Miss G originators recognized
Members of the Miss G Committee, six recent university alumnae who as undergrads lobbied the provincial government to include women’s studies in the high school curriculum, were among those honoured last month at the inaugural Roland Parris Activist Awards. The awards were given in memory of Parris, a long time Canadian Auto Workers activist and NDP member, who died last year. Other recipients included Chuck Lazenby, who helped to create the Unity Project homeless shelter in London, and Beth Guthrie, peace activist and retired Fanshawe College librarian.
A smash at badminton
The Western Mustangs badminton team captured silver at the annual Canadian university and college national championships in May. Jenn Lam won individual gold medals in women’s singles and women’s doubles, while Alex Bruce garnered three medals, two gold and one silver, winning the women’s doubles gold with Lam and mixed doubles gold with Peter Butler, and finishing with silver in women’s singles.
Master’s Student Wins Award
The Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) will award one of its five Dr. Alice E. Wilson Awards, valued at $6,000 each, to Brenda Hamilton. Hamilton is pursuing her M.Sc. in Pathology and her research aims to find the best factors for predicting which patients are at increased risk for a relapse, which would suggest a need for closer follow-up studies on these patients. Dr. Alice E. Wilson, the first woman to hold a professional position at the Geological Survey of Canada, won the 1926 CFUW Travelling Fellowship. www.cfuw.org
No More Scientific Hide and Seek
The NRC Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (NRC-CISTI) has launched a central gateway for easier access to Canadian scientific, technical and medical (STM) data sets and other important data repositories. The initiative will offer links to data sets, selected policies and best practices guiding data management and curation activities in Canada. It also includes links to selected journals and upcoming conferences and meetings. www.cisti.nrc.gc.ca/gateway-scientific-data/
Remembering a friend
Graduating HBSc (Actuarial Sciences) student Chris Greig has just begun a two-month cross-Canada bicycle trip to raise to money for the battle against childhood cancer at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. The initiative, called BikeforMike, is in memory of a friend who passed away from cancer nearly five years ago. “Now that I have graduated, I have decided to do something in his name.” The goal is to raise $50,000 and he is already almost halfway to the goal. Learn more at www.bikeformike.ca. Go Chris!
Uncovered
Western grad Jacob M. Anderson has recently authored a special Museum of Ontario Archeology (University of Western Ontario) publication “The Lawson Site: An Early Sixteenth Century Neutral Iroquoian Fortress”. The book contains a foreward by Robert J. Pearce, the museum’s executive director.
Best days ahead
The Department of Ophthalmology is celebrating its 50th birthday. The department was the third independent ophthalmology department in Canada with Dr. Charles Dyson as founding chair (1957-1974). According to a departmental history, the amalgamation of the department into one site at St. Joseph’s Health Centre into a 60,000 square foot institute in November 2009 will make the physical space one of the best in Canada. “The department’s future is very bright indeed.”
Seeds of change
MBA students at the Richard Ivey School of Business traded laptops and notebooks for farmers’ gear and garden hoes last week. About 70 students helped the London City Farming Network, a non-profit organization that runs community farms in London, to plant crops, erect deer fences and build a small barn at Fanshawe Pioneer Village. The event was organized by Ivey Connects, a student-run group that seeks to inspire students to contribute to the societies in which they operate. Ivey Connects has also been helping London City Farming Network to build a charitable foundation.