Daily News

June 24, 2008

Single-person submersibles are being used by scientists to retrieve samples from a lake in northern British Columbia that are thought to hold clues to the history of life on Earth and on other planets. Greg Slater, an environmental geochemist in the Faculty of Science, says the objects of scientific interest are unique carbonate rock structures, known as microbialites because they are covered with microbes. Some of these microbialites grow at depths of up to 180 feet below the water's surface, too deep to reach by non-decompression SCUBA diving.

June 24, 2008

First-year students and their parents are invited to attend McMaster's Easy Summer Orientation Program from July 2 to 10 and 17. The goal of the program is to assist students with their transition to the academic side of university life.

June 23, 2008

Terry Flynn, assistant professor of communications management at the DeGroote School of Business, has been inducted into the College of Fellows of the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS). Flynn, a member of the DeGroote faculty since 2004, has practiced and taught public relations management, crisis communications and environmental risk communication since 1986. In 1993, he started his own public relations agency, Frontline Corporate Communications.

June 20, 2008

McMaster University and the City of St. Catharines announced a partnership yesterday to establish the McMaster Niagara Family Health Centre. The centre, which will be located at 18-24 Ontario Street in St. Catharines, will be a clinical teaching unit to educate future doctors and will help address the needs of Niagara residents who do not have a family physician.

June 20, 2008

Appointments of two department chairs, two endowed chairs and six directors have been announced in the Faculty of Engineering.

June 20, 2008

The President's Residence, which has been home to the Office of Alumni Advancement and McMaster Alumni Association since 2003, will now be known as Alumni House. The name change was approved by the Board of Governors yesterday. "Calling the building 'Alumni House' would follow the tradition of many of North America's leading universities and be a signal to McMaster's alumni, campus community and student body about the significance of our alumni to the life of the University," said Joe Stephen, past president of the McMaster Alumni Association.

June 19, 2008

The 2008/09 McMaster consolidated budget approved today by the Board of Governors meets the Board's financial guidelines, while reflecting the continuing budgetary challenges that face Ontario's universities. "McMaster has achieved the budget goals established by the Board of Governors," says Brian McCarry, chair of the Budget Committee. "However, the University continues to struggle with consistent and significant long term financial challenges and pressures."

June 19, 2008

Any student of film can tell you that making a quality picture is a hard enough undertaking without adding an extremely restrictive time limit to the project. The Hamilton 24-hour Film Festival is a contest in which local filmmakers must write, shoot and produce a short film within one day. Chris McAllister and Greg Atkinson of the Science Media Lab along with colleagues and friends recently won first place in the competition.

June 18, 2008

Music is one of the characteristics that defines us as a species and is therefore of interest to a wide variety of scientists. Nature magazine is currently examining what music is about by publishing a series of nine essays on science and music. In one of these essays, Laurel Trainor, a professor in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, Faculty of Science, and director of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind (MIMM), explores the neural roots of music.

June 18, 2008

Former MSU VP education Arati Sharma has spent the majority of her university career fighting on behalf of students. The VP education is essentially the spokesperson for students on academic issues. In this capacity, Sharma coordinated the MSU's lobbying efforts in conjunction with the Ontario University Students Association (OUSA).

June 18, 2008

This summer, McMaster University Library will welcome two librarians from Seoul National University (SNU) on a two-month work exchange program.

June 18, 2008

While Eco Art can help cultivate an appreciation for nature and broaden intellectual understanding, it can also spark political action and ultimately shape society. The McMaster Museum of Art will host a panel discussion on Eco Art with Hamilton-area artists Susan Detwiler, Tor Lukasik-Foss and Steve Mazza along with moderator Nora Hutchinson on Thursday, June 26 at 6 p.m. The panel discussion is presented in collaboration with the Hamilton Artists Inc.

June 17, 2008

We often hear about the impact that our researchers have on the world of academia, but we don't always hear about their influence on the community at large. John Capone, dean of the Faculty of Science, epitomizes scholarly and citizen excellence. He is one of eight recipients to be awarded the Spirit of Ontario Award by the Hamilton District of the National Congress of Italian Canadians.

June 17, 2008

As a member of the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN), McMaster faculty, students and staff will soon have online access to a large collection of social sciences and humanities resources thanks to an unprecedented $47 million investment by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), eight provinces and 67 universities, including McMaster. The rich digital collection of scholarly materials will include digitized books, journals, letters, historical documents, music scores, maps, artwork and even streaming video of theatrical plays.

June 17, 2008

Last week, the Department of Oncology held its fifth annual Student Research Day at the Juravinski Cancer Centre. Student projects focused on bridging the gap between research and clinical practice in cancer research.

June 17, 2008

More than 100 landlords from neighbouring communities attended a landlord information night hosted by McMaster's Off-Campus Resource Centre last week.

June 16, 2008

The gastrointestinal tract contains the highest density of microbes on the planet. The recent explosion of knowledge about bacteria living in the gut with emphasis on the mucosal immune system will be the focus of the Daniel Perey public lecture on Wednesday, June 18.

June 16, 2008

Obese children, who are at increased risk for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, may not be getting the most appropriate test to screen for these conditions, says a McMaster study. The standard screening test for high blood sugar in children with risk factors -- a blood test called the fasting plasma (or blood) glucose test -- identified nearly three times fewer the children with prediabetes than did a longer blood test, said Katherine Morrison, associate professor of pediatrics and the study's lead author.

June 13, 2008

McMaster University and CUPE Local 3906 are pleased to announce that a tentative settlement has been reached in negotiations to renew the collective agreement that expired April 30, 2008. CUPE represents Sessional Faculty and Sessional Music Faculty at McMaster. Details of the tentative settlement are confidential until the Union holds a ratification vote. Once details of this meeting are determined they will be available at http://www.cupe3906.org/

June 13, 2008

After years of hard work, perseverance through heavy course loads, prodigious amounts of homework and difficult testing, the Faculty of Engineering Class of 2008 will graduate today. It is a day that can feel perpetually far away, says Engineering valedictorian Sudduf Wyne. "Five years have finally come to an end; it's very exciting," she says.