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westernnews.ca
PM 41195534
November 6, 2014 / Vol. 50 No. 30
Legacy
lives on
Roth Chair honours physician, athlete
and proud member of Western family
B Y PA U L M AY N E
A RENOWNED PHYSICIAN. An inquisitive scientist. A tough
athlete. And a proud Western alumnus. Jim Roth summed up
everything it meant to be ‘purple and proud.’
And now, in honour of his legacy, Western has established the
James Roth Research Chair in Musculoskeletal Measurement and
Knowledge Translation. The university has matched the $1.5 million
committed to the chair, for a total of $3 million.
The completion of the chair will be celebrated Monday.
“Dr. Roth was a valued and respected member of the Western
family, not only for his work as a surgeon and scientist, but also as
a friend and colleague,” said Amit Chakma, Western president.
“Western is so pleased to be able to ensure his legacy continues
through the extraordinary support received from his family, friends
and colleagues to establish this new endowed research chair.”
Prior to his death in 2013, Roth worked tirelessly to expand his
standing as an international leader in upper extremity research and
clinical innovation at Western.
Along with Dr. Robert McFarlane at St. Joseph’s Health Care,
Roth co-founded the Hand and Upper Limb Centre (HULC) in 1992
and served as its medical director since inception. The centre has
grown to be the largest of its kind in Canada, with an international
reputation for its research and teaching excellence.
Surgery professor Graham King of the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry said Roth was as strong a doctor as he was a friend.
“Summing up Jim Roth? Wow, that’s a toughie,” said King, who
played a major role in creating this new chair. “For Western, he
certainly is ‘true purple’ in every respect. Even though he was not
from London, he played football here and was one of the biggest
Western supporters you could find. He had a long-standing inter-
LEGACY LIVES ON // CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
WESTERN UNIVERSITY FILE PHOTO
ILLUSTRATION BY FRANK NEUFELD
Western’s newspaper of record since 1972
In honour of James Roth, the late physician, scientist, athlete
and proud Western alumnus, Western has established the
James Roth Research Chair in Musculoskeletal Measurement
and Knowledge Translation.
2
Western News
| November 6, 2014
upload your photos
Coming Events
NOV. 6-12
#
6 // THURSDAY
8 // SATURDAY
KING’S UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
Names Instead of Numbers: International Travelling Exhibition. Stories
and photos of former prisoners from
across Europe who were deported to
Dachau concentration camp between
1933-45.
Darryl J. King Student Life Centre,
King’s University College. Runs until
Nov. 14.
DON WRIGHT
FACULTY OF MUSIC
Jazz ensemble concert at the Ontario
Music Educators’ Association Annual
Conference.
1:15 p.m. London Convention Centre.
LEARNING SKILLS SERVICES
Improve Your Concentration. sdc.
uwo.ca/learning.
10:30-11:30 a.m. WSSB 3134.
SCHOLARSHIP INFORMATION
SESSION
Offers guidance to students on how to
apply competitively for external scholarships. No registration is required.
4-6 p.m. IGAB 1N05.
KING’S VERITAS SERIES
Singing Communities. Free lecture
presented by Joey Weisenberg, creative director, Hadar Centre, New
York.
7:30 p.m. Kenny Theatre, Darryl
J. King Student Life Centre, King’s
University College.
MCINTOSH GALLERY EXHIBIT
The Grant and Peggy Reuber Collection of International Works on Paper,
curated by Catherine Elliot Shaw.
Video Zoom: Between-The-Images,
curated by Louise Déry.
Opening reception at 8 p.m. Runs
until Dec. 6.
7 // FRIDAY
DON WRIGHT
FACULTY OF MUSIC
Percussion ensemble.
12:30 and 8 p.m. Paul Davenport
Theatre.
DON WRIGHT
FACULTY OF MUSIC
A Sanctuary of Song. Enjoy works by
composers Vaughan Williams, Finzi,
Warlock and Britten.
12:30 p.m. von Kuster Hall.
DEPARTMENT OF ANATOMY
AND CELL BIOLOGY
J. Alex Parker, Centre de Recherche,
CHUM, University of Montreal. Rise
to the bait: Using C. elegans to find
causes and cures for neurodegenerative disorders.
12:30 p.m. MSB 282.
PSYCHOLOGY COLLOQUIUM
Laurel J. Trainor, McMaster University,
Department of Psychology. Auditory
Development in Infants: From Perceiving Music to Social Behaviour.
3-4 p.m. UCC 37.
BASKETBALL
Guelph at Western.
Women’s, 6 p.m. Men’s, 8 p.m.
WOMEN’S HOCKEY
York at Western.
4 p.m.
MEN’S HOCKEY
McGill at Western.
7 p.m.
DON WRIGHT
FACULTY OF MUSIC
Choral celebration. A London tradition. Come hear all five award-winning
choirs in a wide variety of exciting choral repertoire. Tickets $15/$10. Grand
Theatre box office, 519-672-8800 or
tickets.grandtheatre.com.
7:30 p.m. First-St. Andrew’s United
Church.
10 // MONDAY
INTERNATIONAL WEEK
A campuswide celebration of all
things international. Celebrate Western’s international community and
international collaborations. Learn
about international opportunities for
students, staff and faculty and engage
the London and campus communities in global learning and connection.
Open to the campus community - students, faculty and staff. internatoinalweek.uwo.ca.
WESTERN LAW
The Canada-U.S. Law Institute Distinguished Lecture – Diane Francis, editor-at-large, National Post. Merger of
the Century: Why Canada and America Should Become One Country.
12:30 p.m. Moot Court Room, Faculty of Law.
DEPT. OF PHYSIOLOGY AND
PHARMACOLOGY
Michael Pest, PhD Physiology student.
EGFR Signalling in Osteoarthritis and
Cartilage Homeostasis.
4 p.m. DSB 2016.
WESTERN INTERNATIONAL
WEEK
Shad, keynote and performance and
opening event. Tickets $10 via internationalweek.uwo.ca, Connections,
UCC or Western International Office.
5:30 p.m. Alumni Hall.
DON WRIGHT
FACULTY OF MUSIC
Chamber groups.
6 and 8 p.m. von Kuster Hall.
11 // TUESDAY
SENIOR ALUMNI PROGRAM
Conflict in Russia and Ukraine. Explor-
tag with #westernu
ing the current situation, its history
and impact on Russia’s ties with the
West. Charles Ruud, Department of
History.
9:30 a.m. McKellar Room, UCC.
WESTERN REMEMBRANCE
DAY CEREMONY
The University Students’ Council will
be hosting a Remembrance Day ceremony for members of the Western
community. The ceremony will feature
student musical performances, poems and other tributes dedicated to
our Canadian veterans and Canadian
armed forces still serving.
10 a.m. Mustang Lounge.
HURON REMEMBRANCE
DAY CEREMONIES.
A celebration of Holy Eucharist using
the Walter Brown Communion Kit. Fr.
Walter Brown is the only Allied Chaplain to have been executed by the Nazis in the Second World War.
8:40 a.m. Huron Chapel.
The Huron community will gather
in the Chapel for the act of Remembrance and laying of the wreath. Anyone from the Western community is
welcome to attend. Current members
of the Canadian Forces are encouraged to wear their uniform and decorations. Veterans are encouraged to
wear their medals.
10:50 a.m. Huron Chapel.
@westernuniversity
TOASTMASTER’S CAMPUS
COMMUNICATORS
Build your confidence in public speaking. 9119.toastmastersclubs.org. Contact Donna Moore, [email protected]
or 85159.
12-1 p.m. UCC 147B.
THE CHINESE PROGRAM AT
HURON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
Lunch and conversation. Anyone
wishing to speak Chinese and meet
people who study Chinese at Huron
is welcome. Bring your own lunch and
join the conversation. hwu1@huron.
uwo.ca.
12:30-1:30 p.m. A18, Huron.
STUDENT SUCCESS
CENTRE WORKSHOP
International Students and Job Search
Success. Find a job in Canada. Learn
details on Canadian immigration regulations (working on and off-campus
or working after graduation). Register
at westerncareercentral.ca.
12:30-2:30 p.m. IGAB 1N05.
LEARNING SKILLS SERVICES
Preparing for Multiple-Choice Tests.
sdc.uwo.ca/learning.
3:30-4:30 p.m. WSSB 3134.
LEARNING SKILLS SERVICES
Writing Multiple-Choice Tests. sdc.
uwo.ca/learning.
3:30-4:30 p.m. WSSB 3134.
SCHOLARSHIP INFORMATION
SESSION
Offers guidance to students on how to
apply competitively for external scholarships. No registration is required.
4-6 p.m. IGAB 1N05.
KING’S UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
Names Instead of Numbers: Forum
on Rights and Citizenship in War and
Peace. Invited guest Kerstin Schwenke,
Ph.D. candidate in Modern and Contemporary History, University of Munich.
5:30-8:30 p.m. Darryl J. King Student Life Centre, King’s University
College.
DON WRIGHT
FACULTY OF MUSIC
Chamber groups.
6-8 p.m. von Kuster Hall.
ITALIAN FILM SERIES
La grande bellezza (The Great Beauty).
8 p.m. SEB 2202.
12 // WEDNESDAY
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
RESEARCH FORUM
Sheena Jary, Parroted Perception or
Revolutionized Reader? The Evolution
of Simplicity in Flaubert’s ‘A Simple
Soul.’
11:30 a.m. UC 207.
flickr.com/groups/western/
STUDENT SUCCESS
CENTRE WORKSHOP
Thinking About Going Abroad? Advice for anyone considering going
abroad to study, volunteer, intern,
teach, travel or work. Learn about international careers from best-selling
author Jean-Marc Hachey and his
website MyWorldAbroad.com. Register at westerncareercentral.ca.
5:30-7 p.m. UCC 315.
GERMAN FILM SERIES
Good Bye Lenin. Directed by Wolfgang Becker, 2003.
6:30 p.m. UC 207.
DON WRIGHT
FACULTY OF MUSIC
Western University Singers combine with Orchestra London present
Fauré’s beloved Requiem. Lest We
Forget. They will also perform Eleanor Daley’s In Flanders Fields as the
ensembles commemorate 100 years
since the start of the First World War.
Tickets through Orchestra London.
7:30 p.m. St. Paul’s Cathedral.
THE DEPARTMENT OF MODERN
LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES
La Tertulia. Anyone wishing to speak
Spanish and meet people from different Spanish-speaking countries is welcome. Email [email protected].
4:30 p.m. UC 205.
Have an event?
Let us know.
E-mail: [email protected]
ENJOY 10% DISCOUNT ON OVER THE
COUNTER MEDICATIONS! *WITH WESTERN ID
• Professional and confidential
counselling on your prescription and
over the counter medications!
• Free Delivery of your prescriptions!
• Best value for Western University
insurance for students!
• Free annual flu shot, no appointment
necessary (with valid health card)!
• Free Accu-pack blister pack service!
Explore our selection of gently
used, upscale home furnishings
& accents at a fraction of their
original prices.
Inventory changes daily,
so visit often!
NOW OPEN!
& close to campus ...
• Transferring you prescriptions is easy,
ask our friendly pharmacist for details!
• Very convenient and close to
your residence!
YOUR HEALTH IS OUR PRIORITY!
1055 Sarnia Rd • London
(just before Hyde Park)
226.884.4144
www.redecorconsign.com
Western News
| November 6, 2014
3
Campus Life
Western named among employer elites – again
BY JASON WINDERS
FOR THE SECOND time in as many years,
Western counts itself among Canada’s Top 100
Employers for 2015.
Now entering its 16th year, the Canada’s Top
100 Employers project is a national competition to determine which employers lead their
industries in offering exceptional workplaces
for their employees. The list was announced by
MediaCorp Canada on Tuesday.
“We are proud of the teaching, research,
scholarship and service that takes place at
Western, and grateful to all of those who work
together in pursuit of our vision to be a destination of choice for the world’s brightest minds
seeking the best learning experience,” said Amit
Chakma, Western president. “Western provides
employment for more than 13,000 people, and
each individual plays an important role in our
mission to benefit society through the work we
do together, and to graduate global citizens who
serve the public good.”
With 4,700 full-time and 8,700 part-time
employees, Western joins 3M Canada and list
newcomer Digital Extremes as the only honoured employers based in London; 46 of the 100
employers, however, call Ontario home.
“Each year, we see the baselines improve at
the employers chosen for the Top 100,” said
Richard Yerema, Mediacorp Canada managing editor. “From the small ripples that each
employer’s initiatives create, we can recognize a
wave that represents the evolving values of the
Canadian workplace.”
The Canada’s Top 100 Employers competition is the largest editorial project of its kind in
Canada, with thousands of employers taking
part in each year’s application process.
To create the list, MediaCorp examined
the recruitment histories of more than 80,000
employers across Canada that it tracks for its job
search engine, Eluta.ca. From this initial group,
editors invited 35,000 active employers that
created new jobs in the past year. Employers
completed an extensive application process that
included a detailed review of their operations
and HR practices, comparing them to others in
their industry and region.
Judges Richard Yerema and Kristina Leung,
Mediacorp Canada staff editors, cited a number of the reasons why Western was selected,
including:
dians, but the university also plays the role
of employer with summer employment
opportunities, paid internships and co-op
work experience opportunities;
• Mothers can apply to extend their maternity leave into an unpaid leave of absence
and can take advantage of an onsite daycare centre operated by the YMCA;
• Most new employees receive three weeks
of starting vacation as well as receive additional time off over the Christmas and the
New Year’s holidays;
• Employees and faculty are encouraged to
keep fit with subsidized memberships to
the 160,000 square-foot recreation centre;
• Employees also work on one the country’s
“most beautiful and historic campuses
that offers great walking options along
the Thames River as well as professionally
landscaped grounds with numerous place
to unwind during a busy day;” and
• With an eye to the future, employees can
participate in free retirement planning sessions, take advantage of phased-in retirement work options when nearing retirement and save with a defined contribution
pension plan.
• New mothers and fathers receive maternity
and parental leave top-up payments (to 95
per cent for 17 weeks), including adoptive
parents;
• Employees can take advantage tuition support for courses, from $4,000 to unlimited
per year, depending on their employee
group;
• Is not only an educator of younger Cana-
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In addition to the comments, each employer
is graded by Mediacorp Canada editors on eight
key areas; the same eight criteria have been
applied since the first edition.
For Western, the judges gave the university
the following marks: Physical Workplace, rated
exceptional (A-plus); Atmosphere and Communications, rated very good (B-plus); Financial
Benefits and Compensation, rated very good
(B-plus); Health and Family-Friendly Benefits,
rated above-average (A); Vacation and Personal
Time-Off, rated above average (A); Employee
Engagement, rated very good (B-plus); Training and Skills Development, rated exceptional
(A-plus); and Community Involvement, rated
very good (B-plus).
The grades in 2015 mirrored exactly the
grades in 2014, when Western made the list for
the first time in its history.
Only four universities – Western, Dalhousie,
Simon Frasier and Toronto – made the cut for
Canada’s Top 100 Employers. All the universities
appeared on last year’s list.
Founded in 1992, Mediacorp Canada is the
nation’s largest publisher of employment periodicals and guides. For 16 years, the Toronto-based
publisher has managed the annual Canada’s
Top 100 Employers project, which includes 20
regional and special-interest editorial competitions that reach more than 13 million Canadians
through a variety of magazine and newspaper
partners.
“It’s humbling for us to see employers across
Canada taking note of what the leaders in each
industry are doing,” said Anthony Meehan,
Mediacorp Canada publisher. “Our project has
never been about finding the most expensive
or over-the-top benefits or employee perks.
It’s always been about discovering the truly
innovative and cost-effective initiatives that
every employer in the country can adopt and
improve.”
This year’s winners were announced in a special magazine co-published in the national edition of The Globe and Mail on Tuesday.
CANADA’S TOP 100
Visit canadastop100.com/national to review what
makes Western, and 99 other Canadian employers,
stand out among the rest.
Graphic
Design
P
R
T
I
I
N
N
G
graphicservices.uwo.ca
519-661-4014
4
Western News
| November 6, 2014
Commentary
Western News (ISSNO3168654), a publication of Western University’s Department
of Communications and
Public Affairs, is published
every Thursday throughout
the school year and operates
under a reduced schedule
during December, May, June,
July and August.
An award-winning weekly
newspaper and electronic
news service, Western News
serves as the university’s
newspaper of record. The
publication traces its roots
to The University of Western
Ontario Newsletter, a onepage leaflet-style publication
which debuted on Sept. 23,
1965. The first issue of the
Western News, under founding editor Alan Johnston, was
published on Nov. 16, 1972
replacing the UWO Times
and Western Times. Today,
Western News continues to
provide timely news, information and a forum for discussion of postsecondary issues
in the campus and broader
community.
WE STERN NEWS
WesternNews.ca
Westminster Hall, Suite 360
Western University
London, ON N6A 3K7
Telephone 519 661-2045
Fax 519 661-3921
PUBLISHER
Helen Connell
[email protected],
519 661-2111 Ext. 85469
EDITOR
Jason Winders
[email protected],
519 661-2111 Ext. 85465
Difficult to cross the line, when
you have no idea where it is
Editor’s note: As part of a Canadian
election monitoring mission, Western
professor Marta Dyczok visited Sumy
Region in Ukraine. In this report, which
first aired on Public Radio Ukraine,
Hromadske Radio, she tells of her
experience of visiting Ukraine’s unprotected border with Russia.
B Y M A R TA D Y C Z O K
I WAS AT the Ukrainian-Russian
border recently, just outside the Volfine village in the Sumy oblast. It was
a field. For a while, I couldn’t figure out
where the border was.
Our driver didn’t really want to take
us there, because the road was well
off the main
highway and
full of potholes. He
didn’t want
to damage
his car.
He kept
saying, “The
border is just
DYCZOK
over there,”
and pointing out the window.
“Where?” we asked. But he just
kept repeating the same phrase and
pointing across the field.
Eventually, we asked him to stop
and decided to walk.
“Do you have good walking
shoes?” Antoine asked. “Yes, of
course, let’s go,” I answered.
And we set off.
Antoine and I were Canadian election observers. We had arrived in
Ukraine to monitor the October early
parliamentary election. As luck would
have it, the areas we were assigned to
cover border with Russia.
A number of polling stations are
located in villages along the border. So,
we went to visit them to see how election preparations were going. While
in Pavlivka, we asked the head of the
village election commission how close
we were to the border with Russia.
“ A b o u t t h re e k i l o m e t re s , ”
answered the smiling, heavy-set
woman. “The next village over is
partly in Russia.” When we asked to
explain, she said the way the borders
were drawn, parts of people’s gardens
had ended up in the Russian Federation. So, they had special documents
to do their gardening, to be able to
walk across their gardens.
“Can we go?” I asked eagerly.
“Oh no, you would need a visa,”
she replied calmly.
Intrigued, we decided to investigate to see what the Ukrainian-Russian border looked like in rural Sumy.
After all, heavy military equipment
had been transferred into Ukraine
from Russia for months in two border
oblasts further south, in Donetsk and
Luhansk, where there’s a war going on.
It was a sunny, but cold, day. As
we were driving, I was struck by the
beauty of the countryside. And that
it was so deserted. No people, buildings, traffic. Just fields, trees and sky.
The winter wheat had been planted in
neat rows in the black earth.
But no signs of a border.
As we walked down a path between
the fields, Antoine and I wondered
how we would know where the bor-
der was. We even joked about sirens
sounding as we tripped an invisible
wire. But instead, a dog began barking and running toward us from a farmhouse in the distance. We stopped.
Eventually, a woman came out. I
waved and called out to her, but she
didn’t respond. But she did call off the
dog. We kept approaching the farm.
A young man appeared, so I called
out to him, introduced myself, and
asked where the border was.
Like our driver, he said, “It’s just
over there.”
“Where?” we asked, feeling like
tourists. Because all we could see was
a field and some trees.
“Over there,” he pointed.
“How far, and how will we know
when we get there?” we insisted in
knowing.
“About 20 metres, you’ll see a black
line on the ground,” he said, as if it
was a silly question. But I thanked
him and extended my hand once
again. This time he took and shook it.
Something he had not done when I’d
introduced myself.
We kept walking. It was freezing
cold, but I knew we were close.
Antoine noticed a black line on the
ground, which to me looked like just
another path, like other ones we’d
passed. Could this be the border?
I scanned the horizon and spotted
a sign. It was too far away to make
out what it said, and the zoom on
Antoine’s camera did not help.
“Let’s go see what it says,” he
suggested. For the first time in our
adventure, I hesitated. Suddenly, I
had visions of spikes appearing from
beneath the ground, sirens going off,
helicopters arriving. “You go first,”
I said.
So he did. Nothing happened, so
I followed.
We reached the sign. It was blue
and white. “Attention. State Border of
Ukraine. Do not cross,” it read.
We took photos, on the Ukrainian
side, of course, or at least as well as
we could tell.
Then, we started walking back.
Antoine had noticed a car parked
along the path we’d walked along.
Looking to the right, I spotted two
men, in camouflage, carrying machine
guns, walking in the opposite direction. “Take a photo and let’s go,”
I said. So we got their backs. They
didn’t see us.
Then the phone rang. “Are you
guys OK?” our translator wanted
to know. “We’re fine, but freezing,”
Antoine assured her.
When we finally got back to the
car, they were visibly relieved. They
had seen a car with two armed men in
uniform appear shortly after we went
to look for the border.
Antoine and I were just happy to
be back in a warm car. And shocked
at how casual the border between
two countries in a state of undeclared
war can be.
Marta Dyczok, a Western professor
joint appointed in History and Political
Science, specializes in international
politics and history, with a focus on
east central Europe and Eurasia, and
specifically Ukraine.
R E P O RT E R / P H O T O G R A P H E R
Paul Mayne
[email protected],
519 661-2111 Ext. 85463
R E P O RT E R / P H O T O G R A P H E R
Adela Talbot
[email protected],
519 661-2111 Ext. 85464
PRODU C TION DESIGNER
Frank Neufeld
[email protected],
519 661-2111 Ext. 89334
A D V E RT I S I N G C O O R D I NAT O R ,
O N - C A M P U S A D V E RT I S I N G
Denise Jones
[email protected],
[email protected]
519 661-2111 Ext. 82045
O F F C A M P U S A D V E RT I S I N G
Chris Amyot, Campus Ad
[email protected],
519 434-9990
P O S TA L R E C O V E RY
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States, $85 Other
POST OFFICE
Please do not forward.
Return to Western News,
Western University, London,
Ontario N6A 3K7 with new
address when possible.
“Our objective is to report events
as objectively as possible, without
bias or editorial comment.
We hope you will read it and
contribute to it.”
– L.T. Moore,
University Relations
and Information director,
Nov. 16, 1972
MUSTANG MEMORIES
PHOTOS PROVIDED BY THE
JOHN P. METRAS MUSEUM
Attendance at football games improved in the
1920s, but the weather did not and spectators
desired protection from the elements. This
want was fulfilled three years later with the
construction of Western’s first purpose-built
stadium. Col. J.W. Little, mayor of London
from 1895-97, served on Western’s original
Board of Governors and became Board vicechairman from 1908 until his death in 1913. His
widow, Kate Little, left $70,000 in her will for a
building at Western to honour her husband.
This money was used to erect the J.W. Little
Memorial Stadium. Well-known University of
Michigan football coach Fielding Yost helped
design the new facility.
The 5,000-seat venue opened on Oct. 19,
1929, with the adulations of a 30-member
band, refreshments, a prayer led by former
intercollegiate rugby player Rev. John Gibson,
official presentations, a pep rally and a dance
at Hotel London.
The game on this date was also notable for
Joe Breen’s home debut as head coach of the
new senior intermediate team. Alas, Western
was defeated 25-2 by Queen’s University.
Visit John P. Metras Museum on Instagram
and Twitter for more photos.
Opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of or receive endorsement from Western News or Western University.
Western News
| November 6, 2014
5
Research
Study: Marijuana, depression combo seen as risk
B Y PA U L M AY N E
Western-led research suggests
marijuana use may pose a greater risk
to brain function if you are currently, or
have in the past, suffered from depression. Led by Medical Biophysics professor Dr. Elizabeth Osuch, these findings may have implications for the
clinical treatment of depression.
The study was published in the
September issue of Frontiers in Psychiatry.
“We know recreational use of marijuana is increasing in adolescents.
There is also a growing association
between marijuana use and mood disorders,” said Osuch, a Lawson Health
Research Institute scientist. “What
we were interested in finding out was
how marijuana use affects rewardprocessing in the brain in youth with
depression.”
Osuch serves a medical director
of the First Episode Mood and Anxiety Program (FEMAP), which helps
older teens and young adults (age
16-25) with emotional concerns that
fall into the categories of mood and/
or anxiety symptoms. In that capacity,
she has encountered a number of
depressed patients, who use marijuana frequently. Those patients can
see the drug as a “quick fix” to treat
– or calm – their depression.
In those patients, however, there
seemed to be a correlation between
the drug’s use and their depression.
But in order to determine if one was
the cause of the other, Osuch needed
a quick snapshot of the brain.
She used functional magnetic resonance imaging to evaluate brain
activity in youth living with depression
who used marijuana in comparison
with those who did not. Her analysis
showed brain abnormalities caused
by marijuana use alone, in combination with brain abnormalities caused
by depression alone, exacerbated
one another.
“Indeed, the combination of marijuana use and depression is sort of a
‘double whammy.’ If you’re trying to
treat it (depression) with marijuana,
you’re barking up the wrong tree,”
Osuch said.
“It’s a quick fix, you feel better right
away, but the problem is, it doesn’t
solve the problem in the long run. My
evidence suggests it’s actually making the brain pathology of depression worse,” she said. “The reason
they (patients) end up in my office
is because the temporary fixes stop
working – it does all the time.”
Alternatives to marijuana are available for the treatment of depression,
Osuch said, including anti-depressant
medications and psychotherapeutic
treatments. The problem for sufferers
is access, she said.
“There are far more people with
depression out there than there are
treatment providers. That’s a whole
other problem,” Osuch said.
London is doing “much better”
with this since she began at FEMAP.
Times for young adults to see a psychiatrist has dropped from almost two
years to less than three months.
Osuch believes the next step is
educating the public, which increasingly sees marijuana as harmless.
“Some people have suggested
marijuana may be an effective treatment for depression. Our results suggest this conclusion is premature,”
she said. “These findings suggest
depressed youth increase their risk of
functional brain abnormalities through
the use of marijuana and that more
research into these effects is needed.”
Osuch is looking to undertake a
SPECIAL TO WESTERN NEWS
Western professor Dr. Elizabeth
Osuch said her research, showing
unique abnormalities in how the
brain functions for youth who
suffer from major depression and
also use marijuana frequently, may
have implications for the clinical
treatment of depression.
more longitudinal study to see if brain
changes are actually associated with
the extent of marijuana use in the
context of depression.
POSTGRADUATE
CERTIFICATE
Letters to the Editor
// Honest, sincere thinking
not cause for frustration
I understsand Gordon McBean’s frustration with the
Harper government when it comes to climate change and
its lack of initiative. (Sharing his frustration around changing
climate for science, Western News, Oct. 16.) On the other
hand, some people read various sources and, based on
these credible sources, think critically about the issue and
other accounts they are hearing on the matter.
First of all, the very topic of climate change is ambiguous, at best.
Of course, everyone believes in climate change: History
has already recorded the Medieval Warm Period (900-1300)
and the Little Ice Age (1300-1880). Who’s to say we’re not
experiencing another one?
And then we find many scientists, even climatologists,
who are ‘jumping ship’ in one way or another. Judith Currie,
head of Environmental Studies at Georgia Tech, has. She
was impressed by the arguments and data from Stephen
MacIntyre’s ClimateAudit website in Toronto. Richard Lindzen from MIT argues the planet is warming, but harmlessly
so. A paleo-oceanologist from Denmark has decried the
ripping out of tree in the Maldives that show no dramatic
increase in water levels due to climate change – rather
they reveal changing water levels due to destruction of
coral reefs.
Ice cores are used to bolster climate change claims, but
the excavation of six U.S. planes buried in snow in 1942 on
Greenland found them in 1988 under 266 feet of ice. With
this rate of deposition, along with the postulation that
Greenland’s thickest ice sheet is some 5,000 feet, Greenland would have truly been green in 1000 AD.
A recent CO2 emissions graph published in Der Spiegal,
The Economist, and two other British newspapers, showed
absolutely no correlation between CO2 levels and global
warming.
Even Ivan Seminiuk of McGill University admitted on the
Discovery Channel the global warming phenomenon does
actually correlate to solar radiation models. For this reason,
the last 16 years had not seen any global warming, according to the National Climate Association in the United
States. Rather, there has been a net cooling observed.
A major research paper from a German university I have
read that shows a shift between north and south poles
when it comes to increasing and decreasing glacier formation. They seem to vacillate with each other on an ongoing
basis.
My understanding of the history of science is the majority
voice has almost always been wrong.
Most of the advances ever made by scientisits have
been made by mavericks who were initially opposed, not
embraced. So it is difficult to give our minds over to a
theory that isn’t seen as absolutely vital, let alone absolutely
true. And even the support of climate science by the President of the United States doesn’t carry weight with many
who believe a politician is hardly privy to scientific thinking.
Nevertheless, I understand why McBean is frustrated. I
only hope he understands the honest and sincere thinking
many people engage in that may fly in the face of what he
perceives as the simple “facts of science.”
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6
Western News
| November 6, 2014
Musculoskeletal Health
tapped as next
Cluster of Research
Excellence
BY JASON WINDERS
MILLIONS OF BONE-AND-JOINT aliment
sufferers across Canada, and around the world,
will benefit from the collective capabilities of
Western’s latest high-profile research investment, university officials said this week.
Announced Monday, Musculoskeletal Health
has been named the university’s second Cluster
of Research Excellence. The cluster will be supported by a $5-million funding commitment from
the university over five years.
“We’re interested in helping our researcher
address ‘big questions.’ And big questions almost
always occur at the intersection of disciplines,”
said Janice Deakin, Western provost and vicepresident (academic). “There is nothing more
exciting than having people who understand and
know the world from different perspectives come
together and address a specific problem. You
get questions, more questions, and then answers
you never would have dreamed of before these
people came together.”
Musculoskeletal Health brings together more
than 70 researchers across five faculties – Engineering, Health Sciences, Schulich School of
Medicine & Dentistry, Science and Social Science. Beyond that, the cluster will partner with
the Lawson Health Research Institute, London
Health Sciences Centre, St. Joseph’s Health Care
and Ivey International Centre for Health Innovation, as well as industry and community.
Organizers say the cluster will position Western at the forefront of research affecting bones
and joints, including arthritis, osteoporosis and
trauma, as well as work-, sport- and exerciserelated injuries. Additional support for three
Western Research Chairs will allow recruitment
of leading researchers in areas of strategic
importance for the cluster.
“The concept is to take the already world-class
research we have at Western and provide the
resources to take them to the next level,” Deakin
continued. “When you create the opportunity
for a group to have the resources they believe
they need to have a higher impact of their world,
to be more renowned on the national and international stage, this is an important opportunity.
“This group does basic research, but has a
great record in translation. What they do really
does have an impact at the bedside and, hopefully, will continue to influence policy and practice in Canada.”
In April 2013, Western named Cognitive Neuroscience as the first research cluster. That area
built on established research strengths at the
Brain & Mind Institute, which leads efforts to
understand consciousness, various cognitive
disorders and how our brains see, learn and think
about the world.
Musculoskeletal Health’s success is a tribute
to the efforts of the team over a long period of
WHAT IS A CLUSTER OF RESEARCH EXCELLENCE?
The Western Cluster of Research Excellence program is a strategic university initiative to establish
transdisciplinary, collaborative programs that promote cutting-edge, internationally competitive
research in major areas of significant societal importance.
The university has committed to supporting at least four internationally prominent clusters of
research and training. These clusters are expected to provide a sustainable platform for:
• Interdisciplinary, cross-faculty/institutional collaborative research programs;
• Pooling of skills, expertise and infrastructure;
• Promoting cutting-edge, internationally competitive research in major areas of significant
societal importance;
• Providing exceptional training environments for postdoctoral fellows, graduate and
undergraduate students; and
• Attracting and retaining outstanding faculty, staff and students.
The university will invest $5 million over five years in each cluster, align Canada Research Chairs
as justified, and provide additional support for strategically aligned endowed chairs. These funds
are available for:
• Recruitment of tenure-track faculty members, using the selection procedures set out for
Canada Research Chair appointments;
• Graduate student and postdoctoral fellow support and training programs;
• Administrative, technical and operational support;
• Infrastructure and facility support and development; and
• Outreach and scholarly activities.
time, organizers said. The benefits of this designation will have almost immediate impact.
“Being recognized as a cluster of research
excellence will provide a tremendous boost,”
said Medical Biophysics and Surgery professor
David Holdsworth, the cluster’s scientific director. “We already have outstanding individuals,
working in a variety of areas, but the additional
resources that will be provided through the cluster funding will allow us to expand our program,
recruit new faculty and enhance our training
programs – all toward bringing in the best and
brightest in the world.
“It may sound cliché, but our competitive
advantage is we really are greater than the sum
of our parts. Cluster funding will allow us to
expand this potential in significant new ways and
take us to international prominence.”
Other organizers echoed Holdsworth’s sentiments.
“This has been a real team effort. This isn’t
a top-down kind of initiative; it has been a real
bottom-up thing,” Physiology and Pharmacology professor Jeff Dixon said. “It has really
grown because of people in basic research, clinicians, engineers, rehab people, all got together
to work on this. It has been a truly rewarding
experience.
“Over many years of working together, we
have proven ourselves capable of doing excellence science and being able to translate that
into impact for health care and society. We’re
ready to make this next step.”
That “next step” may benefit millions across
the country – and around the world. Organizers
point to the fact musculoskeletal conditions cost
the Canadian economy more than $22 billion per
year. As for the area of study, all say the timing is
right for a focused research effort on bone and
joint ailments.
“A lot of people just accept musculoskeletal
conditions as a normal part of aging that we
need to accept and get over,” said Health Sciences professor Trevor Birmingham, a Canada
Research Chair in Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation. “In reality, there are lots of things we likely
could do that would have an impact on quality of
life and the economic impact of these diseases.
The cluster will help us bring a bunch of people
together to have a big impact.
“Western is well-positioned to tackle these
issues. We have a breadth of expertise and
infrastructure that can do research others cannot. Now, this cluster helps us assembled these
research teams to better answer more complex
questions than we could before.”
On campus, the cluster will transform research
and innovation in musculoskeletal health through
several strategic programs. For example, scholarship support for the nationally recognized Collaborative Training Program in Musculoskeletal
Health Research will attract trainees from around
the world.
“Stable funding will allow us to expand on that
program, recruit nationally and internationally,
and provide the kind of scholarships that attract
top trainees to Western,” Holdsworth said.
Targeted recruitments of outstanding faculty
will fill gaps in the expertise of researchers currently working in this area at Western, Holdsworth added.
“That’s key. We’re talking about everyone
from new recruits at the assistant professor level
all the way up to established researchers with
national – even international – prominence,”
he continued. “These recruits are strategically
targeted to bring in additional strengthens synergistic to the capacity we already have.”
As an example of what a cluster designation can accomplish, Cognitive Neuroscience
recruited internationally renowned researcher
Ingrid Johnsrude as the first Western Research
Chair. Recruitment efforts are well underway for
a chair in Computational Neuroscience as well.
The new cluster also aligns closely with the
proposed London Medical Innovation and Commercialization Network. This network, awarded
$10 million by the City of London, will accelerate
technology transfer related to musculoskeletal
health, medical devices and imaging, creating
economic opportunities and growth in London.
“The core component of a cluster like this is
our ability to enhance collaboration between
researchers,” Holdsworth said. “That is something we are all in favour of, and we all talk about
it a lot, but it’s difficult. In a university environment, researchers tend to focus their efforts on
a specific area. You need an additional incentive
to get people to work across disciplines, across
faculties, to combine their efforts.
“We have been quite successful with that
strategy. It has really enhanced our research.”
Dixon echoed those sentiments.
“This isn’t about doing a little bit more or
doing a little bit better,” he said. “This is going to
take us up a notch. People have used the word
‘transformative.’ We envision being one of the
top centres in the world for this type of research
and development.
“This is a credit to the people involved
that they are collaborative and willing to work
together as a team. It’s a real ‘burying the egos
and getting on with the job’ type of approach.
This would be an example of how, in other areas,
Western could work together across faculties.
It’s an example and inspiration of what can be
accomplished if you work together in a collegial
way.”
Deakin concluded the new investment is in
line with Western’s strategic plan, Achieving
Excellence on the World Stage, which commits
to creating a world-class research and scholarship culture where innovation, knowledge creation, translation and mobilization can thrive.
Western News
| November 6, 2014
7
‘Maturity,’ ‘readiness’ led to cluster designation
BY JASON WINDERS
FROM A POOL of interesting and
innovative ideas, one group of Western researchers – and their readiness
for the “next level” of research collaboration – stood out for reviewers.
Announced Monday, Musculoskeletal Health was named the university’s
second Cluster of Research Excellence. The cluster will be supported
by a $5-million funding commitment
from the university over five years.
“We were looking for demonstrated excellence, excellence that
had to be multidisciplinary and had
to have evidence of outputs,” said
Janice Deakin, Western provost and
vice-president (academic). “With Musculoskeletal Health, we’re starting at
the top, working with a group who is
already a demonstrably excellent and
internationally recognized multidisciplinary area.
“This is a start of a journey for Western to try and provide some additional
institutional support to help this group
get to the next level.”
The cluster designation decision
followed a competitive internal process adjudicated by a panel that
included members of the University
Research Board and an external peer
review. Led by Medical Biophysics
and Surgery professor David Holdsworth, the Musculoskeletal Health
team won the competition by assembling a long-term strategy building
upon institutional strengths that cross
over several faculties and disciplinary
boundaries.
Proposals for clusters were submitted following consultation with deans
and Research Western. Five projects
were requested to submit full applications including:
• Musculoskeletal Health;
• Big Data Synergy @ Western;
• Building Stronger Societies:
Equality and Inequality, Global
and Local;
• Leadership Development; and
• Sustainable Urban and Natural
Environments.
Deakin said Musculoskeletal Health
stood out for judges because it had
a track record of collaboration working with ideas with the potential to
produce social and economic benefits
on a local, national and international
scale.
“While each had interesting ideas,
really interesting proposals, they were
not at the level of maturity in terms of
the conditions we set to be awarded a
cluster,” she continued. “While Western is choosing to support only one
new cluster at this time, this process
has highlighted other important areas
of study that demonstrate high potential for further development.
“Some, by their own admission, are
not where Musculoskeletal Health is
today. But it brought people together
to talk about it. Our job is to harness
that and help those researchers define
and move parts of their proposals
forward using all the tools at our disposal.”
As Musculoskeletal Health
researchers can attest, success was
not overnight achievement.
The group organized under the
university’s Interdisciplinary Development Initiative (IDI), as well as was in
contention when the university sought
to land, although eventually unsuccessfully, a second Canada Excellence
Research Chair (CERC). Musculoskel-
TYLER GREY // SPECIAL TO WESTERN NEWS
Health Sciences professor Trevor Birmingham, left, Physiology and Pharmacology professor Jeff Dixon, middle, and Medical Biophysics and Surgery
professor David Holdsworth are three of more than 70 researchers across five faculties in the recently announced Cluster of Research Excellence
in Musculoskeletal Health. This is the university’s second Cluster of Research Excellence, a top designation reserved only for collaborative areas
where “innovation and world-class research thrive.”
etal Health’s efforts did not make the
final cut for the CERC submission, but
in that failure grew the foundation of
its later success.
“At the time, we didn’t see enough
evidence of outputs in terms of collaborations,” Deakin said. “I remember delivering the message as acting
vice-president (research) at the time. I
told them, ‘You say you’re a team, and
I see that you are working as a team,
but you don’t have the outputs to support that. There are not enough multiauthored, tier-one journal publications
to get you there.’
“That informed their view of the
world when it came time for their
cluster proposal. That contributed
tremendously to its readiness.”
Deakin warned against thinking of
this recent competition in terms of
“winners and losers.”
“We had a competition, we set the
criteria and only one met – exceeded
even – those criteria,” she said. “We
had some proposals that were quite
nascent in the areas they wanted to
work in. We need to find ways to support them, and harness their energy,
excellence and ideas those people
have. This process brought people
from across campus to talk together.
In some ways, it achieved some of our
objectives.
“Our challenge now is to support
that energy outside the cluster initiative.”
No new cluster announcements are
expected in the near future. Instead,
the university will focus its efforts on
moving along its first two clusters, as
well as nurturing ideas not as far along
as Musculoskeletal Health.
“There is tremendous energy and
effort in these proposals, writ large,
and I expect deans will comment on
the components of those other clusters, and how they might want to support them using other tools we have
at hand to move them along,” Deakin
said. “Our objective is to have more
world-class, interdisciplinary areas at
this institution. We’ll navigate a pathway of assistance to move them along
the same way Musculoskeletal Health
moved from an IDI through external
funding by individual researchers to,
ultimately, a place that made them
successful.”
Part of that will include creative
thinking around research chairs. Modeled after the Canada Research Chairs
program, and in direct support of
cluster development, the Western
Research Chairs program looks to
recruit of up to 10 mid- to senior-level
researchers to build capacity, enhance
collaborative and interdisciplinary
research and produce research results
with global implications.
Currently, each cluster may propose
up to three Western Research Chairs.
However, while the chair program is
currently linked to clusters, Deakin
said that doesn’t mean it will be so
going forward.
“We’ll be talking about whether we
can create these chairs as an appointment independent of the clusters. In
other words, these clusters will get
them, but would we consider augmenting research areas that meet the
bar in terms of international excellence with Western Research Chairs?
Possibly. I don’t know yet,” she said.
“It’s a good program, and we need to
think about how to deploy that program in terms of research excellence.”
Deakin assured that, despite no
new clusters on the horizon, funding
will remain in place and available to
support research excellence
“It is not going away,”
she said. “We will
deploy it in support
of multi- and interdisciplinary areas
of research that
have achieved a
world-class reputation.”
8
| November 6, 2014
Western News
Western News
| November 6, 2014
Events
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OVER THE LAST four years, there has been a lot of talk on Western’s campus
about ‘internationalization.’
As I wrote in a previous edition of Western News, international scholarship
and partnerships have always been important to our community. Indeed, one
only needs to examine the university crests enshrined in stain glass in one of our
oldest building, University College, to recognize the 11 international universities
represented there, including Oxford, Cambridge, University of Sydney and The
University of Good Hope, Cape Town. And, more than 50 per cent of our research
papers are published with international collaborators.
With the arrival of our current president and provost, came a heightened
emphasis on, and investment in, international activities. We now have an office
called Western International with a committed, hard-working staff who are happy
to provide support, assistance or advice in any matter related to international
undergraduate recruitment, international learning, student support or international relations.
As we approach our second, and much enhanced, International Week, it is
a good time for us to pause and ask what internationalization means to us at
Western.
Although the answer to this question will vary somewhat across faculties,
departments and other units, the one thing that seems to resonate across the
campus is the importance of providing global and intercultural engagement
opportunities for the members of our community. Indeed, this is why global
awareness is at the heart of Western’s International Action Plan.
The goal is to help foster an environment where students, faculty and staff
can develop what professor Paul Tarc, from our Faculty of Education, refers to as
“cosmopolitan literacies.” These literacies are needed to live and work in a world
where borders are more easily and necessarily traversed.
Indeed, Western provides many opportunities for students, faculty and staff
to develop and enhance their global awareness including a wide list of formal
courses, exchange programs, internship opportunities, Alternative Spring Break,
local volunteering opportunities, the visiting scholar program and the newly
formed Staff International Engagement committee, that has recently launched
two staff mobility programs. Additional opportunities, such as cultural clubs and
associations, language conversation groups, arts and cultural experiences and
even social media, enable us to grow our own cosmopolitan and intercultural
literacies.
Students can now receive a record of many of these international and intercultural experiences though the Global and Intercultural Engagement Honor, which
includes self-reflection, a designation that appears on their official transcript
upon graduation.
Yet, despite all of these opportunities, we are still learning about how best to
approach developing deep international, intercultural and global understandings. This idea is captured by professor Tarc in his recent book, International
education in global times: Engaging the pedagogic, where he notes “research/
scholarship focused on the pedagogical dimensions (of international education) lags behind the expanding array of international initiatives constituting or
advancing the international education movement.”
I agree. Indeed, as Carolyn Ford, Western’s manager of undergraduate international recruitment, and I recently wrote, “On their own, these international
activities are problematic because engaging in them reproduces a particular way
of understanding international matters that are inherently grounded in
the privileged perspectives of the West/North. Yet, to fully engage
in intercultural learning requires us to embrace difference and
develop empathetic (not simply sympathetic) understandings
of the peoples of the world.”
This means we must be ethically engaged, with mutually beneficial international partnerships, and we must be
self-reflexive and aware of our privilege in the world.
In their book, Ideas for intercultural education, Simon
Marginson and Erlenawati Sawir elaborate on these ideas
noting that intercultural education holds the promise to
mutually transform intercultural educators and learners,
NOVEMBER 10
but this requires openness, reciprocity and acceptance of
mutual interdependence. (French Studies professor Henri
Boyi’s course, Rwanda: Culture, Society and Reconstruction is an example of how this can be very well done.)
Western is not there yet, but we are working on it, and
we need to continue doing so.
According to Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu
Kyi, it is incumbent upon universities to “teach respect for
the best in human civilization which comes from all parts
of the world.” As a small step in this direction, Western’s
community has worked together to organize activities
during International Week that help to promote global
awareness.
I encourage you to attend as many events as you can so
we can learn from one another to further develop respect
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Western News
| November 6, 2014
Research
Professor looks to zero in radiation treatment
B Y A D E L A TA L B O T
RADIATION THERAPY IS a precise science
– one Engineering professor Kibret Mequanint
aims to fine tune.
Nearly 200,000 Canadians are diagnosed with
cancer each year, according to the Canadian
Cancer Society. The ailment is considered the
leading cause of premature death in the country.
The standard course of treatment for cancer
patients includes surgery to remove a tumour,
radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or any combination thereof, noted Mequanint, whose work
focuses on the design and development of
materials for biomedical applications. Approximately 50 per cent of patients will end up receiving radiation therapy.
But the current methods used to determine
their treatment plans aren’t entirely effective.
“A radiation oncologist will prescribe a certain dose (of radiation) for the tumour using
fractionation – they fraction out the total dose
of radiation because patients can’t handle the
entire dose in one shot,” Mequanint explained.
A patient could receive a prescription totaling
20 gray (Gy) – the unit used to measure radiation
– to target a tumour and could have 10 treatment sessions of 2 Gy each.
Doctors don’t want to do more harm than
good, Mequanint explained, so radiation physicists consider the prescribed dose and use
imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT)
to assess the volume of the tumour and determine the exact amount of radiation required, as
well as its exact location.
“You know how much radiation is required
to shrink or destroy the tumour, but you have
to be careful that you don’t target vital organs
or healthy tissues. What has been challenging is determining how much of the delivered
dose ends up going to the target volume – the
tumour,” Mequanint said.
This is where his lab comes in.
Current methods of measuring delivered
radiation leave patients exposed to an increased
risk of systematic and random errors, which are
difficult to quantify, Mequanint said. His lab was
approached by a medical device company and
tasked with creating a hydrogel dosimeter –
something that would help radiation physicists
and oncologists measure, in 3D, the dose and
distribution of radiation applied to a tumour.
“You have a gel in a jar, and you take this jar
WESTERN NEWS FILE PHOTO
Engineering professor Kibret Mequanint, whose research focuses on the design and development of materials for biomedical applications,
is working to improve something he’s developed – a hydrogel dosimeter for radiation therapy, which is a material that can measure the
dose of radiation delivered to a cancer tumour.
and deliver the exact dose of radiation you plan
to deliver to the patient to the gel. After you (irradiate the gel, inside the jar), you take it out and
then you image it and measure where the radiation is distributed. You can translate that into a
patient’s treatment plan,” Mequanint explained.
In 2008, his lab started the work and has since
developed a hydrogel that is proving its effectiveness in lab settings. The hydrogel dosimeter,
which basically looks like a jar of jelly, is mostly
made up of water. Molecules that make up the
gel react to radiation and change in colour,
showing the location of radiation delivered.
In essence, the gel is a surrogate for a cancer
tumour, Mequanint explained. Once a medical
team irradiates and images the gel, doctors are
able to develop a more precise treatment plan
for a cancer patient because they have a more
precise idea of where radiation will be delivered.
“There are other gel systems right now and
at least two to three companies who claim they
have gels that can measure the delivered dose,
but they have their own challenges,” Mequanint
noted.
Other gel systems are comprised of molecules that are so sensitive to radiation they
react and move away from the site where they
received it. This means by the time a medical
team images the gel to see where the radiation
went, the molecules have moved, yielding an
inaccurate model for a patient’s treatment plan.
“You can’t say that the radiation was delivered
to the correct location,” Mequanint said.
His lab has solved this problem and has developed a more stable gel. But there’s more.
“Clinically, the imaging of the irradiated gel
is done by MRI and that is very expensive; it
takes time. What we needed to do was develop
an inexpensive imaging system,” Mequanint
continued.
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“If we can design the gel to become transparent before and after irradiation, we can use optical methods, which are inexpensive compared to
MRI, to image it.”
His lab has likewise succeeded in this and
Mequanint believes his is the first to do so. He
has licensed his dosimeter to a medical device
company who is making the hydrogel on a pilot
scale and distributing samples to cancer centres
around the world.
“They are getting good feedback and now,
we’re continuing to Phase 2 to make it even better,” Mequanint said, noting his lab is looking at
ways to reuse the gel.
At $350-500, a one-litre jar is expensive and
could be cost-prohibitive in treatment plans. His
team is looking to see if a dosimeter could be
used two-three times.
“We have data that shows we could be able
to do it and that’s where we are heading.”
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| November 6, 2014
11
Campus Life
Portrait pilferer returns to scene – three decades later
BY JASON WINDERS
IT WAS THE perfect crime – until it
became the perfect mystery.
“It was really surprising, like something out of a novel. Why would you
steal this picture – of all pictures,”
laughed Joyce Bruhn de Garavito,
professor and chair of Modern Languages and Literatures. “Think of this
picture, and then think of it ‘decorating’ someone’s dorm room.”
The mystery began May 21, when
a package arrived at the University
College offices of Modern Languages
and Literatures.
It had been delivered by hand,
while office staff were in a meeting.
Nobody saw the package delivered
or, perhaps more importantly, the person who delivered it. It was found
propped atop the department drop
box as it was too thick to slide into the
mail slot. The package bore no return
address – only the department name
written across it in black marker.
“I can’t tell you how surprised I was
when I opened it. I was away from
my desk when it was dropped off,
and when I returned there was a padded envelope that was addressed to
our department,” said Sylvia Kontra,
a graduate affairs assistant for the
department. “I opened it up, and this
is what I found inside.”
Tightly packed were two items:
A framed sketch of a military man,
whose garb hinted at the mid-1800,
along with a neatly handwritten note
on ruled paper.
After some Internet sleuthing, de
Garavito and Kontra now believe the
sketch to be of Otto Von Bismarck,
the person credited with unifying the
German empire, who served as the
new nation’s first chancellor.
“It’s been professionally framed,
so I can’t remove the back of the picture to see if it says anything on the
page. However, I found an image of
Bismarck online, and it literally looked
like it could be the photograph that
this drawing is based on,” Kontra
continued.
The sketch was circulated around
the department. However, given no
faculty members were around 30 years
ago, nobody remembers it, or the fact
it went missing in the first place.
And then there was the note, which
read:
To whom it may concern:
I ‘lifted’ this from the German
Dept 30 years ago to decorate my dorm room.
Here it is back – framed.
Thanks for the use of it.
A former student
“And that’s it,” Kontra said.
The sketch and note made the
move with the department when it
relocated to the Arts & Humanities
Building this summer, while University College undergoes renovations.
Kontra plans to hang both items in
the front of the office, hopefully to
one day spark a hint of recognition
in a visitor.
“We would love to talk to them,”
she continued. “It would be great to
hear their story, hear about how our
department was back then and what
drew them to this picture.”
SPECIAL TO WESTERN NEWS
Inside the mystery package, which arrived at the University College
offices of Modern Languages and Literatures in May, were two items:
A framed sketch of a military man, whose garb hinted at the mid-1800,
along with a neatly handwritten note on ruled paper.
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Western News
| November 6, 2014
Research
Happiness findings may resonate beyond the family
B Y A D E L A TA L B O T
YOUR HAPPINESS AS a parent
largely depends on two things – your
age at the time of the first arrival and
the number of children you have,
according one Western researcher.
“People’s happiness trajectories are
based on when they have children,
and based on the number of children,
and this really aligns with what we’re
seeing in all developed countries, with
low and late fertility – people waiting
to have a child, and people deciding
to have one, two or more,” said Sociology professor Rachel Margolis, who
recently published a paper outlining
parental happiness trajectories in the
journal Demography.
Going forward, these findings
could lead to changes in key familyrelated policies, involving child care
and maternity leaves, among others.
The paper, a collaboration with
Mikko Myrskylä from the London
School of Economics and Max Planck
Institute for Demographic Research
in Rostock, Germany, is part of a
larger Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council study looking
at parental decision-making about
when to have children and how many
to have.
The study used a large dataset from
The British Household Panel Survey and
the German Socio-Economic panel,
and came from developed countries
that have fertility patterns similar to what
would be expected in Canada.
“We used data collected over a
long period of time, and we selected
a subgroup of people who became
parents during that time,” Margolis
continued.
A survey of the data showed parents’ happiness increases in the year
before and after the birth of the first
child. However, it quickly dropped
afterward. According to Margolis,
this suggests relationship dynamics
between the parents after the birth of
a child and the ability to make plans
for the future play a role in the trajectory of parental happiness.
What’s more, women were happier
than men when expecting a child,
and following the birth. Consequently,
they had steeper drops in happiness
following the first year after the child
is born. But in the long run, there was
no difference between the happiness
levels of men and women, the study
found.
Individuals who are older and more
educated at the time of their first arrival
seemed to be happier, and parents
between the ages of 35-49, had the
strongest happiness gains around the
time of birth and stayed at a higher level
of happiness after becoming parents.
“What we see is that if a gain in
parents’ happiness is X-size for the
first child, it’s half of that for the second child and negligible for the third
child,” she explained. “This means, in
terms of happiness trajectory, the third
child is statistically insignificant.”
That’s not to say parents shouldn’t
have three or more children, she continued, but these findings suggest
happiness trajectories may, at least,
partially explain ever-increasing low
and late fertility rates.
“We’re not saying the exact findings are replicable to all families in
Canada, but we’re talking more generally about countries where there’s
low fertility, where fertility is being
postponed more and more – and
Canada is one of those countries,”
Margolis noted.
“Canada and lots of other developed countries are dealing with a
huge problem of population aging
– the average age of the population
is increasing over time and this has
major implications for how we are
spending our country’s money. We
need more money for health care,
pensions for older people. The main
ADELA TALBOT // WESTERN NEWS
Sociology professor Rachel Margolis recently published a paper in the journal Demography showing parental
happiness depends on the age of the parents at the time of their first child’s birth as well as the number of
children the parents have.
demographic reason for population
aging is low fertility, so when you have
smaller cohorts of new children being
born, this is what’s causing all these
budget problems.”
In the past, the feminist movement,
the rise of women in education and
their entrance into the labour force was
looked at as a contributing factor to
lower fertility and parental happiness
trajectories, Margolis continued, noting her project considers the potential
of policy, on things such as childcare, to
affect fertility and happiness.
“Policies which actually affect how
parents are able to transition into
parenthood and integrate children
into their lives are really important to
helping people maybe have another
child, if they wouldn’t otherwise,” she
said.
LEGACY LIVES ON // CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
est in always doing what’s right and was a great
ambassador for the university.”
More than 110 donors contributed to the
chair, which will be based in Health Sciences,
although the position is cross-appointed with
Schuilch.
“Jim and I had many discussions about
advancing research and building greater synergy between the Hand and Upper Limb Centre
and the Faculty of Health Sciences,” said Jim
Weese, Health Sciences dean. “I am delighted
to have this research chair named in his honour.
He was a great leader, a brilliant surgeon and a
strong academic.
“His legacy lives on in what he has built, and
also through the work of this chair, which aligns
perfectly with the recent announcement of the
Cluster of Research Excellence in Musculoskeletal Health.”
Western has set its sights on becoming a
world-class leader in research with a goal of
creating 100 new endowed chairs by 2020. This
is the eighth chair created under the program.
Roth came to Western as an undergraduate
student in Chemistry in the early 1970s. After
only two years, he was accepted to medical
school, all while playing varsity rugby and football. He excelled during medical school receiving the Lange Award as a graduating Western
medical student with one of the highest scores
in his class.
After completing an internship in British
Columbia, he returned to Western, encouraged
by Dr. Jack Kennedy, to join the Orthopaedic
Residency training program. While in residency,
he did pioneering research on a synthetic ligament for the knee. The Ligament Augmentation
Device was subsequently marketed by 3M.
Under Roth’s leadership, HULC scientists
developed several new techniques for computerassisted surgery and surgical innovation, leading
to advances in surgical mechatronics, joint design,
wound-healing and limb re-implantation.
The Roth Chair will focus on surgery and
rehabilitation of hand and upper-limb disorders,
including the creation of a facility for the development of musculoskeletal diagnostic tools,
bringing them from innovation to practice.
King, who established the Bioengineering
Laboratory at HULC, added the new position
would create an environment of bi-directional
translational research, where ideas flow from
bedside-to-bench, and back again.
“The chair will continue his legacy and will live
on through advancing musculoskeletal knowledge at Western,” King said. “He was a big
believer in donating and supporting the university. This chair epitomized what he thought
of Western and the concept of giving and contributing to knowledge. It fits with what he was
thinking and where he wanted to go.”
This new position will complement the work
of existing chairs, including the J.C. Kennedy
Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery, which Roth spearheaded in creating, the Graham King Musculoskeletal Research Chair and the Sandy Kirkley
Chair in Musculoskeletal Research.
“As a friend, you couldn’t find anyone who
was a stronger supporter of careers,” King said.
“He was very much into mentorship and career
building for those around him. He really built the
careers of many residents and colleagues here.”
A strong personality when it came to sports
and his research, Roth was an even greater man
when it came to his wife, children and grandchildren, added King.
Roth’s wife, Barb, said seeing her husband’s
research being carried on by others would have
made him very happy.
“The James Roth Research Chair is a great
honour to Jim’s legacy,” she said. “Clinical
ENDOWED CHAIR PROGRAM
research was a passion of his and a critical part
of his success as a surgeon. The girls and I are so
proud of him and we are pleased this research
will continue on in his name.”
Chakma has called the endowed chairs program the single most important initiative donors
can support right now to generate a lasting
impact. Chairs strengthen Western’s ability to
retain and attract the best possible teachers and
researchers, which in turn will attract other top
faculty and students, he said.
Chairs ensure Western can continue its mission to develop leaders, inspire learning and
ignite discovery, Chakma continued.
Western has set its sights on becoming a world-class leader in research with a goal of creating 100 new endowed
chairs by 2020. Eight chairs have been created under the matching program:
• Ian O. Ihnatowycz Chair in Leadership, Richard Ivey School of Business;
• Cecil and Linda Rorabeck Chair in Molecular Neuroscience and Vascular Biology, Schulich School of Medicine &
Dentistry, Robarts Research Institute;
• J.C. Kennedy Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry;
• Ray and Margaret Elliott Chair in Surgical Innovation, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry;
• Wolfe Medical Research Chair in Pharmacogenomics, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry;
• W. Geoff Beattie Chair in Corporate Law, Faculty of Law;
• John M. Thompson Chair in Engineering Leadership and Innovation, Western Engineering and Ivey Business
School; and
• James Roth Research Chair in Musculoskeletal Measurement and Knowledge Translation, Health Sciences.
Western News
Alumni
Competition offered chance
for Brescia alumna to ‘Lead’
SPECIAL TO WESTERN NEWS
Christine Peet, who started her studies at Brescia University College and graduated from Ivey Business School
this summer, says her competing in Brescia’s Take the Lead competition started her on a road to a successful
career as a woman in leadership.
B Y A D E L A TA L B O T
CHRISTINE PEET WAS determined to walk away victorious.
She first tackled Take the Lead, a public-speaking contest for high school students at Brescia University College,
in 2009. Her speech, deemed too long, eliminated her after
the first round.
Peet, originally from Hamilton, returned the following
year, sweeping away the judges – and the competition – by
landing second place in the final round.
The annual competition encourages female high school
students to speak about women who empower others
through leadership on a large or small scale. The first-place
winner receives a scholarship covering full tuition and residence fees for the first year of study at Brescia.
Though Peet did not take first place, Take the Lead
brought her to Canada’s only women’s university, she said.
She decided to stay, and couldn’t be happier she made
that decision. Having recently started work in sales and
marketing for Procter & Gamble in Toronto, Peet credits the
contest and her time at Brescia for her success.
“I go to Take the Lead every year in some capacity. It’s
the best day. When I did this, I met some great people and
it’s such an awesome environment,” said Peet, who started
her studies at Brescia and graduated from Ivey Business
School with an HBA this summer.
“One of the judges, Colleen Sharen, has actually
become a really good personal friend. She was my professor. There are so many inspiring people. It’s a place where
people care about each of their students so much, and
mentor students,” she continued.
During her time at Brescia, Peet was involved with the
community and residence life. In her second year, she was a
residence advisor. She also co-founded the Brescia Leadership Association.
“As part of our program, I had to take business. My
professor came up to me after my first exam and said, ‘You
need to apply to Ivey.’ She pushed me to do that, and I
did,” Peet noted.
“I know, for sure, I wouldn’t have gone to Ivey without
being a student at Brescia, and I wouldn’t have this job
without going to Ivey. I wouldn’t be here without being
mentored by people like Colleen Sharen, Colleen Aguilar
(Brescia communications, marketing and external relations officer), Colleen Hanycz (Brescia principal) and Carlie
Forbes, my business professor. These are key people who
really shaped me – and continue to shape me. It’s a pretty
special school.”
Peet recently became part of a women’s network lead
team at Procter & Gamble, something she directly attributes to her time at Brescia and her interest in women in
leadership.
“Being able to create those opportunities now in my
new organization is great,” she said.
For Take the Lead, Peet has returned each year since
her involvement, taking turns as a judge and speaker. She
plans to remain active in the competition for as long as she
can, she said.
“What I tell girls that come is to be really open-minded
about Brescia. Be open-minded that this could be a place
for you, even if it didn’t fit into the box of what you had
planned,” Peet continued.
“I personally think there’s no better place if you are
interested in being a woman in leadership than Brescia,
because of the amount of opportunities there are to take
on in leadership roles. I tell girls to be engaged and to take
advantage of the opportunities available on campus.”
TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY
The early-bird submission deadline for Take the Lead is Nov. 30. For
registration, visit brescia.uwo.ca/admissions/take-the-lead/.
| November 6, 2014
13
14
Western News
| November 6, 2014
// ACADEME
PhD Lectures
Robyn Dawn Plunkett, Nursing, Understanding Women’s Health Promotion in
Rural Canadian Churches. 1 p.m. Nov.
7. HAS H19.
Lisa Simone Cossy, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Transition and Thriving
in University: A Grounded Theory of the
Transition Experiences and Conceptions
of Thriving of Undergraduate Students
at Western University. 9 a.m. Nov. 7.
IGAB 1N75.
Lyndsay Evraire, Psychology, The
Contribution of Attachment Styles and
Reassurance Seeking to Daily Mood
and Relationship Quality in Romantic
Couples. 10 a.m. Nov. 7. WH 36.
Kegan Farrick, Geology, Runoff Generation In A Tropical Dry Forest Watershed: Processes, Patterns And Connectivity. 9 a.m. Nov. 10. TBA.
Kathleen O’Connor, Psychology,
Attachment Relationships Across Siblings and their Common Mother: Patterns and Predictors. 2 p.m. Nov. 11.
SSC 5220.
Nisha Sutherland, Nursing, Gender
Relations in Hospice Palliative Home
Care for Clients with Cancer and Their
Family Caregivers: A Critical Analysis. 1
p.m. Nov. 11. HAS H4.
// CLASSIFIED
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// STUDENT BULLETIN
Student Central Helpline Hours
519-661-2100. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. MondayFriday.
Psychological Services
Laura Evans Lecture Series (Presentations). Will be offering a variety of presentation topics such as: managing anxiety and stress, mindfulness meditation,
healthy relationships, emotion regulation, and public speaking anxiety. Registration will be open online, so check
website for details. sdc.uwo.ca/psych.
Western’s Employment Resource
Centre (WERC)
Need resume, cover letter or CV help?
Get into WERC and talk to a career leader today. WERC’s in-person, drop-in service is available in The Student Success
Centre, UCC 210. It is open every day
when classes are held; current schedule
is 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 10
a.m.-2 p.m. Friday.
Thinking About Going Abroad?
Student Central In-Person
Regular Hours
9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday
and Friday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday.
Follow Office of the Registrar on Twitter
for updates @westernuReg.
Learn about international careers from
best-selling author Jean-Marc Hachey
and his website MyWorldAbroad.com.
Discover what skills are required to be
successful overseas, long-term career
strategies, how to gain international
experience and build an ‘International
I.Q.’ Students are encouraged to make
use of their free access at MyWorldAbroad.com/uwo. Register at westerncareercentral.ca. 5:30-7 p.m. Nov. 12 and
9-10:30 a.m. Nov. 13
Undergraduate Course
Registration Dates
Nov. 30: Last day to drop a full course
and full-year half course (on campus
day and evening and Distance Studies)
without academic penalty.
Dec. 1: Last day to receive admission
applications, transcripts and supporting
documentation: Education for 2015. Last
day to receive admission applications:
Dentistry for 2015.
Dec. 3: Fall/Winter Term classes end.
Dec. 4-5: Study Days.
Dec. 6-17: Mid-year examination period.
For more information, please visit us on
the web at studentservices.uwo.ca and
follow us on Twitter @Western_WSS.
// CAREERS
Full-Time Academic Appointments
Faculty of Science - Department of
Earth Sciences
Probationary (Tenure Track) Faculty
Position in Earthquake Hazards and/
or Engineering Seismology
Invites applications for a probationary
(tenure-track) position in the area of
Earthquake Hazards or Engineering
Seismology. The appointment will be
made at the rank of assistant professor.
The starting date for the appointment is
July 1. Review of applications will commence on Dec. 8 and continue until the
position is filled.
All positions are subject to budgetary
approval. Applicants should have fluent
written and oral communication skills
in English. All qualified candidates are
encouraged to apply; however, Canadian citizens and permanent residents will
be given priority. Western is committed
to employment equity and welcomes
applications from all qualified women
and men, including visible minorities,
Aboriginal people and persons with
disabilities.
A central website displays advertisements for all vacant academic positions. The following positions are among
those advertised at uwo.ca/facultyrelations/faculty/academic_positions.html
Please review, or contact the faculty,
school or department directly.
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Western News
Campus Digest
Kopp taking on a
new challenge as
associate dean
B Y H E AT H E R H U G H E S
CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL Engineering professor
Gregory Kopp is known for being the man on the ground
assessing wind-ravaged homes following a tornado as part
of his research. But now Kopp is stepping behind the desk to
face different challenges in a new role as Western Engineering’s associate dean, graduate and postdoctoral studies.
Kopp, research director at the Boundary Layer Wind
Tunnel Laboratory, is excited about his new administrative
position, which begins Jan. 1.
“I think it’s where the future is, and there are opportunities for growth,” he said.
This is a new position for Western Engineering, as formerly the role fell under the associate dean, research and
graduate studies.
While the two are inherently
intertwined, separating the
administrative roles of research
from graduate and postdoctoral
studies reflects the growth of
Engineering, Kopp said.
“I view the graduate and postdoctoral studies role as dealing
with students. Research is dealing
KOPP
with the money,” he said.
How the division of roles will play out “will probably
evolve as we go,” he added.
A former Tier II Canada Research Chair (2001-10) and a
core research team member of the Insurance Research Lab
for Better Homes, Kopp serves in many leadership roles in
the wind engineering profession, including as president of
the American Association of Wind Engineering.
He also served as associate chair, graduate, in the
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from
2004-2006.
“I’ve been here a while and I was looking for a new challenge,” he said.
With his extensive experience in the faculty and the
broader wind community, Kopp is looking forward to having a different perspective on the university.
Crediting students for their significant role his research
successes, he is pleased with the opportunity to serve them
in an administrative role.
“What I love about doing research is student interaction,” he said. “In Engineering, our students are intricately
related to our research programs.”
Based on his experience, Kopp feels he can help grow
Western Engineering’s graduate and postdoctoral programs. In particular, he plans to focus on expanding the
Master’s of Engineering program; improving recruitment
and retention; increasing the number of domestic graduate students and promoting international collaborations
and programs.
“I’m certain I can’t do anything on my own. I have to work
with the department chairs and professors. It has to be a
team effort,” he said.
For Kopp, “research is a way of life” and he intends to
continue throughout his term as associate dean. However,
much like the changing winds, Kopp was ready to add a
new challenge to his resumé.
“I’ve been looking for new opportunities,” he said. “It is
an interesting role and an area of increasing importance at
the university and in society.”
NEWS AND NOTES
The University Students’ Council will be hosting a
Remembrance Day ceremony for members of the
Western community on Tuesday. The ceremony will
feature student musical performances, poems and
other tributes dedicated to Canadian veterans and
armed forces still serving. The ceremony begins at 10
a.m. in the Mustang Lounge in the University Community Centre.
King’s University College will observe the day by
gathering at the flagpoles in front of the college at
10:45 a.m.
Huron University College will celebrate Holy Eucharist
using the Walter Brown Communion Kit at 8:40 a.m. in
Huron Chapel. Fr. Walter Brown is the only Allied Chaplain to have been executed by the Nazis in the Second
World War. The Huron community will also gather at
10:50 a.m. in the Chapel for the act of Remembrance
and laying of the wreath. Current members of the
Canadian Forces are encouraged to wear their uniform
and decorations. Veterans are encouraged to wear
their medals.
Western traditionally lowers its flag to mourn the loss
of members of Western’s community, and also to mark
significant occasions of national loss and remembrance.
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“What I’m most excited about – aside from our students and faculty being able to showcase and talk
about our neat collaborations with our African partners
– is this as an opportunity to engage our community
in in an on-the-spot fundraising effort,” Gough noted.
In what promises to be a fun and interactive event
featuring entertainment and dance lessons, the reception features a silent auction organized by the Africa
Institute and WHE to raise $4,000 to equip a probiotic
yogurt kitchen planned by a student leadership group
at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Nairobi, Kenya, Gough explained.
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“In honour and recognition of all those who serve, and
as an act of remembrance for those we’ve lost, Western’s official flag will be lowered.”
Gough, project director of Western Heads East (WHE), is
most looking forward to one particular event – a reception meant to highlight various collaborations between
Western and African nations from 3-7 p.m. Wednesday
in the atrium of the International and Graduate Affairs
Building. It’s an event that will bring together cultural
associations in the city and bridge African communities
abroad, in London, and on campus.
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“One of those occasions is of course Remembrance
Day,” said Gitta Kulczycki, vice-president (resources
and operations). “Nov. 11, 2014 is particularly noteworthy as 2014 marks 100 since the start of the First World
War. Many Canadians made the ultimate sacrifice in
that war and in other conflicts that have followed in
defense of freedom and our country.
Observed in Commonwealth countries, Remembrance
Day (also known as Poppy Day or Armistice Day)
was established at the end of the First World War to
remember members of the armed forces who have
died in the line of duty. In Canada, the Armistice Day
Act provided that Thanksgiving would be observed
on Armistice Day, which was fixed by statute on the
Monday of the week in which Nov. 11 fell, from 192130. In 1931, the act was amended to establish Nov. 11
as Remembrance Day.
15
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If you are unable to attend either ceremony, you are
encouraged to observe two minutes of silence at 11
a.m. in your work area. Where this is not possible, the
two minutes can be observed between 11 a.m. and
noon.
The time is right for a new tradition on campus. Starting Tuesday, Western will lower the flag on University
College from sun-up to sun-down each Remembrance
Day.
| November 6, 2014
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Western News
| November 6, 2014
Looking to give campus health a shot in the arm
PAUL MAYNE// WESTERN NEWS
Communication Sciences and
Disorders faculty member Danielle
Ivey popped by on her lunch
hour earlier this week to receive
her influenza immunization from
Occupational Health nurse Kristine
Brown. Workplace Health and
the Staff/Faculty Family Practice
Clinic are hosting flu shot clinics
for Western faculty, staff and
postdoctoral scholars again this
year in the University Community
Centre’s Health Services Resource
Centre. While no appointment
is necessary, the shots are only
available to university employees,
not family members. Staff is asked
to have their health cards with
them when they arrive at one
of the next immunization clinics,
scheduled for 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Nov.
13 and Nov. 20.
710 Adelaide Street N., just south of Oxford St.
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