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China Connection The U of A’s Ties to the World’s Next Superpower
Plus... BioWare’s Mass Effect A Century of Football A Quartet of Rock Star Academics Canadian Circumpolar Institute’s Birthday And 36 Alumni Association Honourees
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new trail Vo l u m e
6 6
N u m b e r
2
features 14
Circumpolar Circumstances The U of A’s Canadian Circumpolar Institute turns 50
16 Football Footprint On the cover: These Chinese coins are from the Qing Dynasty era which was ruled by various emperors and leaders from 1644 until its demise in 1911. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China. Qing means “clear” or “pellucid.” Today, the Renminbi is China’s official currency — except in Hong Kong and Macau — and the currency units are the Yuan, Jiao and Fen. Photo by Michael Holly, U of A Creative Services.
A century ago the U of A fielded its first footballers
20 22
Game Boy The grad behind the success of megahit video game Mass Effect
BioWare’s Dynamic Duo How two U of A medical students created a video game empire
Cover story
28
The China Connection The U of A’s multi-faceted affiliations with China
35
Asian Artifacts
38
Four-Star Performance
42
Reader Friendly
25 The New Byzantium 45 Istanbul—take a grad’s grand tour of this extraordinary city
A pictorial tour through the Mactaggart Art Collection
A quartet of rock star academics arrive at the U of A
A grad gives back to his faculty in honour of his late wife
Alumni Recognition Awards This year the Alumni Association honours 36 graduates
departments Your Letters Our readers write to us
53 Class Notes Keeping classmates up-to-date
5
Bear Country Goings-on around the U of A
56 In Memoriam Bidding farewell to friends
8
Question Period A student interviewing session
60 Alumni Events Engage with your alma mater
10 Learning Curve Education doesn’t end with school
62 Bookmarks Featuring U of A authors
13 Whatsover Things Are True A new column by Aritha van Herk
64 Photo Finish The picture-perfect finale
CONTACT US
ISSN: 0824-8125 Copyright 2005 Publications Mail Agreement No. 40112326 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to Office of Alumni Affairs, University of Alberta, Main Floor, Enterprise Square, 10230 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, AB T5J 4P6
3
New Trail
Office of Alumni Affairs
Reader Response Line: 780-492-1702 Class Notes/Comments: alumni@ualberta.ca Advertise: 780-417-3464 or bl5@ualberta.ca Address Updates: 780-492-3471; toll free 1-866-492-7516 or alumrec@ualberta.ca Online: www.ualberta.ca/newtrail
Call: 780-492-3224 or 1-800-661-2593 Fax: 780-492-1568 Online: www.ualberta.ca/alumni Write: University of Alberta, Office of Alumni Affairs, Main Floor, Enterprise Square, 10230 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, AB T5J 4P6
This University of Alberta Alumni Association magazine is published three times a year and mailed free to over 127,000 alumni. The views and opinions expressed in the magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the University or the Alumni Association. All material copyright ©. New Trail cannot be held responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. Autumn 2010
new trail
1
new trail AUTUMN
Executive Director Sean Price, ’95 BCom, MBA Editor Kim Green Associate Editor Sarah Ligon Contributing Editor Jodeen Litwin, ’90 BSc(HEc) Art Director Lisa Hall, ’89 BA Advisory Board Rob Campbell Susan Colberg, ’83 BFA, ’91 MVA Kathy Garnsworthy Deb Hammacher Tom Keating Lawrence Kwok, ’04 BSc(Eng) John Mahon, ’76 BMus, ’83 MBA Frank Robinson Cynthia Strawson-Fawcett, ’05 BA OFFICE OF A L U M N I A F FA I R S
Sean Price, ’95 BCom, MBA Associate Vice-President Gina Wheatcroft, ’94 BEd Associate Director/ Manager, Alumni Branches *
*
*
Karla Barron, ’06 MA Chloe Chalmers, ’00 BA Coordinators, Students & Young Alumni Colleen Elliott, ’94 BEd Coordinator, Alumni Special Events Coleen Graham, ’88 BSc(HEc), ’93 Med Executive Project Manager Kim Green Communications Manager Lisa Hall, ’89 BA Coordinator, Graphic Communications Jennifer Jenkins, ’95 BEd Assistant, Alumni Special Events Sarah Ligon Communications Coordinator Jodeen Litwin, ’90 BSc(HEc) Coordinator, Alumni Recognition Ann Miles Assistant Alumni Services Cristine Myhre Coordinator, Alumni Chapters John Perrino, ’93 BA(RecAdmin) Coordinator, Alumni Branches Andrea Porter, ’03 BCom Finance and HR Administrator Tracy Salmon, ’91 BA, ’96 MSc Manager, Marketing & Special Events Angela Tom, ’03 BA Assistant, Alumni Education Diane Tougas Assistant to the Director Vi Warkentin Assistant, Alumni Chapters Debbie Yee, ’92 BA Coordinator, Electronic Communication
2
new trail
Autumn 2010
2010
ALUMNI COUNCIL 2010/11
Executive Committee President Jane Halford, ’94 BCom Past-President / Vice-President Nominating & Bylaws Jim Hole, ’79 BSc(Ag) Vice-President: Alumni Awards Anne Lopushinsky, ’79 BSc(SPA) Vice-President: Scholarships Don Fleming, ’76 BEd Vice-President: Student Life Grant Frame, ’87 BSc, ’93 MHSA Board of Governors Representatives Bill Cheung, ’86 LLB Jim Hole, ’79 BSc(Ag) Senate Representatives Judy Zender, ’67 BA Stephen Leppard, ’86 BEd, ’92 MEd, ’03 EDD
Director’s Note
F
or students, the new year really begins in September.
This is especially true for new students, who often arrive on campus as eager as kids at Christmas to begin what will be the adventure of a lifetime as an entirely new world opens up to them at the University of Alberta. For us here at the University, there’s a special energy that blows into campus with the arrival of the new students. You
Faculty Representatives Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences Kirstin Kotelk, ’06 BSc Arts Michael Janz, ’08 BA Augustana Jason Collins, ’97 BA Business Rob Parks, ’87 BEd, ’99 MBA Campus Saint-Jean Cindie LeBlanc, ’01 BA Dentistry Cornell Lee, ’01 BSc, ’03 DDS Education Don Fleming, ’76 BEd Engineering Glenn Stowkowy, ’76 B Extension Mary Pat Barry, ’04 MA Graduate Studies Mark Ramsankar, ’87 BEd, ’04 Med Law William Ostapek, ’83 LLB Medicine Richard Fedorak, ’78 MD Native Studies vacant Nursing Janis Sasaki, ’83 BSc(Nu), ’87 LLB Pharmacy vacant Physical Education & Recreaction Hugh Hoyles, ’66 BPE Public Health Grant Frame, ’87 BSc, ’93 MHSA Rehabilitation Medicine Anne Lopushinsky, ’79 BSc Science Luca Vanzella, ’81 BSc, ’88 MSc
can almost feel the enthusiasm
body at the U of A has grown
Members at Large Terry Freeman, ’82 BCom Brent McDonough, ’77 BSc, ’79 BEd
ambassadors for the University,
more and more diverse. For
contact the Office of Alumni
instance, the largest alumni
Affairs at alumni@ualberta.ca.
Academic Representative Randy Wimmer, ’87 BEd, ’96 MEd, ’03 EdD
branch is now the Hong Kong
Ex Officio Honorary President Indira Samarasekera Vice-President (External Relations) Debra Pozega Osburn Executive Director, Alumni Association Sean Price, ’95 BCom Dean of Students Frank Robinson Students’ Union President Nick Dehod Graduate Students’ Association President Roy Coulthard
of youth, the unbridled belief in the possibility of dreams and the embrace of an adventure that’s sure to be life-altering. With all this passion and energy swirling about it reminds us of one of our primary goals — to welcome all students — new and old — into the alumni family. Seeing all the new students on campus takes me back to my own initial experiences here, when I first arrived on campus and before I found my own U of A. Finding that special experience is what any university is all about. No two experiences are alike, but beyond that there is still a sense of continu-
research collaborations, shared learning and, of course, alumni relationships, we continue to strengthen our bonds with China. But one of the most effective ways to foster the U of A’s ties with China is to ensure that the many Chinese students who come here have an incredible experience — inside and outside the classroom — so that they will always speak highly of their alma mater wherever they go. This goes for all of our students — wherever they come from — when they join the alumni family. And as alumni, you can help enhance the student experience by contributing as volunteers, attending Bears or
ity in the history and traditions
Pandas games, or taking part in
of the University that — in the
student mentorship programs.
U of A’s case — now stretch back
To get involved with helping
over 100 years.
students find their own U of A
Over those years the student
experience and become great
Alumni Association. Over 500 alumni showed up in Hong Kong for a convocation ceremony with U of A President Indira Samarasekera during the University’s centenary. This issue’s story on China features some of those Hong Kong connections. Through
Sean Price, ’95 BCom, MBA Associate Vice-President, Alumni Affairs Executive Director, Alumni Association
Your Letters Fond Memories
became registrar of the
so every Sunday I could hear a
W. H. Alexander. Ottewell was
In the Spring/Summer 2010
University of Alberta. Thus,
scholarly sermon to offset my
the second president of the
issue of New Trail there is
when I was ready to enter uni-
narrow science-course curricu-
Students’ Union, the first editor-
Letter to the Editor from Ellen
versity in 1932, it was logical
lum. I have fond memories of
in-chief of The Gateway, and
Schoeck, ’72 BA, ’77 MA, that
for me to consult him. Also
my university days and was a
chairman of the first Student
brought back the names of two
mentioned in the letter is that
member of the last class that
Committee. After graduation,
university officials who had
William Hardy Alexander, ’33
had to endure the ritual of initi-
Ottewell was appointed secre-
considerable influence on my
LLD (Honorary), was the coach
ation before it was banned.
tary of the University Extension,
life (I’m now 95). My mother,
of the rugby team Ottewell
Elvins Spencer, ’36 BSc, ’38 MSc
Zella Crowe Spencer, taught
played on. Alexander was one
London, ON
school in Edmonton in 1911
of the top scholars hired in the
and boarded with the Ottewells,
early years of the University,
Editor’s Note: A. E. Ottewell
In 1928, Ottewell resigned as
and I knew of his top scholar-
was a member of the first grad-
director of the Department of
’12 BA, ’15 MA, who’s men-
ship but not of his sport coach-
uating class in 1912. He was
Extension to fill the position
tioned in the “Photo Finish”
ing activity. However, I did
the first honours student in
of registrar of the University,
know him as the acting minister
Classics and did the major part
a position he held until his
in the Unitarian congregation,
of his work under professor
death in 1946.
and so met A. E. Ottewell,
letter as one of the rugby players pictured and who later
Barn Storming
of Extension and, long after he’d left, the Faculty of Extension.
What we were seeing was the first in a
The “Barn on the Move” (pg. 72, Spring/
series of moves of university barns by a
Summer 2010) story evoked a still vivid
crew and equipment contracted by H. J.
memory of this peripatetic old barn from
Marks, which was at the time a well-
many years ago. I was pleased to see the
known Edmonton house moving company.
barn has been freshly painted, well-
The speed of movement was about a walk-
maintained and still considered useful
ing pace, and at least a full day was con-
for further service at some new location.
sumed in moving each of the barns to their
My first exposure to this structure was a
which became the Department
new locations, a tremendous difference
full 80 years ago, in mid-summer of 1930,
from modern moves behind powerful trucks
when it was undergoing its first relocation.
travelling at modest speeds.
I was a small boy of six years of age, ready
Great speculation circulated concerning the
the unbelievable heat and instructed my
to enter Grade 1 at the end of that long and
crossing of the streetcar tracks at the intersec-
younger brother and me to carry pails of
memorably hot summer. I can recall my
tion of 115 Street and 76 Avenue. The H.J.
cold lemonade that she had made for them.
shock and amazement as I saw the barn
Marks crew had already arranged to cut the
Not intending to become hucksters, our
approaching along 115th Street, a street
trolley wires there so the big barn could
arrival at the work scene with cold lemon-
that then had no houses. The barn was car-
cross.There was some difficulty getting the
ade was extremely welcomed, and these men
ried on beams above a number of wheeled
dolly wheels to cross the tracks properly, and
who had very few coins themselves—as it
dollies. A large steam tractor—roaring and
the sweating work crew unleashed a memo-
was the years of the Great Depression—gave
belching smoke and cinders with a whirling
rable shower of foul language in the course
us a lot of coins we had not expected.
spinner furiously rotating atop its boiler—
of negotiating this crossing, greatly shocking
Please forgive an old man who goes on
was pulling the whole structure south
a number of the spectators who had gathered
about his memories of days long past, but
toward the streetcar tracks that ran along
to watch the spectacle.
the “Barn on the Move” picture unleashed
76 Avenue. Joined by a number of other
The task of moving all the barns lasted a
recollections of a structure, which I quickly
idle and surprised youngsters, we all raced
full week, providing great entertainment for
recognized as the first player in a series of
as close as possible to this marvel of trans-
the neighbours living close to the route fol-
events of great excitement to all of us in
portation, a huge building, by our stan-
lowed by the H. J. Marks crew. Blessed with
those days. I am pleased to see that it has
dards, moving along the road. We quickly
dry weather throughout the entire move, the
survived the years so well, better than most
attracted the wrath of the steam tractor
work crew did, however, have to tolerate a
of its contemporaries.
driver who, of course, disliked kids running
well-remembered heat wave. My mother
Neil J. Stewart, ’52 BA
alongside his vehicle at any time.
took sympathy on the crew as they toiled in
Victoria, BC
Autumn 2010
new trail
3
Greenhouse Gas
tion rate can only increase to a
Contented Readers
In reading some of the letters
certain point at which time it
I certainly enjoy the New
[in the Winter 2010 issue],
becomes unsustainable and
Trail, and always read it,
On reading the article in New Trail
emotion seemed to be present
will be kept in check by wide-
cover-to-cover.
in some abundance. As an
spread mortality caused by
Shirley Stinson, ’52
antidote, I would respectfully
famine or disease.
Dip(Nu), ’53 BSc(Nu)
suggest that terms such as
What About Stu?
[Spring/Summer
Professor Emerita
“climate change” and “global
Our Town
warming” be defined prior to
I am not generally a numbers
their use. This might promote
person, but the Spring/Summer
more objectivity and lead to a
2010 issue of New Trail made
notion as to when these phe-
me smile. The letter titled “Gas
nomena began and how they
Light,” in correcting an error in
might be dealt with. It’s also of
a former issue, reported the
especially several articles:
note that Robert Malthus’
population of Grande Prairie,
“Real Havana,” about this city
writings on population might
AB, as 45,000. The sign outside
in Cuba, and “Report to the
be of interest.
our city lists our population as
Community,” articles about
Duncan Bath, ’45 BSc(Eng)
just over 50,200. According to
various people. These stories
Peterborough, ON
my Google search, this figure is
were especially inspiring! As
Editor’s note: The Reverend
based on the 2007 census, so
usual, many of the photos
Robert Malthus (1766-1834)
we may have even more
brought back fond memories
was a British scholar most
people now.
of my time at the University.
famous for expounding on his
Lisa Schaffrick, ’96 BSc(PT)
Albert Calman, ’90 MSc
theory that the human popula-
Grande Prairie, AB
Karmiel, Israel
2010] about Todd Cherniawsky, ’93 BFA, an art director
Edmonton, AB
for the film Avatar, I wanted to
I just finished reading the Spring/ Summer 2010 New Trail magazine. As often is the case, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it,
tell you about Stu Gillard, ’66 BA, who has won four primetime Emmys and has numerous TV and film directing credits in Hollywood as well as writing and acting credits. Mary Maxie, ’66 BA Phoenix, AZ
We would like to hear your comments about the magazine. Send us your letters via postal mail or e-mail to the addresses on page 2. Letters may be edited for length or clarity.
communications and technology graduate program We help people discover and apply the communications ideas and technologies of tomorrow
application deadline is December 15, 2010
mact.ca 4
new trail
Autumn 2010
bear country
You Do the Math
N
ext time you finally extricate yourself from a freeway traffic jam only to discover no known cause for the snarl-up, think of waves radiating outwards from a gas explosion. U of A mechanical engineering professor Morris Flynn, ’00 BSc(ChemEng), ’03 MSc, did, and won 39th place on Discover magazine’s “Top 100 Stories of 2009.” Flynn’s theoretical paper, published in the American Physical Society Physical Review E, compared traffic jams with exploding gases and found that “when you look at traffic jams mathematically, it’s very similar to the detonation waves that radiate outwards from the ignition point of an exploding gas.” The complicated mathematical model devised by Flynn and his research team likens the effect of the exploding gas to that of one driver hitting the brakes lightly, thus causing a
chain reaction in the drivers following the braking driver resulting in successive waves of slower and slower vehicles. But why a theoretical paper devoted to traffic jams? As the paper, titled “Self-sustained nonlinear waves in traffic flow,” states: “The economic costs in terms of lost productivity, atmospheric pollution, and vehicular collisions associated with traffic jams are substantial both in developed and developing nations.”
Flynn points out that the best way to prevent phantom traffic jams is to understand their patterns and timing, and says, “I think the key is to let freeway drivers know what’s happening up ahead. With the proliferation of GPS units in vehicles today, authorities could send out warnings and suggest alternative routes.” For the complete paper go to: http://pre.aps.org and look up volume 79, article 56113.
Mission to Mars
fter taking office, U.S. President Barack Obama refocused NASA’s exploration plans on Mars and called for a 2018 unmanned rover mission to the red planet. “This,” says U of A engineering student Jessica Patzer, “could be the first step towards a U of A-designed core sampler going to Mars.” Patzer — along with fellow engineering students Stephen Dwyer, Jamie Yuen and Nicholas Olmedo — have designed a device that can drill core samples on Mars and store them for later analysis. Their design recently won the 10th Annual Capstone Awards for Excellence in Technical Design and then went on to win the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineering Student Design Competition. For the Capstone Awards—a mechanical engineering student design
A
Morris Flynn riding his bike in Edmonton traffic.
competition — the team was required to complete their assigned design challenge within a four-month period. “We asked our instructors for a very tough design assignment, and we got it,” says Olmedo. “But winning the nationals in Victoria was our goal from the start,” U of A mechanical engineering professor and team advisor Michael Lipsett says he’s expecting that the Canadian Space Agency will soon announce a new call for proposals for a core drilling unit designed for Mars. “The prototype would be tested at a Mars analog site, a place like the high Arctic that approximates conditions on Mars,” says Lipsett. “American and Canadian companies that build robotic devices for the CSA and NASA will be looking for core-drilling technology and the U of A will be ready.”
The engineering faculty design team knows that when a core-sampling unit eventually reaches Mars, the answer to the big question of whether life exists on another planet will be a high priority. “It would be the achievement of a lifetime,” says Olmedo, “if we could, in some way, contribute to determining whether there is life on another planet.” A rendering of the Mars drill core sampler.
Autumn 2010
new trail
5
PhD Prize Money T
he matter of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s legacy in Alberta is still — 26 years after he last held power and a decade since he passed away — likely to raise contentious debate in the province. This is largely due to his liberal government enacting the National Energy Program in 1980 which initiated, among other things, new taxes on the oil and gas industries that cost jobs and provincial revenue — some estimate anywhere from $50 to $100 billion while the program was in place. But you won’t get any negative comments from Libe Garcia Zarranz about the powerhouse politician who once held most of the country in the palm of his hand. In May, the Spanish graduate student in the Department of English and Film Studies almost did one of Trudeau’s famous diving board back flips when she found out she’d been awarded $180,000 (over three years) as one of this year’s 15 Trudeau Foundation Scholarship winners. “The first thing I thought was that they might have made a mistake when they phoned me to tell me the news,” says Garcia Zarranz. “It took me weeks to even begin to understand what was happening.” The scholarships have been awarded annually since 2002 to support doctoral candidates pursuing research of compelling present-day concern and touching upon one or more of the foundation’s themes — human rights and dignity, responsible citizenship, Canada and the world, and people in their natural environment. It’s expected that the recipients of the scholarships will, according to the Foundation’s website, “become leading national and international figures.” This is the sixth time a U of A graduate student has been cho-
6
new trail
Autumn 2010
“The first thing I thought was that they might have made a mistake when they phoned me to tell me the news,” says U of A student Libe Garcia Zarranz about being awarded $180,000 as one of this year’s 15 Trudeau Foundation Scholarship winners.
sen by the Trudeau Foundation to receive a scholarship of this magnitude. “It’s overwhelming,” says Garcia Zarranz about the scholarship. “I’m very happy, but somehow it doesn’t seem very real. This country is treating me very well.” That’s putting it mildly. Garcia Zarranz was also the first recipient of the $20,000 BMO Graduate Scholarship awarded in 2009. Now in her third year of study at the U of A, she moved to Edmonton from her hometown of Zaragoza, Spain, to pursue a PhD with research focusing on feminist writers, partly choosing Canada because of her interest in the works of IrishCanadian author Emma Donoghue. This interest has since expanded to other feminist ex-pat writers who call Canada home, including Hiromi Goto (a recent U of A writer-in-residence), Shani Mootoo and Larissa Lai.
Garcia Zarranz is studying feminist writers and their border-crossing strategies, or works that cross geo-political boundaries, gender and sexuality or genres. Her thesis, she says, will explore border crossing as artistic creativity and as a sign of political struggle against patriarchy and hetero-normativity. Right now she’s considering her options as to which door to walk through among the many that have suddenly opened for her. She’s already met with this year’s other 14 Trudeau Foundation scholars from across Canada, and there are two previous recipients in her department who she’s in talks with about collaborating on a project that would reflect on and credit the Foundation’s gift. “I want to think big,” she says. “They’re giving me this chance to do things for the first time in my life. I want to make the most of it.” (With files from Jamie Hanlon)
ctor Stephen Fry, the British thespian of Jeeves and Wooster fame, also has writing, producing and a long list of other film-related activities to his credit. Now he can add tweetmeister to his repertoire as he recently judged a contest — that he also spearheaded — to write “the most beautiful Twitter Stephen Fry message ever composed.” U of A Professor of Medical Physics Marc MacKenzie, ’96 MSc, ’00 PhD, was judged to have said it best with: “I believe we can build a better world! Of course, it’ll take a whole lot of rock, water & dirt. Also, not sure where to put it.” For those who don’t know — or care — a single post to Twitter must contain no more than 140 characters. In total, MacKenzie submitted 35 tweets to Fry’s contest, held in conjunction with the Hay Festival of Literature
came fourth in a Canadian Twitter contest — has boosted his followers on Twitter from 157 to over 2,300. It’s also resulted in calls from major news outlets such as CBC, BBC and CNN. A recent tweet sums up his situation succinctly: “Distracted at work. Couldn’t call in sick — not honest. Can you call in famous? If so, do you only get 15 minutes off?”
and Arts in Hay-on-Wye, Wales. As to why Fry picked this one for top prize over some of his more favourite tweets, MacKenzie says: “I think it resonated in terms of having a bit of a deeper underlying message. Maybe one of environmentalism, possibly with a twinge of cynicism and maybe just a reminder that this is really the only world we have.” Mackenzie’s other tweets included: “If you love someone, let them go. If they come back, they’re yours. If they don’t, they’re probably going to lay charges.” “I care deeply about the planet. I mean, for starters, it’s where I keep all my stuff.” “I’m comforted to know that, whatever else happens, I’ll always have my heavy drinking to fall back on.” His tweet success — he previously
MacKenzie can be found on Twitter @marcmack.
Delly Carr
Uphill Racer W
hen third-year U of A student Paula Finlay won her first World Championship Series (WCS) triathlon race in London in July, she shocked the world. It was equally shocking when she won her second WCS race in August — the only woman to win back-to-back races on the top-level circuit this season. In the first race the Edmonton native pulled up with the leaders in the bicycle segment of the competition and then, with about 800 metres to go, she pulled away from the leading pack of four runners and never looked back. Finlay won in one-hour, 51 minutes and 48 seconds on the Hyde Park course that will be used in the 2012 Olympics. “I immediately thought of everyone back home in Edmonton and how cool this was to win such a big race,” Finlay says. The second shocker came in August in Kitzbuehel, Austria, where this time
Finlay following her July 24 triathlon win in London.
she swam, biked and ran to victory in just over two hours. Kitzbuehel is actually Findlay’s fourth victory of her rookie campaign after also winning gold against a non-WCS field of competitors in Mexico
Marc-Julien Objois
A
Sweet Tweet
and Quebec. Her next race — the last of the WCS season — is slated to kick off in Belgium in September after which she’ll return to the U of A to continue her studies. Finlay previously competed for over two seasons on the U of A track and field team and as a member of the varsity swim team. She was named Canada West Athlete of the year in 2007. As for winning in Kitzbuehel, it’s become a sort of Canadian tradition. Back in the early 1980s, the downhill skiers known as “The Crazy Canucks” owned Kitzbuehel with Ken Read winning the famous—and feared—Hahnenkamm downhill there in 1980, followed by Steve Podborski winning there back-to-back in ’81 and ’82, and Todd Brooker finishing up the string of victories with his win in 1983. Now Findlay has added her name to the Canuck honour roll. “The whole city’s really cool,” she says. “They have the names of downhill ski race winners on the gondola lifts — including some Canadians. It’s definitely a favourite place of mine to race.” Autumn 2010
new trail
7
question period
NOREEN FLANAGAN ’85 BS C (NU)
New ELLE Canada editor-in-chief Noreen Flanagan talks to New Trail about personal style, personal integrity and the unlikely path that led her from a career in nursing to a coveted position at the helm of one of the world’s biggest fashion magazines.
It’s a circuitous path, but after graduating I worked for a year at the Children’s Hospital in Calgary and saved all my pennies so that I could travel around the world for a year with my friend, another nursing graduate from the U of A, Judy Hoffman [’85 BSc(Nu)]. Judy and I took a double-decker bus from London to Kathmandu, and one afternoon in Kathmandu I shared a rickshaw ride with a woman who happened to be a journalist. So I drilled her about what she did and what she liked about it, and that’s when the light bulb went on in my head: I’d really like to do what she was doing. So, eventually, I moved to Vancouver and took a journalism program at Langara College, and after I graduated I got my first job as a reporter on Vancouver Island. I guess I never set out to work at a fashion magazine. I just knew that I loved writing and editing and telling good stories. But it just so happened that when I saw an ad for a health editor at Flare magazine, I thought, “Hey, not a lot of writers have a background in health.” So that was my trump card, and that was really my entry point into fashion magazines.
In movies, like The Devil Wears Prada and The September Issue, the fashion industry is always portrayed as very cutthroat and unforgiving. Is that true? No, no, not at all. That said, you certainly will encounter people who use that stereo8
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type to its advantage to behave in a very prima donna-like fashion. But ultimately, like in any work setting, your work speaks for itself, and to succeed you have to be talented, bright, creative and willing to work hard.
ELLE Canada is about to celebrate its 10th anniversary. As editor-inchief, will you be taking the magazine in any new directions? I have two words that summarize my vision: retro and futuristic. On the retro front, I really want to honour the storytelling history of this magazine, which was started in France in 1945 by a former New York Times journalist, Hélène Gordon. She appreciated the fact that women wanted to be inspired by beauty and fashion but also cared very deeply about the cultural, political and social issues of the day. So in addition to fanciful and aspirational fashion and beauty stories, you’ll also see more social and cultural-themed packages that will give greater context to what’s happening in our lives. I think that today, in this Internet age, readers are craving content that’s not only immediate but that’s meaningful and intelligent and authentic. Magazines have the opportunity to make meaningful connections and observations about all of those disconnected moments that we experience in the virtual world and to do that in a timely and relevant fashion.
Vincent Lions
You have a degree in nursing from the U of A. What made you decide to switch directions and pursue a career in journalism?
decline in traditional print media?
How would you describe your personal style? I would say I’m a real minimalist at heart. I don’t know why or where that comes from, but straight lines mixed with organic curves — I just find that irresistible. Patterns, colours, flowers — I can appreciate them when they are done well, but I would never wear them.
So what do you wear to the office? I have my fashionable Chairman Mao outfit that I always wear. I wear a fair amount of black, but I do try to break away from it. Today I’m wearing my favourite Canadian designer Lida Baday. Her clothes are stylishly minimal, chic and timeless. I’m also wearing a Kenneth Jay Lane “pebble” necklace. It’s funny, the interns who come here to the magazine dress better than any of the editors. They’re all wearing seveninch heels and look ready for the catwalk. But the editors — we’re these shy introverts, so we’re wearing these minimal outfits that help us blend in.
What’s a typical day in the life of an editor-in-chief at a fashion magazine? I try to get in early and get on top of my e-mail, and by lunch I’ve lost total control of it anyways. Then I meet with different editors, writers and with the art
Fortunately, our numbers have remained very strong. We actually recorded increased ad sales last year. We have 1.6 million readers at this point. And we’re in a niche area where fashion magazines are still such a tactile experience for women. You can’t quite replicate that with the e-reader.
department. There are lots of events to attend as well: beauty launches, theatre openings, art shows — those are the perks of the job. I’m lucky that in my personal life and my work life there are a lot of common interests.
So how do you balance your life and career? I exercise, I read. My husband and I are failed Spanish students — I’d be embarrassed to tell you how many years we’ve been studying — but a couple of years ago we got involved with Medical Ministry International and started going to South America on medical eye missions. We’ve been to Colombia and Bolivia, where we work in the eyeglass dispensing stations. It’s a lovely counterpoint to what I do here. You wouldn’t believe how many seamstresses I encounter who couldn’t do their jobs anymore because they couldn’t see. So to be able to see them thread a needle again and get their livelihoods back is an amazing and humbling experience. I also get to inflict my horrible Spanish on them. Although I’m developing a niche ability to talk about glasses in Spanish, I don’t encounter anyone in Canada who wants to talk to me about bifocals.
What are the moments that stand out in your career so far? I still remember very clearly my first day as a reporter with the Parksville Qualicum Beach News on Vancouver Island. I was so nervous because I had kind of alienated my family with this notion that I was going to be a reporter, and I’d put a lot of pressure on myself for this to work out. So it felt like such an achievement to show up there with my tape recorder and my camera in hand. Of course, I’ve had lots of amazing moments both here at ELLE and at Flare, where I’ve been able to have a taste of a completely extravagant, fantastical life, like an amazing sailing regatta off the Isle of Wight with Louis Vuitton. I also remember there was a Dior lipstick launch in Paris with the Italian actress Monica Bellucci that was just the most over-the-top experience I have ever had. And, of course, being named editor-in-chief was a career highlight.
Is there anything you would have done differently? I think I would have started learning Spanish years ago when I had a very young and flexible brain. Then I wouldn’t just be reduced to talking about bifocals.
Vi Warkentin
How will you tackle the
Interviewer Therese Martinez-Yu is a U of A master’s student in human ecology and is currently pursuing a career change of her own — from being a certified architect to a fashion entrepreneur.
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learning curve
Reinventing a Life A trip to Chile changed the course of the author’s life and career By Ricardo Acuña, ’92 BA
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rowing up as the child of political refugees meant two things for me: first, I learned that activism, solidarity and community engagement were as much a part of life as work or school or church; and secondly, I learned that those values don’t change just because you’ve moved to a different country. My parents, refugees from the brutal Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, were just as active in their new home as they had been in their old one, and my childhood evenings and weekends were largely spent playing with other Chilean exiles while our parents met, planned and organized to change conditions in their homeland. That part about evenings and weekends is important: when starting over in a new country, your focus must of necessity be building a new home and establishing some security for your family, and that can be an overwhelming and exhausting task. Political organizing, as necessary as it may seem, often gets pushed into the corners of the day or left for what little free time you have on the weekend. For my parents, this meant late nights planning fundraisers and weekends setting up, tearing down and cleaning up after them. For me it meant internalizing the notion that work and social engagement exist in two separate spheres. And for all of us it meant that I would pursue a respectable profession with a good, dependable income and pre-
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dictable hours to make all that evening and weekend activism possible. This is exactly what I had in mind when, straight out of high school, I started my studies at the University of Alberta. I enjoyed math and the sciences and could see a career in geophysics as one that would be fulfilling and, at the
“...an interesting thing happened on my way to my BSc. The more political meetings I attended and the more volunteer work I did, the more people I ran into who actually managed to integrate their passions with their professions.” same time, provide a dependable income, allowing me to dedicate my evenings and weekends — even while in school — to pursuing my passions of politics and international solidarity. But an interesting thing happened on my way to my BSc. The more political meetings I attended and the more volunteer work I did, the more people I ran into who actually managed to integrate their passions with their professions. I met people who worked full-time for international development organizations
and political parties. I met others who had actually gone to the developing world to work on community-based projects. The more of these people I met, the more I began to question my belief that my day job and my passion had to exist in completely different spheres. It was also during this time that I met Fred Judson, ’78 MA, ’82 PhD, a U of A political science professor who spent the school year researching and teaching about the social movements that were changing the face of Latin America—and spent his summers on the ground in solidarity with them. I also met his partner, Maryon McClary, ’72 BA, ’73 Dip(Ed), ’84 BEd, a U of A librarian who spent her time off helping Latin American communities set up community libraries. We were all active in the same organization: me, outside of how I spent my days; the two of them, as an extension of how they spent theirs. My belief in the separation of work and passion was so rattled by these folks that I actually decided to abandon my studies and took a semester off to travel to Chile. As this coincided with the last year of the Pinochet dictatorship, I was able to witness fledgling political parties discussing how to build a just and equitable country, as well as whole neighbourhoods working together to improve their living conditions. My enthusiasm for politics, international solidarity and community activism grew so much during this trip that I
Illustration by Nickelas Johnson
could not fathom a future for myself in which I would be forced to relegate them to my off hours. The first thing I did upon my return to Canada was to meet with Fred. I told him about my experiences and what I wanted to do, and, with the help of David Johnson (a Latin American history professor who worked extensively in Columbia), we designed a program of study that would make that possible. Despite being called a BA with a political science major and a history minor, my degree was as good or better than most of the Latin American and Development Studies programs in Canada at the time. But more importantly, because I had the support and mentorship of engaged intellectuals who plied their trade far beyond the academy, I learned more than just history and politics. I learned how to bring my life into my work.
“My belief in the separation of work and passion was so rattled by these folks that I actually decided to abandon my studies and took a semester off to travel to Chile.” The change was immediate. I spent the next three years engaged in political, organizing and solidarity work both inside and outside of the classroom, and, after I graduated, I was offered a job in my field of interest with a local NGO. Ten years after receiving my BA, I was given the opportunity to return to the University of Alberta: not as a student this time, but as the executive director of the Parkland Institute in the Faculty
of Arts. The Institute’s mandate is to take research from academics around the province and put it in the hands of Albertans so that it can motivate and inform their participation in the decisions that affect their lives. Through my work at the Institute I’ve had the opportunity to meet dozens of socially and politically engaged academics who, like Fred, Maryon and David, fully integrate their research, professions and lives, and as such contribute tremendously to the well-being of their communities and the engagement of their students. And this is one of the most important things that I learned at University: that you have to find a way to make what you do for a living an integral part of your life. There is much more to being an engaged intellectual than just being an academic. Ricardo Acuña, ’92 BA, is executive director of the Parkland Institute.
To hear more from Mr. Acuña join us at our Alumni Weekend Saturday Scholars series entitled “Reinvigorating Democracy in Canada — Three Perspectives,” on campus on Saturday, September 25 from 12:30 – 2:00 p.m. Mr. Acuña — along with award-winning journalist Satya Das and Edmonton City Councillor Kim Krushell — will discuss the need for revitalizing democracy in Canada and how this goal might be accomplished. For more information or to register for this free event, please go to www.ualberta.ca/alumni/weekend.
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whatsoever things are true
Truth & Lies: Trust Me Writer and alumna Aritha van Herk muses on the theme of this year’s Festival of Ideas
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rust me, I’ll pay you back. Trust me, it won’t hurt. Trust me, I won’t hack into your account. Trust me, I’ll love you tomorrow. Trust me, I’ll protect your privacy. Trust me, they say. These knights of banking and politics and public information wear a kindly if serious face, no flint of irony visible. Trust me, they exhort. Elect me. Let me invest your money. Let us exploit your resources. Let us implement these regulations. But what is it about the imperative, “trust me,” that makes us hesitate? Have we been seduced once too often? What does it take to make humans suspend disbelief and actually take a leap of trust? Trust is what makes us cooperate, play ball, live harmoniously. Trust is what we exercise when we don’t know the history of the person we engage with. We trust, actively and passively, every day. We trust that other drivers will stop at a red light. We trust that the pilot flying our airplane will be skilled, sober and sensible. We trust that our partners are faithful, our water is potable, and that Revenue Canada’s calculators are accurate. And trust is coded differently depending on the context. There is institutional trust. We believe that we all have equal access to our health care system, until we hear rumours of a different “protocol” for privileged users. There is physical trust. We have to believe that the bridge will hold, that the elevator will not plunge to the basement, and that the ground beneath our feet will not shift. (In Alberta, we know better than to trust the weather, and so we watch it with narrowed eyes and not a little scepticism. It can hail any minute, and, yes, I’ve seen snow in July. That’s why Canadians obsess about the weather so much: it cannot be trusted.)
There is personal trust. We trust that our friends will keep our confidences. We trust that our families will be loyal. We trust that our employers will be fair. Which is why unfaithfulness, betrayal, exploitation or fraud outrage those who
“In Alberta, we know better than to trust the weather, and so we watch it with narrowed eyes and not a little scepticism.” suffer such indignities. If our trust is betrayed or our expectations undermined once too often we become cynical, apprehensive, doubting what we desperately want to take for granted. The famous sixties line, “don’t trust anyone over 30,” has been attributed to Jerry Rubin, John Lennon and Bob Dylan. But it was Jack Weinberg, 24year-old spokesman for the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley, who said it in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. He later claimed he was making an ironic comment in response to questions about whether older adults were manipulating the movement.
Those same baby boomers now demonstrate a similar mistrust for anyone under 30, the instant-messaging, social-media and technologically savvy generation that is changing the shape of who we trust and how we share information. The complicated tension between truth and lies is as old as dirt. And the toll on our trust is that we waver, hoping to be able to trust the faces of leaders and luminaries, when, in fact, that trust hasn’t necessarily been earned and often doesn’t play out. “Trust Me” is more like the last resort of damage control, a predictor of failure analysis in advance. It is the antithesis of safety training, pre-nuptial agreements or guaranteed investment certificates. It is a summary of the risk we take by living. Despite our sophisticated access to information, we still succumb to innumerable scams. But although we know we’ve been scammed by the banks, big business, BP, Facebook, politicians and the paid-to-lie-class who gain advantage from gullibility, we still — doggedly and with civilized optimism — trust that there will be a kernel of ethical conduct somewhere under the skin of dissimulation. It is that belief that makes us uniquely human, even if we might be disappointed. Trust me, this time it’s going to be different. And maybe it will. Aritha van Herk, ’76 BA, ’78 MA, is the author of novels, non-fiction books and many articles and reviews. This year’s Festival of Ideas is scheduled to run from November 17 to 21. For more information visit www.festivalofideas.ca.
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The True North The U of A’s Canadian Circumpolar Institute and University of Alberta Museums mount a display of images, artifacts and specimens documenting a fragile world ight countries converge on the Arctic Circle — Canada, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Greenland (Denmark), Iceland and the United States. Edmonton is the northernmost North American city with a metropolitan population of over one million people — making it an ideal location for the University of Alberta-based Canadian Circumpolar Institute (CCI) to conduct northern research. Originally established as the Boreal Institute for Northern Studies, the CCI is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Over those years the Institute has worked to reinforce the collaborative investigative work by people who live in the North, and by researchers working in the Arctic and Antarctica. The continuously growing body of information the CCI has gathered has shaped, and continues to shape, the understanding
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of the delicate balance of the polar regions. The Earth’s polar regions contain some of the most sensitive environments on the planet and even small changes can have big impacts. And this environment is changing quicker now than it ever has in human history. “Our planet is constantly changing,” says Marianne Douglas, director of the Canadian Circumpolar Institute. “But at no time in human history has the environment changed as quickly as it is now. The fact that permafrost is melting, glaciers are receding and the biogeographic range of organisms is changing means that lifestyles of those living in the North are being affected — often in a detrimental way.” The developments that people living in the North and visiting researchers identify point to the vulnerability of the changing polar habitats. The research
being conducted there is also of a highly interdisciplinary nature, which is reflected in the “Polar Impact” exhibition that highlights a selection of the University’s circumpolar research, on campus and beyond, over the last 50 years. The artifacts, images and specimens — such as drill core samples and fossils — collected over this period have become part of the University of Alberta Museums’ collections.
“Polar Impact” runs from October 7 to November 20 in Gallery A at the U of A’s TELUS Centre (87th Ave. and 111 St.). Visit www.museums.ualberta.ca or call 780-492-5834 for more information. For more on the Canadian Circumpolar Institute go to www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/CCI.
Left to Right:
Hannah Milne and Gabrielle Gascon set up camp on Belcher Glacier, Devon Island ice cap, May 2010. Belcher Glacier is the focus of an International Polar Year project investigating the role of tidewater glacier dynamics in the response of Arctic ice caps to climate change. Festive Dance, Helen Kalvak, 1970, Print, University of Alberta Art Collection
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Andrew Derocher, ’87 MSc, ’91 PhD
Adult female with two 10-monthold cubs waiting for the sea ice to form along the coast of Hudson Bay. The mother is equipped with a GPS satellite linked collar that will provide six locations per day for two years. The information is used to track habitat use, timing on and off the sea ice, and cub survival.
Copper Fish Hooks, maker unknown (copper Inuit), date unknown, bone (tooth, polar bear), copper, sinew. Copper-tipped Meat Knife, maker unknown (copper Inuit), date unknown, bone, copper. Lord Collection, University of Alberta Art Collection.
Martin Sharp
Background photo by Andrzej Weber
Baikal Archaeology Project field work at site Sagan Zaba, Lake Baikal, Russia.
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Football Footp In their 100-year history, the Golden Bears have won three Vanier Cups, the last one (above) in 1980. Pictured here are (L-R) Dave Morris, ’83 BEd; Roman Lohin, ’85 BSc(Eng); Terry Koch,’84 BA; and Percy Gendall, ’84 BEd. The rugby team (right) is thought to be the 1914 team coached by William Hardy “Doc Alik” Alexander, ’33 LLD (Honorary), who described them as “perfectly balanced and endowed about equally with brains and brawn.” That team beat the Edmonton Eskimos and the Calgary Tigers to cinch the provincial championship.
The first organized rugby practice was held on Saturday, Oct. 22, and after a week’s work together the team engaged in a practice match with the Eskimos, Edmonton’s senior aggregation. The score was unfortunately lost, but all present declared it to be a close and hard fought game with the final result slightly in favor of the Eskimos. —From The Gateway, Nov. 21, 1910
rint
t’s been a hundred years since the University of Alberta Golden
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Bears football program began in 1910 as a rugby team with William Muir Edwards as the head coach. However, the football
field has sometimes lay fallow, like it did from 1916 through 1918 while the players were doing their duty fighting on the Western Front during the First World War. With the end of the war came the return of football in 1919 under coach York Blayney, ’12 BA. But it still wasn’t called “football.” The first official listing of the team as exclusively a “football” team (the terms “rugby” and “football” were still being used interchangeably by The Gateway) appeared in the 1948 edition of the Evergreen and Gold yearbook. Autumn 2010
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Current Bears starting quarterback Julian Marchand rolls out for a pass; current Bears wide receiver Jess Valleau punches one in for a touchdown; and a trio of Bears celebrate the scoring drive. Join this season’s Bears during the September 24 Alumni Weekend game as they take on the Saskatchewan Huskies. During half-time one lucky student will have a chance to win a full-year’s tuition.
Seeing Stars: In 1976, Bears receiver Brian Fryer, ’83 BPE — the only Bears player to win the Hec Crighton Award as the Most Outstanding University Player in Canada — was the first Canadian intercollegiate football player to be drafted by an NFL team. Following a tryout with the Washington Redskins, he returned to Canada and competed for the Eskimos teams that won five Grey Cups in a row, beginning in 1978. Another great receiver for the Golden Bears during the 1970s is the only U of A alumnus to be inducted into the CFL Hall of Fame — Joe Poplawski, ’78 BSc. The star receiver led the Golden Bears in scoring all three years that he played (1975–77), and he led in receptions in both 1976 and 1977. Poplawski would later go on to a stellar career with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, winning the CFL’s Most Outstanding Rookie award in 1978.
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But just one year after officially becoming “football,” in 1949 there was, once again, no football team. The U of A football program would remain in mothballs from 1949 through 1958 simply because there was no one to compete against in the West. And since the team had no use for their jerseys, they donated them to the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos who have continued the tradition of wearing green and gold to this day. Maury Van Vliet, ’79 LLD (Honorary) — the U of A’s first dean of the Faculty of Physical Education — brought the game back in 1959 as the Golden Bears joined the Western Intercollegiate Football League. Since then the Golden Bears have made six appearances in the Vanier Cup game to decide supremacy in Canadian Interuniversity Sport and have won the Cup three times. Although coach Gino Fracas, ’57 Dipl(Ed), ’58 BEd, would be the first to
take the Golden Bears to the Vanier Cup game in Toronto against U of T in 1965, it would be coach Clare Drake, ’58 BEd, ’95 LLD (Honorary), who would see the team finally win the national championship two years later, also in Toronto, but against Hamilton’s McMaster University. (Of course, Drake
Golden Eskimo:
Former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed, ’51 BA, ’52 LLB, ’86 LLD (Honorary) — a member of the 1947 and 1948 Bears’ teams — went on to play with the Edmonton Eskimos from 1949 to 1952, while still a U of A student. Over 60 other Golden Bears alumni have played in the CFL.
The 1963 Golden Bowl game crowd and program. Over 8,000 fans turned out to see the first unofficial national football championship game between the Golden Bears and the top-ranked Queen’s University Golden Gaels. The Golden Bowl was created and organized by U of A medical student Robert Lampard, ’64 MD, ’66 BSc, ’67 MSc, and the Bears won the game 29-3 for bragging rights as the unofficial national champions in university football.
is also known as the winningest coach in university hockey history, winning 697 games, six national championships and 17 Canada West conference titles. He was also a co-coach of Canada’s 1980 Olympic hockey team.) Under coach Jim Donlevy, ’59 BPE, ’61 BEd, ’75 MA, the Bears won two Vanier Cups, the first in 1972 and their last in 1980. During the team’s 30-year drought since last winning the Vanier Cup, the Bears once again faced not being able to field a team in 1990, when
Paper Trail: The Gateway, as evidenced by the newspaper’s reporting on the rugby game in 1910, has been covering the Golden Bears for, well, before they were Golden Bears. The student newspaper is also celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. The first issue was published on November 21, 1910, and for the next 80 years the student newspaper was run as a department of the U of A Students’ Union. Then,
funding became so precarious that thenathletic director Dale Schulha, ’72 BPE, ’74 MSc, ’74 Dipl(Ed) — who had thrown a touchdown pass in the 1972 Vanier Cup — was faced with a difficult decision: cut the football program or eliminate four or five other team sports. Fortunately the Alumni Association stepped in with a “Save The Bears” campaign that ending up raising about $300,000 — enough to keep the Bears on the field for the next two years and the return of better times.
in 2002, a successful referendum autonomy campaign resulted in the newspaper being run by the Gateway Student Journalism Society. The Gateway is one of the oldest and largest student newspapers in Canada, and some of its notable alumni include former prime minister Joe Clark, ’60 BA, ’73 MA, ’85 LLD (Honorary); Mathew Halton, ’29 BA, ’56 LLD (Honorary),
The Golden Bears will be celebrating their 100th anniversary with a game against the University of Calgary on September 18. A special pre-game reception will be held the day before, and there will be a post-game banquet. For complete details go to goldenbearsfootball.ca.
the one-time CBC radio reporter who was known as “The Voice of Canada” during the Second World War; and current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Beverley McLachlin, ’65 BA, ’68 MA, ’68 LLB, ’91 LLD (Honorar y). The Gateway will be holding an official alumni reunion on the weekend of November 19–20 (featuring Golden Bears football star — and former Gateway editor — Peter Lougheed as the keynote speaker on the 20th). For complete details go to www.ualberta.ca/ alumni/gateway.
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Casey Hudson, ’98 BSc(Eng), in BioWare’s Edmonton studios.
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Game Boy A grad combines real life and virtual reality to Mass Effect By Ileiren Poon f you’re going to of the people I’m “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, invent a brand new most proud of workyou must first invent the universe.” universe, it helps to ing with. He has a — Carl Sagan have a handle on how spark. You can see this one works. Casey that in some people, Hudson’s curiosity a spark of creativity, tion, and mechanical engineering was about how the universe works led him intelligence and passion. He takes a one of the degrees recommended for to a degree in mechanical engineering really great approach to creating those who wanted to be military pilots. and from there to building worlds with games — a really scientific approach, “But I was also always interested in video game giant BioWare. but also a really qualitative and art and music and computer programHudson, ’98 BSc(Eng), is being humanistic approach. He has a vision ming,” he says. “So, when I was graduhonoured at this year’s Alumni and then applies scientific and engiating I was exploring employment Recognition Awards with an Horizon neering principles to that vision.” possibilities in each of these areas.” Award, which celebrates the outstandThat combination is important to a He heard about the then three-yearing achievements of U of A alumni company like BioWare that emphasises old BioWare as being a company, that, early in their careers. The last 12 the narrative quality of their games although new to the industry, was about years have seen Hudson move up in alongside technical innovation — to finish a highly anticipated game. the Edmonton company from junior something that had already piqued “Ultimately,” says Hudson, “it came artist to executive producer of Hudson’s interest as someone who down to the fact that I was excited BioWare’s multi-award-winning Mass played computer games. about a career in engineering, but I felt Effect game. In his time of creating “I was interested in games, but like I wouldn’t be able to use everyvivid realities for games like the mostly I was interested in how they thing that I was interested in — all the classic fantasy role-playing game were done,” he says. “So, if I played a skills that I had developed. Likewise Neverwinter Nights or the highly game that really had an impact on me, with becoming a pilot — what do I do acclaimed Star Wars: Knights of the what I was most interested in was with my interests in music and art? Old Republic, Hudson drew on his how they were able to make someSo, when I thought about games — engineering background. thing that inspired my imagination and even though it felt like a more risky “That’s the great thing about makfelt so real and so interesting, given thing to go into — I just felt like there ing games — you’re trying to re-create that it’s ultimately a computer program, was more of an opportunity to do all of the world,” he says. “By definition, that a piece of art.” the things that I loved and apply all world you’re trying to create has everyBut he also found himself drawn the things that I’d learned.” thing that the real world has. It has to games that packed an emotional That combination of science, art moving vehicles, machines, computers wallop, like Planetfall, released in and passion grabbed the attention of and the physics and chemistry that are 1983 — one of the first games to his bosses, BioWare founders Ray the basis for all of those things. The incorporate elements of friendship Muzyka, ’90 BSc(Med), ’92 MD, and more you know about it, the more you and sacrifice into the narrative. Greg Zeschuk, ’90 BSc(Med), ’92 MD. can make it accurate or come up with “It’s like what you get in movies “He’s absolutely brilliant. I learn ideas for how things work.” and books, but it’s different because from him in every interaction,” says Hudson originally went into engineeryou’ve interacted with something, and Muzyka, about Hudson. “Casey is one ing because he was interested in aviayou feel like you’re responsible for the
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way things turned out,” says Hudson. “There’s a different kind of emotional engagement there that I’m always interested in recapturing.” Another early game that caught his attention was Starflight, released in 1986. “On two little floppy disks, they basically created an entire galaxy that had hundreds of stars, and each star had planets, and each planet had its own ecosystems. The technical achievement of that, in 1986, was something I’ve always thought of as groundbreaking, and I’ve always looked for what the equivalent achievement would be in today’s technology.” There are few industries that change as quickly as the video game industry, with leaps in technology every year. But for Hudson, it’s all about finding better ways to tell that emotionally engaging story. In his time with BioWare, gamers have gone from 2D images and textbased conversations, to basically controlling a fully animated computergenerated movie. “Now you can make choices in a game where you really feel like you’ve
Developing relationships with shipmates is a key element of storytelling in the Mass Effect series.
reached out and touched someone — pushed them away or said something that hurt their feelings — and you can see it, not because of what they say they feel, but because you can actually
just read their facial expression and feel a swell of empathy. “A good story is a good story, but we do get better at telling it. The medium itself does have a lot to do with
BioWare’s Dynamic Duo I
t’s difficult to catch up to Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk. A conference-call interview finds Zeschuck in England, about to chat with video game insiders about the future of the industry, and Muzyka holding his own in no-limit Texas Hold’em at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Perfectly reasonable for two med-school grads from the University of Alberta. Fifteen years ago, Zeschuk and Muzyka, along with classmate Augustine Yip, ’90 BSc(Med), ’92 MD, founded BioWare, one of the most respected and successful video game studios in the business. (Yip has since left the company to go back to practicing medicine.) “We got our bachelor’s degrees then trained as medical doctors at the U of A —mostly in emergency medicine, family medicine and geriatrics,” says Muzyka. “Actually, the skill set is still very relevant to going into business, the ability to talk to people, the value of treating people well. Ray Muzyka
Those are all skills you learn as a doctor that are very, very important in business.” This is a philosophy that’s earned BioWare a place on numerous magazine lists—from the Financial Post to Maclean’s—of the best employers to work for in Canada. “We’re only as good as making our workplace and our product better the next day,” says Muzyka. “That keeps everything in context and keeps everything in perspective for us.” As university students, both Zeschuck and Muzyka played tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) and were fascinated by the technology required to get those games into a computer format. “We spent a lot of time learning how to program computers in our spare time,” says Zeschuk. “You had to be quite technical.” But it was a skill they quickly began to master. In fact, the students produced a gastroenterology patient simulator program for the U of A’s Faculty of Medicine in 1991. “We were all self-taught programmers and thought it was a great opportunity to make software that would be better for students,” says Muzyka, of the patient simulator. BioWare creates games that have made a big impact on the industry, from Balder’s Gate, one of the most beloved RPGs in gaming circles, to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic,
The Mass Effect franchise has branched off into novels, comic books and an upcoming feature film.
it, and how well you use the medium.” The constant change in technology doesn’t worry Hudson. “There are challenges to it, but it’s exciting,” he says. “Change is part of this business. What
we’re experienced at and trained for is coming up with an idea for our next product or our next line of products that has never been done before. Analysts will always say, ‘Oh, the industry is changing,’
which still ranks atop most lists of “Best Star Wars Games of All Time” and even “Best Xbox Games of All Time.” Fans of BioWare games are drawn to the company’s history of creating games that have an emotional impact in their storylines—a natural evolution from the tabletop games the founders enjoyed. “We weren’t always as deliberate about it as we are now, but we always knew we wanted to have a strong story element to our games,” says Muzyka. “I guess it’s very intuitive. We always thought story was such a fundamental part of entertainment.” In 2007, Electronic Arts paid $860 million for BioWare and another company, Pandemic, and Bioware became a unit of EA while retaining its own branding. Muzyka became group general manager, and Zeschuk became group creative officer of the new studio group. “I manage the various studios and am very much involved in the creative side of things,” says Muzyka. “I also love the business side, the people side, and the publishing and marketing side. For me it’s always been fun to be a generalist. I don’t know much about anything, but I know a little about everything, so you get to learn every day.” Zeschuk recently moved into the role of general manager for BioWare’s Austin studio, which is focusing on the upcoming release of BioWare’s second foray into the Star Wars universe— The Old Republic. “Whatever needs doing, I do,” he says. “It’s
like that’s a spectre for us to be afraid of, but really, the industry changing is the constant that we’re used to.” Hudson’s role in the video game industry is changing, too. With one game left to produce in the Mass Effect trilogy, he’s taken on the leadership role of executive producer of the franchise, which now includes novels, comic books and an upcoming live-action movie. “I think Mass Effect is doing this in a way that no one else is really doing. I guess you’d call it trans-media storytelling,” he says. As for his interest in aviation, Hudson did become a pilot and flies his own four-seater plane. Even that, however, gets incorporated into the worlds he’s building. He says flying a real plane helps him create the virtual experience, the motion, of ships moving through space. “That kind of experience,” he says, “is invaluable to anyone who wants to make video games.” For more information about the 2010 Alumni Recognition Awards and to secure your complimentary tickets, visit: www.ualberta.ca/alumni/recognition.
fun being on the creative side, because I can have my fingers in every pie, but now I’m just very focused on this specific pie.” As video games evolve in the world of entertainment, with more compelling stories and improved graphic effects, BioWare continues to be at the forefront of the interactive storytelling business. “We think of games as an art form. It’s really mainstream now, which is awesome,” says Muzyka. “I think the next 30 years is going to be the same level of dramatic change. You can reach people on a dramatic level with some of these stories and characters that are present in games. You can move people. I hear stories from fans who say, ‘That moment from this game just shook me to the core.’ In the future really anything is possible, and that’s the way you want it.” The same holds for the two doctors Greg Zeschuk who became videogame superstars. “We never had an exit plan when we started the company. We still don’t, really,” laughs Zeschuk. “We never had a specific target in mind. I always felt like it was a more Taoist approach—don’t seek an end-point or a goal, just strive to do better.” — Ileiren Poon 23
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The New Byzantium By Blythe Rennie, ’04 BEd
An alumna keeps it on the strait and narrow in this historic Turkish town
Photos: Blythe Rennie, Daniel Torres, Istock Photo.
I
magine a place where you can go to Europe for lunch, Asia for dinner, and your journey from continent to continent takes less than 15 minutes—no passport required. Istanbul is indeed such a place. Sitting at the crossroads between East and West and divided by the Bosphorus Strait, this great city is precariously placed between two divergent cultures, but over the course of centuries this metropolis of nearly 13 million has managed a cultural balancing act that includes the best of both worlds. My journey to Istanbul began back in the fall of 2007. I had been teaching junior high in Edmonton for four years, and, with another Edmonton winter looming, I was getting a bad case of the travel bug. So I went to an international teaching job fair, hoping to find a bit of adventure —a position in Australia, or
maybe Western Europe. Turkey wasn’t even on my radar as far as a potential place to live and teach until I received an offer from a school in Istanbul. Within minutes of speaking with the school’s director, he had totally turned me on to life in Istanbul with descriptions of its hospitality and vibrant culture. One of the things that attracted me to Istanbul —one of the cities designated a European Capital of Culture for 2010 —was the wealth of history that would be at my fingertips. Istanbul was the capital of Byzantium and, later, of the Ottoman Empire and it’s said that Turkey has more Greek ruins than Greece and more Roman archeological sites than Italy. In Istanbul you almost can’t walk a block without tripping over some historic site or other. In fact, the city recently had to stop construction on the new Metro line extending to
Top: The Hagia Sofia has had many incarnations in its 17 centuries. Above: A vendor offers Turkish tea and other delights at the Grand Bazaar.
the Asian side of the city because workers accidentally unearthed a “new” 8,000-year-old archeological site. But despite the richness of the city’s cultural legacy, most of its famous sites are clustered within one compact —and very walkable —square kilometre. Autumn 2010
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The elaborate mosaic walls at Topkapi Palace (left), and (right) the haunting underground remains of the Basilica Cisterns.
Ottomania The first stop on any visitor’s itinerary should be the Hagia Sofia. Over its 17 centuries, the Hagia Sofia has had many incarnations: first as a cathedral (360–1453), then as a mosque during the reign of the Ottoman Turks (1453–1934), and now as a museum. But throughout it all, it has always remained an architectural marvel, and its soaring domed ceilings, gold Arabic calligraphy and colourful mosaics depicting Christian and Muslim religious imagery will take your breath away. Just across the street you can visit a real, working mosque —one of the most beautiful in the Muslim world. The Blue Mosque (officially known as Sultan Ahmet Camii), is named for its large number of blue tiles and blue stained glass windows, which, when the sun shines through, bathe the interior in a lovely azure glow. Built by the Ottomans in the early 17th century, you will still see men and women praying there when you visit. A word of advice: keep your arms, legs and shoulders covered out of respect and remember that the Blue Mosque is closed to tourists during Friday prayers. Topkapi Palace is another Istanbul wonder, with gilded fountains, endless mosaics and amazing views of the Bos26
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phorus. The residence of the Ottoman Sultan for more than 400 years, the palace is an expansive complex that takes a good two-to-three hours to tour. There are rooms dedicated to the crown jewels, the sultan’s harem, his
A feast for the senses at the Spice Bazaar.
armoury, his bath, a room just to hold his turbans —even a room dedicated to performing circumcisions. While still in this area of the city, stop off at the Basilica Cisterns, which were built by the Romans and served as the water filtration system for the sultan’s palaces —including Topkapi Palace —until modern times. Here, a forest of 336 stone columns grace this sunken underground cavern and carp swim in its shallow waters. It’s also quite cool down there, so it’s a great place to beat the heat on one of Istanbul’s famously hot summer days.
Splish Splash Another must-do in Istanbul is a visit to a Turkish bath, or hamam — a welcome end to a long day of sweaty sightseeing. Most of the hamams in Istanbul are ancient, but a visit to the baths is still a regular part of Turkish culture today. Many women still get together with their girlfriends to head down to the neighbourhood bath and gossip while getting a scrub down. And the men — well, I couldn’t tell you what the men do —as the baths are strictly segregated by sex. When my mom came for a visit, we went to the Çemberlitas Bath, an historic —if touristy —bath just a 10-minute walk up from the Blue Mosque. We chose the middle road of treatments, which costs about 40 Turkish lira and consists of a steam bath, a sudsy scrub down, a light massage and a hair wash. We were a tad apprehensive at first about getting naked for a scrub down, but since everyone else in the room is naked, including your masseuse, you quickly feel at home in your birthday suit. And, if not, a bathing suit is also acceptable. Once the hour-long treatment is over, you’re welcome to hang out in the steam room for as long as you like, or in the outer room, which is a little cooler, or in
Around Town (Location, street, neighbourhood]
Hagia Sophia Aya Sofya Meydani, Sultanahmet
The Blue Mosque Sultan Ahmet Camii, Sultanahmet
The Basilica Cisterns Yerebatan Caddesi 13, Sultanahmet
Çemberlitas Hamam 8 Vezirhan Caddesi, Çemberlita
Taksim Square Istiklal Caddesi, Beyo lu
Ortaköy Market Muallim Naci Caddesi, Be ikta
The Spice Bazaar Misir Çar isi, Eminönü
The Grand Bazaar Kapali Çar i, Beyazit
Topkapi Palace Babihümayun Caddesi, Gülhane Park
Lal Boutique Camenkan Sokak #14, Beyoglu
The hippest place for shopping and dining — and seeing and being seen — is Taksim Square.
the outer-outer room where you can enjoy a cup of tea while relaxing on a divan. Upon leaving you’ll feel like a new person —literally —for you’ll have left behind a layer of skin.
Shopper’s Delight Istanbul is a city of markets, and some of its markets, like the famous Grand Bazaar, are cities unto themselves. With more than 1,000 vendors spread out over dozens of covered “streets,” it’s a bit like West Edmonton Mall—but with all the store owners constantly haggling with you, trying to convince you that they have the best jewelry/carpets/leather goods, etc. Given even an ounce of encouragement, the vendors will follow you for the next block in order to make a sale, so it helps to go in knowing what you’re looking for. For help, grab one of the many maps available, and keep in mind that the bazaar is organized by product, with sections devoted to leather, gold and carpets. For pure sensory overload, visit the Spice Bazaar, where, in addition to the usual kiosks of T-shirts, bags, jewellery and scarves, you’ll also find tables loaded down with nuts, tea and many, many spices. Saffron, tumeric, cinnamon, cloves and mint —you name it, they’ve got it, along with a number of
exotic spices you’ve never seen or smelled before. Be sure to keep an eye out for the silver trays loaded up with free samples of Turkish delight. On the weekends, the neighbourhood of Ortaköy, on the European side of the Bosphorus Strait, has an excellent street market as well as great restaurants and cafés where you can relax with a water pipe, or nargile, after a morning spent shopping. But the hippest place in Istanbul for shopping and dining (or partying after-hours) is Taksim Square, also on the European side. It’s main street, Istiklal Caddesi, boasts both the big name-brand stores and unique oneof-a-kind boutiques. My favourite is the quaint boutique Lal, at the end of the Taksim strip, which features handmade goods, from unique T-shirts, hats and scarves to oyo, or Anatolian lace.
Istanbul, not Constantinople Arching over the Bosphorus Strait, the bridges of Istanbul provide a tangible link between east and west, “old” and “new.” There is a noticeable difference between the two sides of the city. Although the western side is home to most of the historic tourists sites, it definitely has a more European feel to it, and English is more widely spoken
there. The eastern side is generally older, its people more conservative, and living there has forced me keep up with my study of the Turkish language. But whatever side of the city you find yourself on, you’ll encounter beauty around every corner —and not just in the incredible mosques and palaces, but even down the simplest of cobblestone streets. If any part of you would be excited by hearing the call to prayer sung from the city’s many minarets, smelling the aroma of spices, tea and water pipes, even haggling with the market vendors —then put Istanbul on your list of places to visit. Just remember to bring sturdy walking shoes and repeat after me: “No thanks, I already have a carpet.” Blythe Rennie, ’04 BEd, just left Istanbul after two years there and is now teaching at an international school in Bangkok, Thailand. Interested in seeing Istanbul for yourself? Join other U of A alumni as they set sail on the Alumni Association’s Learning on Location Travel Program, “Ancient Lands and Seas: Istanbul to Venice,” September 18 to October 1, 2011. For more information visit www.ualberta.ca/alumni/travel. Autumn 2010
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The China Connection As we enter the “Asian century,” the U of A strategically positions itself as a nexus between China and the West By Sarah Ligon • Photos by Larry Louie, ’82 BSc
W
hen Bob Kwauk, ’91 MBA, ’92 LLB, joined the Calgary law office of Blakes in 1996, China wasn’t on his map—it wasn’t even on his employer’s map—but just two years later, he was tapped to open the firm’s new Beijing branch.Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s loosening of the economic reins that had kept Chinese businesses under state control for the past half-century meant that huge new markets were open to the West—for those who could navigate the labyrinthine avenues of Chinese bureaucracy and the uncharted waters of doing business under “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” “We were one of the last firms on the scene,” remembers Kwauk. “A number of big Canadian firms were already in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing.” Nonetheless, in the past decade, Blakes’ Beijing office, under Kwauk’s direction, has made a name for itself facilitating transactions between the two countries that now number in the billions of dollars every year. “Each one of our oil sands transactions could be into the billions, and our transactions with mining companies—most of them are around the $100-million level,” he says. Much of Blakes’ success in China is no doubt due to Kwauk’s business acumen and his particular talents. Although a native of Vancouver, he is of Chinese descent and speaks fluent English, Mandarin, Cantonese and passable French he picked up during his years as a Mountie. But a large part of Blakes’ success is the
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natural by-product of China’s phenomenal growth over the past decade — of being in the right place at the right time.
“What’s driven China’s growth is its emphasis on education.” — Gordon Houlden Kwauk’s time in China has coincided with the fastest economic growth in that country’s 5,000-year history. In fact, it has been the fastest growth of any country, at any time, in all of recorded history. Since 1998, when he arrived, China has posted double-digit growth every year, meaning essentially that its economy doubles in size every six or seven years. And in a country of 1.3 billion people, the absolute size of that growth is just astronomical. “When I arrived in 1998, there were 800,000 cars in Beijing,” he says. “Today there are 4.5 million. For quite a few months in Beijing this past year, they were issuing 10,000 new license plates a week. Can you imagine? “Of course, the numbers — the GDP growth and increases in consumption, the number of cars — don’t tell the whole story,” Kwauk continues. “What’s even more interesting are the qualitatives. In talking with my colleagues — lawyers, businessmen, politicians,
people who read the papers and who have a pretty good idea what’s going on in China — still, when they visit for the first time, everything they see exceeds their expectations.” His own sojourn in China long ago exceeded his initial expectations. “I was only supposed to go there to set things up. It was supposed to be a two- to three-year posting, but I just stayed. It was too fascinating.”
Go East, Young Man During the past two decades, many alumni, like Bob Kwauk, have watched China’s meteoric rise and answered its siren’s call to “Look East.” Around the same time that Kwauk moved to Beijing, Bernie Mah, ’75 BCom, accepted an offer from Business School classmate Peter Lau, ’75 BCom, to move to Hong Kong and help him grow a retail clothing chain. Now Giordano International Ltd., is one of Asia’s most successful retailers, selling fashionable leisure wear at more than 2,100 outlets in 30 locations around the world. Likewise, Da Li, ’98 BCom, hoped to catch China on its ascent. In 2004, the Edmonton-raised Li opened a software company in Beijing that specializes in document management technology. “When we started, the whole market was completely new. We were the only supplier in China,” says Li. “Now the
Shengda Shoe Factory 6, 2009. The lives of the owners of this shoe factory in Fujian have closely followed the rise of China itself: The children of Qing Dynasty farmers, they became educated, urban manufacturers and sent their own children abroad for a university education. Although their factory produces up to 7,000 pairs of shoes each day for international export, they know that they must always keep looking far ahead, says their niece, Joanna Wong, of Edmonton, because “there are lots of companies hard on their heels to take their place.� Autumn 2010
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market is thriving and we literally cannot keep up with client demand.” The University of Alberta also saw the opportunities earlier than most institutions, and, through its research and teaching, student and alumni connections, has positioned itself as a major nexus in Canada between China and the West. At the centre of that nexus stands the U of A’s China Institute, an institute unique in Canada that leverages the University’s expertise in Chinese affairs to create important teaching and research initiatives between the two countries. The Institute was the brain-child of former university President Rod Fraser, ’61 BA, ’63 MA, ’05 LLD (Honorary), who, on his visits to China in the 1990s, began to see the opportunities of establishing connections in China — and the perils of any university that aspired to world-class status if it failed to do so. Every year, the Institute supports students and faculty study trips to China, as well as individual research collaborations with Chinese universities and China-related community events to the tune of more than $600,000. It holds annual conferences on Chinese relations and investment, energy and economic policy. And in August, it helped the U of A play host to a meeting of top Canadian and Chinese universities. “What’s helped drive China’s growth is its emphasis on education, which is why it’s so attractive to a university to have connections with China,” says Gordon Houlden, director of the China Institute. Although Chinese universities were shut down and virtually destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, they are now thriving, says Houlden, but most “are still in the early stages of their development.” For now, many top Chinese students still see a degree from a Western university as an important stepping stone on the path to a successful career, and universities, in turn, see these students as very attractive candidates. Some 200,000 Chinese nationals will study abroad each year, and in addition to being the creamof-the-crop academically, they also pay tuitions that are several times higher than their Canadian counterparts. In 2008, these students poured $1.3 billion 30
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into the Canadian economy, making education Canada’s largest export sector to China that year, according to a report from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. The U of A has been particularly successful in its efforts to attract student talent from China, says Houlden.
“Chinese students are a tremendous asset to universities like the U of A.” — U of A President Indira Samarasekera “The U of A has more Chinese nationals in its ranks of graduate students than any other Canadian university and is also receiving more of the prestigious — and fully-funded — graduate students sponsored by the China Scholarship Council than any other Canadian university.” Last year, there were 1,366 Chinese nationals enrolled in the U of A’s undergraduate programs, and 691 enrolled in graduate-level programs. Gongpu Wong, a graduate student in electrical and computer engineering, is one of 31 doctoral students currently being sponsored by the China Scholarship Council to earn a degree at the U of A. Although the scholarship requires him to return to China and teach at his home institution— the Beijing School of Posts and Telecommunications — after he receives his PhD, he considers receiving his degree from the U of A to be his “life honour.” “Chinese students are a tremendous asset to universities like the U of A,” says U of A President Indira Samarasekera. “These talented young people bring with them new skills and perspectives that broaden the experiences and understanding of the Canadian students they study with. Their presence on our Canadian campuses is a critical part of our effort to become internationalized, global universities.”
Although some students will stay and build lives in the West, many, like Wong, will return to China, further strengthening the U of A’s connections there. “Youthful impressions tend to be very deep,” says Houlden. “Chinese students who have studied in Canada and then returned to China include both the current Chinese ambassador to Canada and his predecessor. In the future, many very important discoveries will be made on Chinese campuses, and it is in our own interest to stay in touch with those scholars and to develop strong networks with them.”
Research Connections Today there are 82 formal agreements between the U of A and partner institutions across China, supporting innumerable individual research collaborations. As is common in our increasingly globalized world, these connections extend not just to other educational institutions but to governments and businesses as well, creating relationships that benefit everyone involved. A typical collaboration is that of Professor Zhiquan Wang in the Department of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences. Wang has partnered with industry and with researchers at Sichuan Agricultural University (SAU) to analyze the genome for beef cattle in the hopes of identifying traits that lead to improved growth rates and feed-efficiency. In the process, the U of A is helping SAU bring its genome analysis up to snuff with the rest of the world — an important milestone for China, as its people will demand more and more beef as they rise up the ranks to the middle class. Similarly, SAU is providing the U of A with much-needed manpower for the raw processing of the massive genotyping data. The relationship has also established a breeding ground, of sorts, for Wang, who hopes to recruit top PhD candidates to the U of A from among SAU’s ranks. Wang wants to start up a similar research project at the U of A related to swine, and SAU already has one of the major swine research groups in China.
Family Dinner, 2008. China outpaced Japan as the world’s second-largest economy in August. Along the way, “[h]undreds of millions of Chinese have been lifted from absolute poverty,” says Gordon Houlden, director of the China Institute. However, 106 million rural Chinese, such as this family in Guizhou province, are still living below the poverty line of $1 (US) per day. Research conducted at the U of A—in collaboration with Chinese institutions—is working to reduce rural poverty.
One of the most successful collaborations between researchers at the U of A and in China is also one of the most interconnected. Larry Wang, a professor emeritus in the Department of Biology, has drawn together collaborators from the U of A, several Chinese universities, the Chinese government and one very important private investor — childhood friend Sam Chao, who donated his life savings toward the effort — to form the U of A-based ECO Fund, whose goal is the reclamation of China’s famed Yangtze River. Flowing across the entire country, from the Tibetan Plateau to the Pacific Ocean, theYangtze River is the economic lifeblood of tens of millions of Chinese people; however, it has become severely polluted through years of environmental and agricultural mismanagement. Since 2000, Wang has organized more than a dozen pilot projects, mainly in the western province of Yunnan, that have encouraged area farmers to switch from crops such as corn, which erode the soil, to more environmentally sus-
tainable — and economically profitable — crops such as mulberry, walnut, bamboo and pear. The results have been astounding. Not only did the new crops earn the farmers up to 12 times their previous incomes — inducing all of their neighbours to jump on the bandwagon — they have also noticeably improved the water quality along the river. The benefits for China and the farmers along the Yangtze are obvious, fulfilling the vision of the University’s founding president Henry Marshall Tory, ’28 LLD (Honorary) that the U of A’s promise be “the uplifting of the whole people.” But collaborations such as these have also led to very tangible benefits to Alberta and the U of A. By far the biggest benefit to the U of A — and to Alberta — from such close connections to China has been through the establishment of the new Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology. Announced last April, the Li Ka Shing Institute will provide a state-of-the art home for world-class researchers in
their quest to rid the world of virusbased infectious diseases. The establishment of the Institute was the result of a $28-million gift to the U of A — the biggest single cash gift in the University’s history — from a philanthropic foundation established by Li Ka-shing, a successful Chinese businessman. (The provincial government will contribute another $52.5 million.) None of this would have been possible without the groundwork of connections that have been established between the U of A and China over the past 30 years. “China is an important partner for the University of Alberta,” says Samarasekera. “We have more than 30 years of close collaboration with the Chinese government, corporations and institutions. The U of A is renowned in China for its innovative research and breakthrough discoveries as well as its excellence in educational programs. The strong connections between the U of A and China have laid the foundation for the creation of projects like the Li Ka Shing Institute in Virology.” continued> Autumn 2010
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Map licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Last year, Marie Leduc, a PhD candidate in Art History and Sociology, won a year-long scholarship to study Mandarin and do research on contemporary Chinese art at the China Art Academy, one of China’s most famous art schools.
The U of A has a very special relationship with Zhejiang University, one of the top-ranked universities in China. A number of U of A professors and alumni have connections there, which has led to research collaborations and professorial exchanges. And this past year, the U of A hosted dozens of students from Zhejiang’s honour college for a three-week intensive winter session program. Jiancheng Han (left) and Xiaoxiao Du (right) both participated and got their first look at life in the West, where they hope to attend graduate school — perhaps at the U of A.
Previously a project executive for an import/export firm in Hong Kong, Taisa Ballantyne, ’08 BCom, is now in the thick of things at EXPO 2010 in Shanghai, where she is a personnel supervisor at the Canadian Pavilion. On September 1st, the City of Edmonton held a special “Edmonton Day” at the Pavilion to promote the city’s bid to host EXPO 2017. For more information visit www.edmontonexpo2017.com.
Gongpu Wang, who is pursing his PhD in electrical communications engineering, is one of about 30 students admitted to doctoral programs at the U of A each year through a special arrangement with the China Scholarship Council in which the costs are split between the U of A and the Chinese government. “Getting my PhD at the U of A will be my life honour,” says Wang.
How we’re CONNECTED
Since 2005, the U of A has had an agreement with China's Ministry of Science and Technology to establish joint research labs between the U of A and Chinese institutions in areas of strategic importance, including nano-technology, energy, the environment, materials and corrosion, and rural and renewable resources. Professor Zhenghe Xu, a Canada and Industry Research Chair in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, helped set up a joint research lab at Huazhong University of Science and Technology to study the generation of cleaner electrical power from coal, especially controlling trace elements of mercury. And Professor Jie Chen, in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, helped set up a joint research lab with the Institute of Organic Chemistry in Shanghai to study a hybrid Chinese medicine using nanoparticles for cancer diagnosis and treatment.
The University of Alberta has just over 2,000 Chinese nationals attending both graduate and undergraduate programs, and more than 1,400 alumni living in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. It also has several exchange programs, research collaborations and more than 80 agreements with institutions across China. Here are just a few of the University’s many connections to this complex country.
G Where U of A alumni are living G Current students’ hometowns G Institutional agreements
Professor Zhiquan Wang, in the Faculty of Agricultural Life and Environmental Science, is working with researchers at Sichuan Agricultural University (SAU) to analyze the genome of beef cattle to select for traits that will improve growth rate and feed efficiency. As a benefit of the collaboration, SAU gets help bringing its research up to par with global standards and the U of A gets help analyzing the massive genotyping data. The benefits to Alberta cattle ranchers are obvious.
A year-long job posting to Chongqing in 2004 led Katherine Walker, ’04 BCom, to her future husband, Zheng Yunfei. Now, the couple are parents to three-year-old Maizie and the owners of two successful dumpling restaurants. Although she is about to expand her family, Walker also recently expanded her business — starting up a company called Earth, Mom and Baby, which works with ecofriendly manufacturers in China to produce baby and maternity products.
Through the U of A-based ECO Fund, Professor Emeritus Larry Wang has helped establish 12 collaborative projects to improve the water quality in China’s famous Yangtze River — and the quality of life for the tens of millions of people who live nearby. The projects have persuaded area farmers to switch from growing crops such as corn, which contribute to soil erosion, to crops such as mulberry, bamboo, pear and walnut, which anchor the soil — and provide farmers with as much as 12 times their previous incomes. Here, Wang holds a handful of silkworm cocoons, which are grown on mulberry leaves and harvested for their raw silk.
The prestigious China Foreign Affairs University trains many of China’s top diplomats and for the past four years has had a formal agreement with the U of A, in which nearly 100 students join the Faculty of Arts every year after completing a year of study in Beijing.
Jerry Leonard, ’86 PhD, a professor of bioresource engineering at the U of A and a special projects associate with the Edmonton Waste Management Centre of Excellence (EWMCE), has been working with researchers in this “mid-sized” city of 12.5 million to create a sustainable system for composting organic waste produced by surrounding rural communities. Because the rural communities cannot afford a large, complex facility, such as the one at the EWMCE, Leonard is helping them achieve the same effect through smaller, distributed facilities.
Harbin
The School of Business is particularly well-connected throughout China, hosting training programs for Chinese government officials and executives on the U of A campus, as well as semester-long exchanges, summer study tours and internships in China for its undergraduate, MBA and Executive MBA students. “International experience and understanding are essential to any business person,” says Gillian Crichton, a fourth-year business student who attended a summer tour this past May. “This trip provided first-hand exposure to things you can’t read about in a textbook or experience as a tourist.”
Professor Nicola Cherry, in the Department of Medicine, has collaborated with researchers at Anhui Medical University to study the use of health services by older women and young girls in four rural counties, following the introduction of a cooperative medical scheme.
Hohhot Beijing Tianjin
Jinan
Xi’an Nanjing Shanghai
Yue Xi Hefei Hangzhou Wuhan
Chengdu Ya’an
Proving that the world is a very small place, indeed, Guillaume Tardif, ’10 MBA, touched on a number of the U of A’s connections to China this past summer. In May, Tardif, a faculty member in the Department of Music and a recent graduate of the Executive MBA program, visited Beijing and Shanghai as part of the School of Business’ graduate-level study tour. He then travelled to Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, where he played a violin concert with Xiaoxiao Du, whom he met when she participated in a U of A winter session program last February. Finally, he travelled to Hong Kong, where he performed at the Alumni Association’s “U of A Got Talent” event and interviewed Trevor Mak, a managing director at Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong, who had been a guest speaker for his Executive MBA class in the early days of the recent financial crisis.
Chongqing
Fuzhou Taipei
Guangzhou
The Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry has long collaborated with Shantou University Medical College— a university founded by donations from Chinese businessman and philanthropist Li Ka-shing. Now, as part of a significant gift from the Li Ka Shing Canada Foundation to establish the Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology at the U of A, some $3 million has been set aside to fund a joint PhD program between the two schools.
Shantou Shenzen
Hong Kong
The U of A runs several semester- and summer-study abroad programs in Hong Kong and has formal agreements with five different universities there. This dynamic city is also home to the U of A’s largest and most-active alumni branch outside of Canada, which just celebrated its 30th anniversary last November and has a roster of events scheduled for the coming year — from nature hikes to seafood luncheons. “Studying at the U of A was one of the most unforgettable experiences in our lives and helped us launch successful careers back here in Asia,” says Hong Kong Alumni Association President Trevor Mak, ’82 BCom, ’84 MBA. “So we are thrilled to gather together and keep up that strong U of A spirit.” To find out more, join the group “UAAAHK” on Facebook or e-mail executives@uaaahk.org.
The U of A’s Museums and Collections Services recently sent a delegation to Hong Kong, Beijing and Taipei to discuss opportunities with universities, museums, galleries and professional associations there, including policy development and professional exchanges. In addition to the Mactaggart Art Collection, which consists of more than 700 Chinese artifacts, the U of A is home to 35 research and teaching collections, many of which pertain to China and Asia. Red Pottery Female Figure, Eastern Han (25–220 AD), Hong Kong Museum of Art.
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China: 2020 Any university that aims to be among the top 20 public educational institutions in the world by 2020 can hardly ignore the fastest-growing economy in the world, or a nation of 20 million university students (and growing). That is why the University has named China as one of its “areas of strategic importance”—locales where the University will concentrate its efforts and resources to develop major initiatives. “China is important because it constitutes one of the great world civilizations that is regaining its long-held position as one of the leading cultural, economic and political actors on the global stage,” says Houlden, who came to the China Institute after 32 years in the foreign service, most of them spent on China-related issues. “What we’re seeing is the emergence of this as the Asian century, and, for China, equal power with the United States is something that is achievable in the first half of this century.” However, knowing what sort of changes and challenges China’s growth will bring—and how the U of A can best prepare for them — can be hard to predict, even for the experts. This past July, the China Institute hosted a conference titled,“China 2020,” which brought scholars from all over the world to the University of Alberta to discuss and analyze China’s possible paths of development and its growing influence on the world stage in the coming decade. Several of the topics that were hotly debated included China’s influence in the energy and agricultural sectors, areas where the U of A — and Alberta — have already staked major claims. “Hundreds of millions of Chinese nationals are beginning to enter the middle class and want to live according to that standard,” says Houlden — a standard, he says, that includes an improved diet, rich in protein, which millions of Chinese currently lack. “This makes for extremely good news for our agricultural industry in Western Canada.” And good news, too, for Zhiquan Wang and his genetic research on beef and swine. But the implications are even larger in terms of China’s influence in Alberta’s energy sector. After initial reticence, Canada is now opening up its oil industry 34
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“What we’re seeing is the emergence of this as the Asian century, and, for China, equal power with the United States is something that is achievable in the first half of this century.” —Gordon Houlden to Chinese investment. In the past year alone, China’s state-owned oil companies have made a string of moves that have invested some $8 billion in Alberta’s oil sands assets — some of those deals handled by none other than the Beijing office of Blakes and Bob Kwauk. But the potential for future Chinese investment in the Alberta oil sands is even larger. “Given the investment resources that China can bring to bear, Chinese investment could potentially double and redouble in Alberta in the space of 10 years,” says Houlden. After all, China has a growing middle class of
The China Institute The China Institute at the University of Alberta was established in 2005 with an endowment of $37 million from the Government of Alberta — an endowment that matched the value of 700 Chinese and Asian artifacts donated by Sandy and Cécile Mactaggart that form the Mactaggart Art Collection (see story next page). The China Institute’s mission is to forge linkages between China-related initiatives and scholarship at the U of A, to enhance and support new teaching and research activities between Canada and China, to develop an enduring friendship and promote cultural, scientific and business exchanges. Every year the China Institute organizes forums on topics such as foreign policy, education, energy and the environment. To find out more about the Institute’s work and schedule of events, visit www.china.ualberta.ca.
aspiring drivers who’ll need to fill up at the pump. Remember those 10,000 new license plates Beijing was issuing every week? These are not just pie-in-the-sky predictions. If history is any guide, they will fall short of reality. “I’m convinced that if you asked scholars of China some 30 years ago about the range of China’s potential outcomes in 2010, most predictions would have fallen far short in terms of China’s actual openness and economic development,” says Houlden. “Hundreds of millions of Chinese have been lifted from absolute poverty. There will be collisions on individual issues with China... but we should strive for the best possible outcomes. Whatever the course that China follows, it will have a very real impact on all of the world, so we have to have a stake in this enterprise. “My suggestion to Albertans is this: pay attention to China. It will change your life and that of your children in ways that we can only dimly understand now.” Larry Louie, ’82 BSc, is an Edmontonbased optometrist and award-winning documentary photographer who has made numerous trips to China in the past decade. To view portfolios of his work, including work from Asia, Africa and the Middle East visit www.larrylouie.com.
The University of Alberta Alumni Association in China Are you living in Mainland China or Hong Kong, or do you travel there frequently? Send us your e-mail address so you can be the first to know about the many U of A activities in China. In addition to U of A events, get invited to exclusive initiatives involving various levels of the Canadian Government. We often hear about alumni living in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, for whom we don’t have contact information. Help us locate lost alumni by asking them to forward their contact information so they can receive event notices and their own copy of New Trail. To update contact information or to learn more about U of A events, visit www.ualberta.ca/alumni.
Behind the Scenes A peek inside The Mactaggart Art Collection
F
Michael Holly, U of A Creative Services
or 20 years, Edmonton philanthropists Sandy and Cécile Mactaggart dreamt of finding a home for their world-class collection of Chinese art and textiles. They imagined building a world-class museum right here in Edmonton, where the collection could be studied by experts and appreciated by the public. “For years I talked and talked and talked to everyone,” Cécile Mactaggart said in the book Emblems of Empire. “I would get very close, then something would come up and the dream would disappear like a puff of smoke.” Then, in 2005, an unexpected solution presented itself. The Mactaggarts donated a portion of their collection — valued at $37 million—to the University
of Alberta, where an award-winning, one-of-a-kind exhibition, research and storage facility was created for it. Lovingly assembled by the Mactaggarts over the course of 50 years, the gift contains over 700 paintings and textiles, mainly from the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties, and ranks among the top collections of Chinese art and textiles in the world. Among the gems of the Mactaggart Art Collection are several elaborate silk-embroidered robes belonging to the Qing dynasty emperors and some
very fine handscrolls painted by the Chinese equivalents to Michelangelo or Rembrandt in the West, such as the handscroll by Wen Zhengming on the following pages. In many ways, the collection itself is like that beautiful old handscroll, which must be rolled out, scene by scene, to understand the complete narrative. It is only by looking at what appears to be a disparate group of objects — a rank badge, a court robe, a painting — that one can understand the cultural, social and political realities of such a complex era.
Interested in seeing behind the scenes of the Mactaggart Art Collection yourself? The collections are accessible by appointment by contacting museums@ualberta.ca or calling 780-492-5834. The Mactaggart Art Collection is housed in the University’s TELUS Centre at the corner of 87th Ave. and 111th St. For more information, visit: http://museums.ualberta.ca/mactaggart/.
Jim Corrigan, ’79 BFA, ’81 MVA, curator of the University of Alberta Art Collection, unrolls a monumental handscroll — The Qianlong Emperor’s Southern Inspection Tour, which measures a staggering 17 metres in length.
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All images © University of Alberta Museums
Illustration of Costumes from the Qianlong Court: In 1784, the Qianlong Emperor appointed a commission to overhaul the rules for court dress. The new rules were laid out — in excruciating detail — in illustrated albums that explained exactly what each member of court was to wear, how they were to wear it, and when. This illustration depicts a formal court hat, bedecked with pearls, that was to be worn by the empress dowager in the winter. Originally, there would have been about 6,000 of these illustrations. Only 600 are known to exist today — mostly in British Museums — and 34 of those are part of the Mactaggart Art Collection.
Dragon and Phoenix roundel: Rank badges such as this one were worn by all members of the imperial court, with different animals representing different ranks: birds for civilians, mammals for military, dragons for the imperial family. This silk rank badge was made for the empress and also features her personal emblem — the phoenix — creating a balance of yin and yang that was central to Chinese belief: the dragon and the phoenix, the male and female, the emperor and the empress.
L The Qianlong Emperor’s Southern Inspection Tour (detail): Following in the footsteps of his grandfather, the Qianlong emperor embarked on six inspection tours of his lands in southern China, and, like his grandfather, he ordered the court painters to commemorate his tour with 12 monumental paintings. This handpainted scroll depicts the second leg of the journey, near the city of Dezhou, and measures a staggering 17 metres long. This detail shows the emperor riding a palanquin with part of his large entourage.
Leaf from Album of Flowers and Birds (detail): The artist behind this painting of a rabbit, Luo Ping, was a versatile painter of landscapes, flowers, animals, figures — even ghosts. A virtuoso with brush and ink, he executed this painting in the surprisingly difficult, “boneless style”—without an outline —and includes the inscription “painted from life.” Indeed, this simple portrayal seems to capture the rabbit’s very essence.
River Landscape by Wen Zhengming: Although small at
only 17 cm tall, this handscroll painted by Wen Zhengming is one of the most valuable artifacts in the collection. Considered a master artist in China —equivalent to Michelangelo or Rembrandt in the West — Zhengming was also lauded in his own day, as evidenced by the many positive commentaries about him inscribed by other notable artists at the left side of the scroll.
L Battle scene from the Muslim Rebellions in Shaanxi, Gansu, and Xinjiang Provinces (detail): This is one of 67 paintings commissioned by the Guangxu emperor in 1885 to show his success at squashing rebellion. Such paintings were intended to glorify the emperor, depicting the superior numbers and discipline of his military, and were housed in his Throne Hall, where he received foreign ambassadors.
Shoes like this pair of late-19th-century silk slippers adorned the feet of upperclass women in China, who bound their feet from a young age in order to slip into such petite soles into adulthood. Although this particular pair of 4 1/2 -inch slippers was probably made for the tourist market and likely never worn, they do serve as an important illustration of the lengths — or lack thereof — to which women have gone in pursuit of fashion.
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Emblems of Empire: Selections from the Mactaggart Art Collection:
L Embroidered Yellow Silk Imperial Twelve Symbol Robe: Rules governing dress were an important means for maintaining order by clearly designating rank and status. There were five official robe colours: black, blue, red, yellow and white, and each dynasty adopted a new colour upon its ascension to the throne. The Qing dynasty (1644–1911) selected this particular bright shade of yellow for the robes of its emperor, empress dowager and empress. There are many such bright yellow robes in the Mactaggart Art Collection, including this one, which belonged to the Guangxu emperor and dates from the late 1880s.
When the Mactaggarts began collecting, they were convinced that the objects that excited and inspired them would excite and inspire others. In fact, their collection has already inspired three books, including, most recently, the 368-page, full-colour Emblems of Empire, written by two of the world’s leading experts in Qing dynasty art and costume. All three books are available from the University of Alberta Press (www.uap.ualberta.ca).
Informal court robe for the Empress Dowager Cixi: The imperial family distinguished itself from other members of court by the colour, the quality of the embroidery and the nature of the symbolism of their robes. A close look at this robe, belonging to the Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908), reveals the subtlest shading of colours and the perfect execution of each tiny stitch. Likewise, the design features nine golden phoenixes — a number signifying heavenly perfection — flanked by variations on the character for “long life,” symbolism that would have been reserved for the empress dowager.
Portrait of a Manchu Bannerman: Everything about this portrait says something important about the unknown sitter. His style of clothing — especially his hat — cast him as a fourth-ranked Manchu, the nomads who conquered China in the 17th century establishing the Qing dynasty. His brocade-covered sword and his bow and arrows are a testament to his military prowess, while his other accessories — the brush, the books, the teapot — reveal his refined tastes as a Confusian wenren, or man of letters.
More online: Can’t visit in person? Visit the Mactaggart Art Collection online at www.museums.ualberta.ca/ mactaggart where you can search the collection or browse the interactive online exhibit, “Brilliant Strokes,” which examines dozens of prints and paintings from the collection.
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Four-Star Perfor Who? Michael Houghton
What? Canada Excellence Research Chair in Virology Where Was He? Most recently he was chief scientific officer at Epiphany BioSciences in San Francisco, California.
What’s He Been Up To? An internationally recognized expert in hepatitis, he was part of the team that discovered the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the 1980s. The breakthrough allowed for the development of new bloodscreening tests able to detect the virus, techniques now used worldwide to keep patients safe by ensuring that blood supplies are HCV-free. In Canada, it is estimated that there are 300,000 carriers of hepatitis B and C2. What Does He Hope To Accomplish At The U of A? Houghton joined the freshly minted Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology established in April through a gift of $28 million from the Li Ka Shing (Canada) Foundation and a $52.2 million investment by the Government of Alberta. He’s currently working with colleagues to develop a vaccine for hepatitis C, to develop new treatments for patients already infected as well as study new viruses that cause the disease.
What U of A President Indira Samarasekera Says: “Michael Houghton’s discovery of the hepatitis C virus is one of the most significant biomedical breakthroughs in the last 20 years. His work is the foundation of research to improve and save the lives of millions of people around the world. Having him as part of our already impressive team of scientists and the recent establishment of the University of Alberta’s Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology together propel the University of Alberta to the forefront of research into virus-based diseases.”
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“
The goal of my research here is to advance the development of a vaccine to protect people against hepatitis C, which is a very common virus causing various forms of liver disease. Secondly, we want to try and develop a vaccine to actually help in treating patients who already have the infection and the disease. Thirdly, I’d like to contribute to existing efforts here at the University to try and identify the causes of other diseases by viral pathogens.
mance
In May 2010 the U of A was awarded four of the 19 Canada Excellence Research Chairs created in 2008 by the federal government to attract the world’s most accomplished academics to universities across Canada. The U of A attracted twice as many of the best and brightest than any other university in the country. Each Chair comes with up to $10 million in federal funding over seven years for the establishment of ambitious research programs. Let us introduce you to the U of A’s four new academic stars...
Who? Patrik Rorsman
What? Canada Excellence Research Chair in Diabetes
Where Was He? Most recently at University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
What’s He Been Up To? Rorsman is a world leader in experimental diabetes research. He has made significant breakthroughs in mapping out the biology and function of pancreatic islets — research that has led to a greater understanding of how insulin is produced and secreted. His research focuses on understanding the mechanisms for controlling the secretion of hormones, including insulin, and how these mechanisms go awry in Type 2 diabetes. What Does He Hope To Accomplish At The U of A? When he joins the acclaimed Alberta Diabetes Institute in 2011— home to the team that developed the world-
“
renowned Edmonton Protocol islet transplant diabetes treatment — he will study how human pancreatic islets (insulin producing cells) function when both healthy and diseased. Rorsman will work on developing new treatments that preserve, regenerate and transplant insulin-producing cells back to healthy conditions, thereby restoring pancreatic function. Close to three million Canadians suffer from Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
What U of A President Indira Samarasekera Says: “We are thrilled to have Patrik Rorsman join the University of Alberta, because he and the research group he is bringing with him will help bring Edmonton to the forefront of human islet research, which is so important to understanding diabetes. He is a terrific addition to our already outstanding team of diabetes researchers.”
The University of Alberta, and, in my case, the Diabetes Institute, is a great trademark, a great brand. The Edmonton Protocol is well-known all over the world for the pioneering work that has been carried out here over the last 15-to-20 years. It is a fantastic opportunity to be invited to be part of such a vibrant and dynamic research community.
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Who? Thomas Thundat What? Canada Excellence Research Chair in Oil Sands Molecular Engineering
Where Was He? Most recently at University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
What’s He Been Up To? Thundat is a world leader in the study of molecules and nanoscale structures at interfaces. He has pioneered new techniques for detecting molecules on surfaces — even in trace quantities — and has developed new sensors that have tremendous potential applications for oil sands processing as well as other possible applications. What Does He Hope To Accomplish At The U of A? Thundat will develop new detection and extraction technologies to improve the overall efficiency of how Canada’s oil sands are processed. The tools he develops will help with basic understanding of the oil sands interface and eventually lead to extraction processes that are more energyefficient, use less water, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
What U of A President Indira Samarasekera Says: “Thomas Thundat bridges basic research and industry application, with an impressive track record of commercialization. He is a terrific addition to the University of Alberta team researching energy and the environment. His special expertise will have an impact on many aspects of oil production, from extracting the oil, to eliminating tailings ponds, to upgrading products.”
“
What attracted me to the U of A is the people. It has stellar faculty doing amazing work, great facilities and many resources. The goal of my research is basically to understand the fundamental processes involved in the oil sands interface. We will be developing tools and techniques to understand the mechanisms and develop better separation techniques. This research will lead to developing techniques and tools for efficient separation techniques that will be energy efficient and less polluting.
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Who? Graham Pearson
What? Canada Excellence Research Chair in Arctic Resources
Where Was He? Most recently at Durham University in the United Kingdom.
What’s He Been Up To? Pearson is one of the world’s leading scientists in diamond studies and in understanding the creation of diamond-forming roots beneath continents. He is at the forefront of developing new techniques for geochemical analysis and has pioneered new methods of dating minute geological samples.
“
What Does He Hope To Accomplish At The U of A? Pearson will develop the
What U of A President Indira Samarasekera Says: “Graham
first detailed picture of rock formations hidden deep under the Earth’s crust in Canada’s Arctic, revealing new data on the land masses where diamonds are formed. His micro-sampling technique for diamond analysis will be the first of its kind in Canada, leading to a method that takes a chemical “fingerprint” of Canadian diamonds so they can be traced back to the location where they were mined and not be confused with diamonds from conflict zones.
Pearson has spearheaded some of the most important analytical breakthroughs in the field of diamond research, including chemical fingerprinting of conflict diamonds. His expertise in Arctic exploration will help position the University of Alberta as a world leader in diamond studies and will advance the social and economic development of Canada’s North.”
This particular project has offered me the opportunity to study the [rock formations] beneath the Canadian Arctic, a very difficult area to get at, and really solve a problem that is only tractable by the magnitude of funding that the Canadian government has made available. It really would not be possible to do this type of research without this sort of funding, and it would not be possible in any other government environment.
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Reader Friendly A grad ups the literacy ante at the Faculty of Education
O
ne cold winter day while working under a truck in northern Alberta with snow melting down the back of his neck, Mike Mort, ’76 BEd, came up with a better — and warmer — idea on how he might like to spend his days. By the following fall the one-time heavy duty mechanic was enrolled as a fulltime student in the U of A’s Faculty of Education. It was not exactly a spur-of-themoment decision as the Athabasca, AB, native had kept the thought in the back of his mind for the eight years he worked as a mechanic — something he continued to do during the summer months to pay his way through school. “It may have taken me a little while to make the decision to go back to school,” says Mike, “but the working conditions had become such that I had to make a change.” Snow melting down the back of one’s neck does have a tendency to focus the mind on alternative lifestyles. 42
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Mike Mort and his late wife Phyllis inside Edmonton's Muttart Conservatory.
So the beginning of the school year in 1972 found Mike back in the classroom. Two years later he would also marry someone he had got to know in other classrooms during his high school days. That’s where he first met Phyllis Babiak, a girl who was the recipient of the Governor General’s Award for her high marks in Grade 9. Many years later Phyllis Babiak would become Phyllis Mort, ’67 BEd, ’71 BA, ’73 Dip(Ed), ’90 MEd. “We
weren’t high school sweethearts,” Mike says. “But we were friends.” For 34 years Mike was married to Phyllis until she passed away from ovarian cancer not long after attending the Gala Dinner during the U of A’s centenary Reunion Weekend in 2008. It was mainly because of Phyllis that Mike — an industrial arts teacher who spent most of his career in Athabasca — decided to make a legacy gift to the Faculty of Education’s Reading and
It was mainly because of Phyllis that Mike — an industrial arts teacher who spent most of his career in
How Michael’s Gift Works
Athabasca — decided to make a legacy gift to the
Michael has made a residual bequest
Faculty of Education’s Reading and Language Centre.
in his will to transfer a percentage of his estate to the University of Alberta after all debts, taxes, administrative
Language Centre. The “Michael and Phyllis Mort Endowment Fund” will be allocated for use in the Faculty of Education for the purpose of funding projects involving teacher education for the assessment and intervention of early literacy difficulties. Mike says his decision to include the Faculty of Education in his estate plans was made “because it’s giving back to the faculty that’s been good to me and Phyllis.” Phyllis was also a teacher from 1967 through 2001. But his primary motivation, he says, is to remember and honour the memory of his lifelong friend and companion. “It’s really because of Phyllis that I’m doing this,” says Mike. “My wife took a lot of courses on language and reading development. And there was this young fellow, a neighbour, he was 10 or 12, and he couldn’t read and was becoming frustrated at school because, of course, he couldn’t keep up with the school work. His
parents asked me if I could help. But I said, ‘Phyllis is the one you want.’ Within three years she had him reading in complete sentences.” That student invited Phyllis to his high school graduation celebration where he stood up and made a speech declaring, “I wouldn’t be graduating today if it wasn’t for Mrs. Mort teaching me to read.” That same student also recently graduated with a certificate in carpentry from NAIT. “Phyllis was passionate about language and reading development,” says Mike. “We both believe that reading is a gift that is essential for success, wisdom and quality of life. Education had such a momentous impact on our lives, and I know in my heart that if Phyllis were here today she’d want to give this gift of learning that will keep on giving for generations to come.” —Angela Phinlay
expenses and specific bequests have been provided for. Funds from the bequest will create the Michael and Phyllis Mort Endowment Fund. Including a charitable bequest in your will is an effective method of supporting the University without compromising current living standards. As one of the many ways of making a gift to the University, bequests are usually one of the largest gifts an individual can make. Charitable bequests can help reduce the tax payable by the estate, thus allowing more of the estate to be used as desired. If it is your intention to include the University in your will, or if you would like to learn more about how to do so, we would be pleased to hear from you.
Name:______________________________
Ê
Address:____________________________ In 1942, the U of A’s Faculty of Education became the first of its kind in Canada. From 1906 to 1945, teacher training in Alberta was provided by the provincial Department of Education. Beginning in 1912, education courses in history and philosophy were offered through the U of A’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. In 1939, the College of Education was created. After education became a full-blown faculty it would still be three years before it took over all teacher education in the province. However, when the faculty first took root it began with one degree program, 12 courses and three full-time professors. Today it is one of the largest education faculties in Canada with nine undergraduate degree programs and numerous graduate degrees. Employing over 125 full-time professors, the faculty is currently home to more than 3,400 undergraduate students and 800 graduate students. More than 60 percent of the elementary and secondary school teachers in Alberta are U of A graduates, 33 have become presidents of universities or colleges and over 25 percent of the current deans of education in Canada are alumni of the U of A Faculty of Education.
___________________________________ Telephone:___________________________ e-mail:______________________________ Please contact us at: Development Office Gift Planning Unit Enterprise Square 3rd Floor, 10230 Jasper Avenue Edmonton, Alberta T5J 4P6 Telephone: 780-492-0332 Toll Free: 1-888-799-9899 e-mail: giving@ualberta.ca Autumn 2010
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A
ALUMNI AMBASSADORS
Alumni volunteers giving their time and talent in support of the University of Alberta
INTERESTED IN VOLUNTEERING? Here are some ways to get involved and give back to the University: ÇŠ 6WXGHQW 5HFUXLWPHQW ÇŠ &DUHHU $GYLVLQJ ÇŠ -RE 6KDGRZ +RVWLQJ ÇŠ 6WXGHQW 0HQWRULQJ ÇŠ $OXPQL 3URJUDPV DQG (YHQWV ÇŠ &RPPXQLW\ 6HUYLFH 3URMHFWV
Upcoming Opportunities: Student Recruitment Fairs $UH \RX DYDLODEOH WR DWWHQG RQH RI WKH IROORZLQJ IDLUV ZLWK D VWXGHQW UHFUXLWHU" September 13 - Grande Prairie September 14 - Red Deer September 24 - Toronto October 28 - Fort St. John October 15 - Rural Discovery Days $ JXHVW VSHDNHU IURP UXUDO $OEHUWD LV QHHGHG WR LQVSLUH IXWXUH
7R YROXQWHHU DQG OHDUQ PRUH DERXW EHFRPLQJ DQ $OXPQL $PEDVVDGRU YLVLW WKH $OXPQL $VVRFLDWLRQ ZHEVLWH DW www.ualberta.ca/alumni/ambassador
8 RI $ VWXGHQWV October 23 - U of A Open House $UH \RX DYDLODEOH WR VSHQG RQH KRXU JUHHWLQJ VWXGHQWV DW WKH $OXPQL $VVRFLDWLRQ ERRWK" Fall Career Forums - We’re
Or contact the OfďŹ ce of Alumni Affairs at (780) 492-3224 or alumni@ualberta.ca.
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c lassnotes
’40s
’41 Richard Matthews, BCom, ’48 LLB, of Calgary, was appointed a member of the Order of Canada for his many contributions as a philanthropist and arts patron in Alberta.
’60s
’60 Lawrence Mysak, BA(Cert), ’61 BSc, was recently honoured with the inaugural McGill University Medal for Exceptional Academic Achievement. The McGill Medal was created to recognize retired members of the academic staff who have made extraordinary contributions to their discipline, to McGill or to scholarship during their academic careers. Today, Lawrence continues to be active as a member of the Global Environmental and Climate Change Centre.
’61 Danny Daniels, BEd, ’73 PhD, of Sidney, BC, writes, “Following my winning of a bronze medal in the decathlon at the World Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championship in Lahti, Finland, in July 2009, I competed in the World Masters Indoor Track & Field Championships in Kamloops, BC, in March, and this time I won the gold!”
’65 Adriana Davies, BA, ’67 MA, of Edmonton, was recently appointed a member of the Order of Canada in recognition of her contributions to the promotion and preservation of Alberta’s cultural heritage.
’66 Doug Erdman, BCom, was recently named Mountain View County’s first economic development officer. Mountain View County is in southern Alberta and includes the town of Olds and surrounding communities.
’67 Richard Davidson, BA, ’68 LLB, was named the 2010 Citizen of the Year by the Rotary Club of Lethbridge and the Lethbridge Herald for his volunteerism and leadership.
’68 Roy Fearon, DDS, was recently awarded a Distinguished Medal of Service. Presented by the Alberta Dental Association and College, the medal recognizes dentists who have provided outstanding service to the profession and to the public. ’69 Jozef Straus, ’BSc, ’74 PhD, ’00 DSc (Honorary), a physicist, inventor and businessman, was awarded an honorary doctorate of science degree by Carleton University in June.
’70s
’70 Bill Buholzer, BA, of Vancouver, BC, has been elected to the College of Fellows of the Canadian Institute of Planners, an organization that represents the 7,000 city planners across the country. Ian Greene, BA, was presented with the honour of University Professor at York University, where he has been a political science professor since 1985. This is the highest title that can be awarded to a university educator, and there can only ever be 25 University Professors at one time at York University. He was nominated by his co-workers for his long-standing commitment to postsecondary education. Andrew Oliver, PhD, has retired from his position as vice-president, fuel services, for Cameco Corp. Cameco is responsible for all uranium refining, conversion and fuel manufacturing operations in Ontario. Andrew writes that he and his wife, Carol, have moved to Port Perry, ON, “to be close to family and recreational activities.”
’71 Billy Moores, BPE, ’72 Dip(Ed), was recently appointed as the coordinator of player development with the Edmonton Oilers Hockey Club. ’72 Frank Gibson, BCom, of Edmonton, has been recognized as the #1 real estate advisor in Canada with NAI Commercial Real Estate, a distinction he also achieved in 2007 and 2008. Frank is a partner with NAI and a foundation-level member of the Telus World of Science.
’73 Robert Tessari, BSc(Eng), the founder of Tesco Corporation, will be inducted into the Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame on September 23 in Edmonton. Also being inducted is Chancellor Emeritus Eric P. Newell, ’02 LLD (Honorary), the retired CEO of Syncrude Canada.
’74 Ralph Watzke, BA, ’75 LLB, has relocated to Regina, SK, where he continues to do legal research and legal drafting and has become an expert in class action law. Geoff Tate, BSc, of Portola Valley, CA, was recently appointed CEO of Nanosolar, a developer of solar power technology based in San Jose, CA.
Honourable Giving “I’d like to thank the Lois Hole family as well as all the donors for being able to provide these types of scholarships, which allow fortunate students like me to focus on our dreams.” — Sara Houlihan, ’03 BSc, ’07 BSc(Pharm), 4th-year medical student, recipient of the Honourable Dr. Lois E. Hole Student Spirit Award
D
id you know alumni can make “in-honour” gifts to recognize the accomplishments and contributions of family members, colleagues, former professors or classmates — including one or more of this year’s Alumni Recognition Award recipients? An in-honour gift is a unique way to celebrate someone special, and these gifts have a lasting impact on the lives of others, most importantly students. One example of an in-honour gift in action is the expansion of the Honourable Dr. Lois E. Hole Student Spirit Award. Currently, this scholarship is presented to one student each year, but the Alumni Association would like to offer more of these student awards.
This is just one way that your gift can make an impact at the University of Alberta. To learn more about how make an in-honour gift to the Honourable Dr. Lois E. Hole Student Spirit Award or about how to designate an in-honour gift to another scholarship or department please contact the University of Alberta Annual Giving Office.
Learn More About In-Honour Gifts Please contact us at: Development Office, Annual Giving Enterprise Square, 3rd Floor, 10230 Jasper Avenue Edmonton, Alberta T5J 4P6 Phone: 780-492-0332 Toll Free: 1-888-799-9899 e-mail: annualgiving@exr.ualberta.ca
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Several alumni have recently been selected to receive the Alberta Order of Excellence, the province’s highest honour. The new members recognized for their outstanding service to Alberta and to Canada include: Louise Miller, ’71 BSc(Nu), ’79 MBA, a long-standing advocate for people with disabilities; Reza Nasseri, ’70 BSc(Eng), an Alberta-based home builder and community leader; and Bob Steadward, ’69 BPE, ’71 MSc, ’02 LLD (Honorary), a sport scientist and founding president of the International Paralympic Committee.
’75 Hal Kvisle, BSc(Eng), of
’79 John Smyth, PhD, of
Calgary, retired in June as CEO of TransCanada, a position he held for nine years.
Australia, was recently recognized for his interpretive scholarship at the American Educational Research Association’s annual awards ceremony. John, a researcher and professor of education at Australia’s University of Ballarat, was honoured for his book, Hanging in with Kids in Tough Times, and for developing a set of modules that guides teachers and schools through a self-investigation process to better serve their disadvantaged youth.
Karen Lundgard, BSc(Med), ’77 MD, of Peace River, AB, was recently named Family Physician of the Year by the Alberta College of Family Physicians.
’76 Robert Yaro, BEd, of Fort McMurray, AB, writes, “At the end of June I am retiring from the Fort McMurray Catholic School District after 34 years of service. Then, back to Tel Rehov for a season of digging.” Tel Rehov is the site of an important Bronze- and Iron Age city in Israel’s Jordan Valley, which has been undergoing archeological excavation since 1997.
Joy Reneker, BPE, has been working for the City of Calgary for the last 24 years, mainly in the area of health and wellness. She has been living in Calgary since graduation, but loves to travel—most recently, to Israel.
’80s
’80 Bridget Hennigar, BCom, of Grande Prairie, AB, was recently recognized as a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Alberta, one of the highest honours bestowed in the field of chartered accountancy.
’82 Brad Rudy, BFA, appeared in two productions at this summer’s Blyth Festival, in Huron County, ON. The Blyth Festival is one of Canada’s leading creators of original, professional theatre, and Brad appeared in Bordertown Café and The Book of Esther, which made its world premier at the festival. Brad has been an actor for 30 years. He got his start in Edmonton at the Theatre Network and has since performed in theatres across Canada. He was a member of the Stratford Festival acting company for 22 seasons and is currently a sessional acting instructor in Ontario at St. Clair College, Windsor, and Fanshawe College, in London.
Stewart Hamilton, MS, a professor of surgery at the University of Alberta, was recently given the General Service Medal from the Canadian Military in recognition of his service as a surgeon at the Canadian-led hospital at the Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan in the summer of 2008. Tim J. Talbott, BSc(Eng), of Woodbridge, ON, has been appointed president and CEO of Bird Construction Company.
’83 Shirish Chotalia, BA, ’86 LLB, ’91 LLM, chair of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, received the Professional Female of the Year Award presented by the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce on June 12. Shirley Thomas (Bonnell), BSc(Nu), of Mission, BC, writes that she recently received credentials as an associate of the Federation of Canadian Artists with a “landslide vote.” You can view a gallery of her work at www.shirleythomas.ca.
’84 Jean Crozier, BSc, of Edmonton, was recently presented a Distinguished Alumni Award by MacEwan University.
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The Urban Development Institute-Calgary (UDI) recently announced the recipients of the industry’s two most prestigious awards that recognize volunteerism by individuals in the field of land development. James Hammermeister, ’81 BA, president of the Genstar Development Company, received this year’s Ron Nolan Memorial Award, and Michael Dutczak, ’78 BCom, senior vice-president—Canadian Land Operations—of Carma Developers, received the 2010 Spirit of UDI Award.
’84 Altaf “Al” Jina, BCom, ’84 LLB, of Vancouver, writes that he was recently appointed by the British Columbia Law Institute as an advisor to its three-year project to review and strengthen legislation regarding seniors’ assisted living in British Columbia. ’86 Paul Alpern, BCom, ’89 MBA, ’91 LLB, was recently made vicepresident, secretary and general counsel of Stantec, Inc. Stantec is a planning and engineering firm headquartered in Edmonton.
Garth Kirkham (left) with CIM President Mike Allen
’90s
’91 Craig O’Connor, BA, ’03 MBA, has accepted a new position as general manager, Lutech Resources Canada. Lutech is a global recruitment business based in Sherwood Park, AB. “I’m looking forward to helping clients across Canada with their staffing challenges,” writes Craig.
’92 Andrée A. Lortie, ’92 MEd, was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in recognition of her work in advancing French culture. Andrée is president and founder of La Cité collégiale, a French-language college of applied arts and technology located in Ottawa. Sophia Wong, BA, ’96 MA, recently won the prestigious 2010 David Newton Award for Excellence in Teaching at Long Island University in New York. Sophia is an associate professor of philosophy at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus. Anees Chagpar, BSc, ’96 MD, was recently appointed director of the Yale Breast Center at Smilow Cancer hospital in New Haven, Connecticut.
Pam Chamberlain, ’92 BA, ’96 BEd, ’03 MA, has recently published her first book, Country Roads: Memoirs from Rural Canada (Nimbus Publishing), a collection of stories about growing up in rural Canada. [See review page 62.] The book features memoirs from award-winning authors, including Sharon Butala, Roch Carrier, Wayne Johnston and Rudy Wiebe, ’56 BA,’60 MA, ’85 LLD (Honorary). Also featured are well-known Canadians from other walks of life, including singer George Fox, NHL coach Brent Sutter, actor Gordon Tootoosis and Senator Pamela Wallin. After teaching English at the U of A’s Augustana Campus for several years, Pam now lives in Calgary with her husband and two-year-old twin boys. She works part-time as a tutor for Athabasca University and volunteers for the Calgary Twin and Triplet Association. Pam adds that she takes her sons “home” to their grandparents’ farm as often as possible.
’93 Jodi Abbott, MEd, ’96 PhD, of Edmonton, was recently appointed president and CEO of NorQuest College. For the past 11 years, she has held various executive management roles, primarily in the healthcare system. Linda Campbell, BSc, ’97 MSc, a Canada Research Chair in Aquatic Ecosystems Health at Queen’s University, ON, was recently named to Canada’s “Top 40 Under 40” list. This national award, managed by
Garth Kirkham, ’83 BSc, of Burnaby, BC, was awarded the J.C. Sproule Memorial Plaque from the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) for his dedication to the development and practical utilization of 3D modelling for northern mining projects. The award was presented at CIM’s annual awards gala on May 10. “I credit all of my success to my years at the U of A and especially to my colleagues at Theta Chi Fraternity,” writes Garth. “Apart from the awards, I am committed at many levels—provincial and federal—to the advancement of geosciences and to the adherence of industry standards.”
Caldwell Partners International, celebrates the achievements of young leaders in the private, public and non-profit sectors. Paul Matwychuk, MA, ’98 LLB, of Edmonton, was recently appointed general manager of NeWest Press. A familiar face on the Edmonton arts scene, Paul contributes weekly segments to “Edmonton AM” on CBC Radio and is the former editor of Vue Weekly and SEE Magazine.
’94 Dale Keefe, PhD, was recently appointed dean of research at Cape Breton University in Nova Scotia. Father Mike Mireau, BSc, ’97 MSc, was recently appointed by the Archdiocese of Edmonton and the Edmonton Catholic School Board as district chaplain—the first time an ordained priest has held this position. Father Mike is popular with local youth for using pop-culture references and props to bring the Christian message to contemporary audiences.
CONFERENCE SERVICES UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA
780.492.6057 www.ualberta.ca/conferenceservices
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In Memoriam The Alumni Association notes with sorrow the passing of the following graduates:
’34 Ralph C. Davis, BSc(CivEng), of Edmonton, AB, in March 2010 ’36 Hugh Alexander McColeman, BSc(ElecEng), of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 Leonard Walter Harper, BSc, of Calgary, AB, in April 2009 ’38 Lois Margaret Sutherland, BSc(HEc), of Regina, SK, in December 2009 ’39 Jack Morris Goodman, BA, ’43 MD, of Toronto, ON, in December 2009 ’40 Edward Joseph McCarty, BSc(Ag), of Edmonton, AB, in May 2010 Nellie Godfrey (Salamandick), BA, of Calgary, AB, in May 2010 ’41 Harold Gordon Smith, BA, ’50 MD, of Calgary, AB, in May 2009 Jean Catherine Pain, BA, of Calgary, AB, in May 2010 Joan Evelyn Greene (Wood), BA, of Edmonton, AB, in February 2010 ’42 Morton Mickelson, BSc, ’42 DDS, of Vancouver, BC, in May 2010 Peter Windsor Leacock, BCom, of Victoria, BC, in July 2010 Rhoda Bernice Flynn (Neil), BSc, ’44 MD, of Calgary, AB, in April 2010 Stanley Ewart Edwards, BA, ’43 LLB, of Toronto, ON, in May 2010 ’43 Bruce Wheeler Collins, BCom, of Edmonton, AB, in July 2010 Isabel Dickson, Dip(Nu), ’44 BSc(Nu), of Lethbridge, AB, in March 2010 Marion Meston, Dip(Nu), of Edmonton, AB, in May 2010 ’44 Donald Mercer Cormie, BA, ’45 LLB, of Scottsdale, AZ, in February 2010 Patrick John Kimmitt, BSc, ’46 MD, of Edmonton, AB, in May 2010 ’45 Francis Patrick O’Hara, BA, ’47 BEd, ’48 MEd, of Edmonton, AB, in May 2010 Morna Jean Kennedy, Dip(Nu), ’54 Dip(PHNu), of Edmonton, AB, in July 2010 William Lobay, BSc(Ag), ’47 MSc, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 ’46 Francis Glen Cummins, BSc, ’48 MD, of Cambria, CA, in May 2010 Joseph Austin O’Brien, BSc, ’48 MD, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 Kenneth Glenwright Nickerson, BSc, of Whistler, BC, in March 2010 ’47 Leonard Doyal Nelson, BEd, ’49 MEd, of Edmonton, AB, in May 2010 ’48 David Bruce Bullock, BSc, ’50 MSc, of Taber, AB, in May 2010 Dorothy Eliza Jones (Williams), Dip(Ed), ’61 BEd, of White Rock, BC, in May 2010 Norbert Joseph Dust, DDS, of Edmonton, AB, in June 2010
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’49 Albert Joseph Church, BSc(Ag), of Sevin Sisters Falls, MB, in May 2010 Gordon Walker, BSc(CivEng), of Calgary, AB, in June 2010 Henry Clarence Rhodes, BA,’50 BSc(Ag), of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 Jack Garry Stabback, BSc(ChemEng), of Calgary, AB, in June 2010 Lawrence David MacLean, BA, ’52 LLB, of Lethbridge, AB, in April 2010 Walter Joseph Riva, BSc(MiningEng), of Kelowna, BC, in May 2010 ’50 Arthur Peter Martin, BSc(ChemEng), of Calgary, AB, in July 2010 Augustine Frank Komarnicki, BCom, of Edmonton, AB, in July 2010 Burnett George Bartlett, BSc(CivEng), of Kelowna, BC, in April 2010 David Hampton Owen, BSc(Ag), of Vancouver, AB, in June 2010 Howard C. Colwell, BSc(ChemEng), of Sherwood Park, AB, in April 2010 James Albert Proudfoot, BSc(CivEng), of Chinook, AB, in March 2010 Walter Cristall Barron, BA, ’51 LLB, of Calgary, AB, in June 2010 William Edgar Mullen, BA, ’53 BDiv, of Calgary, AB, in July 2010 ’51 Edward Francis Allison, BSc, ’53 DDS, of Calgary, AB, in July 2010 James Palmer Huston, BSc, of Peterborough, NH, in November 2009 Joan Mercia McCreary, Dip(Ed), ’73 BEd, of Calgary, AB, in April 2010 Robert George Brockbank, BSc(CivEng), of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 Robert William Smith, BEd, of Burnaby, BC, in May 2010 Roy Herbert Reynolds, BSc(ElecEng), of West Vancouver, BC, in April 2010 Vernon Smith Shaw, BSc, ’52 BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in May 2010 ’52 Alexandra Warwaruk (Hukalo), BSc(Pharm), of Edmonton, AB, in July 2010 David William Murray, BSc(CivEng), of Edmonton, AB, in July 2010 Donna June Harker (Parker), Dip(Ed), ’53 Dip(Ed), ’54 BEd, of Salt Lake City, UT, in April 2010 Doris Ilene Lawrie (Timney), BSc(Nu), of Calgary, AB, in May 2010 Ernest John Ingram, BEd, ’61 MEd, ’65 PhD, of Leduc, AB, in March 2010 Frances Mary Sikora, Dip(Nu), ’56 Dip(Nu), of Almonte, ON, in March 2010 Ralph Fraser MacDonald, LLB, of Ottawa, ON, in July 2010 Samuel Joseph McKinley, BCom, of Nanaimo, BC, in April 2010 ’53 Emil Semeniuk, Dip(Ed), ’55 BEd, ’68 BSc, of Edmonton, AB, in June 2010
Joan Marcella Clift (Mohler), Dip(Ed), of Edmonton, AB, in May 2010 ’54 Ivan Lazaruk, DDS, of Edmonton, AB, in June 2010 Donna McCalder (Coppock), BEd, of Calgary, AB, in July 2010 Elizabeth Alethea Callow, BA, of Calgary, AB, in May 2010 Gwendolyn Lenore McCormack (Meldrum), Dip(Ed), ’57 BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 John Murray Hunter, BSc, ’58 MD, of Calgary, AB, in May 2010 Mary Magdalen Elniski, Dip(Ed), ’64 BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 ’55 Edward Milton, BA, of Calgary, AB, in July 2010 John Cooper, BSc(PetEng), of Calgary, AB, in June 2010 Karel Puffer, BSc(CivEng), of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 ’56 Andrew Robert Stewart, BA, ’61 MD, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 Michael Worona, BSc(Pharm), ’60 MD, of Pocatello, ID, in January 2010 Oskar Herbert Kruger, BA, ’59 LLB, of Edmonton, AB, in July 2010 Walter Michael Chmilar, BSc(ChemEng), of Calgary, AB, in June 2010 William Theodore Pidruchney, BA, ’60 LLB, of Edmonton, AB, in June 2010 ’58 Eileen Cholach (Burgess), Dip(Ed), ’86 BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in May 2010 Lornadele Jacobsen (Nelson), Dip(Nu), ’62 BSc(Nu), of Arrowwood, AB, in May 2010 Nicholas Holowach, BSc(Ag), ’59 BEd, ’67 MEd, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 Walter Long, BSc(CivEng), of Oakland, CA, in May 2010 ’59 Johannes M Deman, PhD, of Guelph, ON, in January 2010 William Szybunka, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in November 2008 Richard Walker, BSc, of Calgary, AB, in May 2010 ’60 Wilfred Plato, BSc(ElecEng), of Vernon, BC, in May 2010 Elma Catherine McDonald (Waitti), BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in July 2010 Lester Deglow, BEd, of Calgary, AB, in May 2010 Michael Tonks, DDS, of New Westminster, BC, in February 2010 Vernell Lindeburg, BSc, of Whitefish, MT, in June 2010 ’61 Allan James McKinnon, BCom, of Calgary, AB, in July 2009 James Arthur Wood, BSc(Pharm), ’70 LLB, of Lethbridge, AB, in March 2010 ’62 Alexander Cormode, BSc(ChemEng), ’66 MSc, of White Rock, BC, in February 2010
’63 Ernie Philip Wynychuk, BEd, of St. Albert, AB, in April 2010 Fay Francis Deuchar, BSc(MechEng), of Delburne, AB, in April 2010 Margaret Elizabeth Brown, BA, of Edmonton, AB, in May 2010 Samuel Boyd Taylor, MEd, of Regina, SK, in January 2010 Sandra Lea Perkins, BSc(Pharm), of Calgary, AB, in May 2010 ’64 Vivian Elizabeth Saffel, BCom, of Calgary, AB, in February 2010 ’65 Bruce William McIntosh, BSc, ’67 BEd, ’70 Dip(Ed), ’94 MEd, of Edmonton, AB, in June 2010 Heloise Lavon Merrill, BSc(MedLabSci), of Edmonton, AB, in May 2010 Marie Wojtiw, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in May 2010 Marion Kathleen Murray, BEd, of Saint John, NB, in April 2009 Nancy May Molen, BSc, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 Olga Rachel Dorish, BEd, ’73 Dip(Ed), of Sherwood Park, AB, in July 2010 Satish Kumar Srivastava, MSc, ’68 PhD, of Rowland Heights, CA, in June 2010 ’66 Donald George Whitlock, BEd, of Olathe, KS, in April 2010 Norman Allen Maydonik, BA, ’69 LLB, of Edmonton, AB, in May 2010 ’67 Archibald Allan MacPhail, BEd, of Medicine Hat, AB, in June 2010 Marjorie Elaine Greenwood (Joyce), BEd, of Calgary, AB, in April 2010 Mary Seidel, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 Terrence George Altenhof, BSc(ElecEng), of Calgary, AB, in April 2010 Thomas Dionne Shields, BEd, ’69 MEd, of Grande Prairie, AB, in July 2010 ’68 Florence Louise Carrigan, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in May 2010 James Thomas Angus, PhD, of Orillia, ON, in June 2010 Mary Kostash, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in June 2010 Olga Kathleen Bottomley, BEd, of Surrey, BC, in April 2010 Phillip Shragge, BA, ’70 MA, of Edmonton, AB, in July 2010 ’69 Patricia Helen Hurlburt, BLS, of Winnipeg, AB, in May 2010 Regina Marie Vivone-Vernon (Acampora), BEd, of Nanaimo, BC, in April 2010 Rodney Frank Wasnea, BEd, of Whitehorse, YT, in April 2010 Thelma Audrey Crozier, BEd(VocEd), of Calgary, AB, in March 2010 Victoria Jeanne Moroziuk (Lopushinsky), BEd, of Mundare, AB, in June 2010 ’70 Caroline Ann Doyle (Gillis), BA, ’75 BCom, of Ottawa, ON, in March 2010
George Bursell Milner, BEd, of Sherwood Park, AB, in June 2010 Geraldine Cooke, BLS, of Comox, BC, in May 2010 Ileen Bernice Rodnunsky, BEd(VocEd), of Vancouver, AB, in May 2010 Richard Cender, BA, ’71 Dip(Ed), of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 Subhash Uppal, BEd, of Gloucester, ON, in January 2010 ’71 Harry Cymbaluk, BEd, of Wetaskiwin, AB, in June 2010 John Foong, BSc(ElecEng), of Calgary, AB, in April 2009 Robert Mayhew Fulton, LLB, of Edmonton, AB, in June 2010 Wendy Thompson Troock, BEd, of Sherwood Park, AB, in March 2010 ’72 Beverley Ann Cook, BA, of Coquitlam, BC, in June 2010 Catherine Langdahl, BEd, ’73 Dip(Ed), of Camrose, AB, in April 2010 Lloyd O’Toole, MHSA, of Ville De Lac Brome, QC, in April 2010 Margaret Isabel Adams, BEd, of Spruce Grove, AB, in April 2009 Merle Joy Audette, BEd, ’81 Dip(Ed), of Edmonton, AB, in June 2010 Stuart Harris, BA, of White Rock, BC, in May 2010 ’73 Anne Karoline Slavik, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 Brenda Jeanne Rumpel, BA(RecAdmin), of Calgary, AB, in April 2010 Christopher Roy Smith, BEd(VocEd), of Calgary, AB, in April 2010 David Lester Kates, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in May 2010 Gordon Wilinski, BSc(CivEng), of Edmonton, AB, in April 2009 ’74 Barbara Johnston (Page), Dip(Ed), of Penticton, AB, in June 2010 Bryan Leonard Bellman, BSc, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 Gayle Jean Walker (McDonald), Dip(Ed), of Sherwood Park, AB, in April 2010 Narcisse Wilfred Ouellette, BSc, ’95 BSc(ElecEng), of Sherwood Park, AB, in June 2010 Thomas Gage Cooke, BCom, ’77 LLB, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 William John Mullin, PhD, of Ottawa, ON, in May 2010 ’75 Christopher John Culshaw, BCom, of Edmonton, AB, in June 2010 Douglas James Banford, BCom, of Edmonton, AB, in March 2010 James Douglas Daniels, BA, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 Loren Alain Chabot, BSc, ’77 BSc, of Edmonton, AB, in June 2010
’76 Phyllis Mabel Olson, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in March 2010 ’78 Andrew Charles Tymkow, BSc, of Edmonton, AB, in July 2009 Marian Lee Roth, BEd, of Whitecourt, AB, in May 2010 Patricia Anne Cavell, SpecCert(Sc), ’86 PhD, of Edmonton, AB, in July 2010 Roderick William Koski, LLB, of Whitecourt, AB, in June 2010 Wilfried Karl Backhaus, LLB, of Calgary, AB, in October 2009 ’79 Janet Ruth Kuefler, BPE, of Calgary, AB, in April 2010 Jennifer Anne Wonders, BA(RecAdmin), of West Vancouver, BC, in July 2010 ’80 Michael Peter Engels, BCom, of St. Albert, AB, in June 2010 Thelma Mary Sittler (Aslin), BA(RecAdmin), of Darwin, Australia, in May 2010 ’81 Michael Thomas Devall, BSc(ElecEng), of Calgary, AB, in May 2010 ’82 Denise Christine Kantypowicz, BSc, ’97 MSLP, of St. Albert, AB, in May 2010 Preciosa Torregoza Sales, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in May 2010 Ralph Stewart Niederlag, BA, of Wetaskiwin, AB, in April 2010 Sammy Chi Keung Yung, BSc(ElecEng), ’94 MBA, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 Violet Rose Fraser, BA, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 ’84 Eric William Butler, BCom, of Surrey, BC, in March 2010 ’87 Damjan Radovan Jocic, BSc(ElecEng), of Montreal, QC, in June 2010 ’89 Robert James Kelly, BSc(Spec), ’93 MD, of Edmonton, AB, in May 2010 ’90 William Thomas Brownlee, PhD, of Calgary, AB, in June 2010 ’91 Jacqueline Gayle Willis, BSc(PT), of Edmonton, AB, in May 2010 ’93 Patricia Ellen Crane, MSc, ’00 PhD, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 Sheri Lynn Popowich, BA, of Edmonton, AB, in July 2010 Patrick Joseph Barrett, LLM, of Edmonton, AB, in March 2010 ’95 Gary William McPherson, LLD (Honorary), of Edmonton, AB, in May 2010 ’96 Sean Edward Mazurek, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in June 2010 ’00 Jodi Lynn Schribar, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2010 Patricia Elaine Anderson, MEd, of Red Deer, AB, in May 2010 ’03 Michael Maxwell Pollard, PhD, of Kanata, ON, in February 2010 *** Submit remembrances about U of A graduates to alumni@ualberta.ca. Tributes are posted on the “Memory Lane” webpage at www.ualberta.ca/alumni.
’94 Roxanne Felix, BSc, of Edmonton, writes that since an announcement about her book, Women of the Apocalypse (Absolute Xpress), appeared in the winter issue of New Trail, “I’ve reconnected with many old classmates and colleagues and had a lot of interest in the book.” Roxanne coauthored the book with former classmate Eileen Bell, ’96 BA, and two other writers. “Because of the added support, I am pleased to announce that our book was the winner for ‘Best Work in English (Other)’ in the 2010 Prix Aurora Awards for Best Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy 2009. Thanks for your support and interest.”
’95 Trevor Anderson, BA, an Edmonton-based filmmaker, recently received a 2010 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award. ’96 Stephen Williams, BMus, joined the Edmonton Arts Council this July as director of grants, awards and support programs. He took this position after working in various arts and grants-related roles with the Government of Alberta and the Canada Council for the Arts since 2005. After graduating from the U of A, Stephen enjoyed a busy freelancing career, including being the stage manager for the Alberta Baroque Ensemble and a conductor with the Festival City Winds community band programme. He performed regularly as a trumpet player in the Edmonton region, with many appearances in the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra trumpet section, and taught brass students from beginner to college level, including at the U of A’s Augustana Campus. Stephen lives in Edmonton with his wife, Suzanne Vuch, ’98 BMus, their two children, and Purr. C. Grainger, their cat.
’97 Paul Gross, BFA, who recently starred in the Canadian-made West-
ern Gunless, was hired by actorturned director Peter Berg to write the script for the $220-million action film Battleship, based on the popular board game. Filming is scheduled to start in August. Dan MacQueen, BSc, ’00 MSc, recently completed his PhD in physics at the University of Toronto, where he worked on the collider detector experiment at Fermilab, Illinois. He has now joined the University of Regina as a physics lab instructor. Dan Riskin, BSc, can be seen leading the scientific discussions on the TV series Monsters Inside Me, which airs on Animal Planet and explores what happens to humans when they fall prey to parasites. Dan, a researcher at Brown University in Providence, RI, was recently a guest on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
’00s
’01 Amanda Babichuk, BCom, owner of D’Lish Urban Kitchen, a restaurant and catering company in Edmonton’s 124th-Street area, was recently named Alumni of the Year by Terra, a centre that offers support for pregnant and parenting teens.
’02 Brianna Erban, BA, ’06 MA, is heading to Washington, D.C., to intern at the Smithsonian Institute in the Cultural Resources Center of the National Museum of the American Indians. A student in the University’s School of Library and Information Studies, Brianna will graduate from this program in November. Chyrelanne Kuipers, BEd, writes, “On August 5, I flew to China to teach Grade 6 science at The International School in Macau. Since graduating in 2002, I’ve been fortunate to combine my love of teaching with my love of travelling—living in Belize, Australia and now Macau.” Follow Chyrelanne’s adventures on her blog at www.chyrelanne.ca. Asif Ali, ’01 BScNu, of Edmonton, writes, that he and his wife, Nausheen, became the proud parents of a baby boy in December 2009. “Also, in May 2010, I received my private pilot license,” Asif adds. “And recently I’ve have started working towards my commercial license.”
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’03 Heather Ray, BA, recently published a children’s fantasy novel entitled The Charm Tree: Book One of the Shansymoon Series (Trafford Publishing).
’05 Ryan Lawrence, BSc, a captain with the Canadian Air Force, recently returned from deployment in Haiti, where he was tasked with providing humanitarian and medical assistance following the devastating earthquakes there in January, 2010. “We set up shelters, transported patients from one location to another, held limbs during surgery, landed helicopters with supplies, translated what the locals were saying, made triaging more effective, and provided security,” writes Ryan. “What we saw was devastating. Homes flattened, people displaced... food in short supply, and a nation in utter shock.” Ryan and his wife, Jazmin, also a captain in the Air Force, were recently reunited after being deployed simulateously—Ryan to
Haiti and Jazmin to the Mediterranean region. You can read the accounts of their deployments in the Canadian Forces journal, The Maple Leaf, Vol. 13.
elevate your meeting experience The Banff Centre
’07 Jennifer Klein, PhD, of Edmonton, writes that while finishing up her postdoctoral fellowship at the U of A, she has coauthored a book, Adventures of Edmonton: Your ABC Guide, a “guidebook that leads kids and their families to well-known places, as well as some hidden gems, within Edmonton.” For more information about the book, visit www.adventuresofedmonton.com. Jennifer is about to embark on her own adventure this year—moving with her family to southern France.
’10s
’10 Sriram “Sam” Ethirajulu, MEng, of Edmonton, writes that he has recently joined ATCO Electric as a project manager, adding, “The U of A engineering program helped a lot.”
BRAND NEW!
At The Banff Centre
The Kinnear Centre for Creativity & Innovation a multidisciplinary learning and meeting facility s SQUARE FEET OF MEETING SPACE s 4ECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED s )NSPIRATIONAL VIEWS
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Alumni Education Programs Learning doesn’t end when you get your degree. Sign up for our Alumni Education programs and keep the joy of learning alive!
ni Alum ub Cl Book
Retirement Planning
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For more information on all our alumni education programs visit
www.ualberta.ca/alumni/education or call 780-492-1835 toll free 1-800-661-2593 58
new trail
Autumn 2010
“The EDMONTON
OILERS ” ®
Chronograph Watch atch
Edition Limited to 4999 watches ONLY!
• A handsome tribute to one of the most beloved teams in the NHL® • Expertly crafted in stainless steel with an adjustable C-clasp • Three subdials for minutes, seconds, and hours • Precision Quartz Movement • Water resistant to 3 ATM • Presented in a custom-designed collector’s case • Individually engraved on the back with the issue number
Be One of Only
4999 FANS
To Acquire this Watch
Five-time winners of the coveted Stanley Cup®, the Oilers® have a championship legacy to uphold, and continue to thrill their devoted fans with every goal, check, and hard-fought shift. Now you can display your passion for the Oilers® with the all-new “Edmonton Oilers® Chronograph Watch.” Edition Limited to Only 4999 Watches
Finely hand-crafted in stainless steel, each contemporary-styled watch is engraved on the back with a number signifying its place in the limited edition of 4999. Handsomely styled with a stainless steel bracelet and three subdials— seconds, minutes and hours—the watch also features a date window, a precision quartz movement, and an adjustable “C-clasp.” It’s even water resistant up to a depth of 3 ATMs. But hurry—this edition’s desirable lower numbers will go to those who act promptly! A Remarkable Value—Available for a Limited Time
This handsome watch comes with Certificate of Authenticity in a FREE collector’s case. An exceptional value at $199*, you can pay for it in four monthly payments of $49.75. To reserve your watch, send no money now; just fill out and mail the Reservation Card. But hurry, this is a limitedtime offer and only 4999 watches are available!
®
Officially Licensed Product A Fine Jewelry Exclusive from The Bradford Exchange LIMITED TIME OFFER
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Reservations will be accepted on a first-come first-served basis. Only 4999 watches will ever be made
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YES. Please reserve the “Edmonton Oilers® Chronograph Watch”
for me as described in this announcement. Limit: one per order.
Shown actual size Reverse side shown actual size *Plus $19.99 shipping and service. All orders will be charged G.S.T. or H.S.T. as appropriate. Please allow 4-6 weeks for shipment of your watch after we receive your initial deposit. Subject to acceptance at home office and credit approval. Prices in offers subject to change.
©2010 BGE CA01-10934-001-BI01
Please Respond Promptly
Mrs. Mr. Ms. Name (Please Print Clearly)
Address City Province
Postal Code
01-10934-001-F15801
www.bradfordhockey.ca/oilerswatch
Alumni Events For more events and up-to-date information, subscribe to e-trail, the Alumni Association’s monthly electronic newsletter, at www.ualberta.ca/alumni/e-trail. September 23, 2010 – Edmonton, AB In association with Edmonton’s Next Gen Committee, the Alumni Association will bring Pecha Kucha Night to campus as one of our many Alumni Weekend events. Pecha Kucha is a highenergy showcase— started in Tokyo— designed to give young people the chance to talk about local art and culture through short presentations. Visit www.ualberta.ca/alumni/weekend for more information or to register September 23, 2010 – Edmonton, AB Join us for this special session of the Walter Johns Alumni Circle, where we will showcase the talents of two of our 2010 Alumni Recognition Award recipients: paleontologist David Krause, ’71 BSc, ’77 MSc, and land reclamation expert Terry Macyk, ’68 Bsc(Ag), ’72 MSc. Reserve your complimentary tickets at www.ualberta.ca/alumni/johnscircle or by calling Angela at 780-492-1835. September 23, 2010 – New York, NY The Canadian Association of New York is hosting its 18th Annual Canadian Universities Alumni Reception at the beautiful Roosevelt Hotel, and U of A Alumni are entitled to a discounted rate. For more information, visit www.canadianassociationny.org. September 23, 2010 – Vancouver, BC Come out for a casual evening at “V Lounge” at Earls Yaletown. Meet and mingle with other U of A grads and groove to the DJ. This is a great opportunity to network. Register online at www.ualberta.ca/alumni/VanV. September 24, 2010 – Edmonton, AB Mixed Chorus Alumni Reception & Rehearsal. Meet up, rehearse and perform at Saturday’s Alumni Dinner. Registration required. If attending the Alumni Dinner, you must RSVP for it as well. Visit www.ualberta.ca/alumni/mixedchorus for details. September 25, 2010 – Edmonton, AB Catch up with old friends at the Lister Hall Alumni BBQ, 11:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. There will be tours, family activities and a beer garden. For detail visit www.ualberta.ca/alumni/listerhall.
September 25, 2010 – Edmonton, AB Three distinguished Albertans with ties to the University of Alberta will share their perspectives on “Reinvigorating Democracy in Canada.” Visit www.ualberta.ca/alumni/weekend for event details and to register. September 29, 2010 – Edmonton, AB The Alumni Association and artsScene are bringing the inspirational TED Talks to the Art Gallery at Edmonton’s Enterprise Square. Bring your lunch and join us over the noon hour to hear from some of the world’s most fascinating people. Reserve your seat early at www.ualberta.ca/alumni/ted. This is an on-going, monthly event, so check the event website for the dates for future TED talks. October 2, 2010 Walk or run the 4K route during the 51st Annual Turkey Trot or challenge yourself by running the 8K route. Join the Alumni Association’s team and a portion of your registration will be donated to the United Way. Details at: www.ualberta.ca/alumni/ runningclub. October 23, 2010 – Los Angeles, CA Join other University graduates from Canada at this All-Canadian Alumni Event held at the Peterson Automotive Museum, home to many rare and classic cars. Check www.canadiansabroad.com for more details. October 23, 2010 – Vancouver, BC Join us at our fun casino event at the beautiful River Rock Resort, where you can mingle with fellow alumni. Instead of cash, use your “Bear Bucks” to play games of chance and win prizes. For more information or to register, visit www.ualberta.ca/ alumni/VanCasino. October 30, 2010 – Calgary, AB November 6, 2010 – Edmonton, AB Don’t let the recession delay your retirement—get a plan! The Alumni Association is pleased to offer regular seminars on retirement planning led by one of Edmonton’s leading professional retirement planners. Visit www.ualberta.ca/alumni/retirement or call Angela at 780-492-1835 for details or to register. On-going Events in Edmonton
September 25, 2010 – Edmonton, AB Were you a member of a U of A fraternity or sorority? Enjoy a reception and tours of fraternity and sorority houses during Alumni Weekend. For more information e-mail Chris Wudarck at cwudarck@ualberta.ca. Visit www.ualberta.ca/ alumni/weekend to RSVP.
September 25, 2010 – Edmonton, AB Dental Hygiene alumni are invited to the annual Dental Hygiene Reunion & Reception, 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. in the Edmonton Room at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald. For more information, visit www.ualberta.ca/alumni/dentalhygiene.
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RUNNING CLUB: Whether you come for fitness or just for fun, the Alumni Association’s Running Club is a great opportunity to get active while meeting fellow alumni. Runs are scheduled for Mondays at 5:30 p.m. and Thursdays at 7:00 p.m. To join, contact Karla at karla.barron@ualberta.ca.
100 Years of Gateway! November 19–20, 2010 – Edmonton, AB The Gateway, the U of A’s student newspaper, is celebrating its centenary in 2010. Join the Gateway Alumni Association and the Gateway Student Journalism Society for a pub night on November 19, and, on November 20, come to the open house and centennial gala dinner with keynote speaker Peter Lougheed, a Gateway alumnus and former Premier of Alberta. To register call Vi at 780-492-2896 or go to www.ualberta.ca/alumni/gateway.
November 14, 2010 – New York, NY Cheer on the Oilers as they take on the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. As details are confirmed, more information will be on our website at www.ualberta.ca/alumni. November 21, 2010 – Victoria, BC Join us for our traditional tea at the Empress Hotel— a great way to start the holiday season and enjoy the hotel’s fabulous holiday décor. For more information, check www.ualberta.ca/alumni. November 25, 2010 – Lethbridge, AB Each year the Lethbridge branch is pleased to present its annual Unique Experiences Dinner, where alumni enjoy a gourmet dinner while listening to a talk by a fascinating guest speaker. For more information check www.ualberta.ca/alumni. November 25, 2010 – Edmonton, AB Join us for a casual gathering of students, alumni and friends as the Alumni Association celebrates the holidays. Check back at www.ualberta.ca/alumni/ socials as plans unfold. November 28, 2010 – Vancouver, BC Sunday brunch at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club is an annual tradition you shouldn’t miss. For details visit www.ualberta.ca/alumni/VanBrunch. December 4, 2010 – Hong Kong, HK The U of A Alumni Association of Hong Kong is planning its annual holiday dinner, so save the date. Check the UAAAHK website at www.uaaahk.org for updates.
ALUMNI BOOK CLUB: Join us for the upcoming season of the Alumni Book Club, which meets the first Thursday of the month, beginning November 4th, with both afternoon and evening sessions. Our theme this fall will be “Faculty Faves,” and three of the Book Club’s favourite past presenters will each pick one of their favourite books to share with the group. For details, visit www.ualberta.ca/ alumni/bookclub or call Angela at 780-492-1835.
WALTER JOHNS ALUMNI CIRCLE: Come back to campus for a regular sampling of the vibrant intellectual and cultural life of the University. The Johns Alumni Circle features lectures and presentations by top faculty members and an opportunity to meet and mingle with fellow alumni. Sessions are usually held on the third Thursday of each month from 10:00 am to noon. Call Angela at 780-492-1835 or visit www.ualberta.ca/alumni/ johnscircle for details.
Following
the
trails
Footsteps
of
University
of
Alberta
Alumni
his 30 x 22 centimetre oil on board painting called Oil Country by Julian Forrest, ’05 MFA, is part of his current work that, he says, “explores themes of loss of control and violence—but often violence at a remove. “Stylistically,” he continues, “I cannibalize imagery that I feel is either symbolic or emblematic and recycle these parts in subsequent reworked narratives. My paintings owe to the source material—the found photos pulled from the Internet — however, the source material is often altered or juxtaposed with other images in order to speak to the idea of memory, context and storytelling. This body of work recounts a narrative of real violence re-imagined.” Forrest has also taken to painting portraits of portraits that examine the modern phenomenon of people taking photos of themselves and posting them to Internet sites. “Unlike a traditional studio portrait,” he says, “the photographs on these sites are often taken at home, or at least in private, and are fairly spontaneous. These paintings are, in some manner, an expression of the 21st century portrait.” To see more of Forrest’s work go to www.julianforrest.com. Autumn 2010
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bookmarks Endymion Spring: The Story of Cirrus Flux Matthew Skelton, ’93 BA, ’95 MA Penguin Canada, www.penguin.ca
hank you, Matthew Skelton, for playing hooky from your PhD in book history to read Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series. If not for this late-night escape, Skelton may never have been inspired to put pen to paper, and readers would not have been graced with The Story of Cirrus Flux. The backdrop for this young adult fantasy novel is 18th-century London, during the Age of Enlightenment, where scientists dabbled in mesmerism and electricity experiments, but in Skelton’s world there’s room for magical wonders such as fire-winged birds and the Breath of God, an ethereal substance with mysterious powers. Members of the Guild of Empirical Science believe orphan boy Cirrus Flux possesses this wondrous element and will stop at nothing to wrest it from him. A fellow orphan, Pandora, catches wind of the Guild’s plot and risks her life to save Cirrus. He flees to London’s streets to find sanctuary but learns the Guild has a long reach. Cirrus must uncover the secret of the Breath of God—which may also hold the key to his parentage— before the Guild nabs him. While Pullman’s influences on The Story of Cirrus Flux are evident from the juxtaposition of science and magic as well as the parallel between the Breath of God and the dust particles in His Dark Materials, Skelton excels on his own merits with a dual storyline that fleshes out his world and Cirrus’ character. He’s an adept storyteller who propels the story forward with thrilling adventure sequences and seamlessly weaves authentic historical elements into the main action. One of the novel’s memorable moments is a hanging boy demonstration, an allusion to Stephen Gray’s experiment involving static electricity and a suspended boy. The historic and literary references may flit past younger readers, but the world Skelton’s characters inhabit will enthral anyone who enjoys fantasy novels. His first book, Endymion Spring, showcased a fledgling writer’s emerging talent. The Story of Cirrus Flux proves Matthew Skelton has spread his wings and taken flight. Warning: this fast-paced novel may cause more than a few young readers to play hooky from their studies. Marty Chan, ’90 BA, is the author of several plays and books for young readers, including, most recently, The Mystery of
T
the Mad Science Teacher.
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Country Roads: Memoirs from Rural Canada Pam Chamberlain, ’92 BA, ’96 BEd, ’03 MA Nimbus, www.nimbus.ca very kid who grew up in the country has memories full of sunny days, hard times, bare feet and chores. In Country Roads, Pam Chamberlain has collected 34 of these stories, told by country kids from across Canada, including alumni authors Pamela Banting, ’90 PhD; Andrew Beattie, ’03 BA; Andrew Leitch, ’86 BA; Harvey Walker, ’65 BA, ’69 BEd, ’87 DipEd; and Rudy Wiebe, ’56 BA, ’60 MA, ’09 DLitt (Honorary). The personal narratives in this collection form a history of rural living, from homesteads at the beginning of the 20th century to large-scale grain operations at the end. With over three generations of rural residents and numerous different experiences, these memoirs form a common touchstone. Whether growing up in a small town or on the farm, there is a sense of difference and separation from the world of the city. As the numbers of urban dwellers continue to climb, as more and more farmers sell their cattle and land, giving up a life that is less and less sustainable, those left in the country feel ever more keenly how distinct and precarious their way of life is. There is a sense that once you leave the country, you can never really go back. Or rather, you can go back, but it will never, and can never be the same. This loss is exactly why such
E
a collection of stories is so important. As Shelley A. Leedahl writes in her story, “Road Trip: Why I Write About Saskatchewan,” we write about the places we are from: Because there are still almost a million people here whose stories deserve to be told, and most will never put pen to paper… because some day someone might want to know what it was like to live in this particular part of the country, the world, the universe, at this particular point in time, and I want to be able to say, Listen, it was like this. Erin Peters, a fourth-year English student at the U of A’s Augustana campus, grew up on an acreage in Calmar, AB.
Pam Chamberlain on the family farm, aged 18 months.
Children of the Klondike
NON-FICTION:
Frances Backhouse, ’83 BSc
People of the Lakes: Stories of Our Van Tat Gwich’in Elders
Introduction by Ted Harrison, ’77 BEd, ’05 LLD (Honorary) Whitecap Books, www.whitecap.ca
iners, dog sled drivers, stowaways, dance hall performers, entrepreneurs and prostitutes—these are not roles you would normally associate with children, but the children who lived in the Klondike during the early days of the gold rush were, in many ways, no ordinary children. In Children of the Klondike, Frances Backhouse tells the stories of the children who accompanied their parents north in the first rush of gold fever, those who were born there— some en route —and the remarkable few who ventured there all on their own. You’ll meet nineyear old Emilie Craig, who was among the first children to scale the steep and treacherous Chilkoot Pass in 1898, and little Margie Newman, the “Princess of the Klondike,” who performed in vaudeville shows in Dawson and whose “natty neatness and grave conscientiousness ... endeared her in the hearts of the big men who go so often to see her.”
Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation and Shirleen Smith, ’82 BA, ’86 MA, ’99 PhD University of Alberta Press, www.uap.ualberta.ca
M
What’s Wrong with Our Schools and How We Can Fix Them By Michael X. Zwaagstra, Rodney A. Clifton, ’69 BEd, ’71 MEd, and John C. Long, ’67 BEd, ’79 PhD Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, www.rlpgbooks.com
Adventures of Edmonton: Your ABC Guide Jennifer Klein, ’07 PhD, and Wen Kauffman www.adventuresofedmonton.com
10 Career Essentials: Excel at Your Career by Using Your Personality Type Children were often enthusiastic participants in the Gold Rush.
Although scholarly, this book— like its predecessor, Women of the Klondike (recently reissued in a 15th anniversary edition)—is an engrossing read. Backhouse can weave a story with as much adventure as Twain and as much humanity as Dickens— stories like that of eight-year-old orphan Martin Eagan, who stowed away in the coal bunker of a Seattle steamer in search of a father who’d gone off to the gold fields and hadn’t been heard from since. Given that children were a rarity in the Yukon in those early years, they were fawned over by the rough miners, many of whom had left behind children of their own for the chance to strike it rich. Often, the birth of a new baby was heralded by gifts of thousands of dollars in the “choicest nuggets.” But as more than one parent discovered when such babies were taken from them prematurely, the children themselves had been gifts more precious than gold. Life was clearly hard for the children of the Klondike, but in Backhouse’s recounting they also led “doubly enchanted lives,” with a freedom to explore a vast and untouched wilderness that today’s children can only read about in books. As one former Klondike child recalled decades later from her Seattle nursing home, “I couldn’t imagine a better place to be a little girl.”
Southern-born Sarah Ligon is attempting to raise her own child in the frozen north of Edmonton.
Donna Dunning, ’76 BSc, ’85 Dip(Ed), ’91 MEd Nicholas Brealey Publishing, www.nicholasbrealey.com
The Beginning of Print Culture in Athabasca Country by Patricia Demers, translated by Naomi L. McIlwraith, ’89 BPE, ’00 BA,’07 MA, and Dorothy Thunder, ‘02 BA University of Alberta Press, www.uap.ualberta.ca
Wake-Up Call: Tales from a Frontier Doctor Sterling Haynes, ’49 BSc, ’51 MSc, ’58 MD Caitlin Press, www.caitlin-press.com
That Mighty Art of Black-and-White: Linley Sambourne, Punch, and the Royal Academy Juliet McMaster, ’63 MA, ’65 PhD, ’09 DLitt (Honorary) Ad Hoc Press
J.B. Harkin: Father of Canada’s National Parks E.J. “Ted” Hart, ’67 BA, ’71 MA University of Alberta Press, www.uap.ualberta.ca
FICTION & POETRY:
The Collected Works of Pat Lowther Edited by Christine Wiesenthal, ’92 PhD NeWest Press, www.newestpress.com
Sana and Morgana Go to School Bodil Jelhof Jensen, ’70 BA, ’72 MA, ’79 LLB BSM Books
Crisp: Collected Stories R.W. Gray, ’03 PhD NeWest Press, www.newestpress.ca Autumn 2010
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Pavel Zhdanov
photo finish
Mask of Sorrow T
his is an image of The Mask of Sorrow, a statue in the northeastern Russian city of Magadan commemorating the scores of political prisoners who suffered and died in the Soviet Gulag system. The picture is part of a collection of photos from the Madagan area curated by the husband and wife team of Elena Khlinovskaya Rockhill and Lawrence Khlinovskaya Rockhill. The photos were taken by Pavel Zhdanov and Audrey Osipov, who was born and still lives in Madagan. Elena is the principal investigator for a Canadian Circumpolar Institute-based (CCI) international project called “Moved by the State: Perspectives on Relocation and Resettlement in the Circumpolar North.” Her husband is a University of Cambridge professor emeritus and visiting scholar at the U of A’s CCI. From 1932 to 1953, Magadan was the administrative centre for the Stalin-era Gulag forced labour prison camps in that region of the Soviet Union. Designed by famed
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sculptor Ernst Neizvestny, The Mask of Sorrow consists of a statue of a face with tears coming from the left eye in the form of small masks. The right eye is in the form of a barred window. The back side portrays a weeping young woman and a headless man on a cross. Inside is a replication of a typical Gulag prison cell. The Soviet Union once heavily subsidized Madagan to attract people to the region to work the mines and develop other resources. When the funding dried up in post-Soviet times, nearly 60 percent of the population left the region. As a social anthropologist, Elena is fascinated by the spirit of those who have chosen to remain and thinks that spirit may resonate with northern Canadians. The Madagan exhibit is part of the CCI’s celebration of its 50th anniversary and will be on display beginning in October at the Cameron Library. For more on the Canadian Circumpolar Institute go to www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/CCI.
LE DERS ALBERTA ALBERTA
MBA MB A 2009
MBA M B LAZINE MCKENZIE MCK KENZIE MANAGEMENT CONSU MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT ULLTANT A SIERRA S IERRA S SYSTEMS YSTEMS Coming out to Alber Alberta ta to complete my MBA was the best T professional a decision I’ve ever made. The and personal growth that I’ve experienc ced over the course of my experienced degree has enabled me to o move for ward in my forward career par ticularlyy in step pping pp p g into a projec p j career,r, p particularly stepping project management role so earlyy on.
FULL-TIME, PART-TIME, FULL-TIME, PART-TIME, EXECUTIVE, EXECUTIVE, F ORT MCMURRAY, MCMURR AY, FAST FAST TRACK TR ACK MBA MBA FOR F OR FORT B US I N E S S G R ADUATES BUSINESS GRADUATES Spe Specializations ecializations in: Natural Nat tural Resources, Energy & Env Environment ironment Technology T ech e hnology Commercialization Finance, F ina ance, International Business Public Policy Pub blic P o olicy & Management LLeisure eissure & Sports Management 200 2009/10 09/10 Study T Tours: ours: o F France, rance, China, Germany Germany, y, Aus stria, Norway y, and Columbia Austria, Norway,
E D M O N TO TO N C A N A D A
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TOP T OP IN IN C CANADA ANADA Top T o op 100 Globally Globally l Financial F iinancial T Times im i es of Lo London onddon 2010
Olive you are invited! Join us at the U of A’s
Alumni Weekend
September 22–26, 2010
..WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22..
..SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25..
Alumni Recognition Awards
Alumni Dinner & Dance
..THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23..
Campus Tours
Pecha Kucha Night
Saturday Scholars Series
..FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24..
..SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26..
Bears Football & Kick-to-Win Your Tuition
Green & Gold Breakfast
For info on these and other events call 780-492-3224 or visit:
www.ualberta.ca/alumni/weekend