Daily News

October 30, 2003

A new era in the teaching and learning of mathematical sciences has begun at McMaster University with the opening of the James Stewart Centre for Mathematics. The interior of ivy-clad historic Hamilton Hall (circa 1929) has been restored to house the new James Stewart Centre for Mathematics. The $11-million restoration was overseen by a working group of McMaster mathematicians that included professor emeritus James Stewart, a champion of mathematics at the University for 26 years. Stewart donated $1 million to the project with additional gifts coming from mathematics graduate and Board of Governors member Richard Buckingham, Deloitte & Touche, the McLean Foundation, SuperBuild and the Ontario Innovation Trust fund. At a gathering celebrating the official opening of the building Thursday, Stewart said that his support was given as a way to say thank you to the people in the math department that had always supported him. "I am very happy that this centre associated with my name is such a beautiful building," said Stewart. "The original idea was for a brand new building, but that proved impossible. I have to say I am absolutely delighted with this exceptional building."

October 29, 2003

Osteocalcin, a small bone-specific protein that influences bone formation, may facilitate the development of drugs to combat bone-related diseases, such as osteoporosis and bone metastases of cancer, say McMaster University researchers. Their study is to be published in today's issue of Nature, a high-impact scientific journal. Although it's generally accepted that osteocalcin, discovered in 1976, binds to the mineral component of bone, called hydroxyapatite, the biological function and the 3-D structure of the protein have never been known. Now McMaster researchers have unlocked the mystery. Osteocalcin is used as a biological marker for assessing bone disease and is closely linked to bone turnover, a fine balance between bone resorption and formation which goes on constantly during life. "The 3-D structure of osteocalcin leads one to believe that the protein is the molecular marker or address of bone," said biochemistry professor Daniel Yang.

October 29, 2003

McMaster University Library is celebrating the donation of the personal diaries of Joseph M. Pigott, one of Hamilton's most prominent businessmen and community leaders of the last century. The 57 handwritten diaries span the years from 1910-1968, a turbulent time in Canadian social and economic history and provide a glimpse into Pigott's private thoughts and insightful commentaries on issues of the day. They are important historical documents and will be of particular interest to researchers and scholars of 20th century local and Canadian history. J.M. Pigott was a prominent figure on the local and national business, social and cultural scene. He was active on numerous boards and was involved with many organizations, including McMaster's Board of Governors, the Hamilton Construction Association and the Art Gallery of Hamilton. His company, the Pigott Construction Company, became one of Canada's most successful private corporations and erected some of the finest buildings in Hamilton and Ontario, including: the Pigott Building (Hamilton's first skyscraper), the Bank of Montreal building at King and James, early McMaster University buildings, Westdale Secondary School, the Cathedral of Christ the King, and the Royal Ontario Museum.

October 29, 2003

This Saturday, the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) semi-final football game between McMaster University Marauders and the University of Windsor Lancers, will be played at Ivor . . .

October 29, 2003

With more than 70 organizations scheduled to attend, this year's Continuing Your Education Fair, is the biggest education fair ever hosted by McMaster's Career Planning . . .

October 28, 2003

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/John_Evans_opt.jpg” caption=”John Evans”]High school students from Hamilton and surrounding area are gathering at McMaster University today for hands-on experiences in medicine, medical research . . .

October 28, 2003

McMaster engineers John MacGregor and Theodora Kourti, along with Canadian manufacturers Dofasco Inc. and Tembec Inc., have won a 2003 Synergy Award for Innovation from . . .

October 27, 2003

In front of a live national broadcast on Raptors NBA TV, the McMaster Marauders men's basketball team won the inaugural Raptors Invitational Tournament, presented by . . .

October 27, 2003

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Jon-Behie_opt.jpg” caption=”Jon Behie”]The second-ranked McMaster Marauders advanced to the OUA semifinals with a 70-7 victory over the University of Waterloo on Saturday. The . . .

October 27, 2003

With the great Blackout of 2003 still fresh in people's minds, the timing couldn't be better to introduce a unique way to reduce energy consumption and fund building renewal at the same time. Keeping true to its culture of innovation, McMaster University is the first university in Canada to become a partner of Campus Renewal Partnership, an energy reduction plan and management system developed by Ameresco Canada Inc. The initiative provides creative ways to relieve funding challenges, advance facility renewal more rapidly and maximize the value of McMaster's physical assets. Launched officially today by McMaster and Ameresco Canada Inc., Campus Renewal Partnership (CRP) is expected to lower energy costs and consumption by 23 per cent and provide a 20-year payout of $28 million in facility renewal improvements. As a show of support for this pioneering partnering initiative, Grant Miles, senior program officer, Natural Resources Canada, presented a $250,000 Natural Resources Canada grant to McMaster University President Peter George. The Energy Innovators Initiative (EII) Energy Retrofit Assistance (division of NRCan) provides grants to institutions for assisting Canada in meeting its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions nationwide. Mario Iusi, president of Ameresco Canada will provide McMaster University Facilities department with a recognition award for its inaugural Campus Renewal Partnership.

October 24, 2003

Classes, tests and presentations are a regular part of every student's life, but students training for medical professions including nursing encounter the additional responsibility of working clinical shifts that expose them to workplace stress, physical fatigue and illness. Starting today, more than 100 Ontario nursing students are meeting at McMaster for a three-day conference that's focused on wellness tips to help keep them healthy before launching careers in an already overworked and understaffed profession. "Nurses face some workplace hazards that are unique to the profession, including back injuries from constantly lifting patients," says Sandra Woltman, third-year nursing student who's co-ordinating the conference with fourth-year student Kristina Kolodziej. Woltman also points out that "needle pricks"  occurring when a used needle penetrates a nurses' skin while it's being handled  are among the common hazards that put nurses more at risk of viruses and infectious diseases. And with the health care system facing significant nurse shortages  only about three nurses for every 500 Ontarians  nurses already have some of the highest absentee rates from work as a result of illness and injury.

October 24, 2003

One of Ontario's largest gatherings of undergraduate engineers will take place Oct. 26-29 at the Hamilton Convention Centre. More than 400 undergraduate students from across Canada will attend the 53rd annual Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering Conference. "This conference gives students the chance to learn about the latest trends in our profession through lectures and seminars, develop speaking skills at presentation competitions, and make valuable connections in academia and industry at graduate studies fairs and receptions," says Jon Ng, a fifth-year chemical engineering and society student who heads the student conference program. "Most importantly, being able to meet and mingle with hundreds of our undergraduate colleagues from across the nation offers a deeper respect for the spirit that is shared by engineers."

October 23, 2003

One day patients may be able to wear a sensor that will conduct a test of their biochemical levels and allow doctors to analyze the results without shipping samples off to a lab. McMaster University engineering physics professor Rafael Kleiman's research lab may well be home to the creation of this new type of device. Kleiman is one of the world's leading researchers studying MicroElectroMechanical systems (MEMS)  transforming static silicon chips into minuscule machines that can feel, smell, see, hear and act. Kleiman, who holds the Canada Research Chair in MicroElectroMechanical Systems, plans to work closely with colleagues in McMaster's health sciences faculty to study biomedical applications for micro-machines. Click on http://www.mcmaster.ca/ua/opr/review/review1003.pdf to read a profile of Kleiman in the McMaster Review. "As we start to miniaturize everything, we need to understand how the forces behave on a small scale," said Kleiman, a senior researcher at Bell Laboratories, the research and development arm of Lucent Technologies in the U.S., before joining McMaster in July. "Things work differently as we make them smaller and because of that we need to understand how they work so we can exploit them fully." He is one of three new McMaster researchers to be appointed under the Canada Research Chairs program. The federal government committed $900 million to the Canada Research Chairs program in the 2000 budget to establish 2,000 research positions at Canadian universities. Today's announcement marks the halfway point in the program, which helps universities attract and retain the best researchers and achieve excellence in natural sciences and engineering, health sciences, social sciences and humanities.

October 23, 2003

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Wayne_taylor.jpg” caption=”Wayne Taylor”]Health policy expert Wayne Taylor, an associate professor in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University, has been . . .

October 22, 2003

When long-term illness or loss of mobility due to age affects a family member, doctor appointments, treatment sessions and ongoing care become a part of daily life. As Canada's population continues to age, more Canadians are taking full or partial responsibility for the long-term care of parents and other relatives, and that makes it an issue more employees are facing at home. Debra Earl, employee health education nurse, has organized a four-part series with Hamilton Victoria Order of Nurses (VON) Caregiver Education Program co-ordinator Anne Vallentin, and "renegade volunteer" and former McMaster nurse educator Mary Buzzell, to help employees deal with the significant strain being a caregiver can place on life at home and work. "We're hoping these sessions will bring people together so they can share their experiences with each other and also learn about the health care services and resources that are available to make a caregiver's job easier," says Earl. The four-part series  offered on Thursdays over the lunch hour  is a customized version of an interactive eight-hour program offered by VON exclusively in Hamilton. The McMaster adaptation is a pared-down version of the program, tailored to focus on the needs expressed by about 40 McMaster employees who pre-registered for the sessions last month.

October 21, 2003

Being more active, eating healthier, and getting more quality sleep may sound like a common sense recipe for feeling better, but too often the stresses of daily life and work can cloud those good intentions. Now, an employee health and workplace wellness group spearheaded by Employee Work-Life Support Services has set out to encourage wellness and healthy lifestyles for McMaster's 5,000 employees. The Workplace Wellness Group includes representatives from various departments throughout the University. "We strive to provide a healthy and safe work environment," says Wanda McKenna, manager of Employee Work-Life Support Services. "There are a number of services available that we invite employees to take advantage of." McMaster and other large companies across Canada are putting more attention on employee wellness, on and off the job. Throughout the year the University offers regular sessions and workshops toward health promotion techniques ranging from healthy food choices to yoga. Emotional well-being is also addressed, with Employee Health Services offering workshops tackling issues such as caring for aging parents.

October 21, 2003

If you're a researcher working outside the United States, McMaster is the place to be, according to a leading science magazine. McMaster placed fifth in . . .

October 20, 2003

Two distinguished scientists are at McMaster this week to share their knowledge of the universe and lasers. Sir Martin Rees, one of the most distinguished astrophysicists of our time, will talk about Life in Our Universe and Others, today (Monday, Oct. 20) at 8 p.m. in Togo Salmon Hall, Room 120. His talk will examine such questions as: Is there life -- even intelligence -- beyond the Earth? How can we best look for it? What is life's long-term future, here on Earth and perhaps far beyond? Could there even be other big bangs? Rees is a professor of astronomy and cosmology at the University of Cambridge and Astronomer Royal of the United Kingdom. From 1973 until 1991, he was the Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at Cambridge. He served for 10 years as director of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy and was president of the Royal Astronomical Society (1992-94). Nobel prize winner and renowned physicist Bill Phillips will give a talk on campus on Tuesday, Oct. 21 entitled Almost Absolute Zero: The Story of Laser Cooling and Trapping. The talk takes place at 7:30 p.m. in University Hall, Convocation Hall. Phillips' lecture is an updated version of the Nobel lecture he gave in Stockholm in 1997 when he shared the Nobel Prize for Physics "for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light." His talk is aimed at a general audience of non-scientists, but discusses some of the newest and most exciting developments in physics.

October 20, 2003

Beginning today, Human Resources and Financial Services will join in conducting a pre-contract study with DLGL to assess their integrated HRIS/payroll system. This study is the final stage in the selection process for a vendor to work with the University to implement a contemporary HRIS/payroll system. The intent of the project is to improve efficiency and effectiveness of process, maintain accurate and current employee information, ensure consistent application of business rules and policies, ensure data security and integrity and provide user-friendly self-service facilities for managers and employees. Recognizing the promise made in Refining Directions to creativity, innovation and excellence, senior administrators are committed to support and encourage this project. Karen Belaire, vice-president, administration says, "The University's mission embraces creativity, innovation and excellence. We must be able to access and use current, accurate Human Resource and payroll information to meet our strategic goals and be able to measure our success. This project can be seen as one more step in becoming the 'Employer of Choice'".

October 20, 2003

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Seiji-Ogawa_opt.jpg” caption=”Seiji Ogawa”]Seiji Ogawa, recognized for revolutionizing the field of functional magnetic resonance imaging, will present a lecture on Wednesday, Oct. 22 entitled . . .