Daily News

March 11, 2004

Looking for something for the kids to do for March Break? How about kicking off their week with Science in the City for Kids, a special event taking place this Saturday, March 13. Budding scientists and engineers (ages 8-14) are invited to attend a fun presentation by McMaster's Fireball Show, the Solar Car Project Team and demos by Let's Talk Science volunteers. Visit John Hodgins Engineering Building, Rm. 376 to view scientific experiments, pyrotechnics and a multi-media presentation that's exciting, fast-paced and full of energy. As well as the Fireball Show, the Solar Car Project team will be on hand to talk about solar energy and the Solar Car Challenge Race. Fireball 2 will be on site so kids can see a working solar car "up close". There will also be science demos by student volunteers from the Let's Talk Science Program. This event is free and open to kids and any adult kids they'd like to bring with them. There will be refreshments and prizes. To reserve your seat phone 905-525-9140, ext. 24934 or e-mail sciencecity@mcmaster.ca This event is sponsored by the Office of the Vice-President, Research and International Affairs and the Natural Sciences and Research Engineering Council (NSERC).

March 11, 2004

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Todd_Young.jpg” caption=”Todd Young”]A new course at McMaster University focusing on aboriginal health issues will increase medical students' awareness of the healthcare issues unique . . .

March 11, 2004

Ontario University Athletics (OUA) will award the Wilson Cup to the top men's basketball team in the province for the 87th time as the Carleton . . .

March 10, 2004

McMaster campus groups and the City health department are clearing the air about tobacco use with a half-day event, "Seeing through the haze: the tobacco industry exposed" taking place today (Wednesday)from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the McMaster University Student Centre Marketplace. Garfield Mahood, executive director of the Non-Smokers' Rights' Association (NSRA) will be the featured keynote speaker at the event, organized by Leave the Pack Behind, the McMaster University Campus Health Centre, and The City of Hamilton Public Health & Community Services Department. The three-hour forum will include guest exhibitors, video presentations. Mahood's address will take place at 11 a.m. "Tobacco industry products kill 45,000 Canadians every year," says Sanjay Patel, campus co-ordinator of Leave the Pack Behind at McMaster. "That's 123 people every day. This event was organized to expose the tobacco industry and its role in the tobacco epidemic."

March 10, 2004

University researchers, graduate students and other members of the campus community with interests in the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) are invited to attend any of the following scheduled open sessions to discuss the transformation of the granting council to a knowledge council: March 23: 1-3 p.m., Rm. 122, Togo Salmon Hall March 25: 1:30-3:30 p.m., Rm. 318, McMaster University Student Centre March 29: 9-11 a.m. Rm. 318, McMaster University Student Centre The open sessions are intended to provide University stakeholders with an opportunity to voice their views and opinions on Volume 1 of the Framework Document drafted by SSHRC. The sessions will be chaired by Geoffrey Rockwell, McMaster's SSHRC representative. Volume 1 is available online at: http://www.sshrc.ca/web/whatsnew/initiatives/transformation/consultation_framework_e.pdf Submissions from the McMaster community may also be e-mailed to: sshrc@mcmaster.ca

March 9, 2004

He is one of the world's most influential environmental champions, a distinguished diplomat and an ardent advocate for peace and humanitarianism. The Honourable Maurice F. Strong is a special advisor to the secretary-general and under secretary-general of the United Nations, a role that includes acting as a special envoy to North Korea to monitor humanitarian and development issues. He is also president of the council of the University for Peace, affiliated with the United Nations. Strong will present the 20th annual J.W. Hodgins Memorial Lecture at McMaster University on Thursday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m. on the topic of "Engineering the Future." The lecture will be held in John Hodgins Engineering building, Room 264. The Hodgins lectureship is sponsored by the Faculty of Engineering to commemorate McMaster's first engineering dean, J.W. Hodgins, who died in 1983. Earlier in the day, Strong will meet with students from the Engineering and Society program, Peace Studies and the Engineering and Social Responsibility course to present a condensed version of his evening lecture and engage in discussion.

March 9, 2004

Notice anything different about these two pictures? It's the same person, with one small difference. One image has been altered, but most people won't see how until they're viewed upright. This is one example of the so-called the inversion effect  it's harder for the brain to process upside-down objects than upright objects, and the inversion effect is especially strong for the perception of faces. For most people, it's easy to recognize a range of faces, even under various lighting conditions and from different views. But when those faces are turned upside-down, we experience problems, says Allison Sekuler, professor of psychology and Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience at McMaster University.

March 9, 2004

McMaster's School of the Arts is in week three of the Directors' Series 2004. Week three includes only one play, 7 Stories. All shows were . . .

March 8, 2004

In front of a frenzied sellout crowd of 2400 at the Burridge Gymnasium on the McMaster University campus, the nationally sixth ranked McMaster Marauders defeated the seventh ranked Brock University Badgers, 78-71, in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) West Division Championship Game. OUA West Player of the Year, Adam Guiney from McMaster was sidelined early with foul trouble. The team's scoring was picked up by juniors Rob Scully and Ben Katz. Scully, the Wilson Sports Player of the Game, led the Marauders on the day with 21 pts on 6 of 12 shooting (50%) including 5 of 7 (71.4 %) beyond the three-point arc. Scully was also a perfect four of four from the free throw line. OUA West First Team All-Star, Katz added 20 points, 4 assists and 2 steals. With the win, McMaster advances to the Ontario University Athletics Championship Game that will be played at Carleton Saturday, March 13, 2004.

March 8, 2004

Miroslav Lovric wonders why people at parties feel the need to tell him that they hate math, can't do math and suffer from math anxiety once they learn what he does for a living. The associate professor of mathematics and statistics is perplexed by this attitude, "people rarely feel the need to tell an English teacher they hate English, hate to read and don't really know what the letters T, R or Z mean," he says. Lovric's interest in changing this attitude is reflected in his desire to bring math to the public and one of the reasons he's speaking at tomorrow's (March 9) Science in the City lecture series, a public lecture series sponsored jointly by the University and the Hamilton Spectator. His lecture, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour, will explore infinity, an age-old concept that appears in the oral culture of myths and legends and continues to connect to other disciplines such as religion, art, philosophy and astronomy. In an interview with the Spectator, Lovric emphasizes that the audience doesn't need a mathematical background, but should expect to be challenged. "People just need to be inquisitive and open and they'll hear good stuff. We all have basic mathematical intuition but we are afraid to use it. But it's fun, it's possible and it's relevant." Lovric will trace the cultural, historical and mathematical background of infinity without resorting to the formulas and mathematical symbols that many seem to dread. "You can talk about math without talking about math. People will not even know it's there," he notes. This Science in the City lecture will take place Tuesday March 9 in the Hamilton Spectator Auditorium, 44 Frid Street in Hamilton. Doors open at 6:30pm and the lecture begins at 7pm. The lecture is free and all are welcome. To reserve your seat e-mail sciencecity@mcmaster.ca or by phone: 905-525-9140, extension 24934. *** There will be a special Science in the City for Kids this Saturday, March 13 on campus in the John Hodgins Engineering Building Room 376 from 9am to 11:30am. The event will feature the Fireball Show and Fireball 2, McMaster's Solar Car. For more information, visit Science in the City for Kids .***

March 8, 2004

McMaster researchers are celebrating a new era of discovery with the award of $16.3 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) for six major research initiatives. The funding will enable McMaster researchers to acquire state-of-the art instruments to lead further research in the areas of nanotechnology, functional genomics, radiation biology, natural and synthetic polymers, digital cinema and high-performance computing. "Our researchers continue to have great success in a highly competitive process," said Mamdouh Shoukri, vice president research & international affairs. "The research we're doing at McMaster is leading edge and will contribute, for example, to a better understanding of how diverse materials are constructed and operate at super small levels, how genes function in cancer and infectious diseases and the effects of low-dose radiation. Funding for the computational science project known as SHARCNET is support for a fundamental science that will help researchers in several areas. "In all of these endeavours our researchers are either leading or establishing the first facilities of their kind in Canada. They are focused on world-class research leading to new discoveries, technologies, cures and treatments in the areas of molecular biology, manufacturing and materials and information technology. This CFI support is integral to our ability to forge new paths in these areas." To date, McMaster has received $89 million from CFI to support research activity, which will generate or translate into more than $200 million in funding for research projects at the University.

March 8, 2004

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Rik-Emmett.jpg” caption=”Rik Emmett”]The 2003/2004 Smooth Jazz Series, co-sponsored by McMaster University School of the Arts and Wave 94.7 fm, continues with jazz guitarist . . .

March 5, 2004

Del Harnish, the new academic director of McMaster's Centre for Leadership in Learning (CLL), has a lot on his mind these days. Not only is he leading one of McMaster's most premier programs  the Bachelor of Health Sciences program -- he's been asked to bring teaching to the forefront of researchers' minds. It's a hefty task. After all, teaching isn't why most researchers entered their profession, he says. "The culture in most faculties is that faculty members do not meet to talk about their teaching. In fact, if you were to walk down the hall and ask a faculty member what's new, it almost never will be a topic about teaching, it will be something in their research." That's why CLL is so important, he says. It emphasizes teaching excellence; an objective he says is shared across campus. So, when Harnish was asked to take on the position of academic director of CLL, he knew he was being charged with an important job. "Teaching has become a more central issue for the institution over the past five years, and that's clear in things like tenure and promotion committees, and it's a clear focus of Refining Directions," says Harnish, who took over the three-and-a-half-year appointment in January. "It's largely true that all people who teach on campus want to do it really well, but by definition, their discipline is not teaching and they don't necessarily read educational literature, because they are engrossed in their research."

March 4, 2004

On graduation day, two McMaster students on their way to accepting a McMaster degree, were also on their way to accomplishing amazing things. At fall . . .

March 4, 2004

In recognition of International Women's Day March 8, the McMaster Womyn's Issues Network (MacWIN), will host Gender Matters! a conference that will explore the ways in which gender affects people's lives, on Saturday, March 6. "We aim to raise consciousness and hear the voices of people who are traditionally marginalized based on gender, race, ethnicity, religion, class, sexuality, able-bodiness, and age," says fourth-year philosophy student Helen Tewolde, a co-founder of MacWin who is helping organize the conference. The conference will cover topics ranging from women and health, women in leadership, technology and economic development, women in media, women in migration, to gender and sexuality and women in sports.

March 4, 2004

Undergraduate commerce students from the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University have scored among the highest business schools in North America in a recent . . .

March 4, 2004

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/McMaster-vs.-Brock-Basketba.jpg” caption=”McMaster vs. Brock”]The nationally sixth-ranked McMaster Marauders men's basketball team plays host to division rival seventh-ranked Brock Badgers Saturday, March 6 at . . .

March 4, 2004

Highlights from the Feb. 26 Board of Governors meeting Renovation projects approved Renovations to the Burke Science Building (BSB) and General Sciences Building (GSB) will . . .

March 4, 2004

In Titles Bookstore, a student holds a maroon sweater with the McMaster crest and words of the University emblazoned artfully across the chest. The student is thinking about more than the cost or trendiness of the sweater. Instead he asks, "where was this sweater made?" It's a question asked by more students and the University has responded. Not only does McMaster have one of the most comprehensive and emulated no sweat' and fair trade' purchasing codes in the country, it now requires that all McMaster suppliers that fall under the code certify they are compliant with it. McMaster's purchasing codes cover all licensed goods and apparel purchased by the University. Click here to read a background on the codes. "A code isn't worth anything unless there is compliance with it," says Don Wells, who teaches labour studies and politics at McMaster, and has worked on McMaster's 'no sweat' and 'fair trade' buying codes. McMaster is one of the only Canadian universities to require its suppliers to complete a compliance form, according to Ian Thomson of Maquila Solidarity Network, a Canadian network promoting solidarity with groups in Mexico, Central America, Africa and Asia. The University of Toronto has developed a compliance form for its licensees. In the United States, close to 200 colleges and universities that are affiliated to the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) and/or Fair Labor Association (FLA) require their licensees to do likewise, he says.

March 4, 2004

Ingenuity, ambition, commitment. These three words characterize a group of students who will gather at McMaster University from March 4 to 7 to participate in . . .