September 27, 2004

On a day when one record was set in the crowd, the Laurier Golden Hawks ended a long-running OUA record of the McMaster Marauders. In front of 6,641 homecoming fans, who all entered into the Guinness book of World records for simultaneous use of a whoopee cushion in support of the Kidney Foundation of Canada, the #7 Laurier Golden Hawks (4-0) stunned the #2 McMaster Marauders (3-1) on a last-minute 27-yard field goal by Brian Devlin (Sarnia, ON) to win 34-33.

September 27, 2004

An innovative marketing campaign promoting McMaster's campus libraries last year garnered extra attention for varsity athletes and national recognition for the team that came up with the campaign. And this year, they're hoping for a repeat performance.

September 27, 2004

McMaster will take a long walk towards peace this week, leading up to the twelfth annual Gandhi Peace Festival and Peace Walk. Several events are planned on campus to commemorate "Mac Peace Week", beginning today with the Peace Week inauguration from 10-11 a.m. in the McMaster University Student Centre courtyard.

September 24, 2004

When McMaster University radiologist Sat Somers receives an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland next week, he will put his profession under an x-ray. The former chair of the Department of Radiology, and head of Gastrointestinal Radiology will be honoured on Oct. 1 at the annual scientific meeting of the Faculty of Radiologists of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He will be awarded a Fellowship which recognizes those who are outstanding in the field of radiology and related sciences. Others who have received the College's highest honour include medical scientists Joseph Lister and Louis Pasteur.

September 24, 2004

The McMaster Marauders will travel to University Stadium in Waterloo Saturday to take on the Laurier Golden Hawks, with a share of first place in the OUA on the line. (The University of Guelph and the University of Ottawa are also undefeated, but face each other this weekend.)

September 23, 2004

In February 2004, McMaster's Office of Public Relations launched Picture McMaster (www.picturemcmaster.ca), a new online photo gallery of the people, places, and things that make up the University. To raise awareness of Picture McMaster and promote the University's beautiful campus, McMaster faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community members are invited to participate in a Campus Colours fall photo contest. Contestants are encouraged to "picture McMaster" in unique, innovative, and colourful ways.

September 23, 2004

Dr. John Kelton, dean and vice-president of the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University, is the first North American physician to receive Germany's top award in transfusion medicine. Dr. Kelton, who is also dean and professor of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, was given the prestigious Karl Landsteiner award from the German Society of Transfusion Medicine and Immunohematology this week for his contributions in the field. The award has been bestowed biennially for more than 30 years.

September 22, 2004

Joanne Franco does it. Sandra Etherington does it. Marlene Monster does it. Ken and Alison Sills do it, sometimes even together. These McMaster employees, five of more than one hundred people nominated as campus "Commuter Heroes," leave their car at home and bus or bike to the University. In fact, a number of them don't even own a vehicle. And they think maybe you can do it too.

September 22, 2004

Two professors in McMaster's School of Nursing, Maureen Dobbins and Maureen Markle-Reid, have received $50,000 career awards from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. The awards are granted for five years with a total contribution from the Ministry of $50,000 each plus benefits. The awards will allow these two promising health researchers to devote a minimum of 75 per cent of their time towards health services research and aid them to establish themselves in their field of research.

September 20, 2004

From the fifth century through to the 20th, Japan has a diverse and prolific artistic history. Don McCallum, Professor of Art History at UCLA and a specialist in Japanese art, will share his knowledge of Japanese Art Sept. 22 and 23 at McMaster. A Hooker Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, McCallum will lecture on two examples of Japanese art, one from the Second World War era and one from the seventh and eighth century.

September 20, 2004

Over 900 McMaster employees and their families were invited to enjoy a fun-filled afternoon at the McMaster Marauders versus University of Toronto Varsity Blues football game on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2004. This represented a record-breaking attendance for the third annual employee football event. The event was capped off with a sound victory by the Marauders over the Varsity Blues with a final score of 77-14. The event was sponsored and organized by the McMaster Employee Spirit Society (M.E.S.S.!) in partnership with the Department of Athletics and Recreation.

September 20, 2004

MDA, the company that developed the famous Canadarm used in space by NASA, is partnering with the Engineering Faculty at McMaster University to do research into medical robotics. The $450,000 commitment from MDA will launch the Faculty of Engineering's new school in BioMedical Engineering and create a medical robotics laboratory.

September 20, 2004

Strange things happen on a football field when opposing teams end up separated by more than 60 points. In a game that saw McMaster's season-opening starting quarterback Jon Behie start at wide receiver and catch four balls, University of Toronto's starting quarterback Mark Stinson rush for a touchdown, catch a pass, and still manage to throw a couple passes, luckily some things stayed the same in second place McMaster's 77-14 win over the U of T Varsity Blues.

September 20, 2004

Participants in the events of Global Arts Week at McMaster will gain a new appreciation for the world we live in. Indigenous communities in southern Mexico, military conflicts in Argentina, the AIDS crisis in Africa, artists in Cuba, and music from India are just some of the topics of films, lectures, and performances that will be presented Sept. 20-24 during the weeklong festival.

September 17, 2004

Kitchener area students attending the Ontario Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner program at McMaster University don't have to commute to the Hamilton campus. They're taking their classes at Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. In a unique collaboration, McMaster and Conestoga have arranged for classes, tutorials and lab time for the nurse practitioner students to be spent at the college's Doon campus on Doon Valley Drive. Clinical work will be done at Kitchener-Guelph area medical practices.

September 17, 2004

For the third consecutive year, McMaster academic leaders and administrators joined in a friendly five-kilometer run and 2-kilometre walk Thursday in support of McMaster's varsity cross-country team. Head coach Brad Young commented, "There's a very strong connection between leadership and sport, and this event allows our varsity runners to connect with University leaders around an activity that we all feel passionately about - running. I can't think of a better way to kick start our season."

September 17, 2004

While the school year has only just begun, thoughts about life after graduation are already on many students' minds. On Monday, students will have an opportunity to meet with prospective employers at the annual Career Fair, organized by Career Services. More than 72 employers are registered to attend, ranging from GE Canada, General Motors, Research in Motion, Christian Horizons, TD Bank Financial Group, Ecolab, AstraZeneca and Dofasco.

September 15, 2004

Researchers at McMaster University and McGill University have identified a new player in breast cancer. This gene, beta1-integrin, has been shown to be critical in the initiation of tumour growth and development in a mouse model of cancer. "We are the first to demonstrate the requirement for beta1-integrin in the induction of breast cancer in genetically engineered mice," says senior author William Muller, formerly of McMaster and now a professor of medicine and biochemistry at McGill. "Our findings show that blocking the function of this gene halts tumour proliferation. We also show that in our model of breast cancer, tumour cells do not grow without beta1-intergrin. These results demonstrate the importance of this gene in tumour biology. The next step is to look for therapeutics which block this gene in humans."

September 15, 2004

McMaster's Faculty of Engineering will sponsor a lunchtime talk on Sept. 15 as part of a major manufacturing conference being hosted by McMaster's Centre for Continuing Education. Doug Barber, a distinguished professor-in-residence in the Faculty of Engineering and co-founder and former CEO of Gennum Corporation, will provide the keynote address.

September 14, 2004

Anthropologist Hendrik Poinar wants you to time travel with him in the first lecture in the next series of Science in the City public lectures on Tuesday, Sept. 14. But unlike H.G.Wells' time traveler, Poinar hasn't built a time machine to the future. He's built a million dollar lab that provides a window into the past. From this lab, Poinar and his research team are in the midst of fascinating research, extracting DNA from fossils to answer questions about ancient humans and extinct megafauna (mammoths, horses, camels, sloths).