Daily News

Posted on Aug. 13: Summer students present innovations in engineering, science

The innovations of science and engineering summer students will be on display in the lobby of the Information Technology Building Thursday. More than 80 students in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research (BIMR) and students in science and engineering, will present their summer-long efforts in poster format at a symposium from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Students who have learned from and worked on research-oriented endeavors during the summer will participate in the poster presentation. Originally planned to exhibit the projects of the 34 engineering students in the UROP, the poster presentation now incorporates BIMR summer students. "John Preston (associate professor of engineering) asked if the summer students working in the BIMR could participate," says Anne Markey, manager of Engineering Career Services and the UROP program, "From there, the poster presentation rapidly expanded." While participation was a must for UROP students, other students had a choice and an overwhelming majority chose to create a poster and be on hand to discuss their contributions to ongoing research, Markey says.

Posted on Aug. 9: New contract for sessional lecturers and music instructors

Sessional lecturers and music instructors have approved a new collective agreement with the University. The three-year contract was ratified Wednesday by members of CUPE local 3906, Unit 2. The Board of Governors had approved the terms in late July. "Both the University and the union should be proud of the effort that went into the negotiations and the successful outcome," says Fred A. Hall, chair of the University's bargaining team. "Lecturers and instructors are an important part of the McMaster community. We worked hard together to reach a balance between their issues of concern and McMaster's need for a fiscally responsible settlement that provides stability for the University." "We are glad that negotiations have concluded successfully," says Philippa Carter, a member of the CUPE 3906 bargaining team. "We believe that the new contract finally begins to address several significant issues that have always been of concern to the union and we are pleased that the University's team was able to make some movement in these areas. We recommended the tentative agreement to our members and a considerable majority voted in favour of accepting the proposed contract."

Posted on Aug. 7: Students, families will be given warm welcome

Making the leap from high school to university can be challenging. To help ease the transition, Student Affairs has planned a day of activities for new students and their families. Friday, Aug. 9, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., all first-year students and their families are invited to Welcome Day at the McMaster campus to start orienting themselves with their new home. The day will include tours, information sessions, opportunities to talk with staff from various student services, displays by a number of student clubs, a barbecue lunch, and the option of staying overnight in one of the residences.

Posted on Aug. 8: Gary Schrobilgen: He’s purely a chemist for our times

McMaster chemist Gary Schrobilgen has long been recognized as a world leader in main-group fluorine chemistry. In June he received two awards that attest to his continued leadership in this area. The Canadian Society for Chemistry awarded him the 2002 Alcan Award and the 2002 Award for Pure or Applied Inorganic Chemistry at its annual meeting in June. Significantly, the Vancouver event marked the first time a Canadian researcher has won both awards in the same year. The Alcan Award is presented to a scientist residing in Canada who has made a distinguished contributions in the fields of inorganic chemistry or electrochemistry. The Award for Pure or Applied Inorganic Chemistry is given in recognition of outstanding contributions to industrial or academic inorganic chemistry, within the five calendar years preceding the year of nomination. Schrobilgen conducts fundamental research in inorganic fluorine chemistry and the polyatomic anions of the main-group elements. His research is important in helping us to better understand the structure and chemical bonding in so-called hypervalent molecules and main-group ring, cage and cluster species. He also conducts research in two areas of radiochemistry and on the noble gases krypton and xenon. Many of his compounds are now examples in textbooks.