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Western News

Year: 2017

Coffee leads to award-winning collaboration

Coffee leads to award-winning collaboration

At 10:30 a.m. on weekday mornings, Robarts Research Institute trainees come together for coffee and conversation. While it is an informal social opportunity, given the environment, science and collaboration often come up. And it was such a chance encounter over coffee...

Western asks faculty, staff to ‘Speak’ up

Western asks faculty, staff to ‘Speak’ up

Next week, Western faculty and staff will again have their say about how satisfied they are at work. “It’s about an opportunity,” said Andrew Fuller, Director (Learning and Development), Human Resources. “It’s an opportunity for faculty and staff to give a voice to...

Western to play host to PM Town Hall event

Western to play host to PM Town Hall event

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will bring his London Town Hall event to Western’s Alumni Hall tonight after overwhelming demand from the community forced a late change of venue. Doors open at 6 p.m.

reHarvest sees possibilities in wasteful practice

reHarvest sees possibilities in wasteful practice

Jasmine Wang remembers the day in Grade 8, back home in Alberta, when she saw her local Tim Hortons toss out a box of perfectly good donuts. “It shocked me. I was taken aback,” said Wang, a first-year Computer Science and Arts & Humanities student. “Why isn’t that...

Grant fuels research into family challenges

Grant fuels research into family challenges

As populations across the Europe and North America age, governments are faced with a changing set of challenges. Sociology professor Rachel Margolis is part of an international team receiving an almost $1.4-million grant funding a project titled, Care, Retirement and...

Family, community allow Med student opportunity to ‘dream big’

Family, community allow Med student opportunity to ‘dream big’

For Karissa French and her family, education is a lifeline amid the damaging ripple effects of residential schools, substance abuse and inequality. Watching her parents return to school as mature students – overcoming personal challenges and eventually, earning their...

PhD candidate forging new frontiers in virtual reality

PhD candidate forging new frontiers in virtual reality

In a quiet corner of Robarts Research Institute, hidden behind a maze of cubicles and black curtains, researchers are pushing the boundaries of reality.  It’s in this curious and creative space that PhD candidate Adam Rankin, BSc’07, MSc’09, is taking medical imaging...

Alumna hunts DNA on Red Planet

Alumna hunts DNA on Red Planet

Astrobiologist alumna Alexandra Pontefract, PhD’13 (Geology), knows finding DNA on the Red Planet will be no easy feat. But it is possible. What’s more, if DNA is found, it’s not far-fetched to think it would be proof of shared ancestry between Earth and Mars. “There...

Wastewater solutions eyed for Ghana ag

Wastewater solutions eyed for Ghana ag

Ghana’s water supply is devastatingly vulnerable to the point where, one Western researcher believes, the country’s 25 million people could soon be at risk – “an alarming thing we should all be concerned about.” Environmental Engineering graduate student Ahmed...

Helping others tell their stories

Helping others tell their stories

What started as a grade school journal has now evolved into a larger effort by a Western Anthropology graduate student to help his community tell its stories in ways that are more creative. “I grew up with a passion for painting. By the time I was in Grade 12, it...

Why did Trump win? We have no idea.

Why did Trump win? We have no idea.

To tell you the truth, we don’t know. There is nothing more painful for an academic than acknowledging we don’t know something. If we are unable to explain a phenomenon the whole world is watching, the feeling is even worse. So, how can I confess we humanists don’t...

Researcher: Complexity of humour is no joke

Researcher: Complexity of humour is no joke

Rod Martin remembers when humour wasn’t serious business. In the 1970s, psychologists didn’t exactly see humour as a worthwhile topic of study, said Martin, who in July, retired after more than three decades of teaching Clinical Psychology at Western. Such perceptions...

Western asks faculty, staff to ‘Speak’ up

Western asks faculty, staff to ‘Speak’ up

Next week, Western faculty and staff will again have their say about how satisfied they are at work. “It’s about an opportunity,” said Andrew Fuller, Director (Learning and Development), Human Resources. “It’s an opportunity for faculty and staff to give a voice to...

Western to play host to PM Town Hall event

Western to play host to PM Town Hall event

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will bring his London Town Hall event to Western’s Alumni Hall tonight after overwhelming demand from the community forced a late change of venue. Doors open at 6 p.m.

reHarvest sees possibilities in wasteful practice

reHarvest sees possibilities in wasteful practice

Jasmine Wang remembers the day in Grade 8, back home in Alberta, when she saw her local Tim Hortons toss out a box of perfectly good donuts. “It shocked me. I was taken aback,” said Wang, a first-year Computer Science and Arts & Humanities student. “Why isn’t that...

Grant fuels research into family challenges

Grant fuels research into family challenges

As populations across the Europe and North America age, governments are faced with a changing set of challenges. Sociology professor Rachel Margolis is part of an international team receiving an almost $1.4-million grant funding a project titled, Care, Retirement and...

Family, community allow Med student opportunity to ‘dream big’

Family, community allow Med student opportunity to ‘dream big’

For Karissa French and her family, education is a lifeline amid the damaging ripple effects of residential schools, substance abuse and inequality. Watching her parents return to school as mature students – overcoming personal challenges and eventually, earning their...

PhD candidate forging new frontiers in virtual reality

PhD candidate forging new frontiers in virtual reality

In a quiet corner of Robarts Research Institute, hidden behind a maze of cubicles and black curtains, researchers are pushing the boundaries of reality.  It’s in this curious and creative space that PhD candidate Adam Rankin, BSc’07, MSc’09, is taking medical imaging...

Alumna hunts DNA on Red Planet

Alumna hunts DNA on Red Planet

Astrobiologist alumna Alexandra Pontefract, PhD’13 (Geology), knows finding DNA on the Red Planet will be no easy feat. But it is possible. What’s more, if DNA is found, it’s not far-fetched to think it would be proof of shared ancestry between Earth and Mars. “There...

Wastewater solutions eyed for Ghana ag

Wastewater solutions eyed for Ghana ag

Ghana’s water supply is devastatingly vulnerable to the point where, one Western researcher believes, the country’s 25 million people could soon be at risk – “an alarming thing we should all be concerned about.” Environmental Engineering graduate student Ahmed...

Helping others tell their stories

Helping others tell their stories

What started as a grade school journal has now evolved into a larger effort by a Western Anthropology graduate student to help his community tell its stories in ways that are more creative. “I grew up with a passion for painting. By the time I was in Grade 12, it...

Why did Trump win? We have no idea.

Why did Trump win? We have no idea.

To tell you the truth, we don’t know. There is nothing more painful for an academic than acknowledging we don’t know something. If we are unable to explain a phenomenon the whole world is watching, the feeling is even worse. So, how can I confess we humanists don’t...

Researcher: Complexity of humour is no joke

Researcher: Complexity of humour is no joke

Rod Martin remembers when humour wasn’t serious business. In the 1970s, psychologists didn’t exactly see humour as a worthwhile topic of study, said Martin, who in July, retired after more than three decades of teaching Clinical Psychology at Western. Such perceptions...