Daily News

November 24, 2005

India-Canada Society (ICS) of Hamilton, which draws a large part of its membership from the McMaster community, was awarded a 2005 YMCA Peace Medal this week for its work in promoting communal harmony, fighting racism, initiating the annual Gandhi Peace Festival and McMaster Peace Lecture. "The India-Canada Society (ICS) organization has a long history and strong connections with McMaster University," says Sourav Ray, assistant professor of marketing from McMaster's DeGroote School of Business, and general secretary of the ICS executive committee. "In any community we live during our lifetime, we all should strive to contribute to the social well-being in meaningful ways."

November 23, 2005

Author and carpenter John Terpstra graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in English literature. He now finds himself walking the halls of academia in a new role: as this year's Writer-in-Residence in McMaster's Department of English and Cultural Studies. Author of eight critically acclaimed books of poetry and creative non-fiction, Terpstra's Disarmament was nominated for the Governor General's award for poetry (2004) and Falling into Place won the City of Hamilton Award for non-fiction (2003).

November 23, 2005

Catherine d'Anjou, a recent graduate from the McMaster University medical school, was named the University's first recipient of the ALTANA Pharma Family Medicine Scholarship - a fund that each year gives medical students across the province a $5,000 scholarship if they pursue family medicine as their specialty. d'Anjou and her fellow recipients from the University of Toronto, The University of Western Ontario, Queen's University and the University of Ottawa were honoured last Thursday night at a reception in Toronto at the 43rd Annual Scientific Assembly of the Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP).

November 23, 2005

Gokul Bhandari, a PhD student with McMaster's Michael G. DeGroote School of Business, is the first recipient of the Canadian Securities Institute Research Foundation (CSIRF) Scholarship. He has been awarded a $25,000 scholarship based on his dissertation. Bhandari's doctoral study, entitled Incorporating Cognitive Support in Investment DSS, attempts to combine recent findings from behavioural finance into information systems research.

November 22, 2005

Over the years, we have heard stories that radon gas in basements causes lung cancer, that fallout from bomb testing mutates babies, and that exploding reactors such as Chernobyl contaminate the world, destroy wildlife and kill hundreds of thousands of people. On the other side of the coin, Canada has the world's largest supply of uranium, and the CANDU reactor has a proven track record for energy efficiency, environmental cleanliness, and safety. A recent Ipsos Reid poll found that 74 per cent of Torontonians support the construction of new nuclear power plants to boost Ontario's energy supply and combat rising fuel prices.

November 22, 2005

A lecture this week will examine the implications of the Iraq war on women in the Middle East. The Women's Studies Speakers Series Program will present a lecture by Shahrzad Mojab, director and professor of the Women's and Gender Studies Institute, on "Occupation, Militarization and Resistance: The Case of a Kurdish Women's NGO in Iraq". It will be held Thursday, Nov. 24, 2:30 pm, BSB B135.

November 21, 2005

A highly multicultural population makes Canada a prime candidate to fall victim to emerging infectious diseases associated with travel, says a clinician-scientist who will be delivering two lectures at McMaster University on Nov. 24. Kevin Kain, director of the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health in Toronto, will be the speaker at the annual Henry and Sylvia Wong Forum in Medicine. He will deliver a scientific lecture at noon, geared towards students, researchers, scientists and health care professionals. A second lecture at 4:30 p.m. will be open to the public.

November 21, 2005

For the third year, McMaster students are hoping to fill a bathtub with donations for victims of abuse. Until the end of November, a 'kiddy pool' covered in rubber ducky stickers will be set up in the McMaster University Student atrium, where students are taking up a collection of toiletry items for women and their children who have been exposed to any form of abuse.

November 21, 2005

McMaster University professor Gary Warner has been awarded Canada's highest honour for lifetime achievement. Governor General Michaelle Jean named Warner to the Order of Canada Friday at Rideau Hall. Warner has taught courses on French African and Caribbean literature, on French language and 17th-Century literature, as well as on peace and international development at McMaster.

November 21, 2005

Mohit Bhandari, an orthopaedic surgeon and Canada Research Chair in Musculoskeletal Trauma at McMaster University, is leading an International Hip Fracture Research Collaborative to develop large clinical trials to improve health outcomes in patients suffering from hip fractures, at a two-day meeting beginning today. The collaborative represents more than 200 leading hip fracture surgeons from 20 countries in North America, Europe, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Bhandari is joined by key leading McMaster researchers, Gordon Guyatt, P.J. Devereaux, and Stephen Walter, in hosting this week's meeting at the Wyndam Bristol Place Toronto Airport Hotel.

November 21, 2005

If there is to be peace in our time, it is up to the educators to teach it to future generations. Of course, who will teach the educators? This is the main purpose behind the fourth annual Peace Education Conference in Canada at McMaster University, presented by the Canadian Centres for Teaching Peace and the McMaster Centre for Peace Studies this November 24 to 28, 2005. This four-day conference has been a much-needed gathering place for the last three years - for not only peace researchers, educators, and activists - but people from all backgrounds, who recognize that the responsibility to cultivate a culture of peace in society belongs to all. Participants in the past have ranged from those who live in residence at McMaster to guests flying in from places as remote and distant as Cyprus.

November 18, 2005

More than 920 graduands from McMaster's six faculties will receive their degrees today at Fall Convocation taking place in the Great Hall at Hamilton Place. Astronaut Marc Garneau and comedian Eugene Levy will receive honorary degrees from the University. Levy will receive an honorary Doctor of Letters degree at 9:30 a.m., and Garneau will receive an honorary Doctor of Science degree at 2:30 p.m. Both will address graduands at the respective ceremonies.

November 18, 2005

Yesterday, snow fell upon the bare branches of a small tree that this spring will burst into blossom, representing the peace and friendship that exists between Japan and Canada. At the east side of Hamilton Hall Thursday, the Sakura Project donated Japanese flowering cherry trees to McMaster University. The Sakura Project is an initiative of the Japanese Consulate to promote peace & friendship between Japan & Canada, by planting thousands of flowering Sakura cherry trees throughout Ontario.

November 18, 2005

An expert in creating and controlling light particles and an undergraduate student who combines a love of languages and song will both take the podium at today's Fall Convocation to accept the University's top awards. Laura Banducci is the winner of this year's Chancellor's Gold Medal by ranking 'highest in scholarship, leadership and influence.' While graduate student Ningning Feng has been named the Governor General's Academic Gold Medal winner for achieving the highest academic standing in his degree program.

November 18, 2005

Steven Hoffman is a normal university student who spends time in coffee shops, chats with friends and generally misses out on sleep. A quick glance would never reveal the myriad of activities that keeps him running from one part of campus to the other. Yet it is precisely his extraordinary involvement in extra-curricular activities that has won him the prestigious Fessenden-Trott Scholarship.

November 17, 2005

McMaster's award-winning teachers are helping the University's libraries market itself as a centre for teaching and learning. Through an innovative marketing campaign encouraging students to seize the day, exercise their brain, or get wired, Anne Plessl, development officer with Mills Memorial Library, hopes students become more aware of the resources available at their library of choice.

November 17, 2005

Aspiring writers and professional communicators will gather to hear the Globe and Mail's Steve Brunt today, as he recounts his experiences as a journalist, author, film writer, and television and radio broadcaster. Brunt's talk is hosted by Humanities Career Services on Thursday, Nov. 17 at 9.30 a.m. in MUSC 220. Brunt has won the Michener Award, the country's highest award for public service journalism, and the National Magazine Award. He has been a finalist for the National Newspaper Award three times, and was runner up for the Centre for Investigative Journalism Award. In 2003, he was named writer of the year by Sports Media Canada.

November 17, 2005

Additional family physicians will be trained in a new facility at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University. The Ontario government today announced that $6.9 million will be given to McMaster's medical school to increase the number of family medicine resident positions and for a new facility to consolidate training in one location. The funding is part of a $33-million investment announced today for a provincial government initiative to support the training of new family physicians and improve health care.

November 17, 2005

A stark image of modern day warfare in the Toronto Star led McMaster theatre and film studies professor, Peter Cockett, on an unexpected creative journey. This Friday, the results of that journey will be revealed when Cockett's own version of Shakespeare's Henry V opens in the Robinson Memorial Theatre.

November 16, 2005

Ancaster investment executive Russell C. Boychuk is giving $500,000 to the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University. The gift allows for the continued delivery of market data to the School's Allen H. Gould Trading Floor. "The DeGroote School of Business is privileged to receive such a generous gift from an outstanding member of our community and longtime business leader," says Paul Bates, dean, DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University.