Daily News

August 14, 2004

Maroon and gold are familiar colours to McMaster student Adam van Koeverden and alumni Sue Palmer-Komar and Mark Heese. But over the next two weeks, these colours will mean more to them than ever. Maroon, because it will remind them of home and gold, because it's what they want to return with. This month, the athletes are in Athens, Greece, competing in kayaking, cycling and beach volleyball. It's exactly four years after Van Koeverden made a pact with himself -- he was going to Athens in 2004.

August 13, 2004

One hundred and twenty-six incoming first-year students will be staying in Woodstock Hall this weekend to experience a little taste of university life. Horizons: Future Student Leaders Conference is about to begin. The conference aims to help students with their transition from high school to university and explore the extra-curricular opportunities at McMaster, with the goal of helping build and define McMaster's future student leaders.

August 12, 2004

McMaster employees are invited to get a sneak peak and have some peaches with ice cream crepes at an open house for the new Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Learning and Discovery on Tuesday, Aug. 17 from 2 to 4 p.m. "Senior management and the McMaster Employee Spirit Society have planned a sneak peek peach party for the new Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Learning and Discovery," says Karen Belaire, vice-president administration. "We hope all employees will come out for this event, which coincides with peach season and the final stages of construction. A tour of the first floor, which houses six new classrooms and six new lecture theatres, will be available, as well as a peek at some of the other floors."

August 12, 2004

The first stretch of the nine-day Canadian Solar Tour was halted after one of the vehicles was involved in an accident Thursday night. A University of Toronto student was killed in the crash. McMaster's solar car team was part of the tour but faculty advisor John Preston confirmed that the team had already completed its journey for the day and all nine team members were in Waterloo when the accident occurred near Stratford. Additional details can be found in an article in today's Hamilton Spectator. The Solar Tour began in Windsor Thursday morning. Teams were to spend the next nine days traveling 1,700 kms to Quebec City to promote renewable energy technologies. The cars were scheduled to make a stop at McMaster today, but the stop has been cancelled due to the tragedy. [End of story]

August 11, 2004

Year round, the team at the McMaster Solar Car Project works on designing, building and modifying solar vehicles while raising awareness about renewable energy and energy conservation. Friday, Aug. 13 at 1:45 p.m., they will have some help spreading their message as the Canadian Solar Tour rolls onto the McMaster University campus. Beginning Aug. 12 in Windsor, ON, and concluding Aug. 21 in Quebec City, the Canadian Solar Tour will take McMaster's team on a 1,700 km journey in promotion of renewable energy technologies. Throughout the tour, the team will be joined by other students from some of Canada's top universities. Usually in competition, the students from McMaster, University of Toronto, Queen's University, McGill University, and Icole de Technologie Supirieure will work in co-operation to complete the 10-day trek.

August 10, 2004

McMaster's Mehran Anvari will conduct experiments using the latest remote surgical technologies and techniques during a 10-day underwater mission taking place this October. The director of McMaster's Centre for Minimal Access Surgery (CMAS) will guide NEEMO 7 -- a mission that will focus on the demonstration and evaluation of innovative remote technologies.

August 9, 2004

South African Women for Women (SAWW) recognized McMaster's Cheryl Levitt on Aug. 8, for her contributions and commitment to improving the lives of others in the field of health. SAWW, a Canadian-based organization, was established in 1997, and provides a forum to celebrate South African Women's Day. On Aug. 9, 1956, 20,000 women from all over South Africa and representing all socio-economic backgrounds marched for freedom. SAWW honours women who serve their communities in education, health, the arts, and liberation movements. The awards are an opportunity to applaud the accomplishments of outstanding women, and also to engage their wisdom, and empower individual and societal progress.

August 6, 2004

Go ahead. Google 'Flintbox'. Or go to any other Internet search engine and type in the word Flintbox. What pops up on your screen will be a list of results, with one of the first two always directing you to the Flintbox Web site, "an online platform for marketing and licensing the outcomes of research taking place in and around universities." McMaster University has hopped on this platform, poised to bring the outcomes of research taking place here on campus to the boundless market of the World Wide Web.

August 5, 2004

Lindsay Tedds is the first to admit that she's different from most graduate students she meets. For starters, she has more than a decade of experience at the federal public service level. Recently she left her job in Ottawa to pursue a PhD in economics, a choice many of her colleagues questioned because of the job security, money, and career success she would leave behind. Tedds moved to an apartment in Hamilton, downscaled her lifestyle, and has committed to full-time studenthood for a condensed three-year period of study. "While I was with the public service I received news that a paper I had published as a master's student won an award, and it helped me to remember that I really enjoy academics and that I'm good at it," says Tedds. "Then my career came to a point where my next promotion would have been to senior management. I'm a researcher, not a manager at heart."

August 4, 2004

Making the leap from high school to university can be challenging. To help new students make this transition, McMaster University has invited all first-year students and their families to Welcome Day, Friday, Aug. 6, 2004 on the McMaster campus. Through activities, information, and events, approximately 2,000 students will be welcomed to the McMaster community and begin orienting themselves to what will soon be their new "home." The day-long program includes information sessions on such topics as financial matters, academic success, adapting to university, safety, and living off-campus. New students will also be introduced to the McMaster campus and the Hamilton community through campus walkabouts, building tours, and totally transit tours, which take visitors 'downtown and beyond' on a specially chartered HSR bus.

August 3, 2004

If phoning McMaster's Career Planning & Employment Centre (CPEC) today, don't be surprised by the answer you get. There's a reason the greeting will be, "Career Services," because as of today, the career resource centre has a new name. CPEC has changed its name to Career Services to reflect the range of services it provides to students, alumni, employers and other key stakeholders. "Students know us as the place to get a job," says Lisa Boniface, manager of the new Career Services, "But we also have wonderful services to support students in career planning, education planning, and experiential learning."

July 30, 2004

As a business woman, Jane M. Klausman said she understood first-hand the challenges faced by young women pursuing careers in business and the importance of helping women become business leaders. As a result of her bequest to Zonta International, out of which came the Jane M. Klausman Women in Business Scholarship Program, female students like McMaster's Amber Gibbins are on the path to success. "It means a lot to me to be recognized by an organization that's primary objective is to advance the status of women," says the McMaster commerce student, selected by the Zonta Club of Hamilton to receive the prestigious $600 scholarship.

July 30, 2004

McMaster's Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research (BIMR) summer student research program has paid off in more ways than chemistry student Phil Elder could have imagined. Not only has it boosted his enthusiasm for chemistry  now he can't wait to do his thesis. The fourth-year honours chemistry student was one of 17 BIMR students who participated in an annual engineering poster presentation yesterday (Thursday). Approximately 200 students took part in the event, including those in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), and students with Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) grants in science and engineering.

July 29, 2004

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Hodgson.Nicole.jpg” caption=”Nicole Hodgson”]Hamilton's reputation as a centre of excellence for health care and evidence-based medicine has lured a new cancer surgeon home. McMaster . . .

July 29, 2004

News of hostages appears daily in media around the world. As reporters examine the reasons people are taken hostage and governments work to rescue their citizens, a different investigation of hostage situations will be happening on the McMaster University campus as part of the McMaster Summer Drama Festival, which runs July 26-31. In conjunction with performances of Frank McGuinness' Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, the cast, crew, and audience of this edgy modern hostage drama are invited to participate in an open discussion Friday, July 30 at 12 p.m. in Togo Salmon Hall, Rm. 719. Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, directed by McMaster student Robert Porter, presents an Irishman, an Englishman, and an American trapped in a cell in Lebanon during the Civil War in the late 1980s. They struggle to stay alive and sane by constantly testing one another's wits, faiths, and senses of humour.

July 29, 2004

The City of Burlington and McMaster University today announced their intention to enter into discussions aimed at bringing a post-secondary campus to Burlington within the next three years. The City of Burlington initiated the search for a campus presence in the city earlier this year by establishing an 11-member Mayor's Task Force on Post-Secondary Education. The Task Force met with a number of colleges and universities, and considered a variety of options for post-secondary education in Burlington. They developed selection criteria and a vision for a post-secondary institution in Burlington, and sought out a respected partner with a proven track record in post-secondary education that could offer Burlington a unique and innovative way to enhance learning opportunities for Burlington citizens, while at the same time reflects the values of the community. McMaster senior administrators and faculty met with the task force on a number of occasions to articulate the University's desired growth directions, our interest in interdisciplinary education and our commitment to student-centered, research-driven learning. Ultimately, the task force recommended that McMaster University be chosen as the lead partner for the next stage of planning for a new campus in the city.

July 28, 2004

McMaster University cancer researcher, Tim Whelan, a radiation oncologist with the Juravinski Cancer Centre, has developed a tool that enables women with breast cancer to choose their own course of treatment. The Decision Board (DB) is a visual aid designed to help physicians inform patients of their options in a concise and effective way, thus paving the way for women to make their own choices. The long-term results of international trials have demonstrated equivalent survival rates for mastectomy and breast-conserving therapy (lumpectomy plus radiation therapy) for the treatment of early stage breast cancer. Consequently, the choice of treatment, mastectomy or breast conserving therapy, should be based on a patient's preferences.

July 27, 2004

School isn't just about books for the nearly 200 engineering students studying at McMaster this summer. They're learning first-hand what engineering is about and this week they're showing it off. On Thursday, July 29, students in three engineering summer programs will participate in an annual poster presentation hosted by the Faculty of Engineering. "The purpose of the event is to promote the research endeavours of undergraduate engineering students at McMaster University," says Anne Markey, manager of Engineering Co-op & Career Services. "This type of work is also an important component of experiential education. By having our students create a poster about their research, this process encourages them to reflect on their accomplishments and what they have learned in their research position."

July 26, 2004

Because of a $50-million injection into the Shared Hierarchical Academic Research Computing Network (SHARCNET), McMaster researchers will probe the structure of matter at nano-scales -- making McMaster one of the most powerful research centers in the world. "The new expansion of SHARCNET to its current state will enable new state-of-the-art simulations that allow us to probe the structure of matter at the nanometer (billionth of a meter) and micrometer (millionth of a meter) scales, linking the properties of that world to functionality of materials on the scale of world we live in," says Nikolas Provatas, McMaster professor of engineering and materials science. "This emerging area, known as computational materials science promises to create innovations in everything from stronger, light weight alloys for automotive and aerospace applications, to new electronic materials to be used in future computers and electronic devices." The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) has invested $19.3M, with matching funds from the Ontario government and an additional $10M from SHARCNET's institutional and private sector partners.

July 26, 2004

Collaborative research conducted between McMaster University, Syracuse University and Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is accelerating the development of molecular imaging. New fluorescence-based technology called SAACQ (Single Amino Acid Chelate-Quinoline) is enabling the visualization of radiopharmaceuticals interacting with cellular structures -- an advance that is expected to accelerate the development of molecular imaging agents and targeted radiotherapeutics. The results were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS). "The ability to observe and monitor radiopharmaceuticals at the cellular and sub-cellular levels has previously not been possible," said John Valliant, assistant professor of chemistry at McMaster. "Previously, a fluorescent dye would have to be attached to a new radiopharmaceutical in order to visualize cellular behavior, but the modification can alter the behavior of the studied molecule, significantly diminishing the quality of the results. SAACQ allows the study of the original structure without modification. The opportunity to use fluorescent microscopy should increase R&D productivity by illuminating the mechanisms underlying the targeting of radiopharmaceuticals to specific molecular receptors."