November 20, 2003

A former McMaster University president, the founding dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, and a nursing school visionary were honoured Friday by having their portraits hung at the University. The photographs and biographies of nine former faculty members are displayed in a Community of Distinction on a second floor wall in McMaster's Health Sciences Centre. All were chosen for outstanding leadership and distinguished contributions through outstanding scholarship and innovative research. Harry Thode - president of McMaster from 1961 to 1972 Murray Enkin - an advocate for change, and faculty member in obstetrics and gynecology David Sackett - founder of Canada's first Department of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics May Cohen - family physician and promoter of the equality of women in medicine John Basmajian - professor of medicine and biomedical sciences, and a leader in the field of rehabilitation science Alma Reid - director of the School of Nursing from 1949 to 1970. Jerry Dolovich - pediatrician and founder of the Division of Allergy and Immunology at McMaster Fraser Mustard -instrumental in the development of the new medical school curriculum and its research capability John Evans - the founding Dean of McMaster's Faculty of Medicine. Click here for biographies of the recipients.

November 20, 2003

A shrug of the shoulders, a sarcastic remark, or a common phrase that makes reference to an historic parable can communicate different messages in English, Arabic and French. But for a student whose first language isn't English, those subtle innuendos can make a big difference in how well they process and understand what others are saying. For the hundreds of international students attending McMaster each year, tackling the pace, material and workload of university-level courses is coupled with the pressure of adapting to a new culture, climate, and language. Now, McMaster's commitment to meeting those students' needs has seen the recently-expanded English as a Second Language (ESL) courses reach new levels of popularity. Rosette Adera and Claire Rivlin, the Centre for Student Development's English as a Second Language (ESL) instructors and co-ordinators, say many students who are new to English and Canada have no idea how well or poorly they'll do in real-life foreign language situations until they arrive. "A lot of students can read and write well, but often their listening and speaking skills need work," says Rivlin. "Sometimes the English-language education they received in their home country doesn't coincide with their needs to understand lectures, ask questions, and express opinions in an academic environment."

November 19, 2003

McMaster's Cicile Fradin is among five budding Ontario researchers to receive the prestigious John Charles Polanyi Prize. The biophysics professor, who is conducting research into cellular dynamics in a newly renovated research lab in the Arthur Bourns Building, will receive $15,000 from the province. Fradin's research involves using laser optics to study the dynamics of biological systems such as cells. Her research has the potential to aid the understanding of how defects in membrane composition and integrity are affected by disease, drugs and toxic substances. "The Polanyi prize recognizes the promise and potential of our young researchers. Cicile Fradin is acknowledged as a world-class leader in her field of research and I am delighted she has received this honour," says Mamdouh Shoukri, vice-president, research & international affairs. "She is the twelfth outstanding scholar from McMaster to be awarded this prize and it certainly speaks to the excellence of our University's research community."

November 18, 2003

McMaster University is expanding again, with two nursing programs finding a new home in a former bingo hall. The Frid Street building's open concept design of 20,000 square feet, newly renovated to accommodate 65 workstations, will provide much needed functional office space and is conducive to meeting and teaching activities. The building is close to both the main west-end campus and McMaster's community partners. MACDoor, a federally-funded program that helps street youth aged 16 to 25 build a life away from the streets, moved into the renovated space in May. The MACDoor program, directed by assistant professor Dyanne Semogas, helps street kids make changes in their lifestyle one day at a time and offers resources such as job-hunting skills. There are five staff members at MACDoor and as many as 20 students accessing the services most days. MACDoor was previously sited at a succession of temporary locations downtown.

November 18, 2003

The Canadian Cochrane Centre is celebrating ten years of helping people in Canada make well-informed decisions about healthcare. The Canadian Centre first opened in August . . .

November 17, 2003

It was an unfamiliar, yet all-too-familiar feeling Saturday for the McMaster Marauders. After remaining undefeated this year, they lost 36-32 to Laval Rouge et Or in the Mitchell Bowl championship game. It was McMaster's fourth consecutive national football semi-final loss. In front of more than 11,000 cheering fans at Ivor Wynne Stadium, the Marauders bounced back from a 22-5 second-quarter deficit to give them their first lead of the day, 32-29. But, with just 2:33 remaining, a 30-yard sprint by Laval quarterback Mathieu Bertrand restored the lead for the Rouge et Or. Then, with just four seconds left on the clock, McMaster rookie quarterback Adam Archibald launched a 30-yard pass to wide receiver Vaughan Swart. The pass, which would have given McMaster the winning touchdown, was knocked down at the Laval five-yard line. The Laval Rouge et Or and Saint Mary's Huskies will meet Saturday, Nov. 22 at 3 p.m. at Toronto's SkyDome in the 39th annual Vanier Cup, in a rematch of the 1999 National final.

November 17, 2003

An internationally respected researcher and world-acclaimed entertainment executive are the recipients of this year's Distinguished Alumni Award. Each year, McMaster recognizes alumni who have distinguished . . .

November 17, 2003

McMaster's graduate and undergraduate enrolment numbers were presented to University Senate last week. Preliminary enrolment figures for the 2003-2004 academic year (as of Nov. 1) . . .

November 13, 2003

One quarter of the students from a new health sciences program at McMaster University are graduating a year early because they've been accepted at professional . . .

November 13, 2003

Five outstanding leaders from the world of arts, business and government will be honored with about 800 McMaster University students at Fall Convocation ceremonies on Friday, Nov. 14. Investment entrepreneur and philanthropist Michael Lee-Chin will speak at the 9:30 a.m. morning convocation for graduates from the Faculties of Business, Humanities, Social Sciences and the Arts & Science Program. Lee-Chin will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws. Hamilton-area music and teaching mentors Glenn Mallory and Russ Weil will receive Doctor of Letters degrees at the convocation. Patrick Guong-Ching Tan, permanent secretary of the Singapore Ministry of Home Affairs, will receive a Doctor of Laws degree when he speaks to graduates from the Faculties of Engineering, Science and Health Sciences at afternoon convocation at 2:30 p.m.. Fellow engineer Joe Ng will also be honoured with a Doctor of Laws honorary degree.

November 13, 2003

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/web-Jon-Behie_150.jpg” caption=”Jon Behie”]The McMaster Marauders will take on Laval Rouge et Or this Saturday for the coveted Mitchell Bowl title, bringing them one . . .

November 13, 2003

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/patrickseale_opt.jpg” caption=”Patrick Seale”]Patrick Seale, a student in McMaster's Department of Biology, will be awarded the 2003 Governor General's Academic Gold Medal at Convocation . . .

November 13, 2003

The Commonwealth Games Federation selected New Delhi, India today as the host of the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The final vote tally by the members of the Commonwealth Games Federation members at its General Assembly was New Delhi 46 and Hamilton 22. "From the beginning this process has been about collaboration and teamwork," said McMaster University President Peter George. "Although today's outcome is not what we had hoped for, I know I speak for everyone involved in the bid from McMaster that we are proud to have been a full partner in this exciting process. I want to congratulate all of our partners -- the federal and provincial governments, the City of Hamilton and The Hamilton Spectator -- for their commitment, enthusiasm, and dedication to producing an excellent bid. McMaster continues to be committed to creating a community of discovery and learning that continually strives for excellence."

November 12, 2003

For $5 a month, you provide 10 hours of respite for caregivers of a family with a severe disability. For $7.83 a month, you provide two hours of counseling to families in crisis. Every year, the United Way makes a significant impact on people's lives. This year, it hopes the impact will have a $6-million tag on it, with $175,000 of that from McMaster University. McMaster United Way co-chairs Dorothy Pawluch and Mary Lynn Taylor stress the importance of the national fundraising initiative. "In our role as co-chairs, we have had the chance to see just how vital a role the United Way plays, extending its hand of caring to so many organizations and individuals in our community. McMaster not only leads the pack in the educational sector, but is one of the largest contributors in the community. We're proud of our association with the United Way, and prouder still of our co-workers at McMaster for being such strong and abiding supporters of the United Way."

November 12, 2003

In the second in a series of five public lectures concentrating on origins research, Stuart Kauffman, a biologist specializing in the theory of complex biological systems, will discuss Molecular Autonomous Agents: a possible physical definition of life. The free lecture, scheduled for Thursday at 8 p.m. in Rm. 137 of McMaster's Information Technology Building, will cover topics from Kauffman's third book, Investigations, which explores the requirements for the emergence of a general biology that will govern biospheres anywhere in the cosmos. During the talk he'll develop a definition of an "autonomous agent", or a living organism that appears to act to promote its own survival. Kauffman says even simple organisms such as bacteria are able to sense and move towards nutrients in their environment, but that action alone doesn't mean it's autonomous.

November 12, 2003

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/CMSF_lunch_opt.jpg” caption=”CMSF lunch”]Outstanding youth leadership and community service initiatives were recognized recently when Peter George, president and vice-chancellor, hosted lunch for the nine . . .

November 12, 2003

McMaster University will present BroadwayCabaret/BroadwayJazz featuring Melissa Stylianou (vocalist), Kevin Power (vocalist) and Richard Whiteman (piano) as part of its Celebrity Concerts series on Nov. . . .

November 11, 2003

It's like a dirty snowball, perhaps one metre to 10 kilometres wide. It's somewhere far from the earth and sun and no one, including astronomer Christine Wilson, knows just where Comet Wilson is. Wilson discovered the comet in 1986, when she was a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology. "Comet Wilson was the most unbound of any comets they'd seen  its orbit was a hyperbola rather than an ellipse and it was only observable for 18 months  it doesn't look like it's ever going to come back," she explains. Christine Wilson is McMaster's only radio astronomy faculty member, frequently carrying out her observational research using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, located in Hawaii. She is also the Canadian project scientist for the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA), the world's largest millimetre wavelength telescope, 5,000 metres above sea level on the Chajnantor plain of the Chilean Andes. The ALMA project is an international partnership, funded in North America by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). Wilson will be presenting some of the results of her research on a collision between two spiral galaxies, interstellar medium and star formation in nearby galaxies and our own Milky Way at tonight's Science in the City lecture.

November 11, 2003

Archeological sites from the Greek, Roman, Byzantine and early Arabic eras provide important clues to the past, but those sites have largely disappeared under sand and water. Jean-Daniel Stanley, senior scientist and director of the Deltas-Global Change and Coastal Geoarcheology programs at Washington D.C.'s Smithsonian Institution (National Museum of Natural History), will be delivering the 2003 Whidden Lectures to help explain the human-induced and natural geological processes that are causing cities full of history to sink into the past. For nearly four decades Stanley has studied Mediterranean deltas  sedimentary deposits that form at river mouths along marine and lucustrine coasts around the world  which have historically attracted humans because they provide the ideal place to grow agriculture and arrange transport and trade. The lectures (free admission) take place Wednesday, Nov. 12 and Thursday, Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. in Convocation Hall. Both lectures will focus mainly on Egypt's Nile delta, which is located in a relatively stable geologic area in the eastern Mediterranean while neighbouring archeologically-significant sites have already disappeared.

November 11, 2003

A long-awaited Ontario report on the prevalence of West Nile virus infection showed the ratio of people who fell severely ill with the disease was . . .