It's 100% of their dependents who are really at risk. Life insurance is for the living. Your life insurance could be all that stands between your loved ones and a lifetime of need. You see, it's not really insurance ... it's groceries, utility payments , clothes, car maintenance, loan payments, ren t or mortgage .. . in fac t, it 's everything that your family depends on you fo r right now.

FACT: The death rate of Canadians between the ages of 30 and 49 is 5. 8 per 1, 000. **

If you were one of the 5.8, could your family cope financially without you? The unthinkable can happen. Don't let your family's story be a tragic one. For their securi ty and for your own peace of mind, find out more about the valuable and affordable Term Life, Major Accident Protection and Income Protection coverage designed for alwnni of the University of Guelph.

FACT: In Canada, life insurance represents only 2.4% of household

estate planning.***

Life insurance is an affordable way to maintain your family's net worth after you've passed away.

Consider all the payments you make on a monthly basis. Perhaps you have a mortgage, outstanding credit card balances, car loans or student loans. If you passed away and your family cashed in your assets (home, RRS P's and other investments) to pay all you owe, what would be left? Would it be enough to provide them with a suitab le lifestyle? Think about it.

Thinking ahead and purchasing insurance could make all the difference for your family's financial security.

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Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00p.m. ET, or e-mail us at: am_service@ manulife.com You may also visit www.manulife.com/affinityuoguelph, a Web site designed exclusively for

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According to the Canadian Ownership Rcpon. A BCilChmark for the 21st Century (2000) by LIMRA International, Canadians aged 35 to 55 have an average of3.6 times their annual income in life insurance coverage, while Canadians aged 55 to 64 have only 2.4 times their annual income in coverage. 25% of all Canadian households have no life insurance at all, while 16.5% of Canadians aged 35 to 55 do not own any life insurance coverage.

u Smti stics Canada, Death 1998 - Report 84F02 11 XPI3 . ... Investor Economics The Household Balance Sheet Report- 2001 Edition.

3 message from the

4 in and Around the University

CHANCELLOR

Lincoln Alexander

has been reappointed for an unprecedented fifth

term at U of G, and 14 of

35 Canada Research

Chairs have now been named. Guelph faculty

and students have received numerous hon­

ours, including a Nation­al Aboriginal Achieve­

ment Award to English

professor Thomas King and a prestigious research

award to zoology PhD

graduate Ryan Gregory.

on the Cover

Guelph research in biologically

inspired robotics inspired this

illustration by Louis Fishauf.

SUMMER 2003

RESEARCH

A ROBOTIC EVOLUTION A small group of Guelph researchers is building a reputation in the

development of intelligent personal robots that are inspired by bio­

logical systems.

TEACHING & LEARNING

INSPIRATION IS NOT ENOUGH Guelph faculty talk about creativity and strategies they use to help students learn to take risks that will lead to creative work in art, music and literature.

19

PROFILE OF A PRESIDENT

ROZANSKI 'GRADUATES' FROM U OF G

After 10 years as U of G president, Mordechai Rozanski leaves Guelph with memories of campus life, colleagues and alumni friends.

11

alumni Matters

GUELPH alumni are

reaching out to each

other through the Online

Community, where they have access to class bul­letin boards, travel advice

and mentoring opportu­

nities. Alumni Weekend

will celebrate student/

alumni traditions and the l OOth anniversary of the

founding of Macdonald Institute. And U of G

graduate Robert McLean

perseveres after the Columbia shuttle tragedy.

Summer 2003 1

2 GuELPH ALUMNUS

,.,,~

-/4 ; ~ ~· Quelph alumnus

Summer 2003 • VOLU M E 35 IssuE 2

Editor Mary Dickieson

Director Charles Cunningham

Art Direction Peter Enneson Design Inc.

Contributors Stacey Curry Gunn

Barbara Chance, BA '74

Rachelle Cooper

Lori Bona Hunt

Suzanne Soto

SPARK Program Writers

Andrew Vowles, B.Sc. '84

Advertising Inquiries Scott Anderson

519-827-9 169

519-654-6122

Direct all other correspondence to:

Communications and Public Affairs

Un ive rsity of Guelph

Guelph, Ontario N I G 2W l

Fax 519-824-7962

E-mail m .dickieson@exec. uoguelph.ca

www. uoguelph.ca/news/alumnus/

The Guelph Alumnus magazine is published

three times a year by Communications and

Public Affairs at the Un iversity of Guelph.

Its mission is to en hance the relationsh ip

between the University and its alumni and

friends and promote pride and comm it­

ment within the University community. All

material is copyright 2003. Ideas and opin­

ions expressed in the articles do not neces­

sa rily refl ect the ideas or opinions of the

University or the edi tors.

Canada Post Agreement# 1500023

Pr inted in Canada by Contact

Creative Services. ISSN 1207-7801

To update yo ur alumni record, contact:

Alumni Affairs and Development

Phone 519-824-4120, Ext. 56550

Fax 519-822-2670

E- mail alumnireco rds@uoguelph. ca

UNIVERSITY 9!GUELPH

UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH

message from the President

THIS IS A BITTERSWEET MESSAGE because it

signals the end of my second term as president of

the University of Guelph.

After 10 years at Guelph, it's hard to leave, but I'm

looking forward to a new challenge at Rider University

in New jersey. And I know U of G will be in great hands

with my successor, Alastair Summerlee.

A faculty member in the Depart­

ment of Biomedical Sciences since

1988, Alastair has also held a series of

successful administrative positions,

including his current role as provost

and vice-president (academic). A ded­

icated colleague and an outstanding

provost, he has already helped advance

the excellence of the University in

numerous ways and will lead it to new

levels of success as your president.

Much of that success will rest, as it

has during my tenure, on the talented

and caring people who make up the Uni­

versity of Guelph community-

faculty, staff, students, retirees,

MORDECHAIROZANSKI

family of alumni who have graduated since OVC's first

convocation of students in 1866 and to look forward to

the many future graduates who will emulate their pre­

decessors' successes.

jamie-Lee joins a distinguished community of alum­

ni that spans the globe and is a tremendous source of

expertise and leadership in society and, closer to home,

in the University community.

Guelph is fortunate to have alumni

who are generous with their time and

support, alumni who want to be

involved with students as mentors and

advisers, alumni who value the heritage

of the campus and take pride in con­

tributing to its future.

Over the last decade, I've had the

opportunity to meet and get to know

many alumni. I have valued your friend­

ship, advice and support.

You know better than anyone that

U of G is a university rich in history, yet

focused on providing each new

generation of students with the

board members and alumni. SUSTAINED EXCELLENCE highest-quality education.

I remember my own first

impression of Guelph as a

human place where people

shared great pride in the Uni­

versity's past and even greater

confidence in its future. Today, I

share that pride and confidence.

AND AN EMBRACE In I 0 years' time, I've also

had the privilege of addressing

more than 18,000 new gradu­

ates at convocation. They are

the best evidence of our success

OF INNOVATION ARE

COMMITMENTS THAT WILL

NOT FALTER ON as a university, carrying with

them Guelph's deepest value of

caring for others. It's no secret that U of G is

in the top tier of Canada's

THIS CAMPUS

post-secondary institutions.

Not only are Canada's best students knocking on our

doors, but the national media are also reporting our

successes and we're attracting first-class faculty and staff

from around the world. Sustained excellence and an

embrace of innovation are commitments that will not

falter on this campus.

One of the best examples of this came during win­

ter convocation ceremonies when we celebrated a won­

derful moment in University of Guelph history. On Feb.

19, Jamie-Lee Brown received a bachelor of arts degree

for her studies in psychology and became the Univer­

sity's I OO,OOOth graduate.

That milestone gave us a chance to look back at the

Whatever your year of

graduation, I hope you will

always be interested in your alma mater and will make

the effort to maintain relationships with the classmates

and faculty who influenced your own journey of intel­

lectual and personal growth.

I hope you will also recognize yourselves as ambas­

sadors and advocates for the University of Guelph and

its mission to discover and disseminate new knowledge.

Education is one of the most important gifts we can

bestow on our society. I am deeply grateful for my educa­

tion and the opportunities it has afforded me, including

the opportunity to further my vision of education with like­

minded colleagues at the University of Guelph. It has been

a privilege to serve as president of this great institution.

Summer 2003 3

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BAR CODES FOR LIFE

EVERY LIVING BEING

carries a unique DNA

sequence that could soon

be used to identify all species on the planet.

Zoology professor Paul

Hebert and his research

team are proposing to "bar-code" all species,

much like retail products are now tagged on store

aisles. The retail indus­try's Universal Product

Code system uses 10 dig­its at each of 11 positions

to create 100 billion dif­ferent combinations or

bar codes, which are in

turn assigned to specific

products. Hebert notes that DNA is encoded

using four chemical bases

and that the genomes of

most species are millions

of these nucleotides long. He says an examination

of only 45 of these

nucleotide positions can yield close to a billion bar

codes that can be used in

species recognition.

4 GuELPH ALUMNUS

ALEXANDER REAPPOINTED

LINCOLN ALEXANDER HAS BEEN

appointed to an unprecedented fifth term

as chancellor of U of G. The reappointment

was approved by Senate Jan. 28.

position that I love, and I will continue to try

my best to further enhance the image of this

great university."

The former Ontario lieutenant-governor first became chancellor of the University in 1991 and

will begin his next three-year term in October.

During his years as chancellor, he has con­

ferred degrees and diplomas on more than 20,000

graduates at convocation. He serves on the Uni­versity's external relations committee, Board of

Trustees and Board of Governors, and has been

an active public supporter of the University.

"I am tremendously proud and over­

whelmed;' says Alexander. "It is a challenging

Canada Research Chairs filled

U OF G HA S N OW received

funding for 14 of the 35

Canada Research Chairs (CRCs) it expects to fill as part

of the federal government's pro­

gram to build world-class cen­tres of research excellence.

Federal CRC funding is enhanced through contribu­tions in support of research

infrastructure from the Cana­

da Foundation for Innovation

and the Ontario Innovation Trust, making U of G's 14 chairs

worth a total of $23 million.

U of G's newest chair hold-

ers are: Prof. Arend Bon en, formerly

chair of the University of

Waterloo's Department of

Kinesiology. He joined Guelph's

Department of Human Biolo­gy and Nutritional Sciences

May 1 as holder of the Canada

Research Chair in Metabolism

and Health. Prof. Joseph Lam, Department

of Microbiology, Canada Research Chair in Cystic Fibro­sis and Microbial Biology.

Prof. Barry Smit, Department

of Geography, Canada Research Chair in Global Environmen­

tal Change. Bonen is a leading researcher

of transport proteins that act as gatekeepers into muscle cells and

regulate metabolism by control­

ling substrate entry into the cell. His research will advance under-

standing of potential therapies

for metabolic diseases. Lam's research also relates to

human health. He is investigat­

ing pathogen-host interactions to develop more effective ways

to target and treat deadly

chronic pulmonary infections related to cystic fibrosis.

A world expert on adapta­

tion to climate change, Smit is

examining the social and eco­

nomic implications of global cli­mate change and how to man­

age the associated risks and

opportunities. Until recently, most research related to global

environmental changes has con­

centrated on the physical and

biological processes involved.

• • n1vers1 PEOPLE IN THE NEWS • CAMPUS HIGHLIGHTS • UNIVERSITY NOTES

U of G Orchestra was undaunted

ENGLISH COMPOSER

Gustav Holst's most famous work, The Planets, is too large a piece for most Canadian orchestras to per­form on their own. But that didn't stop Henry Janzen, con­ductor of the 45-member U of G Orchestra, from fulfilling his longtime dream of staging the masterpiece. In April, he Jed the orchestra in a perform­ance of the work at Guelph's River Run Centre, accompa­nied by more than 50 other musicians from the National Ballet, the Canadian Opera Company and local youth and community orchestras.

"I thought this would be a great challenge for the orches­tra," says Janzen. "It's a really popular piece of music, so I figured it probably wouldn't be too difficult to persuade extra

AUTHOR RECEIVES ABORIGINAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

PROF . THOMAS KING,

English and Theatre Studies, received a National Aboriginal Achievement Award for 2003 in the arts and culture category.

''I'm really pleased," says King. "So much of the press is about the negative stuff, but these awards are really looking at accomplishments that peo­ple have been able to make."

He is the author of four best-

It took two large classrooms with the dividers removed between them

to accommodate rehearsals for The Planets. Henry Janzen conducted

the 100 musicians required to perform the Gustav Holst masterpiece.

players to participate. The real­ity is, there won't be that many chances in their lifetime for them to play this piece."

Holst's seven-movement masterpiece did, indeed, pro­duce a memorable evening for both musicians and audience, despite the fact that bad weath­er forced a day's delay in the

Thomas King, centre, with Ontario

lieutenant-governor James Bartle·

man and Cynthia Rathwell of Star

Choice Communications.

performance. "It's a really great piece of music," says Janzen. "The movement 'Mars' is so incessant and has such large brass forces and organ and everything else in it, and it shakes the ground. You feel as if you're caught up in this hor­rible activity, but it's so power­ful and it's totally unstoppable:'

selling novels, two non-fiction books and numerous television, radio drama and fum scripts. He is also the creative force behind CBC Radio's Dead Dog Cafe

Comedy Hour. It is through humour that King has been able to bring First Nations issues to the forefront of Canadian society.

He has also been chosen to give the 2003 Massey Lectures, a national series run out of the University of Toronto and broadcast by CBC Radio. The series began in 1961 .

SHY KIDS

CHILDREN MAY BE a

lot shyer than their par­ents or teachers think, says Prof. Mary Ann Evans, Psychology. Evans had more than 400 chil­dren in grades 5 and 6 describe their shyness and asked each child's parents and teachers to rate the child's level of shyness.

The results showed that about 25 per cent of children report them­selves as being shy. But about one-third of the children who rated themselves as shy were not characterized that way by their parents or teachers. "Many teachers and parents don't pick up on these internalized thoughts and feelings," says Evans.

The study also found that these children have lower self-esteem than do children whose shyness was recognized by their parents and teachers.

Summer 2003 5

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in and around the University

MUSCLE PROTEINS

PROF. }OHN DAWSON,

Chemistry and Biochem­

istry, hopes that research­

ing muscle protein inter­

actions will offer clues to

alternative treatments for

cancer. The two proteins

Dawson is studying, actin

and myosin, are common

to all our cells and,

through their interaction,

allow our muscles to con­

tract and extend. Because

myosin is critical in the

late stages of cell division,

inhibiting its action could

possibly halt the cell divi­

sion that results m

tumour growth.

SOVIET ADVENTURES

PRoF. STEPHEN Hem­

han, Languages and Lit­

eratures, has received a lot

of attention for his book

of essays about Canadian

literature, When Words

Deny the World: The

Reshaping of Canadian

Writing. The book was

nominated for a Gover­

nor General's Literary

Award. His latest book,

Lost Province: Adventures

in a Moldova Family, is

the first mainstream

book written on the for­

mer Soviet republic.

6 GuELPH ALUMNUS

Breath strips win Project SOY

M.Sc. student Vicky Lee, second from left, and MBA

student Wilda Lau were a winning combination at

Project SOY this year, capturing top place with their

creation, Flavone Ice, breath strips containing bone·

healthy isoflavones. With them are their project

mentors, food science graduate student Vincent Sy,

a first-place winner at last year's competition, left,

and Massimo Marcone, a technician and adjunct

professor in the Department of Food Science.

undergraduate students Renzo Gomaz, Brian Palmer

and Stephanie Sage for biodegradable planters

called Plant Soylutions.

Food science students Alice Lee, Marie-Claire

Hurteau, Elizabeth Raditsis and Linda Shantz won

third prize for Pastawave, a soy macaroni and

cheese product.

Second place went to biological engineering

Project SOY was initiated in 1996 to harness

the creativity of students in finding innovative new

uses for soybeans, Ontario's number one cash crop.

CASE ADVANCES HUMAN RIGHTS

PATRICK CASE, director

of the Human Rights and

Equity Office, has been

appointed chair of the board of

directors for the Canadian Race

Relations Foundation. He will

take over the position from U

of G chancellor Lincoln

Alexander.

Case has been a leader in

implementing human rights

strategies at the University since

1999. He is also currently co­

chair of the equality rights pan­

el of the Court Challenges Pro­

gram of Canada, serves as an

adviser to several organizations

on equal rights and employ­

ment equity, and is teaching a

course on "African Canadians:

Racism and the Law" at

Osgoode Hall Law School.

WARLEY RECEIVES HONORARY DEGREE

RETIRED PROFESSOR T.K.

"Sandy" Warley received an

honorary doctor oflaws degree

at February convocation cere­

monies, which also recognized

Canad ian broadcaster Bob

McDonald and author Nancy

Huston.

A faculty member from

1970 to 1991, Warley chaired

the then department of agri­

cultural economics and exten­

sion education from 1970 to

1974 and was an expert on the

history of international negoti­

ations. In retirement, he has

been an active volunteer for the

OAC Alumni Association.

McDonald is best known as

host of the CBC Radio science

program Quirks and Quarks.

Huston, originally from Alber­

ta, addresses social issues in her

novels, essays and children's

books. She is currently on fac­

ulty at Harvard University.

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS WIN NATIONAL AWARD

U OF G LANDSCAPE archi­

tecture professors Cecelia

Paine and Jim Taylor have

received a Nat ional Citation

Award from the Canadian Soci­

ety of Landscape Architects

(CSLA) for their CD-ROM titled

Canadian Impressions!Impres-

How much DNA is enough?

WHY DO SALAMANDERS

have 20 times as much DNA as humans do? Ryan Gregory, PhD '03, wants to understand why there's such a variation in the amount of DNA in different animals and what it means for animal metabolism and development.

As part of his PhD thesis in zoology, he compiled the world's largest database of animal genome sizes and made first-time measure­ments of the genomes of about 400 invertebrates, rang­ing from insects and spiders

sions canadiennes. The CD-ROM provides a visual digest of 80 exe­cuted works oflandscape archi­tecture across Canada.

The project team included landscape architecture graduate students Lorraine Falconer, Doro­ta Mlynarz and Laureen Snook.

For more information about the CD or the CSLA, visit the Web site www.csla.ca.

RATS AND FUNGI GO UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

TWO UNIVERSITY OF

Guelph professors will have "New Opportunities" to con­duct innovative research, thanks to a $346,671 invest­ment from the Canada Foun­dation for Innovation (CFJ).

Both new to the University of Guelph, Profs . Francesco Leri, Psychology, and Leonid Brown, Physics, will use the funding to equip their research laboratories.

"A major difficulty for young investigators like myself is to establish a new lab from noth­ing, but CFI makes it possible;'

to earthworms. His online collection ( www.genome­size.com) includes about 3,000 animals and has become a critical resource for scientists worldwide.

In recognition of that work, Gregory has been

says Leri, who received $148,126 to study drug-motivated behav­iour in rats. His studies of the

neurological processes involved in drug relapse include the development of animal models of human drug addiction. He

wants to understand why peo­ple who break drug habits often suffer a relapse.

Brown will use his $198,545 in CFI funding to create one of

named the winner of the 2003 Howard Alper Post-doctoral Prize, the most prestigious post-doctoral award made by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Coun­cil (NSERC). Currently an NSERC post-doctoral fellow at the American Museum of Natural History's Institute for Comparative Genomics in New York City, he plans to return to Canada.

"I am a very proud Cana­dian and hope to contribute as much as I can to Canadian sci­ence and society in the future:'

the most advanced biospectro­scopic facilities in North Amer­ica at Guelph. His research explores the way photorecep­tors function in plants and fun­gi. The life cycles of many plants and fungi are regulated by sunlight, and the organisms possess various photoreceptors - photosensitive proteins­that detect and use the light.

QUEEN'S JUBILEE AWARDS

MORE THAN 46,000

Canadians have been awarded the Golden jubilee Medal of Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of their contribu­tions to fellow citizens, com­munity or Canada. Among the recipients are former U of G president Bill Winegard, retired rural extension studies profes­sor )im Shute, Animal-Care Services director Denna Benn and political science student John Aimers. Congratulations to these and other members of the U of G family who have been so honoured.

EDIBLE VACCINES

A U OF G RESEARCH

team that includes Prof. Patricia Shewen, Patho­biology, is creating a beef cattle vaccine disguised as alfalfa, a common feed

supplement m the bovine diet. The scien­tists have genetically modified alfalfa to pro­duce antigens within its greenery. They hope this alfalfa will expose the tonsils of calves to anti­gens and act as a vaccine against shipping fever, an infection of the lungs and lower respiratory tract by an organism that resides in the tonsils.

RETIRE OVERUSED FARMLAND

GUELPH RESEARCH­

ers are looking at the economic benefits of retiring overused farm­

land by returning it to a more natural state, with grass and tree cover that will help soil recover. This may also help alle­viate public concerns about water pollution, say Prof. Wanhong Yang, Geography, and Prof. Alfons Weersink, Agri­cultural Economics and Business.

Summer 2003 7

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U of G alumni, partners and fri ecen t gifts to The Campaign for the University of Guelph are notable because of

the stories they tell. Brothers who wanted to support rural youth, a tourism com­

pany that values the Guelph graduates in its workforce, a major corporation that

benefits from U of G research - they've all found a way to achieve their personal

and business goals while investing in the future of the University of Guelph.

In recent months, the campaign has grown through the support of the campus community,

industry partners, foundations and friends. Individual gifts from alumni are also demonstrat­

ing that the people who know U of G best believe the University's work is worth supporting.

U of G donors me about wanting to do something for Ontario Graduate Scholarships in Sci-

were 4-H fans the agricultural college," says their ence and Technology (OGS/ST) pro-lawyer and friend, Fritz Wigle. "They grams for students with current or past u o' G', New Angelo '"d appreciated the help they received there involvement in 4-H. The OGS/ST pro-

Frank Agro Scholarships will when some of their cows were sick:' grams maximize the impact of private-fund undergraduate and grad- Beginning in fall 2003, the gift will sector investment by providing a two-

uate scholarships for students who establish an annual $4,000 entrance to -one match from public funding. have been involved in 4-H programs. award ($1,000 for each of four years) Each annual scholarship is valued at

The gift of more than $1.15 million for a 4-H member from anywhere in $15,000. comes from the estate of brothers Canada who enrols in an undergrad- U of G's own involvement with the Angelo and Frank Agro, who ran a uate program at Guelph. It will also Canadian 4-H Council extends back champion Holstein breeding and arti- establish an annual graduate scholar- more than 25 years. As a 4-H program ficial insemination business in Water- ship of $3,000 for students in any U of sponsor, Guelph has lent faculty and down, Ont. Their international cus- G program, based on academic and staff expertise and the use of Universi-tomers for semen and bulls included research excellence and demonstrated ty facilities for 4-H programs and events. Cuban leader Fidel Castro. involvement in 4-H activities. Now celebrating its 90th anniversary

Frank died in 1996 and Angelo in In addition, the gift will fund nine in Canada, the 4-H program involves 2000. graduate scholarships through the more than 32,000 youths aged nine to

"Angelo and Frank often talked to Ontario Graduate Scholarships and 21 and 10,500 volunteer leaders.

8 GuELPH ALUMNus

r1ds invest in the future Alumni campaign relies on student callers

0 N THE OTHER END of that phone call just might be a voice from your alma mater.

Following on the success of its on-cam­pus community campaign, and support from industry and research partners, U of G has launched an alumni campaign to help reach the overall goal of $75 million by the end of2003.

Beginning in June, student callers will contact all University alumni to share infor­mation about Guelph's major fundraising campaign and to ask for support.

The Campaign for the University of Guelph has already attracted investment from business and industry partners, foun­dations, volunteers, faculty, staff, students and friends. The University of Guelph Alumni Association made a leadership gift of $500,000 to support the classroom com­plex, and many individual alumni have also made contributions. Now the entire alum­ni base of more than 70,000 will be asked to make their donation.

Alumni may designate their campaign gifts as they choose. Priorities for the Uni­versity-wide alumni campaign are the sci­ence and classroom complexes and the Library Learning Commons. In addition, each college has identified priority campaign projects if alumni prefer to direct their gifts to the college from which they graduated.

Bigger kitchen means more students

THE ScHOOL OF Hospitality and Tourism Management (HTM) has received $200,000 from Fairmont

Hotels and Resorts to help finance the expansion of the school's kitchen and teach­ing restaurant.

"Our company recognizes the University of Guelph as being very progressive and i.Jmo­vative with its programs;' says Carolyn Clark,

Fairmont's vice-president, human resources. Two out of three of Fairmont's general

managers are graduates of HTM's Advanced Management Program for the Hospitality

Industry. Clark herself took a short custom course in financial management offered by U of G at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler.

President Mordechai Rozanski says the Fairmont gift will allow U of G "to advance our experiential education niche through the expansion of our teaching restaurant, enabling us to increase our enrolment and continue to provide a first -class learning envi­ronment to educate the next generation of hospitality and tourism leaders."

The donation is being made as part of The Campaign for the University of Guelph and is the second major gift U of G has received in support of the HTM expansion.

The $3.5-million project will double the restaurant's food production space, and a new multi-purpose atrium will be built for use as an 85-seat dining room, lecture space and special-event facility.

Agilent supports research and teaching

5 CIENCE RESEARCH and teaching at the University of Guelph will be further strengthened through a

recent University campaign gift of $425,000 worth of equipment from Agilent Tech­nologies Canada Inc.

The equipment- a bioanalyzer, two

UV-visible spectrophotometers, a capillary electrophoresis instrument and a liquid chromatograph/mass spectrometer- will provide students with research opportuni­ties in advanced analytical techniques and instrumentation.

College of Biological Science dean Michael Emes says this campaign gift "reinforces firm­ly the link between an exceptional research environment and our undergraduate pro­grams, in which our students have unparal­leled opportunities to experience and partic­ipate in what is happening in modern science:'

Patrick Zimanyi, Agilent's Canadian busi-

Summer 2003 9

-

ness team manager, Life Sciences Busi­

ness Unit, says educational institutions

such as Guelph "play an important role

in our business by educating the best

and the brightest students to reach their

potential." His company is a subsidiary

of Agilent Technologies Inc., a global

technology leader in communications,

electronics and life sciences.

Prof. David Evans, chair of the

Department of Molecular Biology and

Genetics, uses some of the equipment

for his research on viral proteins. He's

also exploring potential use of the new

instruments for higher-quality DNA

analysis and screening by researchers

in CBS, the College of Physical and

Engineering Science, OAC and OVC.

Currently located in Evans's depart­

ment, the equipment will be housed in

a custom-designed laboratory near the

teaching labs in U of G's new science

complex, one of the largest science

facility projects under way in North

America.

Guelph community invests in U of G

THE UNIVERSITY of Guelph

will join forces with the Guelph

Community Foundation in the

first partnership of its kind in Canada.

Called UG2CF, the partnership will

enable Guelph residents and business­

es to invest in both the University and

the community.

Gifts to UG2CF will remain in the

foundation's endowment fund in per­

petuity, while generating ongoing

financial support for one of Canada's

leading educational institutions. Both

the University and the foundation will

recognize donors and inform them of

the results of their gifts.

Launched in 2000, the Guelph

~ Community Foundation is a philan­

:3 thropic organization that builds <! s endowment funds from charitable gifts <! i):i and provides grants to support local

in initiatives in education, health, social

~ services, arts and culture, and the envi­

~ ronment.

10 GUELPH ALUMNUS

Students' effort earns scholarship gift

C ROPLIFE CANADA has made

a $20,000 campaign gift on

behalf of a team of seven

Guelph graduate students who won

first prize in a multimedia design com­

petition sponsored by the company.

The CropLife gift is being used to

establish a new graduate scholarship

for students in environmental biology

and plant agriculture.

The team won for its CD-ROM on

crop production in Canada, created to

commemorate the 50th anniversary of

Crop Life Canada, which represents the

manufacturers, developers and dis­

tributors of plant life science products.

Titled "Fifty Years of Growing Tech­

nology;' the interactive program is fea­

tured on the Web sites of U of G's

Department of Environmental Biology

and Crop Life Canada and will be offered

as an educational tool for teachers.

Team members were PhD students

Mark Hanson, Cezarina Kora, Diane

Stanley-Horn and Laura Van Eerd from

the Department of Environmental

Biology and mast~r's student Cheryl

Corbett and PhD students Jason Cath­

cart and Kris Mahoney from the

Department of Plant Agriculture. They

dedicated their prize to retired Prof.

Gerry Stephenson, who was faculty

adviser for the design project.

Building the future

0 NLY IMAGES ON paper and

builders' blueprints three years

ago, U of G's three current

construction projects are on track and

on budget.

The 52,000-square-foot classroom

complex will be ready for classes in Sep­

tember, says Angelo Gismondi, senior

project manager for the science and class­

room complexes. The classroom com­

plex will accommodate 1,500 students.

The construction of Phase 1 of the

science complex began ramping up in

January 2003 and will create an addi­

tional163,000 square feet of teaching

and research space on the Guelph cam­

pus. Phase 2, expected to begin in the

fall of 2004, will add a further 210,000

square feet of teaching, research and

ancillary space, including student com­

mon space.

Meanwhile, the mechanical and elec­

trical work is being completed on the

133,000-square-foot University of

Guelph-Humber building, with work

moving ahead on the installation of win­

dows, drywall and flooring. Located in

northwest Toronto, the four-storey build­

ing will initially accommodate more than

2,000 students and will be ready in time

to serve the double cohort of students

expected to arrive at Ontario colleges and

universities this September, says David

Trick, chief executive officer for the Uni­

versity of Guelph-Humber.

To see regular updates on the progress

of these buildings, visit the Web sites

www. uo guelph. ca!toward201 O.shtml

and www.guelph humber.ca!visitors/

index.shtml.

' RozANSKI

GRADUATES

" I

~ 0 OJ -< , r­r-

"' z rn ---< Vl n

L-----------------------------------------------------~ I

'

Guelph's sixth president leaves a 1 0-year legacy of vision, investment and national recognition

By Mary Dickieson

A T HIS 1993 INSTALLATION

ceremony in War Memorial Hall,

Mordechai Rozanski promised he

would be visible on the University of

Guelph campus during his presidency. He

didn't know how visible until some time lat­

er when he received a note complimenting

him on his choice of red pyjamas.

"I didn't want to be that visible;' he laughs.

For the past 10 years, Rozanski and his

family- his wife, Bonnie, and their son,

Daniel- have made their home on cam­

pus in the 1882 stone cottage known as the

President's House. It's a busy spot, sur­

rounded by several student residences and

sitting right across from Creelman dining

hall. And for several years, Student Health

Services was right next door.

Summer 2003 11

'

There's also a bus stop beside the Presi­

dent's House that's used by students coming

home from a night out in downtown Guelph.

Like parents sleeping with one ear open, "we

usually hear them getting off the bus in the

early hours every Friday morning," says

Rozanski. "Often they'll sing loudly or caJJ out

their goodbyes. I think they just want

me to know they're home safely."

As most Guelph alumni know,

living on campus is a memorable

experience, but maintaining a nor­

mal family life in the midst of 16,000

students surely takes a bit of com­

promise and a sense of humour.

With his second term as president

now complete, Rozanski will be mov­

ing to New Jersey with his family to

become president at Lawrenceville's

138-year-old Rider University. It's

familiar territory, with Bonnie's fam­

ily an hour away in Manhattan and

friends made during the years when

he was an administrator at nearby

Fairleigh Dickinson University and

Wagner College and she was manag-

er of computing at a New Jersey division of

Dassault International.

Like all U of G graduates- Rozanski

chuckles that it's taken him lO years to grad­

uate - the Rozanski family will

leave with many fond memories of

the Guelph campus, the friends they

made here and the impact their

experiences at U of G will have on

their future lives. "It's a bittersweet

moment," says Rozanski.

Just to set the record straight,

Bonnie earned her credentials in

much less time, earning an M.Sc. in

computing and information science

from U of Gin 1997.

She may well know the president

better than any other U of G graduate

does, but many alumni have become

his friends and trusted advisers.

"One of my first contacts with

the University of Guelph was Bill

Brock, BSA '58, who chaired the

Board of Governors committee that hired

me;' says the president. "He's been a great

friend to me and to the University. But 1

learned very quickly that Bill's affection for

Guelph is not an exception. We are fortu­

nate to have a large family of active and ded-

12 GuELPH ALUMNUS

icated alumni. I hope I have helped the close

to 18,000 graduates of my time to feel that

same kind of pride in their alma mater."

Building that pride starts in first year, says

Rozanski. He has hosted an annual barbecue

for new students and served each year as fac­

ulty mentor to aU of G President's Scholar.

DR. RozANSKI's PRESIDENCY

HAS BEEN MARKED BY

CHALLENGE, INNOVATION AND

SUBSTANTIAL GROWTH IN

GuELPH'S ACADEMIC STATURE,

ENROLMENT, FINANCIAL

RESOURCES AND REPUTATION.

HE IS AN EXEMPLARY LEADER

AND A PASSIONATE ADVOCATE

FOR EDUCATION.

Michael Walsh, BA '69, MA '70 and PhD '93

Chair, U of G Board of Governors

He felt a little pride himself when he recog­

nized one of those scholars in the recent tele­

vision production of The Music Man. "We

were watching the movie at home, and sud-

denly there was Marty Beecroft singing in a

barbershop quartet. It's wonderful to see the

achievements of our young alumni."

Rozanski admits it was difficult to turn

down the Board of Governors' offer to stand

for a third term, "but I believe in renewal;'

he says. "Guelph will benefit from institu­

tional renewal, and I will also benefit from

the opportunity to take on a new challenge."

Change has been a regular part of the

president's life. Born in Poland and raised in

Montreal, he studied at McGill University and

then went on to complete a PhD at the Uni-

versity of Pennsylvania. A specialist in

modern Chinese history, he spent tin1e

in Asia and was a faculty member and

administrator at several U.S. institu­

tions before coming to U of G.

"I'm thankful that Bonnie and

Daniel were willing to share my desire

to come back to Canada for this

important period of our lives," he

says. "I feel a deep sense of gratitude

for the education l received as an

immigrant to Canada, and serving

Guelph offered me a chance to reci­

procate. Moreover, I found that the

University of Guelph community

shared my belief that post-secondary

education should not only be of the

highest quality, but also a widely

accessible path that offers limitless

opportunities for successor generations."

That conviction was demonstrated off

campus as well in Rozanski's role as chair of

the Council of Ontario Universities over the

last two years as he led successful

efforts to restore substantial invest­

ment in Ontario's 18 universities. In

addition, he headed a 2002 task force

that reviewed Ontario's funding for­

mula for the public school system.

The resulting Rozanski Report rec­

ommended some $2 billion in

increased funding and has become a

household name across the province.

When asked about the highlights

of his decade at Guelph, Rozanski is

quick to focus on "the U of G family."

"I've had the opportunity to work

with so many wonderful people­

faculty, staff, students, alumni, my

colleagues in administration and our

dedicated board members. They've

made my job easier and very reward­

ing. I've felt very much at home here, not

just as a resident of the campus but also as

the colleague of others whose goals and aspi­

rations are entirely in keeping with my own

views about what a university should be."

Those views meshed early on in Rozan-

-

ski's tenure as he led the University through

a strategic planning process that was high­

ly participatory and highly successful. As an

institution, Guelph reaffirmed and articu­

lated its key objectives related to learning, research, continuing education, interna­

tionalism and collaboration. Those broad

goals became promises to keep and,

later on, quotable quotes picked up

by the national media to explain why Guelph is being recognized as a pre­

eminent post-secondary institution.

In 2002, when U of G was named

for the second time as the top com­

prehensive university in Canada, Maclean's magazine recognized

Guelph's focus on students and its

reputation for sustained academic excellence, a direct result of the Uni­

versity's ongoing planning process. Through successive government bud­

get challenges and in response to the concerns of those who invest in pub­

lic education, the Rozanski team is

still creating opportunities to advance

the University's quality and stature.

Every team leader looks for ways to sup­port his or her players, and Guelph's longest-serving president is no exception.

Enthusiastic enough to jump in fully clothed

at the opening of the University's

gold pool in 1993, Rozanski has also put his pride on the 50-yard line in

front of a Homecoming crowd to "kick off" U of G's annual United

Way fundraising drive. This spring, he traded his Gryphon red pyjamas

for a jersey to cheer on Guelph's var­

sity basketball team at the Canadian

finals in Halifax. Ten years of presidential duties

have included numerous shovels of

sod to turn and ribbons to cut, many of them the result of alumni initiatives and support. He's sold newspapers, dropped pucks and served hot dogs, pizza, coffee and celebratory cakes­

all to encourage the Guelph spirit. During Rozanski's term, the Uni-

versity refocused its institutional vision and

set high standards for meeting its academ­ic and social responsibilities. Academic

renewal over the last decade was guided in

part by the advice of alumni and the acad­emic desires of incoming students trying to

find a niche where their interests would fit

the needs of citizenship, society and careers.

Guelph reconfirmed its commitment to

the agri-food sector and rural communities

through a new partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food that

added several research facilities and the agri-

DR. RozANSKI ALWAYS TRIED

TO MAKE SURE THE STUDENT

VOICE GOT HEARD ON CAMPUS

AND WAS ALWAYS PROUD OF THE

FACT THAT GUELPH IS KNOWN

AS BOTH A STRONG ACADEMIC

SCHOOL AND A UNIVERSITY

WITH A FRIENDLY FACE TOWARD

STUDENTS. THAT's WHY I'M

STILL HERE.

Laurie Halfpenny-Mitchell, B.Sc.(Eng.) '97

PhD Program in Biological Engineering

cultural colleges at Alfred, Kemptville and

Ridgetown to the University family. The new University of Guelph-Humber

program- integrating a university hon-

ours degree and a community college diplo­ma- is addressing the increased demand

for post-secondary education in Ontario,

as well as providing new programs of inter­

est to students and employers. U of G leaders also planned for enrol-

ment growth on the Guelph campus, while

advancing the University's reputation for

academic quality and taking advantage of

its research strengths in the life sciences.

During the last decade, enrolment has grown from 12,000 to the currel).t 16,600, while the

quality of entering students has risen.

Among comprehensive universities, Maclean's has ranked Guelph first or

second in the calibre of new students

over the past four years.

When the trustees of Rider Uni­versity hired Rozanski to be that

institution's sixth president, they no

doubt took notice of Guelph's fiscal

record under his leadership: nine consecutive years of balanced budgets;

expansion and diversification of the University's financial resources;

a $40-million increase in research

funding to current annual support of more than $106 million;

growth of the University's endow­

ment by some $100 million to a

2002 total of $134 million; a 600-per-cent increase in financial aid to students; and

$250 million in public- and private-sec­

tor investment for U of G facilities and

infrastructure. As Rozanski's tenure ends, U of

G is undertaking the most significant

building and renovation activity in

its modern history, supported by a successful $75-million fundraising campaign. On-campus growth is

being guided by a recent review of the University's campus master plan.

It's a campus that Daniel first

explored on a bicycle, where his parents

hosted hundreds of dignitaries and spe­cial guests, and where they will say goodbye to their alumni friends in June.

"Our 10 years at Guelph are a short time when compared with the relationships of many alumni class­

es," says Rozanski. "I look forward to meeting grads at Alumni Weekend,

where we will celebrate the 70th anniver­

sary of OAC '33 and the I 00-year legacy of

Macdonald Institute . Our alumni have worked hard to maintain these connections,

and we will have a great time sharing mem­

ories about our alma mater." ga

Summer 2003 13

14 GuELPH ALUMNUS

Evolutionary Mach • 1nes

Guelph engineers match wits with

the physical universe to build robots

based on the biological world

wo woucoN'o em •o HAY>

an R2-D2 around the house? An indestructible personal assist­

ant who can repair anything, including himself. An odd-looking

robot made of metal and plastic that is so human-like in its abil­

ity to perceive and satisfy our needs that we actually call it "he."

R2-D2 of Star Wars fame represents a generation of"intelli­

gent" robots yet to be born in a commercial sense, but their ges­

tation is well under way in research facilities around the world,

including the University of Guelph.

As technology and scientific knowledge continue to advance,

humans are becoming increasingly more dependent on robots. The

biggest dependency is in the North American automotive industry,

where more than 90 per cent of modern robots "work" assembling and

welding vehicle body parts and panels, finishing and painting car bod­

ies, and stacking and moving partially completed cars.

Robots are also indispensable tools in the aerospace industry; elec­

tronics manufacturing; oil, gas and mineral exploration; forestry; and

other types of precision work in environments hostile to humans. The

industrial use of robots- heavily focused on assembly-line operations

-is known as traditional robotics.

Story by Suzanne Soto and Murray Tong

Summer 2003 15

The evolution of robotics research, how­

ever, is in the area of non-traditional robot

use. U of G engineering professor Medhat

Moussa says many of today's research

efforts, and certainly tomorrow's, are focused on the development of personal ser­

vice robots that assist humans one-on-one

and improve the quality of their lives.

Unlike traditional robots, whose move­

ments are wholly predetermined and depen­

dent on the structure built around them­

on the plant floor, for example- service robots are meant to be independently

deployed in non-structured environments

such as homes, offices and hospitals.

The robots themselves are user-centred

and user-adaptive, which means they can learn from their users and alter their actions, unlike traditional machines, which operate

only on command.

"These robots are also meant to be used

by non-technical people, as opposed to tradi­tional robotics, which require skilled person­

nel or engineers to run them," says Moussa.

He should know. The engineer is one of

a handful of researchers at Guelph con­

ducting work in the emerging field of non­traditional robotic applications and robots that merge technology and engineering with

biological and other life sciences research

to create more intelligent machines. U of G, he says, may not be

among the major robotics research players in the country­

such as the universities of Toron-

to behave like networks of neurons (the basic

cell of the nervous system). The future of

truly intelligent robots may depend on the

successful marriage of artificial neural net­works and robotics engineering, demand­

ing a thorough understanding of the func­

tioning of biological systems.

Guelph researchers are developing a

our group at Guelph is small, our specialties

are at the forefront of this type of research." Since arriving at U of G three years ago,

he has worked in two primary areas: creat­

ing a user-adaptive prosthetic hand and

designing personal service robots to help elderly or disabled people around the house.

Current prosthetic hands, he says, are

heavy and require users to undergo much

training before they can actually use the limb,

often leading to frustration. As a result, many

prosthetic hands end up not being used at all .

"What I am doing is trying to create a

prosthetic hand that learns from its user and

adapts to the user's preferences, so that after a while, the hand becomes accustomed to

that specific user rather than the user learn­ing how to use the hand."

As such, the hand must be able to learn

how to grasp objects, how much force to apply and how tightly to squeeze, based on

information it has received from the user. "This process consists of three stages,"

Moussa explains. "The first stage is percep­

tion or an ability to sense what the user

wants and to be able to use this feedback.

The second stage is that the hand must be able to reason from this sensing and make a particular decision. The third stage is the

ability to act. In the case of the hand, this

would be opening and closing, grasping all

kinds of objects, moving things

around and putting things up or down."

"We have conducted sever­to and British Columbia and new generation of personal service robots al simulations, and the results

are very promising," he adds. McGill University- but in the

area of non-traditional robot use z

to assist humans one-on-one in home, In the area of personal ser­vice robotics, Moussa and his

graduate students have created a small mobile robot equipped with a camera and a small arm

that enables it to sense objects

and pick them up.

~ and application, the small Guelph

~ group is among the strongest. f- . ~ Part of the1r strength comes f:5 from a close working relationship 0

~ with other like-minded engineers

::f. in the school's Intelligent Systems

~ Laboratory and with computer 8: scientists in the Guelph Natural

~ Computation Research Group Si_ (GNCG). Hosted by the Depart­

~ ment of Computing and In for­o ~ mation Science, GNCG scientists are also ~ experimenting with autonomous mobile o robotics and artificial neural networks. >-~ This technology tries to imitate the orga-

[5 nization and functioning of the human iE brain by programming silicon microchips

16 GuELPH ALUMNUS

office or hospital.

In Moussa's lab, "we are looking at wear­

able robots or prosthetic hands, hands that can help blind people better navigate their sur­

roundings, robots that incorporate comput­

er vision, and robotics that some day may help people with physical therapy efforts. Although

"It's the type of robot you

may someday expect in a home;'

he says. "Its camera can pick up

an image, analyze it and feed this information to a reasoning

mechanism before attempting to pick the

object up." The robot, he says, is in its infancy and,

as such, does what infants do. It moves to

grasp an object, but often drops it or fails

to pick it up at all. Through the use of arti-

ficial intelligence, however, the robot can

process this information and can incorpo­

rate what it's learned in subsequent tries.

"The work is going very well," he says,

adding that the ultimate goal of it all is to

someday develop a robot that could con­

ceivably perform tasks around the house

such as preparing food, giving

medication, answering the

phone, turning on lights and

worn on the user's body- feed informa­

tion into a special glove worn by the user.

The glove has vibrating motors (buzzers)

sewn into each finger that send impulses to

the wearer, warning of impediments and

terrain fluctuations ahead.

Traditional navigation systems provide

auditory feedback, and they usually have a

steep learning curve and overburden the

auditory channel, says Zelek. "We wanted

our system to be intuitive for the user."

Images from the cameras are processed

in the computer and translated into infor­

mation about the location of obstacles with­

in the camera's range, up to 30 feet. Then,

the buzzer on the finger corresponding to

the direction of that obstacle is activated.

For example, if the glove is worn on the left

hand, an obstruction lying straight ahead

would trigger the buzzer on the middle fin­

ger. If the obstacle is just to the right of cen­

tre, the index finger would buzz.

The stimulus on the user's fingers is used

to direct the person around obstructions,

says Zelek, who is also investigating possi­

ble new methods of conveying terrain infor­

mation through a subset of the buzzers.

His technique of acquiring information

about the environment is unique because

of his use of dual cameras, which perceive

depth the same way 3-D glasses do. Tradi-

Truly intelligent robots will marry

as a room full of people, where movement

creates multiple signals and provides little

useful information about obstacles.

"In the case of sonar, busy environments

cause multiple signals to get back to the user,

which can get confusing," says Zelek. In

addition, sonar and ultrasound systems con-

sume a lot of energy and need

to be recharged every few hours.

generally monitoring an elder­

ly or disabled person.

In another part of the engi ­

neering building, Prof. John

Zelek is leading the develop-

engineering design with sensory and

computing technologies that imitate the

He and his research team

wanted their navigation system

to be wearable, comfortable and

affordable. "If it isn't comfortable,

no one is going to want to use it;'

he says. "The system can't intrude

ment of vision-assisted robots.

"I want to make machines see,"

he explains, adding that this

part of robotics research is cru-

cial. "A robot will perform only

as well as it can see the world."

Zelek and a research team

have already developed a mini­

camera-assisted navigation sys­

tem for the visually impaired, a

technology he calls "the logical extension of

the walking cane." The system provides

blind individuals with tactile feedback on

their immediate environment. Two small

Webcam-sized video cameras wired to a

portable computer- all of which can be

functioning of the human brain.

tiona! techniques of information gathering

usually use sonar or ultrasound waves,

which are bounced around objects in the

room, similar to a bat's method of naviga­

tion. But these methods of sensing can be

easily foiled by complex surroundings, such

on the user's daily activities."

The glove is built from inex­

pensive off-the-shelf compo­

nents. Thanks to advanced tech­

nology, the computer is small,

about the size of a deck of

cards, and consumes little pow­

er. New technology- mini­

cameras, in particular - also

enables the navigation system

to be very discreet. The cameras can be

mounted on shirt buttons, and the whole

unit can be sewn into a jacket.

Zelek has been able to test his "seeing­

eye" glove with the co-operation and partic­

ipation of about a dozen visually impaired

Summer 2003 17

individuals affiliated with the Canadian

National Institute for the Blind in Waterloo.

"The response was very favourable," he

says, adding that he is now testing a robot

that can walk up and down stairs and uses

the same technology as th e glove.

Another member of the Intelligent Sys­

tems Lab, Prof. Hussein Abdullah, is an expert

in robotics and mechatronics. He has built

and is testing a mechanical system designed

to help people requiring physical therapy and

rehabilitation, such as victims of strokes, traf­

fic accidents and sports mishaps.

One of the better ways of treating these

injuries, particularly when limbs are

involved, is through physical therapy requir­

ing patients to repeat a motion or task.

Abdullah says that although intensive phys­

ical treatment does strengthen impaired

limbs, it can take a long time to bring about

improvement. There's also no accurate way

of determining if a particular therapy or

motion is the most effective course of action.

"The current conventional physical and

occupational therapy in treatment centres is

subjective, labour-intensive and costly, par­

ticularly for the health -care system," he says.

"This is where I believe robotics could make

a significant contribution. We're trying to

develop robotics that may someday be able to

perform some of these repetitive treatments,

reduce the need for hLUnan atten-

dants and bring down costs."

from a distance, so there is no need for

direct interaction between the two.

In the system he 's designing, however,

the robot will be in direct contact with the

actual user. "So we need to ensure the sys­

tem is safe, flexible and able to ease inter­

action between human and machine."

of patient progress," he says.

Prof. Simon Yang heads up another large

engineering lab working in the field of bio­

logically inspired robotics. These are robots

that use insights gained through the study

of biological systems and mechanisms­

from insect behaviour to human thinking

and perception. Much of Yang's work is

aimed at industrial applications, particu­

larly in the field of agriculture.

"Biologically inspired approaches are

providing a radical alternative to conven­

tional methods of computational intelli ­

gence in robotics and automation," he says.

"They are resulting in systems that can actu­

ally respond to their environments and can

deal with multiple changing goa ls in

dynamic and unpredictable settings."

Many of these robots, he adds, take their

inspiration from the simple movements of

insects. "But they don't replicate those nat­

uralmovements and systems. What we do

with these robots is take the idea from the

natural system and improve on it ."

Over the past few years, animal-like

robots have been playing an increasingly

important role as a link between the worlds

of biology and engineering. The new mul­

tidisciplinary field of biorobotics provides

tools for biologists studying animal behav­

iour and test beds for the study and evalua-

tion of biological algorithms for

engineering applicat ions.

Biologically inspired robots wiLL actually The second thing the system

is being designed to do is mon­

itor and keep track of the

patient's muscular and other

reactions to the treatment pro­

gram. "This feedback would

respond to changes in their environments and

make judgments such as when is the best

Yang and his resea rch team

have developed a robot designed

for agricultural work. The robot

uses map building, localization,

sensing, planning, tracking and

then be a great tool for the doc-

tor or physical therapist and the

patient in determining, on a

week by week basis, if the treat-

mentis working or if alterations

are needed;' Abdullah says.

He stresses that his work on

the robotics system is just begin­

ning. As part of developing these

robots, he needs to do a lot of

research, particularly in the area of safety.

"When people use robotics on a factory

floor, the robot's working area is usually

totally secured, so none of the operators

interfere with the robot's space;' he says. In

addition, the operato r can run the robot

18 GuELPH ALUMNUS

time to water or pick fruit crops.

Abdullah adds that the system, when

developed, will not supplant the physical

therapist or completely take over that work.

"It will just be a very useful aid for the ther­

apist in performing the repetitive element

of the training program and keeping track

control techniques to manoeu­

vre around a farm field. It can

navigate rugged and steep hills

and avoid obstacles. The robot

can also take an image of a plant

and determine whether it needs

water or fertili zer.

In collaboration with indus­

try partners, these Guelph engi­

neers are also trying to develop

robots that would inspect, han-

dle and package food; biomechanical robots

to help veterinarians in their work with

injured livestock; robotic applications for use

in clearing land mines; and robots that not

only pick fruit but also have the smarts to

figure out which fruit is ripe for picking. ga

us A newsletter for alumni of the College of Biological Science • Summer 2003

Axelrod Institute poised for growth U oF G 's Axelrod Institute of Ichthyol­

ogy held a grand reopening this spring,

marking the completion of more than two

years of renovations and additions funded

by federal and provincial governments and

industry partners.

"We will also celebrate the fact that the

institute is now positioned to take off as a

nationally and internationally recognized

research, teaching and service facility," says

Prof. Patrick Woo, Zoology, who became the

institute's director jan. l.

The Axelrod Institute is a Canadi an

leader in fisheries research and aquatic sci­

ence and the holder of one of th e world's

largest collections of museum -quality fish

fossils. About 20 core faculty members in the

institute from the CBS, OAC and OVC study

key issues such as fish health and nutrition,

the impact of barriers controUing pest species

in the Great Lakes and native fishing rights.

More than a dozen researchers have

joined the institute recently. The centre also

hosts visiting scholars from around the world.

Woo plans to develop multidisciplinary

graduate courses and explore new revenue

sources by offering services such as work­

shops to fisheries and aquaculture indus­

tries. He also hopes to raise the institute's

international profile.

Closer to hom e, Prof. Steve Crawford ,

UNIVERSITY Q/'GUELPH

At work in one of two new labs in the Axelrod Institute, are, from left, graduate students

Momoko Kawai , Taco den Haas and Josh Clark. Here, they're using state·of·the·art so ftware to

study the age and growth history of fish .

Zoology, has worked for more than a decade

with First Nations communiti es along the

Bruce Peninsula on fisher ies management

and ecology. The Axelrod Institute is cur­

rently negotiating an agreement that would

see his position funded equally by Guelph

and the bands and would help ease the

transfer of native students to U of G.

The institute also works with the Great

Lakes Fishery Commissi on, a partnership

WHAT'S INSIDE

between Ca nada and the United States.

Under a program to manage fisheries and

control sea lamprey in the Great Lakes, the

commission recently gave the institute more ~

than $200,000 a year to fund two tenure- ~ track positions at the institute. Prof. Gordon ~

McDonald studies the physiology of fresh- ~ water and marine fish; Prof. Rob McLaugh- ~

s: lin studies the effects of sea lamprey barri- ~

::! ers on biodiversity of stream fi shes. z

DEAN's MESSAGE . ..........•............ .. .. .. . ..... • .. . ... • ............ . 2

RESEARCH ON BRAIN I N J UR I ES · ·· · •·•··· · •· ............... . ... . ......... -3

COLLEGE UPDATES ...........•......................•...... . ... . .. .. ... . -4

Zygote Plus 1 Summer 2003

Dean's Message

A LTHOUGH MANY have comment­

ed on our harsh winter, my first win­

ter as dean of CBS at Guelph was won­

derfully invigorating. Real snow -

coupled with blue skies and sunshine­

compared with the endless rain, grey skies

and dull hue of my previous home in the

United Kingdom: perception is every­

thing! From my perspective as dean, there

has been much to enjoy and admire on

campus and there is much to be opti­

mistic about for the future. In january, the contract for the new sci­

ence complex was awarded to Aecon Con­struction. Work has already begun on

Phase l of the project, which should be

completed near the end of 2004. As we pre­

pare for this change and the wonderful

opportunities it presents, it is gratifying to

record the success of some of our faculty

whose excellence has been recognized both within the University and externally. CBS

professors Moira Ferguson, John Green­

wood, Barbara Mable and Bill Woodward received the President's Distinguished Pro­

fessors awards at a reception in January

honouring faculty from across campus. In

March, Prof. Chris Whitfield, acting chair

of the Department of Microbiology and holder of a Canada Research Chair,

received the 2003 Roche Diagnostics

Award, the most prestigious award of the

Canadian Society of Microbiology.

Remarkably, previous holders of this award

include fellow microbiology professors Terry Beveridge and Cecil Forsberg.

Also in Januar y, it was a pleasure to

present the CBS Dean's Scholarships to

CBS Students Honoured

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"' :::i Two GRADUATING CBSstudentsare ~ this year's recipients of the Un iversity's :3 15th annual R.P. Gihnor Student Life Award >-~ and fourth annua l Brian D. Sullivan Stu­a ..... 0 :c a.

dent Leadership Award.

David Hartell, a molecular biology and

genetics major, received the Gilmor Award, which recognizes individuals or groups

who have contributed to the betterment of

student life at the University. jonathan

DaSilva, a biological science major and

outgoing president of the CBS Student Council, received the Sullivan Award,

which is presented to a graduating student

who has made significant contributions to

student leadership through his or her involvement as an elected or appointed stu­

dent representative.

Hartell, who served as a student senator

for two years and was co-chair of Student

Senate Caucus in 2002/2003, was also a

START program group leader, orientation volunteer, Project Serve term leader and

CFRU Radio volunteer. DaSilva has served as

Zygote Plus 2 Summer 2003

outstanding undergraduate and graduate

students whose achievements and vitali­

ty bode well for the future of Canadian

science. That month, Prof. Alastair Sum­

merlee was named the new president of

the University. He has had tremendous success as provost, and we look forward

to his leadership as the University con­

tinues to grow.

We also record our gratitude to out­

going president Mordechai Rozanski, who

will take up new cha llenges elsewhere. He

has been at the helm of a ship that had to

be charted through difficult waters when he first arrived. He has succeeded

admirably in guiding it into new ventures

and making it one of the most attractive

vessels in Canada.

Winter convocation was capped by an

inspirational acceptance speech by hon­

orary degree recipient Bob McDonald, host of CBC Radio's Quirks and Quarks.

Finally, many alumni and students took

part in the CBS Careers Night, my first chance to meet members of the CBSAA.

Michael Emes, Dean

Jonathan DaSilva

external commissioner for the Central Stu­

dent Association, secretary of the Ontarian

board, vice-president (public relations) of the

CBS Student Council , president and chair of

Student Volunteer Connections and a mem­

ber of the Citizenship Working Group.

How does vision help us navigate our environment?

PICTURE THIS SCENARIO: You and

your two young children are driving

down a street when a dog suddenly scur­

ries into your path. Almost instinctively,

you slam on the brakes. Although this might save the animal, it could have dis­

astrous consequences for you and your

children, even if everyone is safely buck­led in their seats, says Prof. Lori Vallis,

Human Biology and Nutritional Sciences.

Many a brain injury has resulted when drivers, swerving to avoid an object on the

road, lose control of their vehicles and end up hitting a telephone pole, a guardrail, a

tree or another car, says Vallis. And even

though children may be properly restrained,

they could still hit their head slightly against the side door or the front-seat cushions,

causing internal brain injuries.

"I don't like saying this, but my advice

to parents in these situations is: Keep dri­

ving;' she says, adding that she's not being cold-hearted. Rather, her comment is

based on her studies of children who

acquired brain injuries this way.

"Sometimes, the force of slamming on

the brakes causes the brain to move for­

ward and hit the front part of the skull or the back or side and cause serious damage."

This damage can affect brain function

responsible for motor co-ordination and

movement, resulting in individuals who

suddenly cannot navigate their environ-

NUTRACEUTICAl RESEARCH THRIVING

G ROWING INTEREST in using indi­

vidual food or plant components to improve or maintain human health has

meant lots of activity for nutritional scien­

tists in Guelph's Human Nutraceutical

Research Unit (HNRU), who are studying

functional foods, nutraceuticals and nat­

ural health products to reduce or prevent

disease. The HNRU was established in 1998 in

the Department of Human Biology and

Nutritional Sciences to explore and devel­

op the use of nutraceutical and/or natural

ments successfully, says Vallis. "These individuals look fine;' she says.

"They have good vision and sense of touch and balance, but what changes is their abil­

ity to integrate all this information."

Vallis, who has a PhD in kinesiology

specializing in biomechanics from the Uni­

versity of Waterloo, is interested in explor­

ing how children, the elderly, people with a motor impairment and people with neu­

rological deficits use sensory information,

particularly vision, to navigate when walk­

ing in complex environments. She first became interested in these

areas while doing her master's degree in

human kinetics at the University of

Ottawa, where she studied infant move­

ment. Later, during a post-doctoral fel-

Zygote Plus 3 Summer 2003

lowship at Laval University, where she

worked with patients with traumatic head

injuries, she realized the importance of

vision in the whole equation.

"Vision is one of our most dominant

senses," she says, adding that a good illus­tration of its power occurs when we're

stopped at a traffic light and the bus

beside us suddenly starts moving forward,

giving us the unsettling sensation of mov­

ing backwards. "Unfortunately," she adds, "there is not

a lot of information known as to the gen­eral science of how vision is used to nav­igate through our environment."

Until recently, equipment needed to

track visual information on individuals

was both expensive to buy and cumber­

some to use, says Vallis. "Now, we can use a very small camera

that attaches to a baseball cap. A small video camera is used to track movement

of the eye, and a second camera tracks the

environment so we can see exactly where

people are looking in their surrounding environment.

"My ultimate goal is to understand

how healthy adults and healthy kids move

and use vision to navigate complex envi­ronments, so that we can, in turn, help

special populations, such as motion­impaired children and elderly individu­

als, overcome their difficulties."

health product (NHP) supplements for

improving human health and performance.

The unit has enabled many graduate stu­dents and more than JSO undergraduates

to gain practical research or business expe­

rience. Researchers have worked with gov­

ernment agencies and businesses ranging

from NHP growers to multinational firms,

using clinical trials to study the effects of

NHPs on depression, irritable bowel syn­

drome, cold and flu symptoms, cholesterol levels, weight loss and arthritis.

For more information, visit the Web site www.hnru.uoguelph.ca .

By Julie Conquer, Director

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FOUR YEARS FOR HEALTH AND PERFORMANCE CENTRE

U OF G's HEALTH and Performance

Centre marked its fourth anniversary

last fall. Located in the Powell Building, the

centre provides quality sports medicine and

health promotion programs to the Univer­

sity and the community.

Each semester, the facility enables 40

undergraduate and four graduate volun-

Physiotherapist Teresa Piotrowski, left, works

with a patient in the Health and Performance

Centre.

teers to gain experience by working with

practitioners in sports medicine, physio­

therapy, massage therapy, chiropractic,

pedorthics, fitness and nutrition.

Among its unique health promotion

programs, the Health and Performance

Centre offers a popular "Fitness and Nutri­

tion Success" program that has been adopt­

ed by several organizations. This year, the

centre introduced the "BodySwing Con­

nection" golf performance program, which

assesses key factors in injury prevention and

golf performance. The centre's team also

provides information through a regular "Ask

the Expert" spot to viewers of Rogers Cable.

For more information, call centre direc­

tor Cyndy McLean at 519-824-4120, Ext.

53319, send e-mail to cmclean@uoguelph.ca

or visit the Web site www.uoguelph.ca/hpc.

CAMPAIGN SEEKS AlUMNI SUPPORT

HAVING RAISED 93percentofits

goal of $75 million through contri­

butions from individuals, foundations and

corporations, the University of Guelph will

focus on generating alumni support during

the final year of its campaign, which has

been themed "The Science of Life, The Art

of Living." Two of the most innovative ini­

tiatives to be funded by this campaign are

the science and classroom complexes.

The 373,000-square-foot science com­

plex will house more than 100 research and

40 teaching laboratories, as well as the new

Advanced Analysis Centre, and will bring

together departments in the colleges of Bio­

logical Science and Physical and Engineer­

ing Science. Construction began last fall and

will continue until mid-2006.

The classroom complex, to be complet­

ed by September 2003, will house leading­

edge lecture theatres and classrooms with

multimedia equipment.

CBS Alumni Association- Membership Form The following membersh ip plans are available to you:

0 Annual Membership: $10 per year

0 Life Membership: $75

0 Life Membersh ip In sta lment: $20 per year for four years ($8o total)

Name: (Include maiden name if applicable) ______ _________ _

Year of Graduation: Address: _ _________ _ _____ _

City: _ _______ Province/State: _______ _ ________ _

Country: Postal/Zip Code: _ _______ _ ___ ___ _

Telephone:(H) _________ _ (B) ________ _ __ _

E-mail: _ _______ _

Enclosed is my cheque for$ ____ made payable to the CBS Alumni Association.

Please return to:

CBS Alumni Association

Alumni House

University of Guelph

Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1

Zygote Plus 4 Summer 2003

CAREERS NIGHT lARGEST EVER

BUILDING ON A TRADITION

that reaches back many years, the

annual CBS Careers Night kicked off

Biology Week in January. This year's

event combined the efforts of college

departments and representatives of

the CBS Alumni Association, the

HK/HB Alumni Association, the CBS

Student Council and student councils

from the areas of nutritional sciences,

biomedical sciences and human kinet­

ics. The result was the largest Careers

Night the college has ever hosted.

Thirty-six alumni from various

backgrounds were on hand to discuss

their careers. More than 200 students

attended the informal round-table

evening and got first-hand informa­

tion from grads from the 1970s all the

way up to 2002.

The evening wrapped up with a

wine-and-cheese reception for the

alumni speakers, hosted by the CBS

Alumni Association.

A toxicologist at the Centre for Foren­

sic Science in Toronto, David Riley,

M.Sc. '90, talks with students at the

annual CBS Careers Night.

Zygote Plus Summer 2003

Published by the College of Biological Science Contact: Sam Kosakowski

Tel: 519-824-4120, Ext. 54703

Fax: 519-767-2044 E-mail: skosakow@uoguelph.ca

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Dado Segota, left,

uses reflective vinyl

to produce flexible

paintings for a

gallery installation

that will interact

with the space

where it's shown,

as well as provide

an artist's view of

how extreme sports

like skateboarding

interact with

environmental

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and architectural

structures. The

installation is part

of master's work

completed with

fine art professor

Will Garlitz.

INSPIRATION IS NOT ENOUGH It takes a skilled hand to create what the mind can see

By Rachelle Cooper

IN THE 1500s, Italian sculptor

Michelangelo said:"! saw the angel in

the marble and carved until l set him

free." Michelangelo's angel represents

that great inspiration for an idea that artists

crave. Not everyone has the ability to see

greatness in a block of stone. Nor is there a

formula for creativity- no rules a teacher

can give students to enable them to "see"

the angel in marble or on a blank canvas,

computer screen or music score.

The little epiphanies that artists experience

often come at unexpected times. Although

they can't be taught, professors in Guelph's

College of Arts use different stimuli to help

students trigger their own moments of inspi­

ration. Once a person gets a glimpse of the

angel, an astute teacher can play a major role

-.

Summer 2003 19

--

l

in helping the young artist set it free.

It's the laborious part of the creative

process- the shaping of a painting, a short

story or a song- that can be taught at uni­

versity.

People are often considered naturally cre­

ative as young children. They explore their

imaginations through play and test limits by

taking risks. When they start school, their cre­

ative juices can become suppressed by rules

and boundaries. It's at university that people

are not only given the time and permission to

take risks again, but are also encouraged to

push the boundaries and explore new ideas.

"Creativity has to do with suddenly com­

ing face-to-face with something and recog­

nizing how little you know about it;' says Prof.

Janice Kulyk Keefer, School of English and

Theatre Studies. "It's about trying to experi­

ence the world as you did as a child, when you

didn't already know everything, when a mud

puddle wasn't something to be stepped over

on the way to school but something to get into

with your hands and your body, something

to respond to and draw with."

Kulyk Keefer is somewhat of a creativi­

ty expert. An author of numerous works of

fiction, poetry and literary criticism, she has

twice been nominated for a Governor Gen­

eral's Literary Award, is a two-time winner

of the CBC Radio Literary Competition and

was awarded the 1999 Marian Engel Award.

She came to Guelph in 1990 to help launch

its creative writing program, which has since

produced several published and award-win­

ning authors, including Joanna Cockerline,

BA '99 and MA '00, who was a 2003 CBC

Radio Literary Competition winner.

"I think creativity can be fostered and I

think it can definitely be stifled, but every­

one has their own inspiration," says Cock­

erline. "I do think there are techniques that

profs can use to bring it out and to push it

further, to mould it."

A student's greatest fears are often what

can trigger the best writing, says Kulyk Keefer.

Although she can't force students to open up,

"you can make people aware of factors that

inhibit freer expression of ideas;' she says.

Fine art professor and painter Will Gor­

litz adds: "You can encourage people not to

focus only on the development of their skills,

which has to happen, but also on stimuli in

the world around them. In some ways, cre­

ativity depends on their willingness to take

20 GuELPH ALUMNUS

risks and to sometimes do things they feel

inherently disinclined to do."

Gorlitz was financially dependent on his

risk-taking abilities for 18 years as he sup­

ported himself as an independent artist

before beginning to teach. He came to

Guelph in August 2001 from the Universi­

ty of Waterloo, where he received the 2001

Distinguished Teacher Award. He exhibits

his work- which has been recognized and

examined in various periodicals, books and

catalogue publications- in solo and group

exhibitions nationally and internationally.

Co-ordinator of Guelph's master's pro­

gram in fine art, Gorlitz is also teaching

undergraduate drawing and painting cours­

es. He likens his role in the classroom to that

of a coach with hockey players on the ice.

"You know you can't actually score the goal

for them. You talk to them, give them

encouragement and especially reinforce the

things they're doing right."

Encouragement and positive reinforce­

ment are two ways Gorlitz and other U of

G professors prompt creativity. Students are

much more likely to take creative risks if

they feel connected to the people around

them. The biggest advantage university stu­

dents have over artists outside an academ­

ic environment is the community of peers

and seasoned artists that surrounds them.

"An artist can be an artist without going

to university or taking a class," says Gorlitz.

"Not having an education doesn't disqual­

ify you, but submitting yourself into a pro­

gram of art education is basically a propo­

sition of agreeing to enter a community

where not only do you have your own

propositions, but you also have the propo­

sitions of faculty and other students who

set challenges for you. It's all done in a very

co-operative, discursive manner."

Recognizing that creativity is the

lifeblood of every academic discipline, Col­

lege of Arts dean Jacqueline Murray says

Guelph excels at fostering this kind of rap­

port across campus. "Establishing a sense

of community is inherent within or under

our rubric of learner-centredness;' she says.

"Part of what we do is create a safe space for

students to explore and express their cre­

ativity and to develop their ideas and find

new and different ways of thinking and

experiencing and communicating. I think

we do it brilliantly here."

Music professor Ellen Waterman agrees

that an empathic classroom environment is

critical to the creative process. She's a pro­

fessional flutist who specializes in experi­

mental forms of new music, teaches cours­

es in 20th-century and contemporary music

and leads the Contemporary Music Ensem­

ble at Guelph.

"I don't think you can teach creativity­

you allow it to happen by creating environ­

ments where people feel free to explore," she

says. "I've never met a group of students who

wouldn't take you up on that if you could

create the proper circumstances. By encour­

aging students to feel free to play within very

good parameters, you allow them to explore

and live up to that responsibility."

U of G fine art faculty say the biggest

change to teaching in their discipline over

the past few decades has been the amount of

leeway students are given. Contemporary

professors are finding the more freedom stu­

dents have to explore within clear parame­

ters, the better the results. Gorlitz gave his

second-year painting class a non-represen­

tational abstract project witl1 very few restric­

tions and was "so delighted with the results,

I was almost dumbfounded. I felt so elated

because I hadn't seen anything like it in ages."

For Cockerline, it was when her profes­

sors gave her more space that she had the

most creative success.

"My favourite profs were ones who real­

ly encouraged me to take risks to push

myself, to step outside the boundaries," she

says. "In terms of really getting students to

push their work to the next level, I think the

fewer restrictions, the better."

Jesse Stewart, a PhD candidate in the

School of English and Theatre Studies and an

award-winning percussionist with a master's

degree in musicology and composition, is

facilitating a music ensemble at Guelph that's

devoted to free improvisation- music com­

posed and performed in the moment. He says

when the classroom hasn't been established

as a safe place, "it's a serious impediment to

creativity and to the learning process in gen­

eral. People have to feel it's OK to take chances,

to play something or state an idea, even if it

doesn't come out the way they intend it to. I

often remind them that there are no wrong

notes in the music we make. I see this as a big

part of my responsibility in the group!'

The process students engage in is more

MUSICIAN ELLEN WATERMAN TRIES TO CREATE

AN EMPATHIC CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT AND REMINDS STUDENTS THAT

THEIR MUSIC SKILLS ARE NOT SEPARATE FROM THEIR IMAGINATIONS.

important than the end product, says Water­

man. For a project in her Contemporary Music Ensemble, two first-year students­

a classical violinist and an electric guitarist -decided to explore each other's music

worlds, so the guitarist bowed the guitar and

the violinist learned to let loose a bit.

"I thought it was a great idea," says Waterman. "Will it be a piece of music that

will be heard a hundred years from now? Of

course not, but that's not the important

part. The important part is the process they went through."

In their own creative processes, Garlitz,

Kulyk Keefer and Waterman say they have

success when they don't place many restric­tions on themselves. "I constantly surprise

myself because I have no idea what's around the next corner," says Garlitz. "I've recog­

nized moments when an idea comes to me,

a notion, a hint of something that's of inter­

est that l start following in a deliberate way,

and suddenly a whole series of little epipha­nies happens in relation to it."

Says Kulyk Keefer: "It's a rare luxury, feel­

ing free to play, to explore, to reach out for something without knowing what you're

going to put your hands on- not to grab,

First-year students

Karl Skene, electric

guitar, and Tegan

Ceschi-Smith,

classical violin,

wrote music

together with

encouragement

from Prof. Ellen

Waterman, a fiutist

who specializes

in experimental

forms of music_

but to touch . To me, there's nothing more

satisfying and more exciting than feeling yourself moving towards the discovery of

something, crossing a threshold you never knew was there."

Arts professors are now using mixed media in their classes more than ever to help

stir up their students' creative juices. In their

sculpture classes, fine art professors Kim

Kozzi and Dai Skuse regularly use sound, video, images and performance. "We always

bring a complete sound system with a sub­woofer and CD player into class;' says Kozzi.

"Sometimes we spin vinyl as well, depend-

Summer 2003 21

ing on what we're doing."

Gorlitz also uses music as a creative stim­

ulus in class. When his second-year students

were working on their abstract project, he used

"very cool fusion jazz of Miles Davis because

of its serpentine construction, which seemed

parallel with the sensibility that students were

likely to follow in their own personal way!'

Kulyk Keefer says because painting has

a strong impact on her own writing, she

sometimes brings visual art into her creative

writing classes. After visiting the Kat he Koll­

witz exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario,

for example, she showed her class overhead

projections of some of Kollwitz's most pow­

erful works. That provided a springboard

for discussing the different strategies used

by creators of visual and verbal images to

express powerful emotion and for explor­

ing where the line between profound feel­

ing and easy sentimentality lies.

Waterman has used film to inspire her

students to write a new piece of music. She

says she also borrows exercises from theatre

warm-ups to loosen up her students.

Another way U of G helps students think

laterally is by offering options in course

selection. Guelph's encouragement of inter­

disciplinary studies helps students draw on

many fields of study for inspiration.

"The integration of knowledge and

interdisciplinary approaches to questions

and problem solving is absolutely critical to

the creative process because each person

gets new ideas by learning how different tra­

ditions and disciplines see things," says Mur­

ray. "Part of creativity can be relating pre­

viously unrelated material or modes of

thought that allow you to see things in a

new way. The broader the educational base,

the more likely it is that there will be this

kind of synergistic spark of insight."

Guelph's holistic approach to education

allows students to draw inspiration from

their different strengths.

"One of our best pianists is a science

major," says Waterman. "He's absolutely

dedicated to music and he's a good science

student. Students here can get training that's

detailed and thorough and much broader

than I ever got. They have quite a good

range of choices."

U of G professors have found that being

exposed to as much creative and intellectu­

al material as possible increases students'

22 GuELPH ALUMNus

chances of seeing their own angel.

"What I try to make clear and emphatic

to my students is that creativity breeds cre­

ativity;' says Kulyk Keefer. "You cannot be a

poet without reading a tremendous amount

of poetry of all kinds. But poets also listen to

music, go to plays and films, and read fiction

and non-fiction in order to remain open to

all kinds of creative expression. You don't

want to be boxed into one genre; you need to

be responsive to other artistic forms that can

show you how to do new or better things in

the poetry you write. I want my students to

see how what they're struggling to express

through poetic language and form may be

analogous to what a jazz musician or what an

abstract expressionist painter might be doing:'

Even within one genre, professors encour­

age diversity. "In music training, quite typi­

cally, historians are in one box, performers

are in another, composers are in another, and

these are all well-defined jobs;' says Water­

man. "The composer is to be creative, the per­

former is to interpret accurately and the his­

torian is to think about all these other things.

I don't get the boxes at all. I work across all

three of those areas and into some others, and

I don't see any merit, especially early on, of

trapping somebody in a very small role."

Although Cockerline has become a nov­

elist, she received her inspiration from the­

ory classes. "Reading the texts for my theo­

ry courses and thinking about them in new

ways were really valuable and helped me

examine how I was going to shape my own

craft and think of my own ideas and per­

spectives;' she says. "It's helped me get at the

heart of how language operates."

Guelph professors are themselves

inspired by helping their students shape

ideas into something that can move others.

If students struggle to gain inspiration, they

soon learn that the idea is, in many ways, the

easy part. It's the shaping and revising and

perfecting of the idea that requires time, skill

and a more disciplined kind of creativity.

"A poem pouring itself on the page is

obviously the first crucial step because you

have to have something to work with," says

Kulyk Keefer. "But I try to stress with students

in creative writing courses that revision can

be just as creative an act as the initial putting

on paper of urgent ideas and feelings."

The skills needed to shape an idea can

be taught. Brush techniques, uses of colour,

revision techniques, tempo and rhythm all

act as the foundation on which artists can

build their repertoire.

"It's like cooking," says Gorlitz. "The first

time you have to boil an egg, it's a mystery.

But at a certain point, it becomes second

nature, and then you try more adventurous

things. Eventually you can make a souffle, but

you certainly wouldn't start with a souffle."

As students develop their skills, they can

express themselves more freely, have more

fun and have greater success experiment­

ing. Waterman tries to remind students that

their music skills are not separate from their

imaginations.

"! have never felt a divide between intel­

lectual activity and so-called creative activi­

ty;' she says. "The two are very much parts of

the same whole, and you can't achieve cre­

ative success without using them both:'

Accepting constructive criticism is essen­

tial to shaping an idea so that it moves the

work's audience. Gorlitz believes being able

to justify one's work is integral to produc­

ing quality creative work.

"I want people to respond to their urges,

but then to examine them as well. If some­

one just says: 'This is how I felt, I was feel­

ing creative; the words aren't inherently bad,

but they've fallen into a certain kind of

usage that's problematic and very difficult

to deal with in an educational context or

even in a critical context."

Artists of all genres need to engage in

dialogue to be effective. "Talking is a big part

of art, even though there's nothing visual

about it;' says Gorlitz.

Dialogue between student and teacher

and between peers refines students' work and

makes them accountable for their creations.

In his improv music ensemble, Stewart tries

to foster dialogue about the music the group

makes. "In my view, dialogue- that is, two­

way communication- is an essential part

of the learning and creative processes."

Kulyk Keefer adds that dialogue also

helps writers realize their uncertainties and

frustrations are an integral part of devel­

oping as an artist. "It's essential to be shar­

ing your work with other people, to be lis­

tening to other writers, to get the sense that

you're not the only one grappling with this

particular problem or having doubts about

whether your work is any good," she says.

Knowing your work is good also involves

WRITER JANICE KuLYK KEEFER AND PAINTER WILL GoRLITZ AGREE

THAT CREATIVITY FLOURISHES WHEN STUDENTS ARE WILLING TO TAKE RISKS

AND LEARN TO FREELY EXPRESS THEIR IDEAS.

the painful process of sharing it and receiv­

ing feedback from the real world of con­

sumer critics;' says Gorlitz. And after shelling

out thousands of dollars for a liberal arts edu­

cation, parents and students often want proof

that the encouragement to play and explore

will eventually have a monetary value.

Statistics Canada 2001 census data show

that Canada's university graduates make, on

average, $25,545 more than full-time work­

ers who have only a high school diploma

and $20,000 more than community college

graduates.

Those figures reinforce the monetary

value of a university degree, but the long­

term benefits of learning to tap into your

creative side are greater than any amount

of money; it can lead to a fuller life.

"Creativity is a way of thinking and see­

ing and acting and problem solving, so it's

something we're doing all the time, every

day," says Murray.

Adds Waterman: "! can't think of any

activity in life that doesn't require you to think

on your feet, to come up with solutions, to

work rigorously through processes, to relate

to other people, to collaborate, to get up in

front of other people and make some kind of

A novelist and poet

herself, Prof. Janice

Kulyk Keefer leads

a workshop session

with students from

an undergraduate

poetry class. From

left: Anya Lipchak,

Andrea Bennett,

Kulyk Keefer,

Karla Kale, Jamie

Charbonneau, and

Annie Hardwick.

presentation or state your case- whether it's

to a group of people or contesting a parking

ticket- it's all a performance. In institutions

like universities, we're driven to justify every­

thing we do in really concrete terms. I've just

listed a number of skills that translate very

tangibly to other professions, but I'm a little

wistful for a time when perhaps one can say

these things are worth doing because it's good

to be alive and it's good for there to be beau­

ty around you and it's good to experiment."

Students aren't just carving out the

angels they see in marble, they're carving

out their futures. ga

Summer 2003 23

-

She's got the stars on her side

LISA CHERRY wouldlovetomeet

pop legend Tina Turner. Oh, and

Bono, front man of Irish rock group U2. Not that the 1991 U of G biology grad­

uate is star-struck: Cherry just wants to

recruit the high-powered singers in her nov­

el decade-long fight against racism.

It was 10 years ago that Cherry, a free­lance journalist in Toronto, began a non­profit organization called Artists Against

Racism (AAR). Today, the group includes

more than 100 musicians, actors and writers

who provide their names- and not a little money- to serve as anti-racism role mod­

els for youth in Canada and the United States.

The goal of preventing racism grew, in part, from Cherry's personal experience. The

youngest of three daughters in a jewish fam­

ily, she had encountered racism before, but

one incident in the early 1990s stands out in

her memory. She had completed her B.Sc. and was studying veterinary medicine at the

time. Although she later withdrew from the

Guelph program for health reasons, Cherry was working as a student intern at Toronto's

Woodbine Racetrack when she and the

supervising veterinarian were insulted by a horse handler's anti-Semitic remarks.

A few years later, she found Canada's media

headlines dominated by related news- ral­

lies at Queen's Park, recruitment in schools by

white supremacist groups, the formation of hate organizations on the Internet and the

establishment in Toronto of the largest hate­

rock record label in North America. "Ali these things had come to a crisis;' says Cherry.

24 GUELPH ALUMNUS

By Andrew Vowles

By then, she was working as a freelance

journalist. She wrote an article about her encounters with anti-Semitism that was

published in the Globe and Mail and drew

a response from Canadian artist and musi­cian Mendelson joe. Their discussion

sparked her idea to launch a Canada-wide

poster campaign that would use the star power of artists to deliver a "racism is

uncool" message to youngsters.

joe agreed to produce and donate a paint­ing for the cause. He also helped with fund­

ing and gave Cherry leads on other artists,

including such early adherents as children's entertainer Raffi and Neil Peart, drummer

for the Canadian rock group Rush. That fledgling poster campaign took off.

By 1995, 16,000 posters containing a list of entertainers' names were distributed to

schools across Canada, as well as to public

libraries and YMCA-YWCAs.

Today, the group numbers more than 100 entertainers from around the world, includ­

ing actors Dan Aykroyd, Kiefer Sutherland,

Mike Myers and Sarah Polley; musicians Barenaked Ladies, Robbie Robertson, Lenny

Kravitz, Leonard Cohen, Phil Collins and

Prairie Oyster; writers Pierre Berton, Mar­

garet Atwood, jane Urquhart, Michael

Ondaatje and Alice Munro; and directors Norman jewison and Atom Egoyan.

A Violet Ribbon campaign has seen such

celebrities as Celine Dion and )ewison wear the group's signature ribbon at the Acade­

my Awards. High schools regularly sponsor "band bashes," while AAR hosts events such

as the One People benefit concert and booths at concerts and music festivals across

North America. The charity also promotes the message via radio and television public

service announcements, magazine and bill­

board advertisements, labels on album cov­ers and poster ads in washrooms, restau­

rants, subway stations and movie theatres.

"At the very beginning, I never aimed to create anon-profit organization," says Cher­

ry, who's been described in newspaper and

magazine articles as having resourcefulness, pluck, even a "magic touch." She allows that

at times, she's needed all those qualities and

more in dealing with the egos of some of

the artists' managers. "At one point, it was such a struggle to get to the artists;' she says.

There were also some surprises in store,

including the manager of one country singer who refused to pass along her request

to get involved. It turned out that both the

artist and the manager harboured virulent

racist views, a revelation that was eventual­ly exposed by the Globe and Mail. "That

actually helped me get more artists."

The connection between the stars and

social justice may have been forged in Cher­ry's childhood when she first watched and

was inspired by the Hollywood film The Ten

Commandments. Closer to home, one of her

ancestors escaped from Spain during the Spanish Inquisition, and she recalls stories

about relatives who fled from anti-Jewish

pogroms in Ukraine before the First World War I. She herself spent several years figure

skating at a Toronto club that had previ-

ously banned Jews. She was also influenced

by people like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Rachel Carson and Elie

Wiesel. "I have a natural sense of justice,"

says Cherry. "Whenever I would read about

people not being treated with a sense of equality, it just incensed me, and I always

wanted to do something about it."

Her efforts have gone beyond Canada's

borders. In 2000, she and other AAR orga­nizers were invited to Washington to meet

with the anti-racism office of the Clinton

administration. That was shortly after the head of the organization's Indiana office,

photographer Trace Poulson, won an award

from the Indiana Civil Rights Association

for organizing a peace concert to counter­act a major Ku Klux Klan rally.

A second U.S. office operates in Rhode

Island under the leadership of a university

student whose professor was a former asso­ciate of King's. In late 2001, the organiza­

tion received a Global Tolerance Award from

the Friends of the United Nations. AAR has

also received the Toronto Mayor's Anti­

Racism Award and the Sassaby Cosmetics 1996 Internet Award.

Awards are gratifying, but what differ­

ence is the organization making? Acknowl­edging that it's difficult to tell, Cherry says

the best gauge is from students who write that they've been influenced by AAR mate­

rials and the artists' personal quotes. "We

get teachers e-mailing us all the time about

adding our educational material and Web site to their course curriculum. We've

brought up a whole generation of kids and

helped change the educational system.

Rather than fighting racism, it's easier to prevent racism than to stop it."

Artists Against Racism is now embark­

ing on a major fund raising campaign to take

its anti-racism message to children and youth worldwide- what Cherry calls "more

of the same but on a bigger scale ." At the

same time, she's thinking her lOth anniver­

sary is a good time to hand over control of

the organization to someone else. After a decade as executive director, she wants to

focus on long-standing interests in writing

about health and the environment. She's currently working on a documen­

tary about environmental health and is pro­

ducing an anti-pesticide TV ad campaign.

''I'm against the use of pesticides for con- ~ trolling West Nile virus," says Cherry, who b hopes to partner with an environmental orga- ~

"' nization. "We will kill more people through :S z

pesticides than West Nile virus will. There are ;;; better ways to control the disease." ga ~

Summer 2003 25

UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH

ALUMNI PROFILES

GUELPH GRAD APPLAUDS NASA FRIENDS AND SPIRIT

ROBERT McLEAN, B.Sc. '78, WILL

never forget the day he watched the

space shuttle Columbia launch into the sky

with a piece of his past and future on board. The Southwest Texas State University pro­

fessor had an experiment on the mission.

A specialist in biofllms, McLean designed

his shuttle experiment to study how different strains of bacteria mingle in the absence of

gravity. The bacteria that he and three of his

students sent into orbit were so tiny, they

could fit into a raindrop. They were packaged for the journey between two layers of Teflon,

each only a few inches in depth . But the

knowledge those bacteria could bring back to Earth had the potential to be colossal.

McLean watched the shuttle launch in

Florida with about 80 other researchers who

had projects on the mission . "It was awe­some to see, an amazing moment," he says.

But even more vivid in memory is the day

he learned the shuttle and its crew were not coming back.

"I was on my way to the airport to meet one of my students for the return flight to

Florida. I stopped at a coffee shop. Someone inside said they had heard that NASA had

lost contact with the shuttle." McLean was

~ stunned at first, then consumed by grief for ~ his NASA colleagues. "I kept thinking about ~ the families." ::J

~ As he made his way back home, ~ McLean's cell phone started ringing. It was

~ his university and then reporters. Word had

~ got out that he had a project on board, and f-

t;] he found himself answering media calls s I f­::J 0 Vl

>­Vl L.W f-

"' ::J

from all over Texas, the western United

States and even from Alberta, where he earned a PhD from the University of Cal-gary. "It was pretty intense for a while."

0 u In the past couple of months, McLean has 2 been able to refocus on his research. Biofllms 0 I 0.. are the slime-encased natural environments

26 GUELPH ALUMNUS

that bacteria form on surfaces, and the Columbia experiment was intended to deter­mine whether three types of bacteria- E.

coli, Pseudomonas and Chromobacterium­

would form biofilms in the absence of grav­ity. The hope was that the research findings would help develop disease treatments and

eventually prolong travel in space. "The idea is that a bacteria combination

can work as a water filter system on space missions where water is limited, recycling and reusing water," he says.

The control half of McLean's experiment is still in his lab, where he and his students

are focusing on the components ofbiofilms'

•

growth and development, such as the abil­

ity of individual bacteria to grow slowly, sur­vive starvation and stress, and perform metabolic activities.

There is a chance they may recover their

Columbia experiment. Not long ago,

McLean learned that the section of the shut­

tie that contained his research survived the fall to Earth fairly intact.

''I've learned a lot from this experience,

namely that anything is possible and you don't give up - ever," he says. "Even when

things are dangerous and, even in this case,

where seven wonderful people lost their lives, we shouldn't turn back."

atters HIGHLIGHTS • GRAD NEWS • OBITUARIES • CALENDAR

INVITATION FOR COMMERCE GRADS

THE GuELPH CoMMERCE SociETY

is a student government group that pro­

motes U of G commerce programs by host­

ing social events and attending conferences

and workshops. They invite alumni partic­

ipation in their annual golf tournament and

invite commerce grads to visit their Web site

at www.uoguelph.ca/-commerce.

NOTE TO ENGINEERING GRADS

KATIE MOUNTJOY REPRESENTS THE

Guelph branch of Engineers Without

Borders, an organization that collects used

tools and equipment to help launch business

ventures in the developing world. They'd like

to hear from owners of business and/or man­

ufacturing companies who could help by

donating used equipment. For details, send

e-mail to kmountjo@uoguelph.ca.

REACHING OUT TO ALUMNI

ALUMNI AFFAIRS AND Development

has three projects under way to pro­

vide fast, efficient communication with

alumni via the Internet.

"Our job is to engage alumni in the life

of the University;' says Jennifer Brett, man­

ager of events and communications. "We

want alumni to be up to date on what's going

on and hopefully get involved themselves:'

More than 1,400 alumni have already

registered for Guelph's Online Communi­

ty (OLC), giving them access to class bul­

letin boards, travel advice, mentoring

opportunities and a cost-efficient way to

keep in touch with the University and oth­

er alumni. This free service has been up and

running for 18 months.

In addition, the department has just

launched a new easy-to-navigate Web site that

features information on everything from class

projects to reunion dates. A photo gallery will

provide a snapshot of recent alumni events.

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR JOB

For graduating U of G students, Careers Night is one of the most important events of the

winter semester. Alumni participation is invaluable because it gives students a chance to

talk to graduates working in their field of interest.

"These are some of the best alumni programs we offer," says alumni manager Laurie

Malleau, who helped organize this year's event for students in U of G's geography program.

"Our students are so appreciative of the advice provided by alumni, who, in turn, have the

opportunity to mentor a group of outstanding young professionals."

Speakers at the geography event included, front row, from left: Jim Hosick, 'o1; Luigi

Derose, '94; Prof. Jan Mersey; and Johanna Wandel, MA '95. Back row: Stanley Jones, '72;

Douglas Smith, 'o2; PhD student Robert Mcleman; Laron Hopkins; '73; Wayne Caston, '77;

Alex Komarniski, '72; Brian Morber, '90; and Patti Young, '93·

And this summer, U of G will send the

first issue of a new alumni e-newsletter. It

will go initially to every graduate who has

given an e-mail address to Alumni House.

"Thee-newsletter will provide headlines

and brief updates on campus news and

events," says Brett. "Readers who want more

information will be able to click the head­

line link to a full article in the Web version

of the Guelph Alumnus or other campus

publications."

Visit the new Web site at www.uoguelph.

ca/alumni to update your mailing address

online. Provide an e-mail address if you

would like to receive the alumni e-newsletter.

WRONG LETTER, RIGHT CAREER

CONSUMER STUDIES CHAIR Marjorie

Wall was featured in the Winter 2003

issue of the Guelph Alumnus in a story about

the legacy of Macdonald Institute. We apol­

ogize for mispelling her last name and hope

our readers enjoyed her perspective on how

the college has reinvented itself in response

to changes in Canadian society. Wall earned

a B.H.Sc. from Macdonald Institute, an

M.Sc. from the College of Family and Con­

sumer Studies, and aided the transition to

today's College of Social and Applied

Human Sciences as a faculty member.

Spring 2003 27

alumni Matters

U of G alumni and staff enjoyed a tour of San Antonio's famous Riverwalk during the March 8

Texas reunion . Left to right : Pam Healey, BA '73, assistant vice-president (development); Janet

Greathouse, David Taylor, DVM '86; Karen Grant, B.Sc. '88; Wendy McDowell, B.Sc.(Agr.) ' 78;

Patrick McDowell; Jeffrey Rowe and Margaret Gale·Rowe, B.Sc. '82, with their children, Bronwyn

and Alison; and Shirley and Ted Freeman, ADA '56.

The Alumni Collection available at

The University Bookstore

Library 0 Zavitz D

MacNaughton~

D University Centre

~ ::J ([)

(.0 til a. ~ ;;>\"

OThe Bullring

Reynolds Walk

see instore SPECIALS on

ALUMNI CLOTHING &.. GIITS The University Bookstore

located in the MacNaughton Building bookstor@uoguelph.ca (519) 824-4120 x 53690

28 GuELPH ALUMN us

Coming Events

june 20 to 22 -Alumni Weekend. See

page 29.

june 5- Farewell reception for U of G

president Mordechai Rozanski, Gryphon

Dome, 3:30 p .m . to 6 p .m. The Board of

Governors invites all alumni and com­

munity friends to attend.

june 7 - Golf tournament for lacrosse

alumni. Contact Sam Kosakowski at Ext.

54703 or skosakow@uoguelph.ca.

july 12 and 13 - Kemptville College

Alumni Weekend. Contact Ellen Mooney

at 613-258-8336 or emooney@kemptvil­

lec. uoguelph.ca.

Sept. 5 - OAC Alumni Association

annual golf tournament in Guelph. Con­

tact Carla Bradshaw at Ext. 56657.

Sept. 27 - Homecoming.

For details of alumni events, call the exten­sion listed at 519-824-4120 or send e-mail to alumni@uoguelph.ca.

2003-2004 Agri-Tourism

Holidays

Experience the Bounty!

Apimondia 2003, August 16-31,2003

Experience apicultural and cultural attractions in Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia.

January 2004

• Arizona- Mixed Ag/Go lf

• New Zealand/ Australia from Januaty 23 to Febmary 16

February 2004

• 8 days- Tulare Farm Show, CA

• 8 day Costa Rican Tours, either Butterfly/Horticulture OR Dairy tour; incl. resort holiday

• 3 1 ! ~ 150 Research Lmc ~gnTours Guelph.On Canada N IG 4T2

Canada Inc. 51 9·826-4077

www.a tourscanada.com

Celebrating Traditions The rich history of the University of Guelph includes traditions created by alumni from every

era, every college and every class. Alumni Weekend 2003 is an opportunity for you to bring

those traditions back to life by rekindling friendships with former roommates and class­

mates. • This year is extra special with events marking the lOOth annivers~ry of the found­

ing of Macdonald Institute. Come back for your reunion, bring your family, visit your old

stomping grounds and see what's new! • University of Guelph Alumni Association (UGAA)

Awards of Excellence will be presented to Bruce Christie, ADA '58, and Clifford Chappel,

DVM '50. • All Guelph alumni are invited to attend Alumni Weekend. View registration

details online at www.uoguelph.ca/alumni.

FRIDAY, JUNE 20 Registration- Alumni House, 9 a.m. to 7:30p.m.

Alumni-in-Action Hospitality Room- All day at Alumni House.

Macdonald Institute Stamp Event- Creelman Hall, 10:30 a.m. Canada Post will introduce

a stamp marking the 1 DOth anniversary of the founding of Macdonald Institute.

College Directions Seminar Series- Lunch in the Whippletree at noon,

seminars from 1:30 to 4:30p.m., hosted by the Mac-FACS Alumni Association.

aAC Past Presidents' Dinner- Turfgrass Institute. 5 p.m.

Welcome Barbecue - Creelman Hall, 5:30p.m.

ave Past Presidents' Social - OVC Lifetime Learning Centre, 7 p.m.

Macdonald Institute Book Event- University Club, 7:30p.m., hosted by

College of Social and Applied Human Sciences (CSAHS) Dean Alun Joseph.

SATURDAY, JUNE 21 Registration - Alumni House, 8 a.m. to 7:30p.m.

Alumni-in-Action Hospitality Room- All day at Alumni House.

aAC Alumni Association AGM- Macdonald Hall149. 9 a.m.

ave Alumni Association AGM- OVC Lifetime Learning Centre. 9 a.m.

CSAHS Tours- Macdonald Institute Building, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., includes tour. films and reception .

President's Lunch and Golden Anniversary Celebration- Gryphon Dome, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.,

honouring 1953 classes, presentation of UGAA Awards of Excellence.

Trolley Tours - From the Mitchell Athletic Centre, 2 to 4 p.m

Macdonald Institute Heritage Event- Mac Hall1 02, 2:30p.m., grand opening

of Alumni Heritage Room and Adelaide Hoodless Garden.

UGAA Wine & Cheese- U of G's new classroom complex, 3 p.m .. ribbon-cutting for the alumni

concourse, presentation of Gordon Nixon Leadership Awards to student groups.

CSAHS Tours - Macdonald Institute Building, 330 to 4:30p.m., includes tour, fi lms and reception.

Silver Anniversary Dinner Creelman Hall, 6 p.m reception, 7 p.m. dinner.

Engineering Banquet- Whippletree, 6:30p.m., welcoming engineering graduates of every year.

Mac-FACS Gala - University Centre courtyard, 5:30p.m. reception, 7 p m dinner,

9:30p.m. dance to the Roya l City Big Band .

Alumni Pub - Brass Taps, 9 p.m .. dance music from the 1970s, '80s and early '90s.

SUNDAY, JUNE 22 Ecumenical Service - War Memorial Hall. 9 a.m.

Farewell Breakfast- Creelman Hall, 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.

CLASS REUNIONS aAC '33, '38, '43, '48, '48A '49, '53, '53A, '58, '63, '63A, '68, '73A, '78 and

'88; Mac '38. '48D. '52. '53. '53D. '56, '56D, '57D, '63, '64, '66 and '68; FACS '73, '78, '83 and '87; HAFA '73

and '93; Human Kinetics '83; ave '43, '48, '50, '54, '58, '63, '73, '78 and '02; Engineering '93; Landscape

Architecture '78; Physical Education '73

Accommodation is available on campus.

For information or to register, contact Alumni House at Tel. 519-824-4120, Ext. 56544 E-mail' alumni@uoguelph.ca

Web: www.uoguelph.ca/alumni

GRAD NEWS

Bacteria cultured a promising career

1930 • William van Diepen, BSA '35,

enjoyed a 37-year career with

the United Fruit Company (known today as Chiquita

Polly and Bill van Diepen

Brands International). He

joined the company in 193 7

after earning a master's degree

in tropical crops agronomy and was stationed in Spanish Hon­

duras. During his career, he

travelled widely and lived in

30 GUELPH ALUMNUS

WHEN JEREMY YETHON, B.Sc. '97 and PhD '01, enrolled at

Guelph in 1993, he planned to

study biochemistry. But after tak­ing an elective course in micro­

biology, he became fascinated by

bacteria and other micro-organ­

isms, and that changed the direc­

tion of his career.

After the U of G President's

Scholar completed his two Guelph degrees, he started work

as a post-doctoral fellow at

McMaster University. He is also the recipient of one of Canada's

most prestigious awards for young scientists- the Polanyi

Prize in Physiology/Medicine.

Named after John Charles Polanyi, a Canadian Nobel Prize

winner for his work in chem­

istry, the prize recognizes out­

standing young researchers in the early stages of their careers.

Guatemala, New Orleans, Mia­

mi and Boston. He retired after

12 years as vice-president of research and development at

company headquarters 111

Boston. Van Diepen continues

to do consulting work in the banana industry and lives in

Florida with his second wife,

Polly, to whom he has been

married for more than 20 years.

1940 • Murray Mutrie, DVM '45,

has a veterinary practice in Woodstock, N.B., where he lives

with his wife, Pauline.

1950 • Bernie Brennan, DVM '51, a

member of the Ontario Racing

Commission, was recently inducted into Ottawa's Sports

Hall of Fame for his outstanding

athletic performances over the years. While at university, he

Yethon's current research is

on a eukaryotic system. He is

studying a family of proteins in mammalian cells that regu­

late cell death or survival in

response to various stresses. He

hopes to combine what he

learned from his PhD work on

bacterial antibiotic resistance

with his post-doctoral work to "be able to probe the molecu­

lar interactions between bac­

teria and eukaryotic host cells

that are critical in the onset

and progression of bacterial infection."

His work has garnered much

attention, particularly from the pharmaceutical industry, with

several companies expressing

interest in pursuing his thesis

results for the development of novel antibiotics.

Part of what earned Yethon

played football and contributed

to three consecutive intercolle­

giate championships. After grad­

uation, he played for the Ottawa Rough Riders, helping the team

win the 1951 Grey Cup. Later in

his career, he was appointed track veterinarian at the Rideau

Carleton Raceway, where he took

up harness racing and became a driver, breeder and trainer.

• Maurice De Kindt, ADA '56 and BSA '62, recently moved

from Tecumseh, Ont., to Wind­

sor. He retired 10 years ago as

agricultural manager at the

Green Giant processing plant in Tecumseh.

• Don Ghetti, BSA '51, has received a Queen's Golden

Jubilee Medal for his continued

support of his community and

country. A distinguished agrol­

ogist and longtime volunteer for

U of G's most prestigious

entrance award was his desire

to give something back to his

community and society. As a student at Nelson High School

in Burlington, Ont., he coached

a midget boys' volleyball team,

volunteered at the local associ­

ation for community living and

was one of the school's top stu·

dents. Today, his hands-on

approach to the betterment of

society takes place in a research lab where new discoveries may

improve the health of genera­

tions to come. Yethon is married to Wendy

Fairs, B.Sc. '99, a graduate of

Guelph's program in food sci·

ence. He enjoys running and manages to enter several road

races a year. Future plans

include running the Boston Marathon.

the Canadian Cancer Society and the Heart and Stroke Founda­

tion, he is a former citizen of the

year and Centennial Medal recipient for Niagara-on-the­

Lake, Ont. He is also past presi­

dent of St. David's and District Lions Club and recipient of the

club's highest award, the Melvin

Jones Fellowship. Ghetti and his

wife, Gloria, have two children,

John and Donna, and two

grandsons, Scott and Joshua.

• Marilyn, B.H.Sc. '55, and Ken Murray, BSA '50, received an

Outstanding Philanthropist

Award from the Waterloo Wellington Fundraising Execu­

tives organization last Novem­

ber. They were honoured for their commitment as volun­

teers, financial contributors and

board members in a variety of

organizations that blend their

interests in education, music

and art, community health care

and conservation. Both have

been active since graduation in alumni activities and the

advancement of U of G's edu­

cational mission.

1960 • Doug Speers, B.Sc. '66, is

president and CEO of EMCO Ltd., a leading manufacturer

and distributor of building

materials in London, Ont. He

was ranked the 65th top CEO

in Canada for 2002 by The National Post. EMCO Ltd. also produces custom components

and brass aluminum forgings.

• Terry Taylor, BA '68, has been

appointed CEO of Advocis, the

newest professional association of financial advisers in Canada.

Advocis began operating jan. 1, 2003, and replaced the existing

Canadian Association of Insur­

ance and Financial Advisers and

the Canadian Association of Financial Planners.

1970 • Bernd Flock, B.Sc. '76, moved to Austria with his wife after

graduation and did volunteer

work with an interdenomina­

tional Christian mission group.

Returning to Canada in 1978, he worked for Environment Cana­

da, then did consulting for both

the federal and provincial gov­ernments in pollution control.

In 1993, he and his wife moved

back to Austria, where they are

involved in counselling, youth

work and church planning.

• Steve Hoare, BA '71, recently left his position as director of

strategic planning with the Aus­

tralian government's Depart­ment of Agriculture, Forestry

GRAD NEWS UPDATE

and Fisheries to run his own

consulting business. His work focuses on animal health eco­

nomics. Previously, he complet­

ed post-graduate studies at the University ofWageningen in the

Netherlands, was CEO of Ani­

mal Health Australia Ltd. and

served on the Exotic Animal

Disease Preparedness Council.

• Larry McCuaig, M.Sc. '70 and PhD '74, is a naturotherapist

practising in Ottawa. Last year,

he and his wife, Lynne, com-

Larry and Lynne McCuaig

pleted the Camino de Santiago,

a traditional pilgrimage trail across Spain to the burial place

of Saint James the Apostle.

McCuaig undertook the 780 kilometre trek to see what effect

the sustained daily exercise

would have on his fibromyalgia

symptoms. He explains that

fibromyalgia syndrome is a dis­ease that affects the muscles, lig­

aments and tendons. Although the 31-day journey did not

"cure" his condition, he says he

did realize a decline in the

symptoms.

• Larry Meek, B.Sc. '77, is a Washington-based independent

management consultant who

deals specifically with the use of

information and communication

technology (ICT) by the U.S.

government. He is currently

involved in a major Inter-Amer­ican Development Bank/Gov­

ernment of Guyana initiative to

introduce widespread use of ICT for economic reform and nation­

al development. In 1999, he was

recruited by the World Bank

Group to act as its principal man­

agement information officer.

• Gord Miller, B.Sc. '76 and M.Sc. '78, is the environmental

commissioner for Ontario. His

most recent report, Climate Change: Is the Science Sound?, was presented to the provincial

legislature.

• Ron Porter, B.Sc. '75, has been promoted to senior vice­

president, automotive finance

and indirect lending, at Scotia­bank. He has worked for the

bank since the early 1990s and

was previously vice-president,

automotive finance.

• Fred Promoli, BA '70, recent­ly participated in the world's longest bicycle race, the first­ever Tour d'Afrique. The race is

a 10,500-km (6,000-mile)

expedition from Cairo to Cape Town, covering 10 countries in

all. Cyclists average 100 km a

day for 100 days, raising funds

for and awareness of the preser­vation of African wilderness

and wildlife, as well as promot­

ing cycling as an alternative to automobile-based transporta­

tion.

• Monica Siegenthaler, B.A.Sc. '74, is completing post-graduate

studies in non-profit and vol­

untary-sector management and

is working as executive director

of Daybreak, a charitable orga­

nization in Ottawa. Friends can contact her by e-mail at mon

icasieg@hotmail.com.

• Gordon Sim, BA '74, won an Oscar for achievement in art

direction for the movie Chicago. He was set decorator for the

1920s-style musical that received a total of 13 nominations and six

awards, including best picture.

Born and raised in St. Thomas,

Ont., Sim received all his formal training in Guelph's drama pro­

gram. "The Drama Department was very good;' he says. "Anum­

ber of people went on to do very

well. Rex Buckle, whom I still

keep in touch with, taught a great

film course. We had good people:' After graduation, Sim worked

with the Elgin Theatre Guild, the

Stratford Festival, the Shaw Fes­

tival and Ottawa's National Arts

Centre before focusing on televi­sion commercials and feature

films in Toronto. His credits for set decoration include AI Pacino's

Sea of Love and Norman jewison's

Hurricane. His most recent work, The In-Laws starring Michael

Douglas, is being released in May.

He is currently working on a

political satire starring Gene

Hackman. • Keith Walton, B.Sc. '77, has

spent the last 25 years in vari­

ous supervisory, technical and managerial capacities in the

plastics manufacturing indus­

try. He is currently employed with Colortech as the opera­

tions manager responsible for

the Brampton, Ont., operation

of Polyp last Mueller. The com­pany manufactures colour and

additives concentrate. His

daughter, Erin, will graduate

from U of G this year with a BA

and has been accepted into Jaw school at the University of

Send address changes and Grad News to: Alumni Records, University of Guelph, Guelph ON N1G 2W1

Phone: 519-824-4120, Ext. 56550, Fax: 519-822-2670, E-mail: alumnirecords@uoguelph.ca

Summer 2003 31

Western Ontario. He and his '8 1, live in the Truro area. Adelaide, South Australia, to do live in Rancho Cucamonga.

wife, Donna, also have a son • Tom Carroll, BA '85, is a post-doctoral work at the South • Louise (Giroux) Hastie, B.A.Sc.

just finishing high school. painter, sculptor and print- Australian Museum and the '87, is a professor at the Durham

1980 maker who lives in Acton, Ont., University of Adelaide. She says College School of Business in

• Todd Bryant, B.Sc. '89, was with his wife, Inke Wevers-Car- she is now a fair dinkum Aussie Oshawa, Ont., and is pursuing

recently appointed plant man- roll. Last summer, he turned his citizen and can be reached bye- an MA in education through

ager of Ford's Oakville, Ont., talents to the stage to provide mail at chisholm.leslie@saug ov. Central Michigan University and

manufacturing plant. He began unique portraits and set design gov.au. the University of Toronto. She

his career at Ford as a produc- work for a production of the • Nicholas Clements, B.Sc. '84, has lived in Whitby since 1990

tion supervisor and has since musical Grease at the Guelph and his brother have a landscape with her husband, Andrew, and

held positions in manufactur- River Run Centre. maintenance company called twin sons, Scott and Michael, 9.

ing planning, quality control • Leslie Chisholm, B.Sc. '85 and Panoramic Landscape Services Before joining Durham, she

and lean manufacturing. M.Sc. '88, moved to Australia in just outside Washington, D.C. worked at Procter and Gamble

• Brian Cameron, B.Sc.(Agr.) 1995 to do a PhD in marine They provide services to the for 13 years in a number of

'81, is the new general manager parasitology at the University of entire D.C. and Baltimore area. research, sales and marketing

of the Dairy Farmers of Nova Queensland, Brisbane. She spent • Laurie Cook, B.Sc. '82, has roles. She would like to hear

Scotia (DFNS). He is responsible much time living on Heron been appointed partner with the from 1987 and '88 FACS grads

for milk marketing, quota man- Island, located on the Great Bar- Toronto law firm Borden Lad- at hastiefamily@rogers. com.

agement and general dairy gov- rier Reef, investigating flatworm ner Gervais LLP in the area of • Monique LeClerc, M.Sc '82

ernance for Nova Scotia's 340 parasites of sharks and rays. Last securities and capital markets. and PhD '87, earned a BA at

dairy producers. He joins DFNS year, her work took her to • Wendy Harris, B.A.Sc. '8 1, McGill University before com-

after three years as manager of Malaysian Borneo, where she worked in Canada for more ing to U of G. She is now a pro-

the Dairy Research and Techno!- was involved in a large collabo- than 10 years as a financial plan- fessor at the University of Geor-

ogy Centre at the University of rative project to chart the diver- ner before moving to southern gia, where she works in the

Alberta. Cameron and his wife, sity of sharks and rays and their California for her husband's environmental physics lab in the

Corinne (Chisholm),B.Sc.(Agr.) parasites. She recently moved to work. She and her family now College of Agricultural and Envi-

ronmental Sciences. She was

recently appointed president -elect of the International Society of Biometeorology (ISB), an orga­nization that fosters the study of interrelations among humans, animals, vegetation and the atmosphere. She had previously held a three-year appointment as vice-president and had served two terms as head of ISB commis­sions. LeClerc and her husband, jesus Mata, live in Williamson, Ga., with their two children.

• Lou Maieron, B.Sc. '83, received an Award of Merit from the Credit Valley Conser­vation Authority for the pro­tection of water resources around environmentally sensi­tive springs in the town of Erin, Ont. Owner of Silvercreek Aquaculture, a fish farm and consulting business, Maieron is

a professional fisheries biologist. • Edward Malek, B.Sc. '88, is

an inspector with the Canadi­an Food Inspection Agency in North Bay, Ont., where he

enjoys many outdoor activities, including hiking and scuba div­ing. He recently received a national President's Award for

making a positive contribution to the workplace. Contact him at maleke@inspection.gc.ca.

• Deborah Juby, B.Sc. '85, recently received her chartered accountant designation. She works for Davis Martindale LLP in London, Ont.

• Jacqueline McGlade, PhD '82, was recently appointed execu­tive director of the European Environment Agency (EEA) in Copenhagen. The EEA is the main European-level provider of environmental information to policy-makers and the pub­lic. She is currently Natural Environment Research Coun­cil Professorial Fellow in Envi-

ronmental Informatics and Mathematics at University Col­lege in London, England. • Kelly Munkittrick, B.Sc. '80 and M.Sc. '83, earned a PhD from the University of Waterloo and now holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Ecosystem Health Assessment at the Uni­versity of New Brunswick. His research involves studying the

fish populations of the Saint john River and the effects of industrial and urban effluents. The goal is to develop a reliable method for analyzing and mon­itoring water conditions and environmental change. • Jim Murray, M.Sc. '80, is provincial supervisor of the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board. He is also the CEO of optimal solutions, a consult­ing firm dedicated to helping

people and organizations reach their full potential. His recently

published third book, The Opti­mal Negotiator: A Companion for Serious Deal Makers, covers everything from complex com­mercial transactions to everyday encounters with others. For more information, visit www.optimal­

negotiator.ca. • Alison Shannon, B.Sc.(H.K.) '81, is a kinesiologist specializ­ing in educational, develop­mental and applied kinesiolo­gies. She is also a certified brain gym instructor/consultant and works with people experienc­ing challenges m learning, speech, vision, behaviour, focus and memory, as well as those with ADD/ADHD, autism and Alzheimer's. She also practises body talk and touch and says both areas of study have helped her end her own use of hearing aids. She and her husband, Mike, live in Jerseyville, Ont ., with their four sons. Friends

can contact her at shannon

williams@sympatico.ca.

• Mark Shurvin, BA '81, has

accepted a third term as chair

of the Hamilton Conservation

Authority. The region's largest

environmental management

agency, it spearheads grassroots

environmental efforts to help

ensure a safe and sustainable

community. He is also an adju­

dicator with the Ontario Min­

istry of Labour.

• james Sidlofsky, BA '83, has

been appointed partner with

the Toronto law firm Borden

Ladner Gervais LLP in the area

of energy markets.

• Tony Sibbald, BA '89, has

been named sales promotion

Tony Sibbald

manager of Vector Marketing

Canada, a company he's been

employed with as a sales repre­

sentative since 1991. His new

position co-ordinates sales pro­

motion activities for the entire

Vector Canada operation.

• Tannis Slimmon, B.Sc.(Agr.)

'82 and M.Sc. '88, a well-known

Guelph singer, is heading south

of the border to showcase her

talents at the 15th annual North

American Folk Alliance confer­

ence in Nashville. Together with

her band mates, she will debut

a collection of tunes from their

new album, Oak Lake. The folk

alliance aims to increase public

awareness and demonstrate the

artistic and cultural importance

of folk music and dance.

1990 • Kevin Finora, DVM '99, was

34 GuELPH ALUMNUS

thankful he'd been exposed to

large-animal medicine at OVC

when he was asked last winter to

provide emergency care for a

New York Police Department

horse that had been hit by a car.

Finora, who grew up in Toronto,

hasn't provided medical care for

horses since his days at OVC. He's

now a resident in small-animal

internal medicine and oncology

at the Animal Medical Center in

Manhattan. The injured horse,

Boots, had a massive chest injury

to the muscle, cartilage and bone

of its sternum, but has made a

full recovery and is expected to

go back to active duty.

• Elaine Anderson, B.Sc. '96,

was married in 2001 to Christian

Elaine and Christian Fuchs

Fuchs, B.Sc.(Agr.) '96, and they

live in Guelph. She is a food-safe­

ty consultant and trainer and can

be reached by e-mail at e.ander­

son@rogers.com.

• Tracy Cocivera, MA '99 and

PhD '03, received an award for the

best PhD dissertation in human

resources research from the new­

ly formed International Alliance

for Human Resources Research at

the February conference of the

Human Resources Professionals

Association of Ontario. Her dis­

sertation was titled "Influence in

Organizations: Testing an Inte­

grative Model of Agents' Decision­

Making Processes for Selecting

Tactics:' She is currently working

as an industry consultant.

• Reuben Costa, BA '94, is a

human resources assistant at

the Canadian Food Inspection

Agency in Guelph. He lives in

Brantford with his wife, janice,

and infant daughter, Claudia

Maria. He recently released his

second full-length CD of

original music. Contact him at

rjcos ta@rogers.com.

• Cameron Deacoff, B.Sc.(Env.)

'98, spent 15 months working in

Alaska as a fisheries observer and

assisted in marine mammal stud­

ies in Florida and Maine. He has

a master's degree in marine man­

agement from Dalhousie Univer­

sity's Marine Affairs Program

(MAP) and now works with MAP

and the Department of Fisheries

and Oceans to support integrat­

ed management of Nova Scotia's

coastal waters. He lives in Halifax.

• Michelle Elliott Brown, B.Sc.

'92, was married in December

2002 to Australian Robert

Brown. They live on a dryland

farm in Victoria, Australia, rais­

ing cereal crops and fat lambs.

That's quite a climate adjustment

from the three years she lived in

Dawson City, Yukon Territory,

before moving down under.

• Lian Goodall, BA '95, lives in

Ottawa and has just published

her second book, William Lyon

Mackenzie King: Dreams and

Shadows, for children 14 and

Lian Goodall

up. Her articles and children's

book reviews can be viewed at

www.liangoodall.com.

• Ryan Ewaskiw, BA '96, is a

music teacher and lives in St.

Thomas, Ont., with his wife,

janet, and infant daughter,

Emma.

• Anne (Foster) Low, B.Sc: 95,

lives in Toronto. She married

Mike Low in 2002 and this year

launched her own e-commerce

business, Stickermarket. The

Internet-based business sells

stickers to teachers, scrapbook

enthusiasts and sticker lovers of

all ages. For details, see

www.stickermarket. com.

• Stephanie McClellan, BA '96,

was inducted into the Terry Fox

Hall of Fame last fall in recog­

nition of her athletic achieve­

ments. The 29-year-old disabled

athlete cycled 9,018 kms across

Canada to promote the abilities

of people with disabilities.

• Chukwiemeka Okere, PhD

'95, holds a senior faculty posi­

tion at the School of Agriculture

at the University of the South

Pacific's Alafua campus in Apia,

Samoa. His responsibilities

include conducting research and

teaching diploma, undergradu­

ate and graduate students in the

Chukwiemeka Okere

areas of animal production,

reproductive and environmen­

tal physiology, breeding and

genetics. He teaches both on

campus and in distance educa­

tion and extension programs.

• Tammy (Tipler) Priolo,

B.A.Sc. '90, lives in North Bay,

Ont., with her husband, Clark,

and their daughter, Erica. She

operates a genealogical research

and consulting firm called

GenAdventures and is current­

ly collecting information on the

early Italians of North Bay. She

will speak to the local genealog-

ical society in October. She says

hello to all her classmates and

welcomes contact by e-mail at

tpriolo@hotmail .com.

mates at kspence@durham.net.

• Heather Williams, B.Sc. '95, is

teaching high school biology at

the Seaway District High School

in Iroquois, Ont. She is also pro­

gram leader for the science

department.

2000 • Jennifer Feasby, BA '02, is a

Jesuit volunteer working in

Belize for an organization called

Youth Enhancement Services.

She is a teacher and counsellor

at an alternative school for at­

risk young women.

• Lisa (MacCormack) Raitt,

M.Sc. '93, has been appointed

CEO at the Toronto Port Author­

ity (TPA). She will continue to

also serve as harbourmaster with

the TPA, a position she has held

since January 200 l. A graduate

of Osgoode Hall Law School, she

was called to the bar in 1998 and

gained maritime legal experience

in the United Kingdom.

Nancy Milton and joe Regan

• Patrick Woodcock, BA '96, is

a poet and the only Canadian

writer to be invited to attend

the 41st International Poetry

Festival, Sarajevo Poetry Days,

in Bosnia-Herzegovina. His

work, including The Six O'Clock Club, AthElia and Scarring Endymion, has been translated

into Bosnian, Russian, Icelandic

and Polish, an indication of his

growing popularity in the inter­

national poetry community.

His next collection of poems is

titled The Challenged Ones.

• Nicole Mackereth, BA '00, has

moved to Toronto, where she

continued her education in the

museum studies program at the

University of Toronto.

• Joe Regan, B.Sc. '91, and Nan­cy Milton, BA '95, were married

Oct. 4, 2002, in Toronto. They

now live in Bloor West Village.

He is a venture capitalist, and

she is a sales and marketing

program manager.

• Ken Spence, B.Comm.'96, is

sales manager for Pearson Tech­

nology Group Canada in Toron­

to. The company is one of the

largest computer book publish­

ers in the world. Spence is

engaged to be married this

December and will be moving

to a new home in Whitby. He

would like to hear from class-

George Grieve, DVM '68 and M.Sc. '73,

died )an. 26, 2003. He was owner and direc­

tor of the Glen Erin Animal Hospital and

the Meadowvale Animal Clinic in Missis­

sauga, Ont., and director and partner of the

Mississauga Veterinary Emergency Clinic.

He was active in numerous professional

associations and was president -elect of the

American Animal Hospital Association at

the time of his death. He is survived by his

wife, Betty, two children and one grandson.

Lawrence Kerr, BSA '29, died Feb. 4, 2003.

He was active in a number of agricultural

organizations and was honoured by sev­

eral for his efforts in rural stewardship and

the promotion of an efficient agri-food

industry. The farm operation he started

near Chatham, Ont., in 1934 remains a

model of good husbandry practices, pro­

ducing seed crops in combination with

livestock production and many acres of

vegetables and fruit for both processing

and retail sale through a farm-based mar­

ket. At his alma mater, he served as a mem­

ber of the OAC Advisory Committee and

was a charter director of the OAC Alum­

ni Foundation. He contributed to the

founding of the University of Guelph as

OBITUARIES

vice-chair of the Board of Regents of the

Federated Colleges and was a member of

U of G's first Board of Governors. He was

named an Honorary Fellow of the Uni­

versity in 1973, received an OAC Centen­

nial Medal in 1974 and was named Alum­

nus of Honour in 2000. Predeceased by his

wife, Mary, in 1996, he is survived by a son,

Robert, B.Sc.(Agr.) '68; a daughter, Elaine

Duffy; and their families.

Regis Simard, PhD '87, died from cancer

July 5, 2002. He was a noted soil scientist,

author of more than 100 scientific papers,

former editor of the Canadian Journal of Soil Science, former president and Fellow of

the Canadian Society of Soil Science and a

Fellow of the International Organization

for Economic Co-operation and Develop-

• Marc Thibault, M.Sc. '01, is

working in the Toronto office

of J.D. Power and Associates, a

global marketing and informa­

tion firm that specializes in

automotive research. He tracks

purchase and delivery satisfac­

tion for Subaru Canada, as well

as service satisfaction initiatives.

ment. Most of his career was spent with

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada at

Sainte-Foy, Que., where he was closely asso­

ciated with Laval University, but he was head

of the soil science department at the Uni­

versity of Manitoba at the time of his death.

He has been recognized many times for his

contributions to the advancement of soil

science in Quebec. He is survived by four

daughters, Maria, Liisa, Saara and Leia, aged

seven to 17; and his fiancee, Lucie Vallee.

Jean Steckle, B.H.Sc. '52, died at her home

in Kitchener, Ont., Jan. 17, 2003. She was

a graduate of Guelph, Cornell University

and the University of Reading in England.

She had a long career in nutrition, serving

the United Nations in Africa and Rome,

the International Development Research

Summer 2003 35

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An innovative , limited-enrolment program

combining e-Learning with

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Starting june 21, 2003

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36 GuELPH ALUMNUS

OBITUARIES

Centre in Africa and Ottawa, and Health

Canada, working with native populations in many parts of the country. In retire­

ment, she established the]. Steckle Her­

itage Homestead, where she developed

programs related to agriculture, food and nutrition for youth, families and various

community groups. She is survived by

her brother, Robert, BSA '52.

Daniel Abraham, ODH '78, in 2000

Alan Aylsworth, BSA '37, Nov. 12, 2002

Denis Bailey, DVM '54, Dec. 23, 2002 Clifford Beaumont, ODH '66,

August 2001

Jean Beddore, DHE '34, Jan. 15, 2003

Mary (Wodskou) Brancroft, B.H.Sc. '53, Dec. 15, 2001

Margaret Calder, B.H.Sc. '60, Feb.28,2003

Ewart Carberry, BSA '44, Feb. 10,2003

Archibald Cooper, ADA '48, April 12, 1999

Norman Epps, BSA '49, Feb. 21,2003

John Fawkes, ODH '74, in May 2002 Norman Folland, BSA '35,

October 2002 Billy Gee, DVM '68, Sept. 30, 2002 Erika Haefele, B.Sc. '01,

December 2002 Walter Hanbidge, BSA '48,

Nov. 30, 2002

Mary Hewer, BA '72, Nov. 29, 2002

Harley Janson, DVM '38, Nov. 23, 2002

Theodore Julie, DVM '55, Dec. 6, 2001

Shirley King, B.H.Sc. '54, March 2000 Alain Lapalme, B.Sc.(Agr.) '82,

July 6, 2002 Thorcuill MacDonald, B.Sc.(Agr.)

'75, Oct. 7, 2001

James MacGowan, BSA '38, Dec. 22, 2002

Grazina Maclonis, BA '75, February 2001

Elizabeth MacLachlan, B.Comm. '91, in 2002

Forbes MacLeod, DVM '40,

Feb. 2,2003

James MacNeil, BSA '49,

July 2002 Laura Marshall, DHE '48,

Dec. 24, 2002 Robert McCondochie, BSA '57,

August 2002

Dorothy Nicholson, DHE '39,

July 2000 Walter Perrin, ADA '32, in 2002

Elizabeth Phillips, DHE '39,

Sept. 4, 2002

Aniela Radek, BA '78, Dec. 2, 2002

Bryon Richardson, BSA '33, May 29, 2002

Selma Rock, B.Sc.(Agr.) '87,

June 8, 2002

Sister Mary Elizabeth Ross, DHE '27,

date unknown Robert Saunders, BSA '57,

Jan. 21, 2003

Roderick Scott, ADA' 47, Feb. 11, 2003 Jean Singleton, DHE '33, in 1999 Shirley Smith, DHE '40, Feb. 11,2003 Earl Stephenson, ADA '33, in 2000

Charles Sutter, ADA '63, Dec. 4, 2002 Dorothy Taylor, DHE '31, Nov. 5,

2002

Claudia Thompson, B.A.Sc. '74,

Oct. 25, 2001 Reginald Thomson, DVM '59,

Dec. 14, 2002 William Tolton, BSA '36, Dec. 26,

2002 Ivan Townsend, BSA '48, Dec. 8, 2002 Teunis Van Dop, ODH '67, in 2002 Lloyd Van Gorder, DVM '49,

Jan. 8, 2003 Michael Vasselsue, BSA '40,

Dec. 29, 2002

Jean Waghorne, DVM '42, Feb. 8, 2003

Richard Wallace, ADA '78,

May 24,2000

Louis Young, BSA '27, date unknown

FACULTY

Eric Hani, post-doctoral fellow in

the Department of Microbiology, Aug. 7, 2002

Prof. Phillip Sweeny, Microbiology,

Jan. 15, 2003

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Get a no-obligation quote! You could

a BMW330Ci Cabriolet*

Our home and/or auto insurance policyholders are automatically entered.

Meloche Monnex Where insurance is a science ... and service, an art

tGroup auto insurance rates are not applicable in the Atlantic provinces. Due to provincial legislation, our auto insurance program is not offered in British Columbia, Manitoba or Saskatchewan.

*No purchase necessary. The contest is open to residents of Canada who have reached the age of majority where they reside. The approximate value of the BMW 330Ci Cabriolet is $63,000 (vehicle may not be identical to the one shown). The contest runs from January 151 to December 31, 2003. In order to win, the entrant, selected at random, must correctly answer a mathematical skil l-testing question. For the odds of winning and to learn how you can participate, see the complete ru les of the Win a BMW 330Ci Cabriolet Contest at www.melochemonnex.com/uoguelph. The Meloche Monnex home and auto insurance program is underwritten by Security National Insurance Company.

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