Daily News

April 12, 2005

Engineering design students at McMaster University may have solved the problem of drying your hands after washing them in a public washroom. They have developed a hands-free, roll-towel dispensing machine that presents the customer with a folded towel. The double thickness of the towel eliminates the problem of wet hands weakening the towel strength and tearing, resulting in partially dry hands.

April 12, 2005

Brian McCarry, chair of the department of chemistry and the Stephen A. Jarislowsky chair in Environment and Health, is optimistic that we can find a solution to reduce the fine particulate material, nitrogen oxides, ozone and other gaseous pollutants in the air around us. McCarry will speak about his research at Tuesday's (April 12) Science in the City lecture, titled Air Pollutants: Sources, Fates and Health Impacts.

April 11, 2005

McMaster's Manufacturing Research Institute (MMRI) and Materials and Manufacturing Ontario (MMO) will launch a Distinguished Lecturer Series beginning Wednesday, April 13 with James Lee, a chemical and biomedical engineer from Ohio State University. Lee's lecture, "Polymer Processing at the Micro/Nanoscale", will take place at 2:30 p.m. in the John Hodgins Engineering Building, Rm. 326H.

April 11, 2005

As of Monday, the Joint Job Evaluation Steering Committee (JJESC) has received Job Content Questionnaire's (JCQ) for 1,267 positions in the MUSA bargaining unit. They're still looking for JCQs from about 800 people and would like to remind employees to get their JCQ in as soon as possible as the deadline has passed.

April 11, 2005

Gamers can now take their interest in computer games to the ultimate level. The Faculty of Engineering at McMaster University is offering the first undergraduate university degree program in software engineering that focuses on game design. "Students interested in game design will develop the skills and knowledge to create the ultimate game experience," said Jacques Carette, assistant professor of Computing and Software Engineering at McMaster University. "They will naturally learn about animation, simulation and high-fidelity rendering, with special emphasis on the human aspects involved in designing such software."

April 8, 2005

Former Prime Minister of Canada Jean Chr

April 8, 2005

McMaster University celebrated a gift of $750,000 from Scotiabank to establish three endowed medical scholarship funds; the Scotiabank Medical Scholarships, Scotiabank Pediatric Scholarships, and Scotiabank Ontario Graduate Scholarships in Medical Sciences. Each of the three scholarship funds for students of the Faculty of Health Sciences will be allocated $250,000.

April 6, 2005

Graham Hill remembers Jan. 2, 1971 well. It was a blustery snowy day on McMaster's campus when he started his first day on the job as a reference librarian in the serials department. Thirty-four years later, on the verge of retiring from the library's top post, he reminisces about that day, when things were quite a bit different. "When I started at McMaster almost everything was printed on paper and we worked with punch cards and telexes," he says. "I would say the advent of digital technology is the biggest change I have seen."

April 6, 2005

Students have closed their books on the 2004-05 academic term. Classes ended Wednesday, April 6, and students will now prepare to write a total of 72,641 exams from April 8-26. Exams will be held at 8 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. each day, excluding Sundays. For the exam schedule, click here. Due to construction activities on Main Street West and at the Ivor Wynne Centre, students are encouraged to leave early and allow extra time when traveling to campus to write exams.

April 5, 2005

Kinesiology student Matt Wood was honoured on Sunday evening, as this year's recipient of the Liam Stevens Award. The award was presented at the McMaster Marauders Courtside Club year-end banquet, by Liam's parents, Angela and Dale Stevens. Wood, a long-time manager of the men's basketball team, donned the maroon and gray uniform for the last half of the 2004/2005 season.

April 5, 2005

David Suzuki helped McMaster celebrate the midway point of a comprehensive campus initiative to make the University's buildings and grounds more environmentally healthy and energy efficient. McMaster is the only university in Ontario to embark on such a large-scale rehabilitation project. At his lecture on "Rediscovering Our Place in the World", attended by more than 500 people, Suzuki had praise for McMaster's initiative.

April 5, 2005

A new Canadian journal is being launched to address the need for dialogue about the development, implementation and impact of health care policy. McMaster University professor Brian Hutchison has been selected as the first editor-in-chief of the new quarterly journal, Healthcare Policy, which will produce its first issue in the early fall this year.

April 5, 2005

From researching body fat composition of children treated with anti-epileptic drugs to evaluating changes in risk-taking behavior and preferences over the menstrual cycle, biology students will present a diverse range of research at the Department's first annual Biology Undergraduate Symposium (BUS). Fourth-year students will present both oral and poster presentations on their senior thesis and project work on Thursday, April 7 from 8:45 to 5 p.m. in the Michael DeGroote Centre for Learning and Discovery.

April 4, 2005

Fourth-year honours commerce student Sangita Patel is one of the top business students in the country, according to Golden Key International. Patel was selected among all Golden Key student leaders across Canadian universities for the Regional Student of the Year Award. The results were announced at a recent conference in Saskatoon.

April 3, 2005

McMaster's Arthur Bourns Science Building has reopened following a fire that occurred around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday evening in an eight-person lab located on the third floor of the building. Damage to the lab is being assessed and clean-up is underway. A graduate student was working with the solvent hexane when the chemical suddenly caught fire, which subsequently ignited in the flame hood of the lab, which serves as an exhaust fan in the lab. The student dropped the bottle containing the solvent, causing the fire to spread.

April 1, 2005

Iona Heath, a well-known commentator on the role of the pharmaceutical industry in medicine and society, will talk about the promotion of disease and the corrosion of medicine at the seventh annual Carl Moore Lecture in Primary Care, on Wednesday, April 6, 2005 at McMaster University.

April 1, 2005

Imre Szeman, professor of English, and director of the Institute for Globalization and the Human Condition, has been appointed to the Senator William McMaster Chair in Globalization and Cultural Studies. Szeman will be honoured at a reception today (Friday, April 1) at 4 p.m. in Council Chambers (Gilmour Hall, Room 111) at McMaster University. He is the first person to hold the chair.

March 31, 2005

It is the 100th anniversary of the publication of Albert Einstein's greatest discoveries in physics: relativity, the quantum nature of light, and the existence of atoms. What better time to pick apart his work? Just how right was Einstein? Did he simply luck out with his theory? Did he change the laws of gravity to fit his assumptions about how the universe operates? Does God really play dice with the universe? Come with your own personal scorecard as the second MACafi Scientifique debates the pros and cons of Einstein's ideas, and his scientific legacy.

March 31, 2005

A memorial service will be held Monday, April 4 for a third-year nursing student known for her commitment to health care and helping people. Krista Cantwell died Tuesday after in a Hamilton traffic collision. She was a Mohawk College student taking a McMaster University Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) through the Mohawk/McMaster/Conestoga Collaborative BScN Degree Program.

March 31, 2005

The McMaster Students Union (MSU) hosted its annual awards night Wednesday to celebrate excellence in student leadership. The Rudy Heinzl Award of Excellence recognizes an outstanding one-year achievement that improves the lives of McMaster students. This year's recipient was Umair Khan, 2004-05 MSU vice-president of finance.