Daily News

November 10, 2008

A distinguished list of four Canadians will receive honorary degrees from McMaster University during Fall convocation ceremonies, which will take place Friday, November 21 in the Great Hall of Hamilton Place. Degrees will be awarded to the graduating classes of the Degroote School of Business, the Faculty of Humanities, the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Arts and Science Program, during the morning ceremony, which begins at 9:30 a.m.

November 10, 2008

Let's keep the beat going at McMaster. Hundreds of McMaster faculty, staff and students joined together to commemorate The Campaign for McMaster University on October 24. This mid-Campaign celebration updated the McMaster community on the progress of the Campaign amidst a collective drumming celebration facilitated by the Drum Cafe. The $400 million campaign is the most ambitious in the University's history and focuses on bolstering the many elements that make McMaster great: the faculty and staff who impart knowledge and encourage innovative learning, the groundbreaking research, the state-of-the-art facilities, and at the heart of McMaster, the students.

November 7, 2008

Lynton (Red) Wilson is making yet another significant donation to McMaster University, this time a $2.5-million gift to the Wilson Centre for Canadian History. Wilson, the chancellor of McMaster, and chairman of CAE Inc., is a founding co-chairman of the Historica Foundation of Canada. He has been a significant supporter of the University's Department of History for a number of years.

November 7, 2008

A champion of McMaster's fledging medical school, an internationally renowned investigator of deep-vein thrombosis and a physiotherapist who brought problem-based learning to her field are being honoured by McMaster University's Faculty of Health Sciences. Arthur N. Bourns, Jack Hirsh and Helen Saarinen-Rahikka are to be inducted into the Faculty's

November 7, 2008

The legacy of internationally renowned anthropology professor Shelley Saunders, who spent her career teaching students how to solve the mysteries of the past, will be carried on thanks to a $547,250 gift to build the best anthropology program in the country.

November 6, 2008

McMaster's director of Athletics and Recreation is leaving the University for a new opportunity in London. Therese Quigley is joining the University of Western Ontario as its new director of Sport and Recreation Services.

November 5, 2008

A microscopic amount of gold is all it took to put the winning shine on Weian Zhao's PhD work. Zhao won an honourable mention at the NSERC Innovation Challenge Awards recently for a report entitled "Biodetection kits using gold nanoparticle-coated paper."

November 4, 2008

Research Infosource Inc. released its 2008 rankings of Canada's top 50 research universities on Wednesday, October 29 and, once again, McMaster placed among the country's best. With a total sponsored research income of $346.3 million - up more than $15 million from last year - McMaster maintained its sixth position in the rankings.

November 4, 2008

A new study by researchers at McMaster found current home support services can play an important role in keeping seniors at home and out of hospital and reduce overall cost of use of health services, but had little effect on improving their health. Over a six month period, the study examined changes in health status, as well as the cost of use of health services, among 122 people 75 years and older using publicly funded home support services.

November 4, 2008

Following an extensive investigation Hamilton police have arrested a McMaster student in connection with the Brandon Hall fire.

November 4, 2008

We wanted you to be aware that following an extensive investigation, Hamilton police have arrested a McMaster student in connection with the fire at Brandon Hall.

October 31, 2008

Faculty members who perform sponsored research have a new ally on campus to help them negotiate research contracts. Brent Davis is the newly appointed Legal Counsel and Manager of Research Contracts for the McMaster Industry Liaison Office (MILO). "The whole field of intellectual property is changing so fast that it's a constant challenge. There is nothing routine about today's research contract," says Davis.

October 31, 2008

Canada's worst outbreak of E.coli from contaminated water killed seven people in Walkerton, Ontario in May, 2000 and made 2,500 residents ill. Ontario was hit by SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in 2003; contaminated cold cuts from a Toronto meat processing plant killed at least 16 Canadians from listeriosis this year; and most recently, a North Bay fast food restaurant was shut down after more than 200 people became sick from a potentially deadly strain of E.coli.

October 31, 2008

Lawrence Hill still remembers the feeling, many years ago, of approaching a writer-in-residence about his work. "It was in Toronto in the early 1980s, and I was working on a very bad collection of short stories that was, thankfully, never published," he recalls. "But that act of sharing your work for the first time, of declaring yourself a writer, it takes great courage."

October 31, 2008

It was great to see such a large turnout for Wednesday's Open House as Brandon residents officially opened their on-campus lounge. The lounge is located in the Refectory Building and provides all Brandon Hall students with their own space to connect and maintain their community spirit.

October 30, 2008

For most professors, having a stranger appear and finish your research project might sound like something concocted by the Brothers Grimm. However, for one McMaster research team, such a chance meeting led to a fairytale ending. Our tale began last year when assistant professor of pediatrics Les Berry traveled to Geneva to present a poster on an innovative method for determining the levels of certain clotting agents in human blood. Berry, who works as part of Anthony Chan's research team at the Henderson Research Centre in Vascular Biology and Thrombosis, was excited by the science but also concerned about its prospects.

October 30, 2008

Members of the McMaster community attended McMaster's first annual Sustainability Day yesterday. The event showcased a number of campus groups who provided information to students and community members about their sustainability activities. Some of the groups that participated in the event were MACgreen, security services, ACT office, Hamilton Street Railway, purchasing services and McMaster's Healthy Workplace, among others.

October 29, 2008

Thomas Marlin, professor emeritus in the Department of Chemical Engineering, has been awarded the D.G. Fisher Award by the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering. He received his award at a CSChE meeting in Ottawa on October 20. The D.G. Fisher Award is presented to an individual who has made substantial contributions in the field of Systems and Control Engineering. The award is sponsored by the Suncor Energy Foundation, Shell Canada Limited and the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta.

October 29, 2008

Popular media coverage of infectious diseases greatly influences how people perceive those diseases, making them seem more dangerous, according to a new study from McMaster. The research, published online in the Public Library of Science: ONE, suggests diseases that show up frequently in the print media -like bird flu - are considered more serious than similar diseases that do not receive the same kind of coverage, such as yellow fever.

October 29, 2008

The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering has dedicated the October 2008 issue to John MacGregor, distinguished university professor emeritus, Department of Chemical Engineering at McMaster in celebration of his 65th birthday. "This is an outstanding testament to the quality of John s work and its impact, and also the high regard in which he is held by colleagues across the country," said David Wilkinson, dean, Faculty of Engineering at McMaster.