a short time when compared with the relationships of many alumni class
es," says Rozanski. "I look forward to meeting grads at Alumni Weekend,
where we will celebrate the 70th anniver
sary of OAC '33 and the I 00-year legacy of
Macdonald Institute . Our alumni have worked hard to maintain these connections,
and we will have a great time sharing mem
ories about our alma mater." ga
Summer 2003 13
14 GuELPH ALUMNUS
Evolutionary Mach • 1nes
Guelph engineers match wits with
the physical universe to build robots
based on the biological world
wo woucoN'o em •o HAY>
an R2-D2 around the house? An indestructible personal assist
ant who can repair anything, including himself. An odd-looking
robot made of metal and plastic that is so human-like in its abil
ity to perceive and satisfy our needs that we actually call it "he."
R2-D2 of Star Wars fame represents a generation of"intelli
gent" robots yet to be born in a commercial sense, but their ges
tation is well under way in research facilities around the world,
including the University of Guelph.
As technology and scientific knowledge continue to advance,
humans are becoming increasingly more dependent on robots. The
biggest dependency is in the North American automotive industry,
where more than 90 per cent of modern robots "work" assembling and
welding vehicle body parts and panels, finishing and painting car bod
ies, and stacking and moving partially completed cars.
Robots are also indispensable tools in the aerospace industry; elec
tronics manufacturing; oil, gas and mineral exploration; forestry; and
other types of precision work in environments hostile to humans. The
industrial use of robots- heavily focused on assembly-line operations
-is known as traditional robotics.
Story by Suzanne Soto and Murray Tong
Summer 2003 15
The evolution of robotics research, how
ever, is in the area of non-traditional robot
use. U of G engineering professor Medhat
Moussa says many of today's research
efforts, and certainly tomorrow's, are focused on the development of personal ser
vice robots that assist humans one-on-one
and improve the quality of their lives.
Unlike traditional robots, whose move
ments are wholly predetermined and depen
dent on the structure built around them
on the plant floor, for example- service robots are meant to be independently
deployed in non-structured environments
such as homes, offices and hospitals.
The robots themselves are user-centred
and user-adaptive, which means they can learn from their users and alter their actions, unlike traditional machines, which operate
only on command.
"These robots are also meant to be used
by non-technical people, as opposed to traditional robotics, which require skilled person
nel or engineers to run them," says Moussa.
He should know. The engineer is one of
a handful of researchers at Guelph con
ducting work in the emerging field of nontraditional robotic applications and robots that merge technology and engineering with
biological and other life sciences research
to create more intelligent machines. U of G, he says, may not be
among the major robotics research players in the country
such as the universities of Toron-
to behave like networks of neurons (the basic
cell of the nervous system). The future of
truly intelligent robots may depend on the
successful marriage of artificial neural networks and robotics engineering, demand
ing a thorough understanding of the func
tioning of biological systems.
Guelph researchers are developing a
our group at Guelph is small, our specialties
are at the forefront of this type of research." Since arriving at U of G three years ago,
he has worked in two primary areas: creat
ing a user-adaptive prosthetic hand and
designing personal service robots to help elderly or disabled people around the house.
Current prosthetic hands, he says, are
heavy and require users to undergo much
training before they can actually use the limb,
often leading to frustration. As a result, many
prosthetic hands end up not being used at all .
"What I am doing is trying to create a
prosthetic hand that learns from its user and
adapts to the user's preferences, so that after a while, the hand becomes accustomed to
that specific user rather than the user learning how to use the hand."
As such, the hand must be able to learn
how to grasp objects, how much force to apply and how tightly to squeeze, based on
information it has received from the user. "This process consists of three stages,"
Moussa explains. "The first stage is percep
tion or an ability to sense what the user
wants and to be able to use this feedback.
The second stage is that the hand must be able to reason from this sensing and make a particular decision. The third stage is the
ability to act. In the case of the hand, this
would be opening and closing, grasping all
kinds of objects, moving things
around and putting things up or down."
"We have conducted severto and British Columbia and new generation of personal service robots al simulations, and the results
are very promising," he adds. McGill University- but in the
area of non-traditional robot use z
to assist humans one-on-one in home, In the area of personal service robotics, Moussa and his
graduate students have created a small mobile robot equipped with a camera and a small arm
that enables it to sense objects
and pick them up.
~ and application, the small Guelph
~ group is among the strongest. f- . ~ Part of the1r strength comes f:5 from a close working relationship 0
~ with other like-minded engineers
::f. in the school's Intelligent Systems
~ Laboratory and with computer 8: scientists in the Guelph Natural
~ Computation Research Group Si_ (GNCG). Hosted by the Depart
~ ment of Computing and In foro ~ mation Science, GNCG scientists are also ~ experimenting with autonomous mobile o robotics and artificial neural networks. >-~ This technology tries to imitate the orga-
[5 nization and functioning of the human iE brain by programming silicon microchips
16 GuELPH ALUMNUS
office or hospital.
In Moussa's lab, "we are looking at wear
able robots or prosthetic hands, hands that can help blind people better navigate their sur
roundings, robots that incorporate comput
er vision, and robotics that some day may help people with physical therapy efforts. Although
"It's the type of robot you
may someday expect in a home;'
he says. "Its camera can pick up
an image, analyze it and feed this information to a reasoning
mechanism before attempting to pick the
object up." The robot, he says, is in its infancy and,
as such, does what infants do. It moves to
grasp an object, but often drops it or fails
to pick it up at all. Through the use of arti-
ficial intelligence, however, the robot can
process this information and can incorpo
rate what it's learned in subsequent tries.
"The work is going very well," he says,
adding that the ultimate goal of it all is to
someday develop a robot that could con
ceivably perform tasks around the house
such as preparing food, giving
medication, answering the
phone, turning on lights and
worn on the user's body- feed informa
tion into a special glove worn by the user.
The glove has vibrating motors (buzzers)
sewn into each finger that send impulses to
the wearer, warning of impediments and
terrain fluctuations ahead.
Traditional navigation systems provide
auditory feedback, and they usually have a
steep learning curve and overburden the
auditory channel, says Zelek. "We wanted
our system to be intuitive for the user."
Images from the cameras are processed
in the computer and translated into infor
mation about the location of obstacles with
in the camera's range, up to 30 feet. Then,
the buzzer on the finger corresponding to
the direction of that obstacle is activated.
For example, if the glove is worn on the left
hand, an obstruction lying straight ahead
would trigger the buzzer on the middle fin
ger. If the obstacle is just to the right of cen
tre, the index finger would buzz.
The stimulus on the user's fingers is used
to direct the person around obstructions,
says Zelek, who is also investigating possi
ble new methods of conveying terrain infor
mation through a subset of the buzzers.
His technique of acquiring information
about the environment is unique because
of his use of dual cameras, which perceive
depth the same way 3-D glasses do. Tradi-
Truly intelligent robots will marry
as a room full of people, where movement
creates multiple signals and provides little
useful information about obstacles.
"In the case of sonar, busy environments
cause multiple signals to get back to the user,
which can get confusing," says Zelek. In
addition, sonar and ultrasound systems con-
sume a lot of energy and need
to be recharged every few hours.
generally monitoring an elder
ly or disabled person.
In another part of the engi
neering building, Prof. John
Zelek is leading the develop-
engineering design with sensory and
computing technologies that imitate the
He and his research team
wanted their navigation system
to be wearable, comfortable and
affordable. "If it isn't comfortable,
no one is going to want to use it;'
he says. "The system can't intrude
ment of vision-assisted robots.
"I want to make machines see,"
he explains, adding that this
part of robotics research is cru-
cial. "A robot will perform only
as well as it can see the world."
Zelek and a research team
have already developed a mini
camera-assisted navigation sys
tem for the visually impaired, a
technology he calls "the logical extension of
the walking cane." The system provides
blind individuals with tactile feedback on
their immediate environment. Two small
Webcam-sized video cameras wired to a
portable computer- all of which can be
functioning of the human brain.
tiona! techniques of information gathering
usually use sonar or ultrasound waves,
which are bounced around objects in the
room, similar to a bat's method of naviga
tion. But these methods of sensing can be
easily foiled by complex surroundings, such
on the user's daily activities."
The glove is built from inex
pensive off-the-shelf compo
nents. Thanks to advanced tech
nology, the computer is small,
about the size of a deck of
cards, and consumes little pow
er. New technology- mini
cameras, in particular - also
enables the navigation system
to be very discreet. The cameras can be
mounted on shirt buttons, and the whole
unit can be sewn into a jacket.
Zelek has been able to test his "seeing
eye" glove with the co-operation and partic
ipation of about a dozen visually impaired
Summer 2003 17
individuals affiliated with the Canadian
National Institute for the Blind in Waterloo.
"The response was very favourable," he
says, adding that he is now testing a robot
that can walk up and down stairs and uses
the same technology as th e glove.
Another member of the Intelligent Sys
tems Lab, Prof. Hussein Abdullah, is an expert
in robotics and mechatronics. He has built
and is testing a mechanical system designed
to help people requiring physical therapy and
rehabilitation, such as victims of strokes, traf
fic accidents and sports mishaps.
One of the better ways of treating these
injuries, particularly when limbs are
involved, is through physical therapy requir
ing patients to repeat a motion or task.
Abdullah says that although intensive phys
ical treatment does strengthen impaired
limbs, it can take a long time to bring about
improvement. There's also no accurate way
of determining if a particular therapy or
motion is the most effective course of action.
"The current conventional physical and
occupational therapy in treatment centres is
subjective, labour-intensive and costly, par
ticularly for the health -care system," he says.
"This is where I believe robotics could make
a significant contribution. We're trying to
develop robotics that may someday be able to
perform some of these repetitive treatments,
reduce the need for hLUnan atten-
dants and bring down costs."
from a distance, so there is no need for
direct interaction between the two.
In the system he 's designing, however,
the robot will be in direct contact with the
actual user. "So we need to ensure the sys
tem is safe, flexible and able to ease inter
action between human and machine."
of patient progress," he says.
Prof. Simon Yang heads up another large
engineering lab working in the field of bio
logically inspired robotics. These are robots
that use insights gained through the study
of biological systems and mechanisms
from insect behaviour to human thinking
and perception. Much of Yang's work is
aimed at industrial applications, particu
larly in the field of agriculture.
"Biologically inspired approaches are
providing a radical alternative to conven
tional methods of computational intelli
gence in robotics and automation," he says.
"They are resulting in systems that can actu
ally respond to their environments and can
deal with multiple changing goa ls in
dynamic and unpredictable settings."
Many of these robots, he adds, take their
inspiration from the simple movements of
insects. "But they don't replicate those nat
uralmovements and systems. What we do
with these robots is take the idea from the
natural system and improve on it ."
Over the past few years, animal-like
robots have been playing an increasingly
important role as a link between the worlds
of biology and engineering. The new mul
tidisciplinary field of biorobotics provides
tools for biologists studying animal behav
iour and test beds for the study and evalua-
tion of biological algorithms for
engineering applicat ions.
Biologically inspired robots wiLL actually The second thing the system
is being designed to do is mon
itor and keep track of the
patient's muscular and other
reactions to the treatment pro
gram. "This feedback would
respond to changes in their environments and
make judgments such as when is the best
Yang and his resea rch team
have developed a robot designed
for agricultural work. The robot
uses map building, localization,
sensing, planning, tracking and
then be a great tool for the doc-
tor or physical therapist and the
patient in determining, on a
week by week basis, if the treat-
mentis working or if alterations
are needed;' Abdullah says.
He stresses that his work on
the robotics system is just begin
ning. As part of developing these
robots, he needs to do a lot of
research, particularly in the area of safety.
"When people use robotics on a factory
floor, the robot's working area is usually
totally secured, so none of the operators
interfere with the robot's space;' he says. In
addition, the operato r can run the robot
18 GuELPH ALUMNUS
time to water or pick fruit crops.
Abdullah adds that the system, when
developed, will not supplant the physical
therapist or completely take over that work.
"It will just be a very useful aid for the ther
apist in performing the repetitive element
of the training program and keeping track
control techniques to manoeu
vre around a farm field. It can
navigate rugged and steep hills
and avoid obstacles. The robot
can also take an image of a plant
and determine whether it needs
water or fertili zer.
In collaboration with indus
try partners, these Guelph engi
neers are also trying to develop
robots that would inspect, han-
dle and package food; biomechanical robots
to help veterinarians in their work with
injured livestock; robotic applications for use
in clearing land mines; and robots that not
only pick fruit but also have the smarts to
figure out which fruit is ripe for picking. ga
us A newsletter for alumni of the College of Biological Science • Summer 2003
Axelrod Institute poised for growth U oF G 's Axelrod Institute of Ichthyol
ogy held a grand reopening this spring,
marking the completion of more than two
years of renovations and additions funded
by federal and provincial governments and
industry partners.
"We will also celebrate the fact that the
institute is now positioned to take off as a
nationally and internationally recognized
research, teaching and service facility," says
Prof. Patrick Woo, Zoology, who became the
institute's director jan. l.
The Axelrod Institute is a Canadi an
leader in fisheries research and aquatic sci
ence and the holder of one of th e world's
largest collections of museum -quality fish
fossils. About 20 core faculty members in the
institute from the CBS, OAC and OVC study
key issues such as fish health and nutrition,
the impact of barriers controUing pest species
in the Great Lakes and native fishing rights.
More than a dozen researchers have
joined the institute recently. The centre also
hosts visiting scholars from around the world.
Woo plans to develop multidisciplinary
graduate courses and explore new revenue
sources by offering services such as work
shops to fisheries and aquaculture indus
tries. He also hopes to raise the institute's
international profile.
Closer to hom e, Prof. Steve Crawford ,
UNIVERSITY Q/'GUELPH
At work in one of two new labs in the Axelrod Institute, are, from left, graduate students
Momoko Kawai , Taco den Haas and Josh Clark. Here, they're using state·of·the·art so ftware to
study the age and growth history of fish .
Zoology, has worked for more than a decade
with First Nations communiti es along the
Bruce Peninsula on fisher ies management
and ecology. The Axelrod Institute is cur
rently negotiating an agreement that would
see his position funded equally by Guelph
and the bands and would help ease the
transfer of native students to U of G.
The institute also works with the Great
Lakes Fishery Commissi on, a partnership
WHAT'S INSIDE
between Ca nada and the United States.
Under a program to manage fisheries and
control sea lamprey in the Great Lakes, the
commission recently gave the institute more ~
than $200,000 a year to fund two tenure- ~ track positions at the institute. Prof. Gordon ~
McDonald studies the physiology of fresh- ~ water and marine fish; Prof. Rob McLaugh- ~
s: lin studies the effects of sea lamprey barri- ~
::! ers on biodiversity of stream fi shes. z
DEAN's MESSAGE . ..........•............ .. .. .. . ..... • .. . ... • ............ . 2
RESEARCH ON BRAIN I N J UR I ES · ·· · •·•··· · •· ............... . ... . ......... -3
COLLEGE UPDATES ...........•......................•...... . ... . .. .. ... . -4
Zygote Plus 1 Summer 2003
Dean's Message
A LTHOUGH MANY have comment
ed on our harsh winter, my first win
ter as dean of CBS at Guelph was won
derfully invigorating. Real snow -
coupled with blue skies and sunshine
compared with the endless rain, grey skies
and dull hue of my previous home in the
United Kingdom: perception is every
thing! From my perspective as dean, there
has been much to enjoy and admire on
campus and there is much to be opti
mistic about for the future. In january, the contract for the new sci
ence complex was awarded to Aecon Construction. Work has already begun on
Phase l of the project, which should be
completed near the end of 2004. As we pre
pare for this change and the wonderful
opportunities it presents, it is gratifying to
record the success of some of our faculty
whose excellence has been recognized both within the University and externally. CBS
professors Moira Ferguson, John Green
wood, Barbara Mable and Bill Woodward received the President's Distinguished Pro
fessors awards at a reception in January
honouring faculty from across campus. In
March, Prof. Chris Whitfield, acting chair
of the Department of Microbiology and holder of a Canada Research Chair,
received the 2003 Roche Diagnostics
Award, the most prestigious award of the
Canadian Society of Microbiology.
Remarkably, previous holders of this award
include fellow microbiology professors Terry Beveridge and Cecil Forsberg.
Also in Januar y, it was a pleasure to
present the CBS Dean's Scholarships to
CBS Students Honoured
UJ m
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"' :::i Two GRADUATING CBSstudentsare ~ this year's recipients of the Un iversity's :3 15th annual R.P. Gihnor Student Life Award >-~ and fourth annua l Brian D. Sullivan Stua ..... 0 :c a.
dent Leadership Award.
David Hartell, a molecular biology and
genetics major, received the Gilmor Award, which recognizes individuals or groups
who have contributed to the betterment of
student life at the University. jonathan
DaSilva, a biological science major and
outgoing president of the CBS Student Council, received the Sullivan Award,
which is presented to a graduating student
who has made significant contributions to
student leadership through his or her involvement as an elected or appointed stu
dent representative.
Hartell, who served as a student senator
for two years and was co-chair of Student
Senate Caucus in 2002/2003, was also a
START program group leader, orientation volunteer, Project Serve term leader and
CFRU Radio volunteer. DaSilva has served as
Zygote Plus 2 Summer 2003
outstanding undergraduate and graduate
students whose achievements and vitali
ty bode well for the future of Canadian
science. That month, Prof. Alastair Sum
merlee was named the new president of
the University. He has had tremendous success as provost, and we look forward
to his leadership as the University con
tinues to grow.
We also record our gratitude to out
going president Mordechai Rozanski, who
will take up new cha llenges elsewhere. He
has been at the helm of a ship that had to
be charted through difficult waters when he first arrived. He has succeeded
admirably in guiding it into new ventures
and making it one of the most attractive
vessels in Canada.
Winter convocation was capped by an
inspirational acceptance speech by hon
orary degree recipient Bob McDonald, host of CBC Radio's Quirks and Quarks.
Finally, many alumni and students took
part in the CBS Careers Night, my first chance to meet members of the CBSAA.
Michael Emes, Dean
Jonathan DaSilva
external commissioner for the Central Stu
dent Association, secretary of the Ontarian
board, vice-president (public relations) of the
CBS Student Council , president and chair of
Student Volunteer Connections and a mem
ber of the Citizenship Working Group.
How does vision help us navigate our environment?
PICTURE THIS SCENARIO: You and
your two young children are driving
down a street when a dog suddenly scur
ries into your path. Almost instinctively,
you slam on the brakes. Although this might save the animal, it could have dis
astrous consequences for you and your
children, even if everyone is safely buckled in their seats, says Prof. Lori Vallis,
Human Biology and Nutritional Sciences.
Many a brain injury has resulted when drivers, swerving to avoid an object on the
road, lose control of their vehicles and end up hitting a telephone pole, a guardrail, a
tree or another car, says Vallis. And even
though children may be properly restrained,
they could still hit their head slightly against the side door or the front-seat cushions,
causing internal brain injuries.
"I don't like saying this, but my advice
to parents in these situations is: Keep dri
ving;' she says, adding that she's not being cold-hearted. Rather, her comment is
based on her studies of children who
acquired brain injuries this way.
"Sometimes, the force of slamming on
the brakes causes the brain to move for
ward and hit the front part of the skull or the back or side and cause serious damage."
This damage can affect brain function
responsible for motor co-ordination and
movement, resulting in individuals who
suddenly cannot navigate their environ-
NUTRACEUTICAl RESEARCH THRIVING
G ROWING INTEREST in using indi
vidual food or plant components to improve or maintain human health has
meant lots of activity for nutritional scien
tists in Guelph's Human Nutraceutical
Research Unit (HNRU), who are studying
functional foods, nutraceuticals and nat
ural health products to reduce or prevent
disease. The HNRU was established in 1998 in
the Department of Human Biology and
Nutritional Sciences to explore and devel
op the use of nutraceutical and/or natural
ments successfully, says Vallis. "These individuals look fine;' she says.
"They have good vision and sense of touch and balance, but what changes is their abil
ity to integrate all this information."
Vallis, who has a PhD in kinesiology
specializing in biomechanics from the Uni
versity of Waterloo, is interested in explor
ing how children, the elderly, people with a motor impairment and people with neu
rological deficits use sensory information,
particularly vision, to navigate when walk
ing in complex environments. She first became interested in these
areas while doing her master's degree in
human kinetics at the University of
Ottawa, where she studied infant move
ment. Later, during a post-doctoral fel-
Zygote Plus 3 Summer 2003
lowship at Laval University, where she
worked with patients with traumatic head
injuries, she realized the importance of
vision in the whole equation.
"Vision is one of our most dominant
senses," she says, adding that a good illustration of its power occurs when we're
stopped at a traffic light and the bus
beside us suddenly starts moving forward,
giving us the unsettling sensation of mov
ing backwards. "Unfortunately," she adds, "there is not
a lot of information known as to the general science of how vision is used to navigate through our environment."
Until recently, equipment needed to
track visual information on individuals
was both expensive to buy and cumber
some to use, says Vallis. "Now, we can use a very small camera
that attaches to a baseball cap. A small video camera is used to track movement
of the eye, and a second camera tracks the
environment so we can see exactly where
people are looking in their surrounding environment.
"My ultimate goal is to understand
how healthy adults and healthy kids move
and use vision to navigate complex environments, so that we can, in turn, help
special populations, such as motionimpaired children and elderly individu
als, overcome their difficulties."
health product (NHP) supplements for
improving human health and performance.
The unit has enabled many graduate students and more than JSO undergraduates
to gain practical research or business expe
rience. Researchers have worked with gov
ernment agencies and businesses ranging
from NHP growers to multinational firms,
using clinical trials to study the effects of
NHPs on depression, irritable bowel syn
drome, cold and flu symptoms, cholesterol levels, weight loss and arthritis.
For more information, visit the Web site www.hnru.uoguelph.ca .
By Julie Conquer, Director
-o I
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FOUR YEARS FOR HEALTH AND PERFORMANCE CENTRE
U OF G's HEALTH and Performance
Centre marked its fourth anniversary
last fall. Located in the Powell Building, the
centre provides quality sports medicine and
health promotion programs to the Univer
sity and the community.
Each semester, the facility enables 40
undergraduate and four graduate volun-
Physiotherapist Teresa Piotrowski, left, works
with a patient in the Health and Performance
Centre.
teers to gain experience by working with
practitioners in sports medicine, physio
therapy, massage therapy, chiropractic,
pedorthics, fitness and nutrition.
Among its unique health promotion
programs, the Health and Performance
Centre offers a popular "Fitness and Nutri
tion Success" program that has been adopt
ed by several organizations. This year, the
centre introduced the "BodySwing Con
nection" golf performance program, which
assesses key factors in injury prevention and
golf performance. The centre's team also
provides information through a regular "Ask
the Expert" spot to viewers of Rogers Cable.
For more information, call centre direc
tor Cyndy McLean at 519-824-4120, Ext.
53319, send e-mail to [email protected]
or visit the Web site www.uoguelph.ca/hpc.
CAMPAIGN SEEKS AlUMNI SUPPORT
HAVING RAISED 93percentofits
goal of $75 million through contri
butions from individuals, foundations and
corporations, the University of Guelph will
focus on generating alumni support during
the final year of its campaign, which has
been themed "The Science of Life, The Art
of Living." Two of the most innovative ini
tiatives to be funded by this campaign are
the science and classroom complexes.
The 373,000-square-foot science com
plex will house more than 100 research and
40 teaching laboratories, as well as the new
Advanced Analysis Centre, and will bring
together departments in the colleges of Bio
logical Science and Physical and Engineer
ing Science. Construction began last fall and
will continue until mid-2006.
The classroom complex, to be complet
ed by September 2003, will house leading
edge lecture theatres and classrooms with
multimedia equipment.
CBS Alumni Association- Membership Form The following membersh ip plans are available to you:
0 Annual Membership: $10 per year
0 Life Membership: $75
0 Life Membersh ip In sta lment: $20 per year for four years ($8o total)
Name: (Include maiden name if applicable) ______ _________ _
Year of Graduation: Address: _ _________ _ _____ _
City: _ _______ Province/State: _______ _ ________ _
Country: Postal/Zip Code: _ _______ _ ___ ___ _
Telephone:(H) _________ _ (B) ________ _ __ _
E-mail: _ _______ _
Enclosed is my cheque for$ ____ made payable to the CBS Alumni Association.
Please return to:
CBS Alumni Association
Alumni House
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1
Zygote Plus 4 Summer 2003
CAREERS NIGHT lARGEST EVER
BUILDING ON A TRADITION
that reaches back many years, the
annual CBS Careers Night kicked off
Biology Week in January. This year's
event combined the efforts of college
departments and representatives of
the CBS Alumni Association, the
HK/HB Alumni Association, the CBS
Student Council and student councils
from the areas of nutritional sciences,
biomedical sciences and human kinet
ics. The result was the largest Careers
Night the college has ever hosted.
Thirty-six alumni from various
backgrounds were on hand to discuss
their careers. More than 200 students
attended the informal round-table
evening and got first-hand informa
tion from grads from the 1970s all the
way up to 2002.
The evening wrapped up with a
wine-and-cheese reception for the
alumni speakers, hosted by the CBS
Alumni Association.
A toxicologist at the Centre for Foren
sic Science in Toronto, David Riley,
M.Sc. '90, talks with students at the
annual CBS Careers Night.
Zygote Plus Summer 2003
Published by the College of Biological Science Contact: Sam Kosakowski
Tel: 519-824-4120, Ext. 54703
Fax: 519-767-2044 E-mail: [email protected]
"0 I
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Dado Segota, left,
uses reflective vinyl
to produce flexible
paintings for a
gallery installation
that will interact
with the space
where it's shown,
as well as provide
an artist's view of
how extreme sports
like skateboarding
interact with
environmental
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and architectural
structures. The
installation is part
of master's work
completed with
fine art professor
Will Garlitz.
INSPIRATION IS NOT ENOUGH It takes a skilled hand to create what the mind can see
By Rachelle Cooper
IN THE 1500s, Italian sculptor
Michelangelo said:"! saw the angel in
the marble and carved until l set him
free." Michelangelo's angel represents
that great inspiration for an idea that artists
crave. Not everyone has the ability to see
greatness in a block of stone. Nor is there a
formula for creativity- no rules a teacher
can give students to enable them to "see"
the angel in marble or on a blank canvas,
computer screen or music score.
The little epiphanies that artists experience
often come at unexpected times. Although
they can't be taught, professors in Guelph's
College of Arts use different stimuli to help
students trigger their own moments of inspi
ration. Once a person gets a glimpse of the
angel, an astute teacher can play a major role
-.
Summer 2003 19
--
l
in helping the young artist set it free.
It's the laborious part of the creative
process- the shaping of a painting, a short
story or a song- that can be taught at uni
versity.
People are often considered naturally cre
ative as young children. They explore their
imaginations through play and test limits by
taking risks. When they start school, their cre
ative juices can become suppressed by rules
and boundaries. It's at university that people
are not only given the time and permission to
take risks again, but are also encouraged to
push the boundaries and explore new ideas.
"Creativity has to do with suddenly com
ing face-to-face with something and recog
nizing how little you know about it;' says Prof.
Janice Kulyk Keefer, School of English and
Theatre Studies. "It's about trying to experi
ence the world as you did as a child, when you
didn't already know everything, when a mud
puddle wasn't something to be stepped over
on the way to school but something to get into
with your hands and your body, something
to respond to and draw with."
Kulyk Keefer is somewhat of a creativi
ty expert. An author of numerous works of
fiction, poetry and literary criticism, she has
twice been nominated for a Governor Gen
eral's Literary Award, is a two-time winner
of the CBC Radio Literary Competition and
was awarded the 1999 Marian Engel Award.
She came to Guelph in 1990 to help launch
its creative writing program, which has since
produced several published and award-win
ning authors, including Joanna Cockerline,
BA '99 and MA '00, who was a 2003 CBC
Radio Literary Competition winner.
"I think creativity can be fostered and I
think it can definitely be stifled, but every
one has their own inspiration," says Cock
erline. "I do think there are techniques that
profs can use to bring it out and to push it
further, to mould it."
A student's greatest fears are often what
can trigger the best writing, says Kulyk Keefer.
Although she can't force students to open up,
"you can make people aware of factors that
inhibit freer expression of ideas;' she says.
Fine art professor and painter Will Gor
litz adds: "You can encourage people not to
focus only on the development of their skills,
which has to happen, but also on stimuli in
the world around them. In some ways, cre
ativity depends on their willingness to take
20 GuELPH ALUMNUS
risks and to sometimes do things they feel
inherently disinclined to do."
Gorlitz was financially dependent on his
risk-taking abilities for 18 years as he sup
ported himself as an independent artist
before beginning to teach. He came to
Guelph in August 2001 from the Universi
ty of Waterloo, where he received the 2001
Distinguished Teacher Award. He exhibits
his work- which has been recognized and
examined in various periodicals, books and
catalogue publications- in solo and group
exhibitions nationally and internationally.
Co-ordinator of Guelph's master's pro
gram in fine art, Gorlitz is also teaching
undergraduate drawing and painting cours
es. He likens his role in the classroom to that
of a coach with hockey players on the ice.
"You know you can't actually score the goal
for them. You talk to them, give them
encouragement and especially reinforce the
things they're doing right."
Encouragement and positive reinforce
ment are two ways Gorlitz and other U of
G professors prompt creativity. Students are
much more likely to take creative risks if
they feel connected to the people around
them. The biggest advantage university stu
dents have over artists outside an academ
ic environment is the community of peers
and seasoned artists that surrounds them.
"An artist can be an artist without going
to university or taking a class," says Gorlitz.
"Not having an education doesn't disqual
ify you, but submitting yourself into a pro
gram of art education is basically a propo
sition of agreeing to enter a community
where not only do you have your own
propositions, but you also have the propo
sitions of faculty and other students who
set challenges for you. It's all done in a very
co-operative, discursive manner."
Recognizing that creativity is the
lifeblood of every academic discipline, Col
lege of Arts dean Jacqueline Murray says
Guelph excels at fostering this kind of rap
port across campus. "Establishing a sense
of community is inherent within or under
our rubric of learner-centredness;' she says.
"Part of what we do is create a safe space for
students to explore and express their cre
ativity and to develop their ideas and find
new and different ways of thinking and
experiencing and communicating. I think
we do it brilliantly here."
Music professor Ellen Waterman agrees
that an empathic classroom environment is
critical to the creative process. She's a pro
fessional flutist who specializes in experi
mental forms of new music, teaches cours
es in 20th-century and contemporary music
and leads the Contemporary Music Ensem
ble at Guelph.
"I don't think you can teach creativity
you allow it to happen by creating environ
ments where people feel free to explore," she
says. "I've never met a group of students who
wouldn't take you up on that if you could
create the proper circumstances. By encour
aging students to feel free to play within very
good parameters, you allow them to explore
and live up to that responsibility."
U of G fine art faculty say the biggest
change to teaching in their discipline over
the past few decades has been the amount of
leeway students are given. Contemporary
professors are finding the more freedom stu
dents have to explore within clear parame
ters, the better the results. Gorlitz gave his
second-year painting class a non-represen
tational abstract project witl1 very few restric
tions and was "so delighted with the results,
I was almost dumbfounded. I felt so elated
because I hadn't seen anything like it in ages."
For Cockerline, it was when her profes
sors gave her more space that she had the
most creative success.
"My favourite profs were ones who real
ly encouraged me to take risks to push
myself, to step outside the boundaries," she
says. "In terms of really getting students to
push their work to the next level, I think the
fewer restrictions, the better."
Jesse Stewart, a PhD candidate in the
School of English and Theatre Studies and an
award-winning percussionist with a master's
degree in musicology and composition, is
facilitating a music ensemble at Guelph that's
devoted to free improvisation- music com
posed and performed in the moment. He says
when the classroom hasn't been established
as a safe place, "it's a serious impediment to
creativity and to the learning process in gen
eral. People have to feel it's OK to take chances,
to play something or state an idea, even if it
doesn't come out the way they intend it to. I
often remind them that there are no wrong
notes in the music we make. I see this as a big
part of my responsibility in the group!'
The process students engage in is more
MUSICIAN ELLEN WATERMAN TRIES TO CREATE
AN EMPATHIC CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT AND REMINDS STUDENTS THAT
THEIR MUSIC SKILLS ARE NOT SEPARATE FROM THEIR IMAGINATIONS.
important than the end product, says Water
man. For a project in her Contemporary Music Ensemble, two first-year students
a classical violinist and an electric guitarist -decided to explore each other's music
worlds, so the guitarist bowed the guitar and
the violinist learned to let loose a bit.
"I thought it was a great idea," says Waterman. "Will it be a piece of music that
will be heard a hundred years from now? Of
course not, but that's not the important
part. The important part is the process they went through."
In their own creative processes, Garlitz,
Kulyk Keefer and Waterman say they have
success when they don't place many restrictions on themselves. "I constantly surprise
myself because I have no idea what's around the next corner," says Garlitz. "I've recog
nized moments when an idea comes to me,
a notion, a hint of something that's of inter
est that l start following in a deliberate way,
and suddenly a whole series of little epiphanies happens in relation to it."
Says Kulyk Keefer: "It's a rare luxury, feel
ing free to play, to explore, to reach out for something without knowing what you're
going to put your hands on- not to grab,
First-year students
Karl Skene, electric
guitar, and Tegan
Ceschi-Smith,
classical violin,
wrote music
together with
encouragement
from Prof. Ellen
Waterman, a fiutist
who specializes
in experimental
forms of music_
but to touch . To me, there's nothing more
satisfying and more exciting than feeling yourself moving towards the discovery of
something, crossing a threshold you never knew was there."
Arts professors are now using mixed media in their classes more than ever to help
stir up their students' creative juices. In their
sculpture classes, fine art professors Kim
Kozzi and Dai Skuse regularly use sound, video, images and performance. "We always
bring a complete sound system with a subwoofer and CD player into class;' says Kozzi.
"Sometimes we spin vinyl as well, depend-
Summer 2003 21
ing on what we're doing."
Gorlitz also uses music as a creative stim
ulus in class. When his second-year students
were working on their abstract project, he used
"very cool fusion jazz of Miles Davis because
of its serpentine construction, which seemed
parallel with the sensibility that students were
likely to follow in their own personal way!'
Kulyk Keefer says because painting has
a strong impact on her own writing, she
sometimes brings visual art into her creative
writing classes. After visiting the Kat he Koll
witz exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario,
for example, she showed her class overhead
projections of some of Kollwitz's most pow
erful works. That provided a springboard
for discussing the different strategies used
by creators of visual and verbal images to
express powerful emotion and for explor
ing where the line between profound feel
ing and easy sentimentality lies.
Waterman has used film to inspire her
students to write a new piece of music. She
says she also borrows exercises from theatre
warm-ups to loosen up her students.
Another way U of G helps students think
laterally is by offering options in course
selection. Guelph's encouragement of inter
disciplinary studies helps students draw on
many fields of study for inspiration.
"The integration of knowledge and
interdisciplinary approaches to questions
and problem solving is absolutely critical to
the creative process because each person
gets new ideas by learning how different tra
ditions and disciplines see things," says Mur
ray. "Part of creativity can be relating pre
viously unrelated material or modes of
thought that allow you to see things in a
new way. The broader the educational base,
the more likely it is that there will be this
kind of synergistic spark of insight."
Guelph's holistic approach to education
allows students to draw inspiration from
their different strengths.
"One of our best pianists is a science
major," says Waterman. "He's absolutely
dedicated to music and he's a good science
student. Students here can get training that's
detailed and thorough and much broader
than I ever got. They have quite a good
range of choices."
U of G professors have found that being
exposed to as much creative and intellectu
al material as possible increases students'
22 GuELPH ALUMNus
chances of seeing their own angel.
"What I try to make clear and emphatic
to my students is that creativity breeds cre
ativity;' says Kulyk Keefer. "You cannot be a
poet without reading a tremendous amount
of poetry of all kinds. But poets also listen to
music, go to plays and films, and read fiction
and non-fiction in order to remain open to
all kinds of creative expression. You don't
want to be boxed into one genre; you need to
be responsive to other artistic forms that can
show you how to do new or better things in
the poetry you write. I want my students to
see how what they're struggling to express
through poetic language and form may be
analogous to what a jazz musician or what an
abstract expressionist painter might be doing:'
Even within one genre, professors encour
age diversity. "In music training, quite typi
cally, historians are in one box, performers
are in another, composers are in another, and
these are all well-defined jobs;' says Water
man. "The composer is to be creative, the per
former is to interpret accurately and the his
torian is to think about all these other things.
I don't get the boxes at all. I work across all
three of those areas and into some others, and
I don't see any merit, especially early on, of
trapping somebody in a very small role."
Although Cockerline has become a nov
elist, she received her inspiration from the
ory classes. "Reading the texts for my theo
ry courses and thinking about them in new
ways were really valuable and helped me
examine how I was going to shape my own
craft and think of my own ideas and per
spectives;' she says. "It's helped me get at the
heart of how language operates."
Guelph professors are themselves
inspired by helping their students shape
ideas into something that can move others.
If students struggle to gain inspiration, they
soon learn that the idea is, in many ways, the
easy part. It's the shaping and revising and
perfecting of the idea that requires time, skill
and a more disciplined kind of creativity.
"A poem pouring itself on the page is
obviously the first crucial step because you
have to have something to work with," says
Kulyk Keefer. "But I try to stress with students
in creative writing courses that revision can
be just as creative an act as the initial putting
on paper of urgent ideas and feelings."
The skills needed to shape an idea can
be taught. Brush techniques, uses of colour,
revision techniques, tempo and rhythm all
act as the foundation on which artists can
build their repertoire.
"It's like cooking," says Gorlitz. "The first
time you have to boil an egg, it's a mystery.
But at a certain point, it becomes second
nature, and then you try more adventurous
things. Eventually you can make a souffle, but
you certainly wouldn't start with a souffle."
As students develop their skills, they can
express themselves more freely, have more
fun and have greater success experiment
ing. Waterman tries to remind students that
their music skills are not separate from their
imaginations.
"! have never felt a divide between intel
lectual activity and so-called creative activi
ty;' she says. "The two are very much parts of
the same whole, and you can't achieve cre
ative success without using them both:'
Accepting constructive criticism is essen
tial to shaping an idea so that it moves the
work's audience. Gorlitz believes being able
to justify one's work is integral to produc
ing quality creative work.
"I want people to respond to their urges,
but then to examine them as well. If some
one just says: 'This is how I felt, I was feel
ing creative; the words aren't inherently bad,
but they've fallen into a certain kind of
usage that's problematic and very difficult
to deal with in an educational context or
even in a critical context."
Artists of all genres need to engage in
dialogue to be effective. "Talking is a big part
of art, even though there's nothing visual
about it;' says Gorlitz.
Dialogue between student and teacher
and between peers refines students' work and
makes them accountable for their creations.
In his improv music ensemble, Stewart tries
to foster dialogue about the music the group
makes. "In my view, dialogue- that is, two
way communication- is an essential part
of the learning and creative processes."
Kulyk Keefer adds that dialogue also
helps writers realize their uncertainties and
frustrations are an integral part of devel
oping as an artist. "It's essential to be shar
ing your work with other people, to be lis
tening to other writers, to get the sense that
you're not the only one grappling with this
particular problem or having doubts about
whether your work is any good," she says.
Knowing your work is good also involves
WRITER JANICE KuLYK KEEFER AND PAINTER WILL GoRLITZ AGREE
THAT CREATIVITY FLOURISHES WHEN STUDENTS ARE WILLING TO TAKE RISKS
AND LEARN TO FREELY EXPRESS THEIR IDEAS.
the painful process of sharing it and receiv
ing feedback from the real world of con
sumer critics;' says Gorlitz. And after shelling
out thousands of dollars for a liberal arts edu
cation, parents and students often want proof
that the encouragement to play and explore
will eventually have a monetary value.
Statistics Canada 2001 census data show
that Canada's university graduates make, on
average, $25,545 more than full-time work
ers who have only a high school diploma
and $20,000 more than community college
graduates.
Those figures reinforce the monetary
value of a university degree, but the long
term benefits of learning to tap into your
creative side are greater than any amount
of money; it can lead to a fuller life.
"Creativity is a way of thinking and see
ing and acting and problem solving, so it's
something we're doing all the time, every
day," says Murray.
Adds Waterman: "! can't think of any
activity in life that doesn't require you to think
on your feet, to come up with solutions, to
work rigorously through processes, to relate
to other people, to collaborate, to get up in
front of other people and make some kind of
A novelist and poet
herself, Prof. Janice
Kulyk Keefer leads
a workshop session
with students from
an undergraduate
poetry class. From
left: Anya Lipchak,
Andrea Bennett,
Kulyk Keefer,
Karla Kale, Jamie
Charbonneau, and
Annie Hardwick.
presentation or state your case- whether it's
to a group of people or contesting a parking
ticket- it's all a performance. In institutions
like universities, we're driven to justify every
thing we do in really concrete terms. I've just
listed a number of skills that translate very
tangibly to other professions, but I'm a little
wistful for a time when perhaps one can say
these things are worth doing because it's good
to be alive and it's good for there to be beau
ty around you and it's good to experiment."
Students aren't just carving out the
angels they see in marble, they're carving
out their futures. ga
Summer 2003 23
-
She's got the stars on her side
LISA CHERRY wouldlovetomeet
pop legend Tina Turner. Oh, and
Bono, front man of Irish rock group U2. Not that the 1991 U of G biology grad
uate is star-struck: Cherry just wants to
recruit the high-powered singers in her nov
el decade-long fight against racism.
It was 10 years ago that Cherry, a freelance journalist in Toronto, began a nonprofit organization called Artists Against
Racism (AAR). Today, the group includes
more than 100 musicians, actors and writers
who provide their names- and not a little money- to serve as anti-racism role mod
els for youth in Canada and the United States.
The goal of preventing racism grew, in part, from Cherry's personal experience. The
youngest of three daughters in a jewish fam
ily, she had encountered racism before, but
one incident in the early 1990s stands out in
her memory. She had completed her B.Sc. and was studying veterinary medicine at the
time. Although she later withdrew from the
Guelph program for health reasons, Cherry was working as a student intern at Toronto's
Woodbine Racetrack when she and the
supervising veterinarian were insulted by a horse handler's anti-Semitic remarks.
A few years later, she found Canada's media
headlines dominated by related news- ral
lies at Queen's Park, recruitment in schools by
white supremacist groups, the formation of hate organizations on the Internet and the
establishment in Toronto of the largest hate
rock record label in North America. "Ali these things had come to a crisis;' says Cherry.
24 GUELPH ALUMNUS
By Andrew Vowles
By then, she was working as a freelance
journalist. She wrote an article about her encounters with anti-Semitism that was
published in the Globe and Mail and drew
a response from Canadian artist and musician Mendelson joe. Their discussion
sparked her idea to launch a Canada-wide
poster campaign that would use the star power of artists to deliver a "racism is
uncool" message to youngsters.
joe agreed to produce and donate a painting for the cause. He also helped with fund
ing and gave Cherry leads on other artists,
including such early adherents as children's entertainer Raffi and Neil Peart, drummer
for the Canadian rock group Rush. That fledgling poster campaign took off.
By 1995, 16,000 posters containing a list of entertainers' names were distributed to
schools across Canada, as well as to public
libraries and YMCA-YWCAs.
Today, the group numbers more than 100 entertainers from around the world, includ
ing actors Dan Aykroyd, Kiefer Sutherland,
Mike Myers and Sarah Polley; musicians Barenaked Ladies, Robbie Robertson, Lenny
Kravitz, Leonard Cohen, Phil Collins and
Prairie Oyster; writers Pierre Berton, Mar
garet Atwood, jane Urquhart, Michael
Ondaatje and Alice Munro; and directors Norman jewison and Atom Egoyan.
A Violet Ribbon campaign has seen such
celebrities as Celine Dion and )ewison wear the group's signature ribbon at the Acade
my Awards. High schools regularly sponsor "band bashes," while AAR hosts events such
as the One People benefit concert and booths at concerts and music festivals across
North America. The charity also promotes the message via radio and television public
service announcements, magazine and bill
board advertisements, labels on album covers and poster ads in washrooms, restau
rants, subway stations and movie theatres.
"At the very beginning, I never aimed to create anon-profit organization," says Cher
ry, who's been described in newspaper and
magazine articles as having resourcefulness, pluck, even a "magic touch." She allows that
at times, she's needed all those qualities and
more in dealing with the egos of some of
the artists' managers. "At one point, it was such a struggle to get to the artists;' she says.
There were also some surprises in store,
including the manager of one country singer who refused to pass along her request
to get involved. It turned out that both the
artist and the manager harboured virulent
racist views, a revelation that was eventually exposed by the Globe and Mail. "That
actually helped me get more artists."
The connection between the stars and
social justice may have been forged in Cherry's childhood when she first watched and
was inspired by the Hollywood film The Ten
Commandments. Closer to home, one of her
ancestors escaped from Spain during the Spanish Inquisition, and she recalls stories
about relatives who fled from anti-Jewish
pogroms in Ukraine before the First World War I. She herself spent several years figure
skating at a Toronto club that had previ-
ously banned Jews. She was also influenced
by people like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Rachel Carson and Elie
Wiesel. "I have a natural sense of justice,"
says Cherry. "Whenever I would read about
people not being treated with a sense of equality, it just incensed me, and I always
wanted to do something about it."
Her efforts have gone beyond Canada's
borders. In 2000, she and other AAR organizers were invited to Washington to meet
with the anti-racism office of the Clinton
administration. That was shortly after the head of the organization's Indiana office,
photographer Trace Poulson, won an award
from the Indiana Civil Rights Association
for organizing a peace concert to counteract a major Ku Klux Klan rally.
A second U.S. office operates in Rhode
Island under the leadership of a university
student whose professor was a former associate of King's. In late 2001, the organiza
tion received a Global Tolerance Award from
the Friends of the United Nations. AAR has
also received the Toronto Mayor's Anti
Racism Award and the Sassaby Cosmetics 1996 Internet Award.
Awards are gratifying, but what differ
ence is the organization making? Acknowledging that it's difficult to tell, Cherry says
the best gauge is from students who write that they've been influenced by AAR mate
rials and the artists' personal quotes. "We
get teachers e-mailing us all the time about
adding our educational material and Web site to their course curriculum. We've
brought up a whole generation of kids and
helped change the educational system.
Rather than fighting racism, it's easier to prevent racism than to stop it."
Artists Against Racism is now embark
ing on a major fund raising campaign to take
its anti-racism message to children and youth worldwide- what Cherry calls "more
of the same but on a bigger scale ." At the
same time, she's thinking her lOth anniver
sary is a good time to hand over control of
the organization to someone else. After a decade as executive director, she wants to
focus on long-standing interests in writing
about health and the environment. She's currently working on a documen
tary about environmental health and is pro
ducing an anti-pesticide TV ad campaign.
''I'm against the use of pesticides for con- ~ trolling West Nile virus," says Cherry, who b hopes to partner with an environmental orga- ~
"' nization. "We will kill more people through :S z
pesticides than West Nile virus will. There are ;;; better ways to control the disease." ga ~
Summer 2003 25
UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH
ALUMNI PROFILES
GUELPH GRAD APPLAUDS NASA FRIENDS AND SPIRIT
ROBERT McLEAN, B.Sc. '78, WILL
never forget the day he watched the
space shuttle Columbia launch into the sky
with a piece of his past and future on board. The Southwest Texas State University pro
fessor had an experiment on the mission.
A specialist in biofllms, McLean designed
his shuttle experiment to study how different strains of bacteria mingle in the absence of
gravity. The bacteria that he and three of his
students sent into orbit were so tiny, they
could fit into a raindrop. They were packaged for the journey between two layers of Teflon,
each only a few inches in depth . But the
knowledge those bacteria could bring back to Earth had the potential to be colossal.
McLean watched the shuttle launch in
Florida with about 80 other researchers who
had projects on the mission . "It was awesome to see, an amazing moment," he says.
But even more vivid in memory is the day
he learned the shuttle and its crew were not coming back.
"I was on my way to the airport to meet one of my students for the return flight to
Florida. I stopped at a coffee shop. Someone inside said they had heard that NASA had
lost contact with the shuttle." McLean was
~ stunned at first, then consumed by grief for ~ his NASA colleagues. "I kept thinking about ~ the families." ::J
~ As he made his way back home, ~ McLean's cell phone started ringing. It was
~ his university and then reporters. Word had
~ got out that he had a project on board, and f-
t;] he found himself answering media calls s I f::J 0 Vl
>Vl L.W f-
"' ::J
from all over Texas, the western United
States and even from Alberta, where he earned a PhD from the University of Cal-gary. "It was pretty intense for a while."
0 u In the past couple of months, McLean has 2 been able to refocus on his research. Biofllms 0 I 0.. are the slime-encased natural environments
26 GUELPH ALUMNUS
that bacteria form on surfaces, and the Columbia experiment was intended to determine whether three types of bacteria- E.
coli, Pseudomonas and Chromobacterium
would form biofilms in the absence of gravity. The hope was that the research findings would help develop disease treatments and
eventually prolong travel in space. "The idea is that a bacteria combination
can work as a water filter system on space missions where water is limited, recycling and reusing water," he says.
The control half of McLean's experiment is still in his lab, where he and his students
are focusing on the components ofbiofilms'
•
growth and development, such as the abil
ity of individual bacteria to grow slowly, survive starvation and stress, and perform metabolic activities.
There is a chance they may recover their
Columbia experiment. Not long ago,
McLean learned that the section of the shut
tie that contained his research survived the fall to Earth fairly intact.
''I've learned a lot from this experience,
namely that anything is possible and you don't give up - ever," he says. "Even when
things are dangerous and, even in this case,
where seven wonderful people lost their lives, we shouldn't turn back."
atters HIGHLIGHTS • GRAD NEWS • OBITUARIES • CALENDAR
INVITATION FOR COMMERCE GRADS
THE GuELPH CoMMERCE SociETY
is a student government group that pro
motes U of G commerce programs by host
ing social events and attending conferences
and workshops. They invite alumni partic
ipation in their annual golf tournament and
invite commerce grads to visit their Web site
at www.uoguelph.ca/-commerce.
NOTE TO ENGINEERING GRADS
KATIE MOUNTJOY REPRESENTS THE
Guelph branch of Engineers Without
Borders, an organization that collects used
tools and equipment to help launch business
ventures in the developing world. They'd like
to hear from owners of business and/or man
ufacturing companies who could help by
donating used equipment. For details, send
e-mail to [email protected].
REACHING OUT TO ALUMNI
ALUMNI AFFAIRS AND Development
has three projects under way to pro
vide fast, efficient communication with
alumni via the Internet.
"Our job is to engage alumni in the life
of the University;' says Jennifer Brett, man
ager of events and communications. "We
want alumni to be up to date on what's going
on and hopefully get involved themselves:'
More than 1,400 alumni have already
registered for Guelph's Online Communi
ty (OLC), giving them access to class bul
letin boards, travel advice, mentoring
opportunities and a cost-efficient way to
keep in touch with the University and oth
er alumni. This free service has been up and
running for 18 months.
In addition, the department has just
launched a new easy-to-navigate Web site that
features information on everything from class
projects to reunion dates. A photo gallery will
provide a snapshot of recent alumni events.
TELL ME ABOUT YOUR JOB
For graduating U of G students, Careers Night is one of the most important events of the
winter semester. Alumni participation is invaluable because it gives students a chance to
talk to graduates working in their field of interest.
"These are some of the best alumni programs we offer," says alumni manager Laurie
Malleau, who helped organize this year's event for students in U of G's geography program.
"Our students are so appreciative of the advice provided by alumni, who, in turn, have the
opportunity to mentor a group of outstanding young professionals."
Speakers at the geography event included, front row, from left: Jim Hosick, 'o1; Luigi
Derose, '94; Prof. Jan Mersey; and Johanna Wandel, MA '95. Back row: Stanley Jones, '72;
Douglas Smith, 'o2; PhD student Robert Mcleman; Laron Hopkins; '73; Wayne Caston, '77;
Alex Komarniski, '72; Brian Morber, '90; and Patti Young, '93·
And this summer, U of G will send the
first issue of a new alumni e-newsletter. It
will go initially to every graduate who has
given an e-mail address to Alumni House.
"Thee-newsletter will provide headlines
and brief updates on campus news and
events," says Brett. "Readers who want more
information will be able to click the head
line link to a full article in the Web version
of the Guelph Alumnus or other campus
publications."
Visit the new Web site at www.uoguelph.
ca/alumni to update your mailing address
online. Provide an e-mail address if you
would like to receive the alumni e-newsletter.
WRONG LETTER, RIGHT CAREER
CONSUMER STUDIES CHAIR Marjorie
Wall was featured in the Winter 2003
issue of the Guelph Alumnus in a story about
the legacy of Macdonald Institute. We apol
ogize for mispelling her last name and hope
our readers enjoyed her perspective on how
the college has reinvented itself in response
to changes in Canadian society. Wall earned
a B.H.Sc. from Macdonald Institute, an
M.Sc. from the College of Family and Con
sumer Studies, and aided the transition to
today's College of Social and Applied
Human Sciences as a faculty member.
Spring 2003 27
alumni Matters
U of G alumni and staff enjoyed a tour of San Antonio's famous Riverwalk during the March 8
Texas reunion . Left to right : Pam Healey, BA '73, assistant vice-president (development); Janet
Greathouse, David Taylor, DVM '86; Karen Grant, B.Sc. '88; Wendy McDowell, B.Sc.(Agr.) ' 78;
Patrick McDowell; Jeffrey Rowe and Margaret Gale·Rowe, B.Sc. '82, with their children, Bronwyn
and Alison; and Shirley and Ted Freeman, ADA '56.
The Alumni Collection available at
The University Bookstore
Library 0 Zavitz D
MacNaughton~
D University Centre
~ ::J ([)
(.0 til a. ~ ;;>\"
OThe Bullring
Reynolds Walk
see instore SPECIALS on
ALUMNI CLOTHING &.. GIITS The University Bookstore
located in the MacNaughton Building [email protected] (519) 824-4120 x 53690
28 GuELPH ALUMN us
Coming Events
june 20 to 22 -Alumni Weekend. See
page 29.
june 5- Farewell reception for U of G
president Mordechai Rozanski, Gryphon
Dome, 3:30 p .m . to 6 p .m. The Board of
Governors invites all alumni and com
munity friends to attend.
june 7 - Golf tournament for lacrosse
alumni. Contact Sam Kosakowski at Ext.
54703 or [email protected].
july 12 and 13 - Kemptville College
Alumni Weekend. Contact Ellen Mooney
at 613-258-8336 or emooney@kemptvil
lec. uoguelph.ca.
Sept. 5 - OAC Alumni Association
annual golf tournament in Guelph. Con
tact Carla Bradshaw at Ext. 56657.
Sept. 27 - Homecoming.
For details of alumni events, call the extension listed at 519-824-4120 or send e-mail to [email protected].
2003-2004 Agri-Tourism
Holidays
Experience the Bounty!
Apimondia 2003, August 16-31,2003
Experience apicultural and cultural attractions in Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia.
January 2004
• Arizona- Mixed Ag/Go lf
• New Zealand/ Australia from Januaty 23 to Febmary 16
February 2004
• 8 days- Tulare Farm Show, CA
• 8 day Costa Rican Tours, either Butterfly/Horticulture OR Dairy tour; incl. resort holiday
• 3 1 ! ~ 150 Research Lmc ~gnTours Guelph.On Canada N IG 4T2
Canada Inc. 51 9·826-4077
www.a tourscanada.com
Celebrating Traditions The rich history of the University of Guelph includes traditions created by alumni from every
era, every college and every class. Alumni Weekend 2003 is an opportunity for you to bring
those traditions back to life by rekindling friendships with former roommates and class
mates. • This year is extra special with events marking the lOOth annivers~ry of the found
ing of Macdonald Institute. Come back for your reunion, bring your family, visit your old
stomping grounds and see what's new! • University of Guelph Alumni Association (UGAA)
Awards of Excellence will be presented to Bruce Christie, ADA '58, and Clifford Chappel,
DVM '50. • All Guelph alumni are invited to attend Alumni Weekend. View registration
details online at www.uoguelph.ca/alumni.
FRIDAY, JUNE 20 Registration- Alumni House, 9 a.m. to 7:30p.m.
Alumni-in-Action Hospitality Room- All day at Alumni House.
Macdonald Institute Stamp Event- Creelman Hall, 10:30 a.m. Canada Post will introduce
a stamp marking the 1 DOth anniversary of the founding of Macdonald Institute.
College Directions Seminar Series- Lunch in the Whippletree at noon,
seminars from 1:30 to 4:30p.m., hosted by the Mac-FACS Alumni Association.
aAC Past Presidents' Dinner- Turfgrass Institute. 5 p.m.
Welcome Barbecue - Creelman Hall, 5:30p.m.
ave Past Presidents' Social - OVC Lifetime Learning Centre, 7 p.m.
Macdonald Institute Book Event- University Club, 7:30p.m., hosted by
College of Social and Applied Human Sciences (CSAHS) Dean Alun Joseph.
SATURDAY, JUNE 21 Registration - Alumni House, 8 a.m. to 7:30p.m.
Alumni-in-Action Hospitality Room- All day at Alumni House.
aAC Alumni Association AGM- Macdonald Hall149. 9 a.m.
ave Alumni Association AGM- OVC Lifetime Learning Centre. 9 a.m.
CSAHS Tours- Macdonald Institute Building, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., includes tour. films and reception .
President's Lunch and Golden Anniversary Celebration- Gryphon Dome, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.,
honouring 1953 classes, presentation of UGAA Awards of Excellence.
Trolley Tours - From the Mitchell Athletic Centre, 2 to 4 p.m
Macdonald Institute Heritage Event- Mac Hall1 02, 2:30p.m., grand opening
of Alumni Heritage Room and Adelaide Hoodless Garden.
UGAA Wine & Cheese- U of G's new classroom complex, 3 p.m .. ribbon-cutting for the alumni
concourse, presentation of Gordon Nixon Leadership Awards to student groups.
CSAHS Tours - Macdonald Institute Building, 330 to 4:30p.m., includes tour, fi lms and reception.
Silver Anniversary Dinner Creelman Hall, 6 p.m reception, 7 p.m. dinner.
Engineering Banquet- Whippletree, 6:30p.m., welcoming engineering graduates of every year.
Mac-FACS Gala - University Centre courtyard, 5:30p.m. reception, 7 p m dinner,
9:30p.m. dance to the Roya l City Big Band .
Alumni Pub - Brass Taps, 9 p.m .. dance music from the 1970s, '80s and early '90s.
SUNDAY, JUNE 22 Ecumenical Service - War Memorial Hall. 9 a.m.
Farewell Breakfast- Creelman Hall, 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.
CLASS REUNIONS aAC '33, '38, '43, '48, '48A '49, '53, '53A, '58, '63, '63A, '68, '73A, '78 and
'88; Mac '38. '48D. '52. '53. '53D. '56, '56D, '57D, '63, '64, '66 and '68; FACS '73, '78, '83 and '87; HAFA '73
and '93; Human Kinetics '83; ave '43, '48, '50, '54, '58, '63, '73, '78 and '02; Engineering '93; Landscape
Architecture '78; Physical Education '73
Accommodation is available on campus.
For information or to register, contact Alumni House at Tel. 519-824-4120, Ext. 56544 E-mail' [email protected]
Web: www.uoguelph.ca/alumni
GRAD NEWS
Bacteria cultured a promising career
1930 • William van Diepen, BSA '35,
enjoyed a 37-year career with
the United Fruit Company (known today as Chiquita
Polly and Bill van Diepen
Brands International). He
joined the company in 193 7
after earning a master's degree
in tropical crops agronomy and was stationed in Spanish Hon
duras. During his career, he
travelled widely and lived in
30 GUELPH ALUMNUS
WHEN JEREMY YETHON, B.Sc. '97 and PhD '01, enrolled at
Guelph in 1993, he planned to
study biochemistry. But after taking an elective course in micro
biology, he became fascinated by
bacteria and other micro-organ
isms, and that changed the direc
tion of his career.
After the U of G President's
Scholar completed his two Guelph degrees, he started work
as a post-doctoral fellow at
McMaster University. He is also the recipient of one of Canada's
most prestigious awards for young scientists- the Polanyi
Prize in Physiology/Medicine.
Named after John Charles Polanyi, a Canadian Nobel Prize
winner for his work in chem
istry, the prize recognizes out
standing young researchers in the early stages of their careers.
Guatemala, New Orleans, Mia
mi and Boston. He retired after
12 years as vice-president of research and development at
company headquarters 111
Boston. Van Diepen continues
to do consulting work in the banana industry and lives in
Florida with his second wife,
Polly, to whom he has been
married for more than 20 years.
1940 • Murray Mutrie, DVM '45,
has a veterinary practice in Woodstock, N.B., where he lives
with his wife, Pauline.
1950 • Bernie Brennan, DVM '51, a
member of the Ontario Racing
Commission, was recently inducted into Ottawa's Sports
Hall of Fame for his outstanding
athletic performances over the years. While at university, he
Yethon's current research is
on a eukaryotic system. He is
studying a family of proteins in mammalian cells that regu
late cell death or survival in
response to various stresses. He
hopes to combine what he
learned from his PhD work on
bacterial antibiotic resistance
with his post-doctoral work to "be able to probe the molecu
lar interactions between bac
teria and eukaryotic host cells
that are critical in the onset
and progression of bacterial infection."
His work has garnered much
attention, particularly from the pharmaceutical industry, with
several companies expressing
interest in pursuing his thesis
results for the development of novel antibiotics.
Part of what earned Yethon
played football and contributed
to three consecutive intercolle
giate championships. After grad
uation, he played for the Ottawa Rough Riders, helping the team
win the 1951 Grey Cup. Later in
his career, he was appointed track veterinarian at the Rideau
Carleton Raceway, where he took
up harness racing and became a driver, breeder and trainer.
• Maurice De Kindt, ADA '56 and BSA '62, recently moved
from Tecumseh, Ont., to Wind
sor. He retired 10 years ago as
agricultural manager at the
Green Giant processing plant in Tecumseh.
• Don Ghetti, BSA '51, has received a Queen's Golden
Jubilee Medal for his continued
support of his community and
country. A distinguished agrol
ogist and longtime volunteer for
U of G's most prestigious
entrance award was his desire
to give something back to his
community and society. As a student at Nelson High School
in Burlington, Ont., he coached
a midget boys' volleyball team,
volunteered at the local associ
ation for community living and
was one of the school's top stu·
dents. Today, his hands-on
approach to the betterment of
society takes place in a research lab where new discoveries may
improve the health of genera
tions to come. Yethon is married to Wendy
Fairs, B.Sc. '99, a graduate of
Guelph's program in food sci·
ence. He enjoys running and manages to enter several road
races a year. Future plans
include running the Boston Marathon.
the Canadian Cancer Society and the Heart and Stroke Founda
tion, he is a former citizen of the
year and Centennial Medal recipient for Niagara-on-the
Lake, Ont. He is also past presi
dent of St. David's and District Lions Club and recipient of the
club's highest award, the Melvin
Jones Fellowship. Ghetti and his
wife, Gloria, have two children,
John and Donna, and two
grandsons, Scott and Joshua.
• Marilyn, B.H.Sc. '55, and Ken Murray, BSA '50, received an
Outstanding Philanthropist
Award from the Waterloo Wellington Fundraising Execu
tives organization last Novem
ber. They were honoured for their commitment as volun
teers, financial contributors and
board members in a variety of
organizations that blend their
interests in education, music
and art, community health care
and conservation. Both have
been active since graduation in alumni activities and the
advancement of U of G's edu
cational mission.
1960 • Doug Speers, B.Sc. '66, is
president and CEO of EMCO Ltd., a leading manufacturer
and distributor of building
materials in London, Ont. He
was ranked the 65th top CEO
in Canada for 2002 by The National Post. EMCO Ltd. also produces custom components
and brass aluminum forgings.
• Terry Taylor, BA '68, has been
appointed CEO of Advocis, the
newest professional association of financial advisers in Canada.
Advocis began operating jan. 1, 2003, and replaced the existing
Canadian Association of Insur
ance and Financial Advisers and
the Canadian Association of Financial Planners.
1970 • Bernd Flock, B.Sc. '76, moved to Austria with his wife after
graduation and did volunteer
work with an interdenomina
tional Christian mission group.
Returning to Canada in 1978, he worked for Environment Cana
da, then did consulting for both
the federal and provincial governments in pollution control.
In 1993, he and his wife moved
back to Austria, where they are
involved in counselling, youth
work and church planning.
• Steve Hoare, BA '71, recently left his position as director of
strategic planning with the Aus
tralian government's Department of Agriculture, Forestry
GRAD NEWS UPDATE
and Fisheries to run his own
consulting business. His work focuses on animal health eco
nomics. Previously, he complet
ed post-graduate studies at the University ofWageningen in the
Netherlands, was CEO of Ani
mal Health Australia Ltd. and
served on the Exotic Animal
Disease Preparedness Council.
• Larry McCuaig, M.Sc. '70 and PhD '74, is a naturotherapist
practising in Ottawa. Last year,
he and his wife, Lynne, com-
Larry and Lynne McCuaig
pleted the Camino de Santiago,
a traditional pilgrimage trail across Spain to the burial place
of Saint James the Apostle.
McCuaig undertook the 780 kilometre trek to see what effect
the sustained daily exercise
would have on his fibromyalgia
symptoms. He explains that
fibromyalgia syndrome is a disease that affects the muscles, lig
aments and tendons. Although the 31-day journey did not
"cure" his condition, he says he
did realize a decline in the
symptoms.
• Larry Meek, B.Sc. '77, is a Washington-based independent
management consultant who
deals specifically with the use of
information and communication
technology (ICT) by the U.S.
government. He is currently
involved in a major Inter-American Development Bank/Gov
ernment of Guyana initiative to
introduce widespread use of ICT for economic reform and nation
al development. In 1999, he was
recruited by the World Bank
Group to act as its principal man
agement information officer.
• Gord Miller, B.Sc. '76 and M.Sc. '78, is the environmental
commissioner for Ontario. His
most recent report, Climate Change: Is the Science Sound?, was presented to the provincial
legislature.
• Ron Porter, B.Sc. '75, has been promoted to senior vice
president, automotive finance
and indirect lending, at Scotiabank. He has worked for the
bank since the early 1990s and
was previously vice-president,
automotive finance.
• Fred Promoli, BA '70, recently participated in the world's longest bicycle race, the firstever Tour d'Afrique. The race is
a 10,500-km (6,000-mile)
expedition from Cairo to Cape Town, covering 10 countries in
all. Cyclists average 100 km a
day for 100 days, raising funds
for and awareness of the preservation of African wilderness
and wildlife, as well as promot
ing cycling as an alternative to automobile-based transporta
tion.
• Monica Siegenthaler, B.A.Sc. '74, is completing post-graduate
studies in non-profit and vol
untary-sector management and
is working as executive director
of Daybreak, a charitable orga
nization in Ottawa. Friends can contact her by e-mail at mon
• Gordon Sim, BA '74, won an Oscar for achievement in art
direction for the movie Chicago. He was set decorator for the
1920s-style musical that received a total of 13 nominations and six
awards, including best picture.
Born and raised in St. Thomas,
Ont., Sim received all his formal training in Guelph's drama pro
gram. "The Drama Department was very good;' he says. "Anum
ber of people went on to do very
well. Rex Buckle, whom I still
keep in touch with, taught a great
film course. We had good people:' After graduation, Sim worked
with the Elgin Theatre Guild, the
Stratford Festival, the Shaw Fes
tival and Ottawa's National Arts
Centre before focusing on television commercials and feature
films in Toronto. His credits for set decoration include AI Pacino's
Sea of Love and Norman jewison's
Hurricane. His most recent work, The In-Laws starring Michael
Douglas, is being released in May.
He is currently working on a
political satire starring Gene
Hackman. • Keith Walton, B.Sc. '77, has
spent the last 25 years in vari
ous supervisory, technical and managerial capacities in the
plastics manufacturing indus
try. He is currently employed with Colortech as the opera
tions manager responsible for
the Brampton, Ont., operation
of Polyp last Mueller. The company manufactures colour and
additives concentrate. His
daughter, Erin, will graduate
from U of G this year with a BA
and has been accepted into Jaw school at the University of
Send address changes and Grad News to: Alumni Records, University of Guelph, Guelph ON N1G 2W1
Phone: 519-824-4120, Ext. 56550, Fax: 519-822-2670, E-mail: [email protected]
Summer 2003 31
Western Ontario. He and his '8 1, live in the Truro area. Adelaide, South Australia, to do live in Rancho Cucamonga.
wife, Donna, also have a son • Tom Carroll, BA '85, is a post-doctoral work at the South • Louise (Giroux) Hastie, B.A.Sc.
just finishing high school. painter, sculptor and print- Australian Museum and the '87, is a professor at the Durham
1980 maker who lives in Acton, Ont., University of Adelaide. She says College School of Business in
• Todd Bryant, B.Sc. '89, was with his wife, Inke Wevers-Car- she is now a fair dinkum Aussie Oshawa, Ont., and is pursuing
recently appointed plant man- roll. Last summer, he turned his citizen and can be reached bye- an MA in education through
ager of Ford's Oakville, Ont., talents to the stage to provide mail at chisholm.leslie@saug ov. Central Michigan University and
manufacturing plant. He began unique portraits and set design gov.au. the University of Toronto. She
his career at Ford as a produc- work for a production of the • Nicholas Clements, B.Sc. '84, has lived in Whitby since 1990
tion supervisor and has since musical Grease at the Guelph and his brother have a landscape with her husband, Andrew, and
held positions in manufactur- River Run Centre. maintenance company called twin sons, Scott and Michael, 9.
ing planning, quality control • Leslie Chisholm, B.Sc. '85 and Panoramic Landscape Services Before joining Durham, she
and lean manufacturing. M.Sc. '88, moved to Australia in just outside Washington, D.C. worked at Procter and Gamble
• Brian Cameron, B.Sc.(Agr.) 1995 to do a PhD in marine They provide services to the for 13 years in a number of
'81, is the new general manager parasitology at the University of entire D.C. and Baltimore area. research, sales and marketing
of the Dairy Farmers of Nova Queensland, Brisbane. She spent • Laurie Cook, B.Sc. '82, has roles. She would like to hear
Scotia (DFNS). He is responsible much time living on Heron been appointed partner with the from 1987 and '88 FACS grads
for milk marketing, quota man- Island, located on the Great Bar- Toronto law firm Borden Lad- at hastiefamily@rogers. com.
agement and general dairy gov- rier Reef, investigating flatworm ner Gervais LLP in the area of • Monique LeClerc, M.Sc '82
ernance for Nova Scotia's 340 parasites of sharks and rays. Last securities and capital markets. and PhD '87, earned a BA at
dairy producers. He joins DFNS year, her work took her to • Wendy Harris, B.A.Sc. '8 1, McGill University before com-
after three years as manager of Malaysian Borneo, where she worked in Canada for more ing to U of G. She is now a pro-
the Dairy Research and Techno!- was involved in a large collabo- than 10 years as a financial plan- fessor at the University of Geor-
ogy Centre at the University of rative project to chart the diver- ner before moving to southern gia, where she works in the
Alberta. Cameron and his wife, sity of sharks and rays and their California for her husband's environmental physics lab in the
Corinne (Chisholm),B.Sc.(Agr.) parasites. She recently moved to work. She and her family now College of Agricultural and Envi-
ronmental Sciences. She was
recently appointed president -elect of the International Society of Biometeorology (ISB), an organization that fosters the study of interrelations among humans, animals, vegetation and the atmosphere. She had previously held a three-year appointment as vice-president and had served two terms as head of ISB commissions. LeClerc and her husband, jesus Mata, live in Williamson, Ga., with their two children.
• Lou Maieron, B.Sc. '83, received an Award of Merit from the Credit Valley Conservation Authority for the protection of water resources around environmentally sensitive springs in the town of Erin, Ont. Owner of Silvercreek Aquaculture, a fish farm and consulting business, Maieron is
a professional fisheries biologist. • Edward Malek, B.Sc. '88, is
an inspector with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in North Bay, Ont., where he
enjoys many outdoor activities, including hiking and scuba diving. He recently received a national President's Award for
making a positive contribution to the workplace. Contact him at [email protected].
• Deborah Juby, B.Sc. '85, recently received her chartered accountant designation. She works for Davis Martindale LLP in London, Ont.
• Jacqueline McGlade, PhD '82, was recently appointed executive director of the European Environment Agency (EEA) in Copenhagen. The EEA is the main European-level provider of environmental information to policy-makers and the public. She is currently Natural Environment Research Council Professorial Fellow in Envi-
ronmental Informatics and Mathematics at University College in London, England. • Kelly Munkittrick, B.Sc. '80 and M.Sc. '83, earned a PhD from the University of Waterloo and now holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Ecosystem Health Assessment at the University of New Brunswick. His research involves studying the
fish populations of the Saint john River and the effects of industrial and urban effluents. The goal is to develop a reliable method for analyzing and monitoring water conditions and environmental change. • Jim Murray, M.Sc. '80, is provincial supervisor of the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board. He is also the CEO of optimal solutions, a consulting firm dedicated to helping
people and organizations reach their full potential. His recently
published third book, The Optimal Negotiator: A Companion for Serious Deal Makers, covers everything from complex commercial transactions to everyday encounters with others. For more information, visit www.optimal
negotiator.ca. • Alison Shannon, B.Sc.(H.K.) '81, is a kinesiologist specializing in educational, developmental and applied kinesiologies. She is also a certified brain gym instructor/consultant and works with people experiencing challenges m learning, speech, vision, behaviour, focus and memory, as well as those with ADD/ADHD, autism and Alzheimer's. She also practises body talk and touch and says both areas of study have helped her end her own use of hearing aids. She and her husband, Mike, live in Jerseyville, Ont ., with their four sons. Friends
can contact her at shannon
• Mark Shurvin, BA '81, has
accepted a third term as chair
of the Hamilton Conservation
Authority. The region's largest
environmental management
agency, it spearheads grassroots
environmental efforts to help
ensure a safe and sustainable
community. He is also an adju
dicator with the Ontario Min
istry of Labour.
• james Sidlofsky, BA '83, has
been appointed partner with
the Toronto law firm Borden
Ladner Gervais LLP in the area
of energy markets.
• Tony Sibbald, BA '89, has
been named sales promotion
Tony Sibbald
manager of Vector Marketing
Canada, a company he's been
employed with as a sales repre
sentative since 1991. His new
position co-ordinates sales pro
motion activities for the entire
Vector Canada operation.
• Tannis Slimmon, B.Sc.(Agr.)
'82 and M.Sc. '88, a well-known
Guelph singer, is heading south
of the border to showcase her
talents at the 15th annual North
American Folk Alliance confer
ence in Nashville. Together with
her band mates, she will debut
a collection of tunes from their
new album, Oak Lake. The folk
alliance aims to increase public
awareness and demonstrate the
artistic and cultural importance
of folk music and dance.
1990 • Kevin Finora, DVM '99, was
34 GuELPH ALUMNUS
thankful he'd been exposed to
large-animal medicine at OVC
when he was asked last winter to
provide emergency care for a
New York Police Department
horse that had been hit by a car.
Finora, who grew up in Toronto,
hasn't provided medical care for
horses since his days at OVC. He's
now a resident in small-animal
internal medicine and oncology
at the Animal Medical Center in
Manhattan. The injured horse,
Boots, had a massive chest injury
to the muscle, cartilage and bone
of its sternum, but has made a
full recovery and is expected to
go back to active duty.
• Elaine Anderson, B.Sc. '96,
was married in 2001 to Christian
Elaine and Christian Fuchs
Fuchs, B.Sc.(Agr.) '96, and they
live in Guelph. She is a food-safe
ty consultant and trainer and can
be reached by e-mail at e.ander
• Tracy Cocivera, MA '99 and
PhD '03, received an award for the
best PhD dissertation in human
resources research from the new
ly formed International Alliance
for Human Resources Research at
the February conference of the
Human Resources Professionals
Association of Ontario. Her dis
sertation was titled "Influence in
Organizations: Testing an Inte
grative Model of Agents' Decision
Making Processes for Selecting
Tactics:' She is currently working
as an industry consultant.
• Reuben Costa, BA '94, is a
human resources assistant at
the Canadian Food Inspection
Agency in Guelph. He lives in
Brantford with his wife, janice,
and infant daughter, Claudia
Maria. He recently released his
second full-length CD of
original music. Contact him at
rjcos [email protected].
• Cameron Deacoff, B.Sc.(Env.)
'98, spent 15 months working in
Alaska as a fisheries observer and
assisted in marine mammal stud
ies in Florida and Maine. He has
a master's degree in marine man
agement from Dalhousie Univer
sity's Marine Affairs Program
(MAP) and now works with MAP
and the Department of Fisheries
and Oceans to support integrat
ed management of Nova Scotia's
coastal waters. He lives in Halifax.
• Michelle Elliott Brown, B.Sc.
'92, was married in December
2002 to Australian Robert
Brown. They live on a dryland
farm in Victoria, Australia, rais
ing cereal crops and fat lambs.
That's quite a climate adjustment
from the three years she lived in
Dawson City, Yukon Territory,
before moving down under.
• Lian Goodall, BA '95, lives in
Ottawa and has just published
her second book, William Lyon
Mackenzie King: Dreams and
Shadows, for children 14 and
Lian Goodall
up. Her articles and children's
book reviews can be viewed at
www.liangoodall.com.
• Ryan Ewaskiw, BA '96, is a
music teacher and lives in St.
Thomas, Ont., with his wife,
janet, and infant daughter,
Emma.
• Anne (Foster) Low, B.Sc: 95,
lives in Toronto. She married
Mike Low in 2002 and this year
launched her own e-commerce
business, Stickermarket. The
Internet-based business sells
stickers to teachers, scrapbook
enthusiasts and sticker lovers of
all ages. For details, see
www.stickermarket. com.
• Stephanie McClellan, BA '96,
was inducted into the Terry Fox
Hall of Fame last fall in recog
nition of her athletic achieve
ments. The 29-year-old disabled
athlete cycled 9,018 kms across
Canada to promote the abilities
of people with disabilities.
• Chukwiemeka Okere, PhD
'95, holds a senior faculty posi
tion at the School of Agriculture
at the University of the South
Pacific's Alafua campus in Apia,
Samoa. His responsibilities
include conducting research and
teaching diploma, undergradu
ate and graduate students in the
Chukwiemeka Okere
areas of animal production,
reproductive and environmen
tal physiology, breeding and
genetics. He teaches both on
campus and in distance educa
tion and extension programs.
• Tammy (Tipler) Priolo,
B.A.Sc. '90, lives in North Bay,
Ont., with her husband, Clark,
and their daughter, Erica. She
operates a genealogical research
and consulting firm called
GenAdventures and is current
ly collecting information on the
early Italians of North Bay. She
will speak to the local genealog-
ical society in October. She says
hello to all her classmates and
welcomes contact by e-mail at
tpriolo@hotmail .com.
mates at [email protected].
• Heather Williams, B.Sc. '95, is
teaching high school biology at
the Seaway District High School
in Iroquois, Ont. She is also pro
gram leader for the science
department.
2000 • Jennifer Feasby, BA '02, is a
Jesuit volunteer working in
Belize for an organization called
Youth Enhancement Services.
She is a teacher and counsellor
at an alternative school for at
risk young women.
• Lisa (MacCormack) Raitt,
M.Sc. '93, has been appointed
CEO at the Toronto Port Author
ity (TPA). She will continue to
also serve as harbourmaster with
the TPA, a position she has held
since January 200 l. A graduate
of Osgoode Hall Law School, she
was called to the bar in 1998 and
gained maritime legal experience
in the United Kingdom.
Nancy Milton and joe Regan
• Patrick Woodcock, BA '96, is
a poet and the only Canadian
writer to be invited to attend
the 41st International Poetry
Festival, Sarajevo Poetry Days,
in Bosnia-Herzegovina. His
work, including The Six O'Clock Club, AthElia and Scarring Endymion, has been translated
into Bosnian, Russian, Icelandic
and Polish, an indication of his
growing popularity in the inter
national poetry community.
His next collection of poems is
titled The Challenged Ones.
• Nicole Mackereth, BA '00, has
moved to Toronto, where she
continued her education in the
museum studies program at the
University of Toronto.
• Joe Regan, B.Sc. '91, and Nancy Milton, BA '95, were married
Oct. 4, 2002, in Toronto. They
now live in Bloor West Village.
He is a venture capitalist, and
she is a sales and marketing
program manager.
• Ken Spence, B.Comm.'96, is
sales manager for Pearson Tech
nology Group Canada in Toron
to. The company is one of the
largest computer book publish
ers in the world. Spence is
engaged to be married this
December and will be moving
to a new home in Whitby. He
would like to hear from class-
George Grieve, DVM '68 and M.Sc. '73,
died )an. 26, 2003. He was owner and direc
tor of the Glen Erin Animal Hospital and
the Meadowvale Animal Clinic in Missis
sauga, Ont., and director and partner of the
Mississauga Veterinary Emergency Clinic.
He was active in numerous professional
associations and was president -elect of the
American Animal Hospital Association at
the time of his death. He is survived by his
wife, Betty, two children and one grandson.
Lawrence Kerr, BSA '29, died Feb. 4, 2003.
He was active in a number of agricultural
organizations and was honoured by sev
eral for his efforts in rural stewardship and
the promotion of an efficient agri-food
industry. The farm operation he started
near Chatham, Ont., in 1934 remains a
model of good husbandry practices, pro
ducing seed crops in combination with
livestock production and many acres of
vegetables and fruit for both processing
and retail sale through a farm-based mar
ket. At his alma mater, he served as a mem
ber of the OAC Advisory Committee and
was a charter director of the OAC Alum
ni Foundation. He contributed to the
founding of the University of Guelph as
OBITUARIES
vice-chair of the Board of Regents of the
Federated Colleges and was a member of
U of G's first Board of Governors. He was
named an Honorary Fellow of the Uni
versity in 1973, received an OAC Centen
nial Medal in 1974 and was named Alum
nus of Honour in 2000. Predeceased by his
wife, Mary, in 1996, he is survived by a son,
Robert, B.Sc.(Agr.) '68; a daughter, Elaine
Duffy; and their families.
Regis Simard, PhD '87, died from cancer
July 5, 2002. He was a noted soil scientist,
author of more than 100 scientific papers,
former editor of the Canadian Journal of Soil Science, former president and Fellow of
the Canadian Society of Soil Science and a
Fellow of the International Organization
for Economic Co-operation and Develop-
• Marc Thibault, M.Sc. '01, is
working in the Toronto office
of J.D. Power and Associates, a
global marketing and informa
tion firm that specializes in
automotive research. He tracks
purchase and delivery satisfac
tion for Subaru Canada, as well
as service satisfaction initiatives.
ment. Most of his career was spent with
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada at
Sainte-Foy, Que., where he was closely asso
ciated with Laval University, but he was head
of the soil science department at the Uni
versity of Manitoba at the time of his death.
He has been recognized many times for his
contributions to the advancement of soil
science in Quebec. He is survived by four
daughters, Maria, Liisa, Saara and Leia, aged
seven to 17; and his fiancee, Lucie Vallee.
Jean Steckle, B.H.Sc. '52, died at her home
in Kitchener, Ont., Jan. 17, 2003. She was
a graduate of Guelph, Cornell University
and the University of Reading in England.
She had a long career in nutrition, serving
the United Nations in Africa and Rome,
the International Development Research
Summer 2003 35
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36 GuELPH ALUMNUS
OBITUARIES
Centre in Africa and Ottawa, and Health
Canada, working with native populations in many parts of the country. In retire
ment, she established the]. Steckle Her
itage Homestead, where she developed
programs related to agriculture, food and nutrition for youth, families and various
community groups. She is survived by
her brother, Robert, BSA '52.
Daniel Abraham, ODH '78, in 2000
Alan Aylsworth, BSA '37, Nov. 12, 2002
Denis Bailey, DVM '54, Dec. 23, 2002 Clifford Beaumont, ODH '66,
August 2001
Jean Beddore, DHE '34, Jan. 15, 2003
Mary (Wodskou) Brancroft, B.H.Sc. '53, Dec. 15, 2001
Margaret Calder, B.H.Sc. '60, Feb.28,2003
Ewart Carberry, BSA '44, Feb. 10,2003
Archibald Cooper, ADA '48, April 12, 1999
Norman Epps, BSA '49, Feb. 21,2003
John Fawkes, ODH '74, in May 2002 Norman Folland, BSA '35,
October 2002 Billy Gee, DVM '68, Sept. 30, 2002 Erika Haefele, B.Sc. '01,
December 2002 Walter Hanbidge, BSA '48,
Nov. 30, 2002
Mary Hewer, BA '72, Nov. 29, 2002
Harley Janson, DVM '38, Nov. 23, 2002
Theodore Julie, DVM '55, Dec. 6, 2001
Shirley King, B.H.Sc. '54, March 2000 Alain Lapalme, B.Sc.(Agr.) '82,
July 6, 2002 Thorcuill MacDonald, B.Sc.(Agr.)
'75, Oct. 7, 2001
James MacGowan, BSA '38, Dec. 22, 2002
Grazina Maclonis, BA '75, February 2001
Elizabeth MacLachlan, B.Comm. '91, in 2002
Forbes MacLeod, DVM '40,
Feb. 2,2003
James MacNeil, BSA '49,
July 2002 Laura Marshall, DHE '48,
Dec. 24, 2002 Robert McCondochie, BSA '57,
August 2002
Dorothy Nicholson, DHE '39,
July 2000 Walter Perrin, ADA '32, in 2002
Elizabeth Phillips, DHE '39,
Sept. 4, 2002
Aniela Radek, BA '78, Dec. 2, 2002
Bryon Richardson, BSA '33, May 29, 2002
Selma Rock, B.Sc.(Agr.) '87,
June 8, 2002
Sister Mary Elizabeth Ross, DHE '27,
date unknown Robert Saunders, BSA '57,
Jan. 21, 2003
Roderick Scott, ADA' 47, Feb. 11, 2003 Jean Singleton, DHE '33, in 1999 Shirley Smith, DHE '40, Feb. 11,2003 Earl Stephenson, ADA '33, in 2000
Charles Sutter, ADA '63, Dec. 4, 2002 Dorothy Taylor, DHE '31, Nov. 5,
2002
Claudia Thompson, B.A.Sc. '74,
Oct. 25, 2001 Reginald Thomson, DVM '59,
Dec. 14, 2002 William Tolton, BSA '36, Dec. 26,
2002 Ivan Townsend, BSA '48, Dec. 8, 2002 Teunis Van Dop, ODH '67, in 2002 Lloyd Van Gorder, DVM '49,
Jan. 8, 2003 Michael Vasselsue, BSA '40,
Dec. 29, 2002
Jean Waghorne, DVM '42, Feb. 8, 2003
Richard Wallace, ADA '78,
May 24,2000
Louis Young, BSA '27, date unknown
FACULTY
Eric Hani, post-doctoral fellow in
the Department of Microbiology, Aug. 7, 2002
Prof. Phillip Sweeny, Microbiology,
Jan. 15, 2003
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