New Trail Spring 2014 by University of Alberta Alumni

S P R IN G 2014

UNIVERSIT Y OF ALBERTA

ALUMNI MAGA ZINE

Alan Nursall Flips for Science

W W W.NEW TR AIL .UALBERTA .C A

The Daily Planet contributor shares his wildest onscreen moments

Beyond BioWare: Ray Muzyka Levels Up First MD, then game developer â&#x20AC;Ś his new drive is to change the world

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S P R I N G 2014 VOLUME 70 NUMBER 1

NE W TR AIL .UALBERTA .C A

features 16

16 Ray Muzyka’s Next Chapter BioWare founder’s third career is about giving back

23 Map Out Your Best Summer Ever Alumni and U of A experts weigh in for this “green and gold guide” to ensuring the season is a sunny one

42 Profs Who Make a Mark Students describe the impact of three special instructors

departments 46

Your Letters Our Readers Write

Bear Country The U of A Community

Whatsoever Things Are True Column by Todd Babiak

Question Period Alan Nursall talks wild TV science moments

48 Events In Edmonton and Beyond

Class Notes Keeping Classmates Up to Date

In Memoriam Bidding Farewell to Friends

Photo Finish The Picture-Perfect Finale

Supervising Editor Cynthia Strawson, ’05 BA, ’13 MSc Editor Lisa Cook, @NewTrail_Lisa Associate Editors Christie Hutchinson, Sarah Ligon, Karen Sherlock Art Director Marcey Andrews Contributing Photographer John Ulan Design and Production Trevor Horbachewsky, Leslie Stewart, ’88 MA New Trail Digital Shane Riczu, ’12 BA, Ryan Whitefield, ’10 BA, Joyce Yu, ’07 BA Editorial Assistant Bridget Stirling Proofreader Philip Mail Advisory Board Anne Bailey, ’84 BA; Jason Cobb, ’96 BA; Susan Colberg, ’83 BFA, ’91 MVA; Tom Keating; Glenn Kubish, ’87 BA(Hons); Lawrence Kwok, ’04 BSc(Eng); John Mahon, ’76 BMus, ’83 MBA; Kiann McNeill; Robert Moyles, ’86 BCom; Julie Naylor, ’95 BA, ’05 MA CONTACT US Email (Comments/Letters/Class Notes) alumni@ualberta.ca Call 780-492-3224; toll-free 1-800-661-2593 Mail Office of Alumni Relations, University of Alberta, Main Floor, Enterprise Square, 10230 Jasper Ave., Edmonton, AB T5J 4P6 Facebook U of A Alumni Association Twitter @UofA_Alumni Address Updates 780-492-3471; toll-free 1-866-492-7516 or alumrec@ualberta.ca TO ADVERTISE lesley.dirkson@ualberta.ca This University of Alberta Alumni Association magazine is published three times a year. It is available free to more than 145,000 alumni and non-alumni friends, and on select news stands. The views and opinions expressed in the magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Alberta or the U of A Alumni Association. All material copyright ©. New Trail cannot be held responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. ISSN: 0824-8125 Copyright 2011 Publications Mail Agreement No. 40112326 If undeliverable in Canada, return to: Office of Alumni Relations University of Alberta, Main Floor, Enterprise Square 10230 Jasper Ave. Edmonton, AB T5J 4P6

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upfront

ALUMNI COUNCIL EXECUTIVE President Glenn Stowkowy, ’76 BSc(ElecEng) Past President Jane Halford, ’94 BCom Vice-President: Reputation & Messaging Mary Pat Barry, ’04 MA Vice-President: Educational Engagement Lorne Parker, ’08 EdD Vice-President: Centenary Wanda Wetterberg, ’74 BA(RecAdmin) Vice-President: Histories & Traditions Rob Parks, ’87 BEd, ’99 MBA Vice-President: Volunteerism Tom Gooding, ’78 BSc(MechEng) Vice-President: Alumni Student Council Chris Grey, ’92 BA, ’95 MBA Board of Governors Representatives: Jane Halford, ’94 BCom Don Fleming, ’76 BEd Senate Representatives Cindie LeBlanc, ’01 BA Anne Lopushinsky, ’79 BSc Secretary Linda Banister, ’83 BCom, ’87 MPM

EX OFFICIO Honorary President Indira Samarasekera Vice-President (Advancement) O’Neil Outar Vice-President (University Relations) Debra Pozega Osburn Executive Director, Alumni Association Sean Price, ’95 BCom, MBA Acting Dean of Students Robin Everall, ’92 BA(Spec), ’94 MEd, ’98 PhD Graduate Students’ Association Susan Cake Students’ Union William Lau, ’13 BSc(Nutr/Food)

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FACULTY REPRESENTATIVES Academic Representative Jason Acker, ’95 BSc, ’97 MSc, ’00 PhD, ’09 MBA Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences Reint Boelman, ’97 BSc(Ag) Arts Glenn Kubish, ’87 BA Augustana Sandra Gawad Gad, ’12 BSc Business Charlene Butler, ’09 MBA Campus Saint-Jean Cindie LeBlanc, ’01 BA

Dentistry Vacant Education Lorne Parker, ’08 EdD Engineering Tom Gooding, ’78 BSc(MechEng) Extension Sunil Agnihotri, ’05 BA, ’12 MA Graduate Studies Chris Grey, ’92 BA, ’95 MBA Law Ian Reynolds, ’91 BCom, ’94 LLB Medicine Vacant Native Studies Carolyn Wagner, ’06 BA(NativeStuHons) Nursing Vacant Pharmacy Sheena Neilson, ’06 BSc(Pharm) Physical Education and Recreation Wanda Wetterberg, ’74 BA(RecAdmin) Public Health Ximena Ramos Salas, ’87 MPH Rehabilitation Medicine Vacant Science Fred Johannesen, ’84 BSc(Spec) Members at Large Linda Banister, ’83 BCom, ’87 MPM Ron Glen, ’89 BA(Spec), ’04 MBA Darryl Lesiuk, ’87 BA, ’91 BCom, ’07 MBA

Sean Price, ’95 BCom, MBA Associate Vice-President Tracy Salmon, ’91 BA, ’96 MSc Director, Alumni Programs Kara Sweeney, Director, Alumni Engagement Coleen Graham, ’88 BSc(HEc), ’93 MEd Senior Manager, Strategic Initiatives

OFFICE OF ALUMNI RELATIONS

There is a certain amount of nostalgia for Linda Banister, ’83 BCom, ’87 MPM, as she meets with the team from Localize — an Edmontonbased startup. Working at the ground level with this fledgling company takes her back to her own first days as an entrepreneur. “I leave the meetings energized by the discussion and in awe of the entrepreneurial spirit,” says Banister, who is president of Edmontonbased Banister Research & Consulting and also volunteers on the U of A Alumni Council. Banister was paired with the Localize team through the Alumni Association’s new Venture Mentoring Service. (You can read more about the VMS and its chair, Ray Muzyka, ’90 BMedSc, ’92 MD, on page 16.) What Linda brings to the table is so much more than just experience, says Meghan Dear, ’03 BSc, founder and CEO of Localize. “Linda will find and address problems and constraints I’m facing with incredible insight, stories and reflections,” says Dear. “She helps to resolve where I’m going.” Dear is certainly someone who appreciates the value of connections. Her company helps food producers connect with consumers who want to know more about their food: where it comes from, who produced it and how it was produced. Localize tells the story of food, allowing consumers to form a personal relationship with the companies they are supporting. The VMS program is also about connections. When the voice of experience and the enthusiasm of a new entrepreneur come together in a room, there is value for everyone. I encourage you to create a connection through the Alumni Association. Not everyone will be a VMS mentor, but there are plenty of other ways to stay engaged with alumni from every generation: volunteer with our Do Great Things Challenge, attend alumni events or lectures, or send a class note to New Trail. Find what works best for you at ualberta.ca/alumni. Not only will you stay connected to the university, you will also strengthen your ties to the greater U of A alumni community. We are a quarter-million strong and what we can do together is so much greater than we can achieve as individuals. Or, to borrow a phrase from Meghan Dear: it’s only together that we can resolve where we are going.

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Glenn Stowkowy, ’76 BSc(ElecEng), President, Alumni Association

We would like to hear your comments about the magazine. Send us your letters by post or email to the addresses on page 1. Letters may be edited for length or clarity.

Keep in touch between New Trail issues. Find web-exclusive content online, or sign up for regular email updates. Visit newtrail.ualberta.ca to see these stories and more.

Medical Mentors What a delight to read through The Impact Issue of New Trail [Winter 2013] and see all of the innovations created by U of A alumni, all focused on making the world a better place. I was also thrilled to see two of my most influential mentors from the U of A in these pages. When I was in medical school in the mid-1980s, we spent part of an afternoon touring the hospice run by Helen Hays, ’71 MD, ’14 LLD (Honorary), (page 42) at the Edmonton General Hospital. In that brief exposure, Dr. Hays taught me about the centrality of good pain management and the dignity of human life — a seed she planted that later led to my involvement in the first-ever palliative care service in Kingston, Ont. Pictured on page 68 was Gordon Lees, ’72 BSc(Med), ’74 MD. Dr. Lees was my first preceptor on my first rotation as a clinical clerk on the surgical service at the University of Alberta Hospital. He was unfailingly good-natured, patient and generous. My efforts to remain professional when tired and under pressure derive directly from Dr. Lees’ example. These role models’ “way of being” had such a major impact on my development and future in medicine. I offer my thanks to Dr. Hays and Dr. Lees, along with a general merci to all my former teachers back at the U of A. – Ruth E. Dubin, ’81 PhD, ’85 MD, Kingston, Ont.

Camouflage Faux Pas

Impact Choice Questioned

I would like to draw your attention to “Study Looks at Soldier Stress in Afghanistan” [Winter 2013, page 9] in which you note Ibolja Cernak’s research with the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). The reader’s eye is immediately drawn to the image of the military helmet on the page. I would like to advise you that this is not a CAF camouflage pattern. I am a nursing officer in the Royal Canadian Medical Service — the medical branch of the CAF — currently posted to 1 Field Ambulance in Edmonton. I deployed to Afghanistan in 2011, where I was a nurse in the NATO Role 3 Multinational Medical Unit, the military hospital on Kandahar Airfield. As both a U of A grad and as a military officer, I found it a bit disappointing to see the magazine mention such valuable research, yet it did not do its research and post a picture of a Canadian military pattern helmet. While this may seem like a small thing, many people receiving the magazine are, or were, serving members of the CAF and may be put off by the magazine’s inattention to research and detail. – Lt. (Navy) Dave MacLean, ’07 BScN, Edmonton

It is, of course, wonderful to tell the stories of successful alumni, but in the case of the feature story in The Impact Issue of New Trail about Pat Daniel, [’68 BSc(ChemEng), ’10 LLD (Honorary)], former CEO of Enbridge, I must take exception. Mr. Daniel may have grown Enbridge into a large and influential multinational corporation, but at what cost? Under Mr. Daniel’s leadership, Enbridge displayed time and again a shocking disregard for environmental stewardship and for those affected by Enbridge pipeline spills, exemplified best by the infamous Kalamazoo River [Mich.] spill in 2010. Although I applaud Mr. Daniel’s personal philanthropic efforts, it’s a shame those ideals did not penetrate into the psyche of the company he steered for so many years. – David Ehret, PhD, ’73 BSc(Hons), Agassiz, B.C.

New Trail Dinner Party Pull up a chair as New Trail invites alumni and food experts to sample some tasty southern barbecue (page 32).

Q&A with Kim Campbell The former prime minister and founding principal of the Peter Lougheed Leadership College talks about her new role (page 10).

Surgery 101 Let Thumbs and Dr. Scalpel take you on a tour of the OR in this episode of Surgery 101 (page 64).

A lifesaving ‘hair clip’ Dennis Filips, ’87 BSc, demonstrates the device he invented that stops bleeding fast and is already saving lives.

A Day at U School Follow volunteer Cathy Zoleta, ’11 BSc, as she mentors young children through the U of A Senate’s U School program. new trail spring 2014 3

President Nears End of Term After nearly a decade at the helm, Indira Samarasekera has announced she will end her term as the U of A’s 12th president and vice-chancellor on June 30, 2015. Samarasekera took on the role in July 2005. She led development of Dare to Discover: A Vision for a Great University, which has acted as a guiding force for the university. In her March announcement, Samarasekera said there is still much work to be done. She reaffirmed her commitment to ongoing academic transformation, administrative efficiencies, culture change and the creation of sustainable financial models with an emphasis on fundraising. “My focus remains on the vision articulated in Dare to Discover: to inspire the human spirit through outstanding achievements in learning, discovery and citizenship in a creative community, building one of the world’s great universities for the public good.”

New Trail Earns 11 Awards New Trail magazine has earned 11 awards so far this year for excellence in writing, design and photography — 10 CASE VIII awards and one AMPA award. The CASE VIII awards celebrate excellence in marketing and communications for professionals working in post-secondary environments. The group represents 130 member institutions in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada. New Trail earned a gold for the Autumn 2013 dinosaur cover illustration (pictured above) by Julius Csotonyi, ’98 BSc(Hons), ’02 MSc, and a Grand Gold prize honouring contributing photographer John Ulan as Photographer of the Year for his body of work throughout 2013.

New Trail associate editor Sarah Ligon also earned writing recognition from her peers by taking home the silver for Profile Writing at the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association Showcase Awards, which took place in March. The award honoured Ligon’s profile of Randy Marsden, ’89 BSc(ElecEng), which ran in the Spring 2013 issue.

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U of A Tops for Canada Research Chairs Eleven U of A faculty members recently received Canada Research Chair appointments, renewals or tier advancements worth $12.7 million — the highest total of any university in Canada. The U of A is now home to nearly 100 chair holders across the humanities, social sciences, health and natural sciences and engineering.

PHOTOS BY RICHARD SIEMENS

Communications professionals across the University of Alberta did well this year, with a total of 20 CASE VIII awards.

IMAGE COURTESY OF ALBERTASAT

Crowdfunding Gives Student Projects a Head Start Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform, was the first thing that came to mind when University of Alberta physics professor Ian Mann and his team of 60 student researchers started looking for ways to raise money to build the first made-inAlberta satellite. But the team found a better fundraising solution right on campus. Through the university’s new crowdfunding platform, Mann and his team have raised more than $35,000 without the paperwork, fees and hassle associated with independent fundraising platforms like Kickstarter. The team is still working toward its final fundraising goal of $60,000 — the amount it will take to get the satellite off the ground. Their project, Lift Off Alberta!, is one of three that collectively raised more than $60,000 through the U of A’s crowdfunding campaign in partnership with USeed, a post-secondary fundraising platform. Another team raised more than $10,000 to make Pride Week 2014 activities more accessible, and a group of students who are expanding the Play Around the World youth recreation project into Canada’s North raised more than $15,000. A total of 697 donors supported the three pilot projects. The University of Alberta is the first Canadian university to partner with USeed to crowdsource funds for students and researchers across campus. “Crowdfunding enhances the U of A’s traditional and existing sources of philanthropy, providing an additional, fun way to help student initiatives and campus projects achieve excellence,” said O’Neil Outar, vice-president of advancement. “I encourage anyone on campus looking for new ways to support their project or research to apply and see what might be possible through this mechanism.” Crowdfunding projects run for 30 days, must be related to a university purpose and must include student involvement. The most successful campaigns typically aim to raise about $5,000. www.advancement.ualberta.ca

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HIDING AND SEEKING FUN

STUDENT LIFE

From navigating the maze-like hallways and secret rooms of the Biological Sciences Building to accidentally angering West Edmonton Mall security, hide-and-seek adventures have landed Adam Pinkoski, president of the U of A’s Hide & Seek Club, in some strange situations. The third-year phys-ed student launched the group with some friends last September. Club members break into teams of hiders and seekers to compete against each other. Pinkoski hopes the club can eventually bring the university community together to break the world record for the largest game of hide-and-seek. WHAT LED YOU TO START THE CLUB? All five of our executives worked at the Telus World of Science in the summer. We were a cohesive group and we wanted to do something during the summer, so we started playing hide-and-seek. In the fall, we decided to make an official club on campus. We spent the entire month of September setting everything up, getting it in place, and it kept going. It’s just fun. We thought hide-and-seek was the perfect game for everyone. Who didn’t play hide-and-seek when they were younger?

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Adam Pinkoski (right) and his U of A Hide & Seek Club track the students who participate in events based on age groups and faculties. What did they find? There is no one group that is attracted to hide-and-seek. The game appeals to everyone.

and treat your school with respect. WHAT MAKES A HIDING MASTER? Talking to people. Chances are if people are in a campus building on a Friday night, they

spend a lot of time there and know it well. For our game in HUB, someone showed our members a trap door in the floor of the Titan Lounge. We couldn’t find a single person because they were all under the floorboards. My personal

favourite is hiding by blending in. Some people grab newspapers and start reading them, hiding in plain sight. – Madeline Smith More Online Watch a video of the Hide and Seek Club in action at newtrail.ualberta.ca.

PHOTO BY JOHN ULAN

WHAT ARE THE CAMPUS RULES? We have the “10 commandments of hide-and-seek” — like no hiding in a classroom unless you get verbal permission or it’s empty. If you’re representing the club, you want to put your best foot forward. You have to abide by the student code of conduct

FROM THE COLLECTIONS

UNCOVERING CAMPUS TREASURES Summer is the perfect time to pack a picnic and head to North Campus. Spread a blanket in one of the beautiful green spaces and cleanse your “palette” with some amazing public art. Since its early years, the U of A has avidly collected artwork and historical artifacts, including paintings, prints, drawings and sculptures by Canadian and international artists. The University of Alberta Art Collection now includes more than 9,000 pieces.

Kubos, William Gregory

PHOTOS BY RICHARD SIEMENS

Located in the education quad, Kubos plays on the words “kudos” and “cube” and is intended to complement the bold forms of the Education Building with its diagonal thrusts. This sculpture has served as inspiration for many pranks through the years: in the early 1980s, it was covered with painted plywood to resemble a giant Rubik’s cube.

Pillar, Andrew Michael French, ’99 MFA Situated on Saskatchewan Drive across from the picturesque river valley, Pillar casts a large and lovely shadow at the northernmost end of HUB. It is one of the collection’s master of fine arts thesis presentations and reflects the high calibre of artists who graduate from the U of A.

South Flats, Sir Anthony Caro, ’90 DLitt (Honorary) From Caro’s Flats series, this monumental welded and bolted steel sculpture has been a familiar sight in Quad for nearly four decades. Caro is noted as one of a number of modernist sculptors who brought sculpture off the pedestal to the viewer’s plane, creating a more intimate experience.

All across campus are the 29 interdisciplinary collections that make up the University of Alberta Museums. This unique model distinguishes the U of A as one of the world’s great public universities. The collections are used daily for teaching, research and community engagement. museums.ualberta.ca

Management Programs Citation Programs

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Conflict Resolution

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Management Development Human Resources Management Information Technology Management Risk and Insurance Management

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Management Bootcamp

780.492.3027 www.extension.ualberta.ca/management new trail spring 2014 7

Students can look forward to a fall reading week beginning in November 2015. Green and Gold Week, an idea originally put forward by the Students’ Union, will be scheduled to coincide with the Remembrance Day holiday. It is intended to improve students’ mental wellness and academic success. Students gave the idea an overwhelming vote of approval in a 2011 plebiscite. “We are giving the students a break at a time when, frankly, we start seeing students get stressed out and we see some of the highest numbers of visits to our mental health centre,” said outgoing Students’ Union president Petros Kusmu, ’12 BA(Hons).

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BEARS AND PANDAS RACK UP STELLAR SEASON The U of A Golden Bears hockey team won a record-setting 14th Canadian Interuniversity Sport national championship, one of three CIS national championships — Pandas rugby and Bears volleyball also came out on top — and 10 Canada West or regional titles for the Green and Gold. It’s the 21st straight year that the U of A has won at least one national championship. – Matt Gutsch

PHOTO BY JOSH SCHAEFER

U OF A GIVES STUDENTS A BREAK

RESEARCH IN THE NEWS U of A research is always making waves across the media. Here’s the lowdown on what’s up in our labs lately.

Romantic Success Linked to Parental Relationship in Adolescence

$10 DIAMOND REVEALS OCEAN OF DISCOVERY When an international team of researchers led by Graham Pearson, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Arctic Resources at the U of A, purchased a dirty brown diamond for $10, they didn’t expect it would reveal an ocean inside the Earth. Analysis of a mineral grain trapped in the diamond showed it contained 1.5 per cent water, suggesting its subterranean place of origin might contain as much water as the world’s oceans combined. The finding changes the understanding of the planet’s water cycle and has implications for the study of volcanoes and plate tectonics. – CBC News

A recent study by U of A researchers suggests relationships between parents and teens can have a small but measurable impact on their romantic relationships up to 15 years later. Using data gleaned from a survey study that followed nearly 3,000 people from adolescence to adulthood, researchers led by Matt Johnson, assistant professor in the Department of Human Ecology, concluded that about eight per cent of the variation in the quality of young adults’ romantic relationships could be explained by how they got along with their parents as teens. – NPR

WILDLIFE TOURS Polar Bear Safari

One-day charter from Calgary, Edmonton or Saskatoon for a safari experience on the tundra. October & November departures.

Grizzly Bear West Coast Adventure

One-day fly & cruise from Calgary or Edmonton to Khutzeymateen Valley near Prince Rupert to view bears, eagles & whales. June & July departures.

Churchill Beluga Whale Weekend

Experience the beauty of Canada’s North. This two-day tour has history, wildlife and the midnight sun. August departure from Calgary.

TOP PHOTO BY RICHARD SIEMENS

New Device Diverts Water Dangers Sushanta Mitra and a team of researchers from the Department of Mechanical Engineering have developed a device that detects the presence of E. coli in water within minutes — potentially saving lives. Results that would typically take 24 to 48 hours to confirm using current methods take only five to 10 minutes using Mitra’s rapid sensory device. Positive results for pathogens trigger an alert via smartphones, warning people of any potential danger to the drinking water supply, with the goal of preventing widespread illness. – Edmonton Sun

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ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

Jordan Baker, ’13 BCom, cracked the record as the U of A Golden Bears’ basketball all-time conference scoring leader in January. Baker’s 1,562-point tally breaks the record set in 1996 by Greg DeVries, ’96 BEd. – University of Alberta News David Hancock, ’75 BA, ’79 LLB, was sworn in as Alberta’s newest premier on March 23 following the resignation of Alison Redford. He will serve in the role until the Progressive Conservative party chooses a new leader. – CTV News Andrii Deshchytsya, ’95 MA, was named foreign minister by Ukraine’s “Euromaidan” Council following the overthrow of president Viktor Yanukovich. He joins former economy minister Arseny Yatseniuk, named to head the new government. – The Irish Times

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KIM CAMPBELL HEADS NEW COLLEGE FORMER PRIME MINISTER KIM CAMPBELL has been named founding principal of the new Peter Lougheed Leadership College at the University of Alberta. The college is part of a collaboration between the U of A and the Banff Centre, to create a globally recognized leadership development program. Campbell said she is honoured to play a role in cultivating leadership skills in students from every discipline on campus, particularly in the name of the late Alberta premier. “In Peter Lougheed, you have a wonderful figure around which one can rally, who is symbolic of this place but also symbolic of the very goals one would want students to aspire to — that kind of imaginative, far-seeing, ethical, courageous leadership that the world needs.” The Banff Centre has named Dan Buchner, an award-winning designer and leadership expert, as inaugural vice-president of the Peter Lougheed Leadership Institute. – Bryan Alary Watch an interview with Campbell at newtrail.ualberta.ca.

LEFT PHOTO BY DON VOAKLANDER, RIGHT PHOTO BY RICHARD SIEMENS

U of A alumni who made headlines recently

SCIENCE EXPLAINED by Robyn Braun

Did Hawking say ‘no black holes’? Well, not technically

PHOTO BY NASA/JPL-CALTECH

Physicist Don Page talks us through the science behind Stephen Hawking’s recent headline-prompting pronouncement

Don Page has a unit of time named after him: Page time. It’s the time it would take for a black hole to emit half its radiation. “It’s longer than the age of the universe,” says the University of Alberta physicist, whose area of expertise is cosmology and theoretical gravitational physics. “I like to say they named it for me because I’m such an old guy.” He mentions Page time in an effort to explain the significance of a recent article by his former supervisor, Stephen Hawking, in which the renowned physicist pronounced, “There are no black holes.” Sci-fi fans everywhere can relax, though. Hawking doesn’t want to do away with the idea of black holes, just with the current definition, explains Page. Traditionally, it was thought a black hole’s gravitational force was so strong that nothing — not even light — could escape its boundary, known as the event horizon. But in the 1970s, physicists began to realize that this idea doesn’t jibe with a central principle of quantum mechanics: information is never lost. Since that time, the physics community has determined that both energy and information do escape from black holes. “There’s stuff inside the black hole, stuff just outside the black hole and stuff that’s been radiated and is farther away from the black hole,” Page says. The “stuff” (information and energy) in each of these areas constitutes a “system.” But this creates a further conundrum for physicists. Why? You’ll need to follow this closely. According to quantum mechanics, one system can be correlated to another. This is called entanglement. “The stuff that’s just outside the black hole must be entangled new trail spring 2014 11

SPEND SUMMER ON THE PATIO AT THE FACULTY CLUB Family BBQ’s (Live music, face-painting, balloon artist and cupcake decorating) Wednesday, July 16 & Wednesday, August 20 Summer BBQs Every Friday & Saturday all summer long Complimentary Wine Tasting Friday, August 15 Golf Tournament Monday, August 25

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In April, Page arrived in England, where he met with Hawking and others. They continued work on the problem. “I saw very little in his opinions to disagree with, but I don’t think he yet has an argument strong enough to convince the firewall advocates who disagree with Stephen and me and believe there are firewalls,” says Page, who is preparing for publication what he calls “a partial argument” against firewalls. As physicists debate the question, the rest of us will have to wait to find out the answer. But, hopefully, not a Page time.

Don Page (second from left) meets with fellow physicists (from left) James Hartle, Stephen Hawking and Thomas Hertog in April 2014.

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

SPECIAL ALUMNI OFFER Associate Memberships to the Faculty Club are now available to U of A alumni. For more information, visit uofafacultyclub.ca or call 780-492-4231. Want to give the Club a test run before committing to a membership? U of A Alumni are invited to sample the Saturday brunch buffet on a cash basis. Limited, one-time offer.

PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER POPE

with what’s been radiated previously, which means that it’s no longer entangled with what’s inside the black hole,” says Page. This is because of the assumption that information is not lost, he says. “So across this threshold — between the inside and the outside of the black hole — you get these huge energy densities.” These energy densities, which wrap around the inside of black holes and wouldn’t be visible from the outside, are known as “firewalls.” And herein lies the conundrum: very few people in the physics community believe in a firewall because it “conflicts with what most of us expect based on our past observations,” says Page. Of course, physicists are reliant on past observations because, well, they’re not

exactly going to find any eyewitness accounts. “We have no reports from anyone who has fallen into an old black hole, so we don’t have actual observations that directly conflict with firewalls. … Obviously, we can’t rule it out entirely. But we don’t see events of this magnitude in the universe.” In other words, expecting the existence of firewalls would be pretty much like expecting the Earth to suddenly halt in its orbit of the sun. Hawking’s paper was an attempt to deal with this apparent contradiction. He proposed that instead of an event horizon, from which nothing can escape, black holes are bounded by an “apparent horizon,” where the effects of entanglement are perhaps not as great. In doing away with the traditional definition of black holes, he could claim “there are no black holes.” But has Hawking solved the conundrum of the firewall? “I don’t think he has the full answer yet,” says his former student.

History’s Hopeful Future

ILLUSTRATION BY SONIA ROY

by Todd Babiak

his winter, I was invited to talk about the University of Alberta on an Edmonton radio program. The hosts were interested in the similarity between the plot of my novel, The Garneau Block, and the fate of 10 houses in the East Campus Village. Many of the houses were historic, nearly 100 years old, and a few were quite beautiful. The people who had lived in the houses, or had used them as offices, would soon say goodbye to Saskatchewan Drive. The radio hosts had hoped for a controversial interview. In The Garneau Block, the university plays the villain who forces residents to sell their homes to make way for a centre for animal husbandry. In reality, the university already owns the real estate. The houses on it were in the news primarily because the U of A was —in an effort to clear space for new student residences —giving them away to anyone willing to pay the cost of transferring them to a new location. I stubbornly refused to be furious. In The Garneau Block, a fiction, I invented controversy. On the radio, that cool but sunny afternoon, all we had were facts. Still, we had two segments to fill. So we talked generally about the state of built heritage in Edmonton and the golden West. In Alberta, and elsewhere on the western half of this continent, we have been so in love with progress that we have overlooked and ignored history. It’s heartbreaking to see photos of Edmonton before the Second World War: the lovely old brick and stone buildings on Jasper new trail spring 2014 13

was demolished in the late 1960s to make way for the AGT Towers, there wasn’t even a goodbye story in the newspaper. It wasn’t until the mid-1970s that Edmontonians began thinking about holding onto old buildings. When the owner of the Alberta Hotel, built in 1903, wanted a demolition permit, architect Gene Dub, ’65 BA, an alderman at the time, convinced his fellow politicians there was a better way. In the end, the city took the hotel apart piece by piece. Dub rebuilt it two years ago, putting it back together like a puzzle because the labels had washed off the bins of blocks. Today it’s the home of CKUA Radio Network and one of the finest new bistros in the city, Tavern 1903. There is, as the rebuilt Alberta Hotel demonstrates, a way to profit from the past — to make an asset of what once was, to tell a story of a city that looks new but is actually hundreds of years old. Those of us in business often lack the talent, the skills and the time to see the

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Todd Babiak, ’95 BA, co-founded the company Story Engine and has published several books, including Just Getting Started by U of A Press.

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14 newtrail.ualberta.ca

economic or the spiritual value in the past as we build for the future. Dub is a unique entrepreneur. For the rest of us, the University of Alberta’s scholars and economists can be our guide, our filter. Its decision to do something other than knock down the old houses in the East Campus Village was, surely, difficult. It’s always easier and cheaper and faster to demolish something. But as Edmonton gathers a new sense of confidence, Edmontonians need role models and adventurers. When Ezra Pound wrote “Make it new,” it was a challenge to writers, not property developers and architects. But as he demonstrated in his own essays and poems, “the new” is superficial, weak, ugly, even meaningless unless it is powered by what is old. We can thank winter for the spring.

PHOTO BY GREG SOUTHAM

Avenue, the crowds of pedestrians, the streetcars, the hats. As the city and its growing armies of designers try to build a dense, walkable city in the core, all it takes is a glance through a book of photographs to see it’s a rebuild we’re after, a renovation, a return to what we had a century ago. Springtime is a dirty thrill in most of Canada, as we prepare for the light and the colour and the fragrance of summer. The metaphor and the call of the poet to “make it new” can be dangerous in a city and in a continent that tend to make a religion of progress. Of course, a big part of this is economics: old things in Paris and Jerusalem and Chichen Itza look and feel like assets. Too often, in Edmonton, historic vestiges have just got in the way. I was doing some research on the history of the Edmonton Public Library, which turned 100 in 2013 (see Just Getting Started, published by the U of A Press), and learned that when the old Carnegie Library on Macdonald Drive

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By OMAR MOUALLEM » Photo by JOHN ULAN

RAY MUZYKA’S

nextchapter TWO CAREERS AREN’T ENOUGH FOR THIS MD-TURNED-GAME DEVELOPER, A FOUNDER OF BIOWARE. HIS LATEST PROJECT IS AN INVESTMENT COMPANY WITH AN EYE TO SOCIAL GOOD

16 newtrail.ualberta.ca

ay Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk stepped onto the Princess Anne Theatre stage in London, England, to applause from 220 gaming professionals and students who had come for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ annual video games lecture. The topic was “Games as Art,” and who better to deliver it than the co-founders of BioWare? Through their upstart gaming company, the MDs-turnedgame developers had helped revitalize the genre of computer role-playing games. They were among the first to show that video games could be artful — more than a grab for points, more than a battle for bragging rights, a wholly emotional experience. By the time Muzyka, ’90 BMedSc, ’92 MD, and Zeschuk, ’90 BMedSc, ’92 MD, stood onstage at the end of 2011, the BioWare brand had become one of the most beloved in the gaming industry. Not long after the lecture, its most highly anticipated title, Mass Effect 3, would sell 1.5 million units in a single month. So it might have come as a shock to audience members to know that “the Doctors,” as they were known in the industry, were having a change of heart about their careers. In a small, subtle exchange backstage as they waited for the auditorium to fill, Muzyka had turned to his best friend and business partner of 20 years. “You know,” he said, “I think this might be the last time we ever give a speech together while we’re still in the industry.” This was the first tacit understanding between them that they might each be considering retirement. The former University of Alberta med students had grown up parallel to the industry as it went from 16-bit cartridges to online stadiums. They had turned a gaming hobby into an industry-changing company bought up by the world’s fourthlargest gaming company, Electronic Arts, for more than half a billion dollars. Now, the effervescent Zeschuk, general manager of BioWare’s Austin, Texas, office and a vice-president for Electronic Arts, was losing interest in games and thinking about transferring his unbridled passion to, of all things, craft beer. Muzyka, senior vice-president and general manager of Electronic Arts’ BioWare label — spread across eight cities in three countries — was considering shifting his focus to impact investing. He wanted to put his good fortune toward for-profit social enterprise, working with socially responsible companies that would, in ways big and small, improve the world. new trail spring 2014 17

Entrepreneurs can change the world in a meaningful way. They can dream and imagine, they can work at problems from different angles and they can create enduring change.”

NEW ENDEAVOURS “Corporations don’t have to be faceless entities driven purely by profit,” Muzyka says from his home office, his loafers resting on a leather ottoman, an espresso in his lap. “They can be driven by profit, but also aim for social goals at the same time.” Almost two years after the London lecture and just under a year since he and Zeschuk retired from BioWare, Muzyka’s new headquarters is a room in the basement of his south Edmonton home, plus a similar office in his second residence in Las Vegas. His workspace is now occupied by cat trees instead of office water coolers. No more programmers, designers and artists — just Muzyka and his wife, Leona De Boer, ’91 BSc(AgBus), a former commercial banker. She admits it was initially a little bit weird having him around the house all the time. “But it has worked out well,” she says. “We have this new endeavour to work on together.” The endeavour, Threshold Impact, is an investment company the couple created after Muzyka left BioWare to fund social enterprise startups that strive simultaneously for profit and social good. Muzyka is also partnering with the U of A to help develop a new program that supports entrepreneurial ventures by students and alumni, the University of Alberta Venture Mentoring Service. “Entrepreneurs can change the world in a meaningful way,” he says in his firm and measured manner. “They can dream and imagine, they can work at problems from different angles and they can create enduring change.” 18 newtrail.ualberta.ca

So, while his workspace has been scaled down, his dreams are anything but. From an early age, Muzyka showed incredible potential. His parents, both Edmonton public school teachers, instilled in him a love of learning. He did school work at home that was three grades ahead and completed the International Baccalaureate high school stream with the top mark in North America, fourth in the world. As a result, he could have skipped the first couple of years of pre-med in university. But he preferred to take the undergraduate degree to give him more free time before entering medicine. Muzyka’s interest in computers began in Grade 7 at Kenilworth School in Edmonton. One day after class, his math teacher, Carl Nishimura, ’63 BSc, ’65 BEd, ’71 Dip(Ed), ’72 MEd, said he wanted to show Muzyka something. Nishimura led him down the hall to a small lab where the school kept an Apple II computer. It looked like a TV atop some boxes atop a typewriter. Nishimura handed him a text adventure game on cassette tape drive. The first three times Muzyka tried loading it, the tape squealed and the screen flashed “ERROR!” but Nishimura told him to keep trying. Finally, it loaded. “I was instantly hooked,” Muzyka says. Years later, in 1992, Nishimura would read in a newspaper that Muzyka and two young medical students, Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, ’90 BMedSc, ’92 MD, had created a medical education software program (hence, the name BioWare) and sold it to the University of Alberta. It didn’t surprise him. “[Muzyka]

caught on to things very quickly,” says the retired teacher, who predicted Muzyka would end up in the tech field. “I was more surprised to hear that he went into medicine.” The opposite is true for Muzyka. “I always wanted to be a doctor. It never occurred to me that I’d be doing something related to technology,” he says. “That was more a hobby.” He and Zeschuk didn’t know it then, but years of balancing eye-reddening hospital shifts during their residencies with a few stolen hours for game development was preparing them for the realities of entrepreneurship. “We were used to that lifestyle of working 100 hours a week. It was ingrained in the medical training, like boot camp. You did your call, and it’s just what you did. There was no time to reflect,” says Muzyka. Before and after hospital shifts, they’d burrow into Zeschuk’s basement to work on new software. As their coding and products got better, they incorporated a company for their inventions. “We didn’t put a lot of thought into it,” says Muzyka. “It didn’t occur to us that it would be hard or that we’d fail. We just did it.” They foresaw little impediment, other than capital. They needed enough to get their first game, Shattered Steel, a futuristic simulation on CD-ROM, to market. And the extra resources needed to build BioWare would no longer fit in a basement, so they each pitched in more than $100,000 to get the business off the ground. Yip exited BioWare early on, to practise medicine full time. Muzyka and Zeschuk both sustained dual careers because they enjoyed medicine, especially emergency medicine for Ray and geriatric care for Greg. Muzyka continued working as a general practitioner and filling in at emergency rooms in northern Alberta part time, usually on weekends, and dedicated the rest of his life to BioWare. Somehow, he and Zeschuk also both squeezed in executive MBAs at the Ivey School of Business at Western University (Muzyka, 2001) and Queen’s University in Ontario

(Zeschuk, 2004). “It was like my career became my hobby,” Muzyka says. While Muzyka says his career changes have been largely “gut decisions,” he also prides himself on knowing when it’s time to make the leap and not look back. By 1998, when BioWare released Baldur’s Gate, which PC Gamer magazine called “every roleplaying gamer’s dream,” Muzyka was beginning to realize he could no longer sustain dual careers. “I couldn’t give fulltime medical practice the attention it was due.” He stopped practising entirely in 2001 during his MBA to focus fully on BioWare, though he continues to maintain his medical licence to this day. In many ways, Muzyka and Zeschuk were the general practitioners of BioWare. They knew enough about programming, story narrative and ludology (game studies) to help navigate each product to the shelf. Medicine also prepared Muzyka to cope with things that went wrong in the boardroom: as a doctor, he roved around northern Alberta hospitals — usually when the local doctor was on vacation — and dealt with matters both urgent and mundane. “Nothing fazes him,” says his wife, De Boer. “Unless our cats get sick. Then I have to take the lead.” De Boer met Muzyka in 1998. She was a senior banker with TD Waterhouse, in charge of a wide array of commercial accounts, which, thanks to Baldur’s Gate, now included BioWare. She remembers Muzyka then, as he is now, as exceptionally smart and very serious. Well over six feet tall, he has a broad frame, an analytical mind and a professional poker face. “He can be intimidating,” she says, “but I don’t think all people realize how incredibly soft-hearted he is.” Especially when it comes to both human social issues and environmental issues, including animal rights. Muzyka, a pescetarian, once stopped a BioWare employee from flushing loaches — earthworm-like fish — down the toilet. After saving them, he kept them alive in his office for 15 years, well past their normal lifespan of five years.

He and De Boer have quietly supported various animal-related charities, including recently adopting a black rhino in Botswana, leading the purchase of 100 hectares of orangutan rainforest sanctuary in Borneo, and funding the development of the Sapphire & Webster Muzyka Cat Wing at the Edmonton Humane Society, named after two of their deceased cats. They also focus on philanthropy in health and education,

and have donated repeatedly to multiple health and educational organizations over the years, including the Royal Alexandra Hospital, the Stollery Children’s Health Foundation, the University of Alberta and the Red Cross.

RISE OF ‘THE HIVE BRAIN’ Zeschuk says although he and Muzyka are very different people, spending 20 years working together, often in the

VMS Offers the Alumni Advantage Lister Hall residences are the scene of a fair amount of matchmaking, so it was the perfect place to pilot the university’s Venture Mentoring Service. In December 2013, 10 fledging entrepreneurs entered a room with twice as many seasoned business people for a speed-dating of sorts — the would-be entrepreneurs were courting the veterans for advice. The proteges’ backgrounds were as diverse as biotechnology, gaming and e-commerce. The volunteer mentors were equally varied — experts in marketing, investing, law and more, with more than 30 past and present startups among them. Aside from an appetite for entrepreneurship, the only common ground was their alma mater: the University of Alberta. The U of A Venture Mentoring Service, or VMS, is based on a program of the same name at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which has spawned more than 40 iterations around the globe. U of A students and alumni with ideas for ventures of some sort — whether for-profit, not-for-profit or social enterprise — are matched with a team of mentors. Through regular meetings, the mentors offer guidance and advice. The U of A’s program is open to both current students and alumni. “Alumni just love working with students

and other young grads,” says Sean Price, ’95 BCom, associate vice-president of Alumni Relations, the office that oversees VMS. “They appreciate the opportunity to provide advice and give back, because they were all there once struggling with the same questions.” VMS chair and angel investor Ray Muzyka, ’90 BMedSc, ’92 MD, knows how welcome good advice can be. When he co-founded the gaming company BioWare at 25, opportunities like VMS were wishful thinking. “There’s a lot of great entrepreneurial mentorship and support now available that wasn’t there when we started BioWare,” says Muzyka, who is also a VMS mentor and is helping recruit others, including Fountain Tire chair Brian Hesje, ’69 BEd, ’73 MBA, and Investopedia co-founder Cory Janssen, ’04 BCom. “It’s incredibly powerful to new entrepreneurs to bring mentors together to say, ‘It’s OK to make mistakes provided you learn from them. And we’re here as mentors to help you.’” Muzyka stresses that the focus of the program is on building individuals and their entrepreneurial abilities, not necessarily on building companies. If the ventures fail — as many startups do — the creators ideally will have learned skills that will help make their next pursuit an enduring passion. Learn more at ualberta.ca/vms.

new trail spring 2014 19

same room (“until two years ago, I spent more time with Ray than my wife”), has harmonized their characteristics. BioWare and other video game industry colleagues nicknamed the partners the Hive Brain because they’d often finish each other’s thoughts and sentences. In his retirement blog, Muzyka acknowledged the importance of this partnership in their success. “I could not imagine navigating the past two decades successfully without Greg’s wisdom and counsel, his keen insights and his ability to see problems from a completely different perspective,” he wrote. “They play well to each other,” says Aaryn Flynn, ’96 BSc(Hons), ’00 BSc(SpecCert), general manager in BioWare’s Edmonton studio, who took

empire. Impressed by the company’s two role-playing game franchises, Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights, LucasArts asked this upstart company, founded by three MDs in a snowy Canadian city, to create the next Star Wars game. But Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was just the beginning. Critically acclaimed upon its 2003 release, it won Game of the Year from the Game Developers Choice Awards. In 2005, BioWare merged with Pandemic Studios, an independent developer in California, received significant private equity financing from Elevation Partners and released another success, Jade Empire. Then came its 2007 masterpiece, Mass Effect. Set in the year 2183, the game put the fate of the Milky Way, no

At BioWare, I was helping the world in a different way, bringing people emotional engagement and happiness through story-based games. This new chapter is about trying to provide a different kind of support and help.”

over Muzyka’s duties for Edmonton and Montreal after he retired. Flynn was hired at BioWare as a junior tools programmer a month before writing his finals for his U of A degree. He vividly remembers the job interview with Muzyka and Zeschuk and a couple of other seniors from the growing company. “Ray said something to me that has stuck ever since,” recalls Flynn. “He said, ‘You could do anything you want here. Everybody has this chance. And you can go as far as you want here.’ ” How true those words became when, later that year, BioWare got its biggest contract to that date. It came from LucasArts, the games division of the multibillion-dollar Star Wars 20 newtrail.ualberta.ca

less, in the hands of players, who took the role of Commander Shepard to protect all organic life from synthetic enemies. The New York Times named it Game of the Year. IGN, a gaming site with 40 million readers, declared it “a new high mark for storytelling in games.” That’s when Electronic Arts, the world’s fourth biggest game company, came calling, a dozen years after BioWare had launched its first game. The $860-million deal with Electronic Arts in 2008 took seven months to finalize. Muzyka and Zeschuk ensured that BioWare remained anchored in their hometown and that employees would have a chance to thrive. Indeed, they did. From 2007 to 2012, BioWare

expanded into seven other cities: Montreal, Austin, Texas, Fairfax, Va., Sacramento, Calif., San Francisco, Los Angeles and Galway, Ireland. Muzyka stayed on as general manager and CEO of BioWare, overseeing its eight studio locations. At each one, he was responsible for spreading the creative and professional culture that he and Zeschuk had established at home. This was based, Muzyka says, on the “core values of quality in our products, quality in our workplace, entrepreneurship, in a context of humility and integrity.” Flynn was thankful for these values when he had to deliver the worst news of his career to Muzyka — that Mass Effect 3 would have to be delayed by several months past its December 2011 release date, missing the industry’s blockbuster season. “How come?” asked Muzyka. “The quality’s not there, Ray. Too many bugs and too much to do,” Flynn recalls saying. “Have we explored every option?” They had. Muzyka calmly asked that they sleep on it and decide on a plan the next day, which they did. Flynn was impressed by Muzyka’s response, but not surprised. “As a doctor, he’s had his hands in people. … You realize this isn’t life or death. At least you’re not dealing with someone’s eye hanging out.” “Humility,” reflects Muzyka, “is about admitting one’s mistakes and moving on.”

‘JUST STRIVE’ Muzyka has always been a self-directed learner. In addition to gaming, he has taught himself to play top-level poker in Vegas and to shoot nearprofessional photography. He can also wax poetic about a cigar and wine, its origin and its gastronomic notes. He doesn’t dabble in his passions; he obsesses. As long as he has time to master something, he will. That’s why he’s still putting off astronomy: not enough time to do it seriously. Travelling the world — from Botswana to Ecuador, Borneo to Antarctica,

sometimes for weeks at a time — also became a passion for Muzyka and De Boer. Their travels helped bring Muzyka close to the many problems plaguing the planet, and he was searching for ways to make social change. His work at BioWare had started to feel a little routine. And for Muzyka, routine is antithetical to his belief in the Taoist philosophy of self-improvement. His goal, whether in joining medical school or launching a gaming company, is simple: strive to be better than he was the day before. “Don’t seek an outcome,” he says, “just strive.” The question, though, was strive toward what? “I was wondering, what am I passionate about? What am I most interested in?” He thought back to his Hippocratic oath, to the self-discovery made possible through his games, to the rush of his entrepreneurial days. The answer lay where all of these overlapped. Not long after the 2011 lecture in London, Muzyka got to work on his resignation letter and an even more important letter for his colleagues. “I feel similar now to how I felt in the early days of BioWare,” he wrote in his retirement blog. “While I was still practising as an ER physician, back when I first realized that the world of video games was my next career ‘chapter.’ ” This newest “third chapter” would be different and downright scary, he wrote, but it “stems from the simple hope of helping the world to be a better place.” Muzyka and Zeschuk would reunite once more before the game community, at the 2013 Game Developers Choice Awards in San Francisco, where they were honoured with lifetime achievement awards. By then, Zeschuk had launched his web series, The Beer Diaries. And Muzyka had found Threshold Impact’s first investment: NPO Zero, a for-profit venture that offers services such as marketing and accounting to non-profits so they can focus on their philanthropic efforts. Other Threshold Impact investments include the organic food

delivery service SPUD.com (Sustainable Produce, Urban Delivery); Lenddo, a microfinancing organization operating in the developing world that helps people who are working to develop a new credit history and build banking relationships to leverage their social media reputations to obtain a loan; and Basis Science, which produces health-focused wearable technology. (In March, Intel acquired Basis for an undisclosed price.) Since October 2012, Muzyka has vetted some 200 startups through Threshold Impact. While he vets candidates for passion, humility, creativity, leadership and business and finance fundamentals, his wife, De Boer, looks primarily at the finances. “I tend to be more conservative in our investment approach,” she says. It’s too early to say what Threshold Impact will grow to be. Education, health care, social and animal rights, the environment, entrepreneurial mentorship, information technology and medical innovations are all interesting and important to Muzyka. For the moment, he is “data gathering,” as he has been known to call the step before deciding. He has also joined the investment team as a venture adviser at iNovia Capital, a North American venture capital firm that funds new technology, which along with his angel investing and mentorship with early-stage entrepreneurs has brought him closer to the guts and glory of entrepreneurship he has missed since leaving BioWare. The startup world today is a lot different from the one Muzyka and his partners entered in the early ’90s, when they had to max out their credit cards to get BioWare off the ground. Their first office was so rundown that they’d start the computers in a particular order every morning so as not to perturb the faulty electrical wiring. Today, even in a modest city like Edmonton, there is a community of venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, incubators and co-work spaces, and multiple organizations to help new companies.

Muzyka is excited to be a part of this entrepreneurial “ecosystem.” He’s also excited to share his good fortune and experience with other entrepreneurs through the U of A’s Venture Mentoring Service, launched last fall. The VMS volunteer program pairs successful alumni of varied entrepreneurial backgrounds with alumni and students looking for guidance. Each fledgling entrepreneur is paired with several mentors to assist in pitching, fundraising, human resources, marketing, leadership or whatever daunting skill they’re lacking. As chair of the program, Muzyka helped select the first 15 entrepreneurs and the first 30 mentors — including, of course, Zeschuk. [More on VMS, page 19.] Ashlyn Bernier, ’06 BSc, ’11 PhD, ’13 MBA, manager of the Venture Mentoring Service, got to know Muzyka as they worked on the VMS pilot program. “Ray is surprisingly humble, considering his accomplishments,” Bernier says. “He’s going to be great as the champion of VMS.” The focus of the Venture Mentoring Service — which is based on a program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that has spawned some 40 incarnations around the world — is less on the company and more on the entrepreneur. It’s about building people. And that, in a way, includes Muzyka, in his ongoing quest for self-improvement. At just 45, Muzyka has had three careers: doctor, game developer and angel investor. Although each career is dramatically different, he can see how each chapter adds up to a single story — that “simple hope” of helping make the world a better place. “In health care, you’re administering medicine in a very personal way. At BioWare, I was helping the world in a different way, bringing people emotional engagement and happiness through story-based games. This new chapter is about trying to provide a different kind of support and help.” Will it be his last chapter? “I hope not,” he says. “There’s still room for one or two more.” new trail spring 2014 21

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BY SCOTT ROLLANS, ’82 BA, LISA COOK, WANDA VIVEQUIN AND KAREN SHERLOCK

How many good summer weekends do you figure you get a year? Twelve? Sixteen? Don’t waste a minute. Make this summer the one in which you learn a new skill, get outside more or start a new hobby. For this “green and gold guide,” we tapped into alumni and University of Alberta experts to bring you everything you need to have the best summer yet.

new trail spring 2014 23

GREAT BIRDING DESTINATIONS  OAK HAMMOCK MARSH INTERPRETIVE CENTRE

Where: A 20-minute drive north of Winnipeg

No.1Take Up Birdwatching

What you’ll see: Waterfowl, of course, because it’s a marsh, but the centre says it has hosted more than 300 species of birds. When to go: Be there for the Summer Bird Census, June 22, or attend the Dragonfly Festival, Aug. 16 and 17. Info: oakhammockmarsh.ca



OK, so you can tell a magpie from a chickadee. This summer, why not spread your wings and become a backyard expert on some other feathered friends? Ludwig Carbyn, ’67 MSc, adjunct professor in the U of A Department of Renewable Resources, owns the Wildbird General Store (wildbirdgeneralstore.com) in Edmonton with his wife, Jaynne Carre. “I never realized until we owned the store how many people, from all walks of life, are into birding,” says Carbyn.

LESSER SLAVE LAKE BIRD OBSERVATORY

Where: A 21⁄2-hour drive north of Edmonton What you’ll see: Because of the area’s geography, birds — especially songbirds — tend to funnel past Marten Mountain and over the shoreline of Lesser Slave Lake. When to go: Take in the Songbird Festival May 31 and June 1, with plenty of kid-friendly activities. Info: lslbo.org

 It’s an easy club to join. “Start out with binoculars, a field guide, and pencil and paper for a list,” Carbyn says. “Then, just start listing what you see. You’ll find that some birds are very easy to identify, and some are a little more difficult.” While bird identification apps are becoming ever more popular, Carbyn still prefers a good book, such as Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America by Roger Tory Peterson. With a field guide, you can quickly identify a specific bird based on 24 newtrail.ualberta.ca

geographical distribution, the bird’s general appearance and specific markings. Once you get to know your local birds, you can take your hobby with you wherever you go. “There are some 10,000 different species around the world, so you’ll never get them all,” says Carbyn. Still, by adding species one by one, you’ll expand your awareness of the world around you. “Your senses become more alert because you’re always listening and looking.”– S.R.

LONG POINT BIRD OBSERVATORY

Where: A 21⁄2-hour drive southeast of Toronto What you’ll see: Of the 600 or so bird species in North America, nearly 380 have been recorded at the observatory. When to go: Migrations peak in May and September. If you go between late August and October, you might also be able to see the monarch butterfly migration, since Long Point is one of three International Monarch Butterfly Reserves in Canada. Info: birdscanada.org/longpoint/

No.2 DRAGONFLIES Make your field glasses do double duty. Why not try dragonfly watching?

Dragonfly watching is the new birdwatching, says Tyler Cobb, ’07 PhD, curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton. Many people, especially in Alberta, have been noticing an increase in dragonflies the past few summers. They’re probably seeing variable darners and cherry-faced meadowhawks, says Cobb. They have been much more plentiful in recent summers, likely due to increased moisture and larger mosquito populations. There are about 50 species of dragonflies and damselflies in Alberta and more than 200 found across Canada. That leads to some great identification opportunities. Similar to birdwatching, there are several websites and guidebooks to help you identify and catalogue the dragonflies you spot. Cobb recommends Dragonflies Through Binoculars: A Field Guide to Dragonflies of North America by Sidney Dunkle and Damselflies of Alberta by John Acorn, ’80 BSc, ’88 MSc, as well as the online guide bugguide.net for help finding and identifying various species. – L.C.

NO.3 HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST SUMMER WINE By Gurvinder Bhatia, ’87 BSc, wine columnist for the Edmonton Journal and Global TV, contributing editor for Quench magazine and the owner of Vinomania wine boutique in Edmonton (vinomaniawines.com) Refreshing, flavourful and bright, with a lifted acidity, immense drinkability and food versatility. This sums up the style of wines that pair best with summer’s warm weather, casual dining and barbecue season. Serve whites, sparkling and rosé chilled — but not so ice-cold as to mask the flavours — and keep an ice bucket on hand, as the wines will warm up quickly in the sun. Select reds that are fresh and fruit-driven with a depth of flavour and soft tannins. Be sure to serve them slightly chilled (12 to 14 C). When reds are served too warm (and reds are often served too warm), the alcohol is amplified, causing the wine to become flabby. Don’t be afraid to throw your reds in an ice bucket to keep them cool. So get outside and gather with family and friends. Here are a few great wines to help make the most of our all-too-short summer:



Ruggeri Prosecco Giall’Oro, Veneto, Italy ($27.99) Bright and refreshing. There is no better way to bring a touch of conviviality to any occasion. With fresh aromas and flavours of acacia blossoms, apple, pear, peach and citrus, and lively bubbles that dance over the palate, it is the perfect aperitif, and versatile with snacks and appetizers.

Maycas del Limari Sauvignon Blanc Reserva, Limari Valley, Chile ($22.99) This offering is clean, refreshing and crisp, with bright acidity and great balance of grapefruit, lemon and lime citrus, fresh herbs, a touch of spice and a long, mouth-watering finish. Grilled shellfish, vegetables and an exotic fruit salad would work well with this choice.

Cave Spring Gamay, Niagara Escarpment, Ont. ($21.99) Choose this one for full flavours of cherry and fresh berries with pepper and spice, lovely floral notes and soft, silky, juicy tannins. It maintains its freshness and elegance and offers a nice minerally finish. Serve slightly chilled. Pairs well with grilled salmon, poultry, pork or ribs.

No.4

GO GREEN Green and growing things go hand in hand with summer, but the thought of a big garden can be daunting — or maybe you just don’t have the space. Justine Jenkins-Crumb, co-ordinator of the Master Gardener Program at the U of A’s Devonian Botanic Garden, offers some tips to get you growing. Check out its gardening courses or visit the garden for inspiration. devonian.ualberta.ca

MASTER GARDENER TIP:

PUSH THE BOUNDARIES

Get growing sooner. Sow sweet pea, spinach, green onion and parsley seeds right into the ground as soon as you can find a spot of moist, snow-free earth, and enjoy bountiful results earlier.  Keep sowing longer. Plant tiny Scilla siberica bulbs after Labour Day in massive patches under your trees. “Next spring they will warm you like tiny blue lights of joy,” says Jenkins-Crumb. – K.S. new trail spring 2014 25

NO. 5 HIT THE TRAIL RUNNING  “Want to run but are sick of the sidewalk?” asks Nick Holt, ’02 PhD, associate professor with the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation. “Want to spent more time in nature? Start trail running.” Holt promotes trail running as a more enjoyable alternative to training for marathons. Once you’re up to speed, there are plenty of races you can enter, ranging from a few kilometres to ultramarathons (some of which welcome team relay participants). “And one great thing about trail running is that the variation in terrain seems a bit easier on the body than constant, repetitive pounding on flat sidewalks,” Holt says. Nick Holt’s tips for (ahem) new trail runners 1 / Start by scouting out some of the trails in your area. Don’t worry about planning every step; just run, and when you see a trail, take it! 2 / Buy some trail-running shoes, available at any good sports store. The additional traction and support make them far better on rough ground than regular runners. 3 / Find some hilly terrain. Running uphill obviously requires a lot of effort. Running downhill can also be quite technical and requires practice. Holt does a lot of interval training on hills — sometimes focusing on the climb, other times on the descent. 4 / Don’t do too much too soon. Avoid overuse injuries. Strength training and yoga can help keep muscles strong and limber as you build on your abilities. – S.R.

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No.6

PERFECT YOUR PUTT Golden Bears and Pandas golf coach Robin Stewart, ’96 BPE, thinks most everyday players neglect their all-important short game. “I see guys out on the range before a round of golf, swinging their drivers and their irons. And then, two minutes before their tee time, they might hit one putt on the practice green.” Tee shots are great fun, but a good putt is the single most effective tool in lowering your golf scores.

Eight putting tips from Robin Stewart SIMPLER IS BETTER.

People are way too active when they putt — whether it’s their head moving or their body moving or their hands moving or all of them moving.

SPEED IS FOUR TIMES MORE CRUCIAL THAN LINE.

“I can hit a putt a foot off-line but if my speed is good, I’m only a foot away from the hole,” he says.

DON’T BEAT YOURSELF UP.

WORK ON YOUR ‘FEEL.’

After all, even the best golfers in the world miss 50 per cent of their putts from a metre and a half out. If you miss one, just think to yourself, “Oh well, I’ll get the next one.”

In practice sessions, Stewart often has his golfers line up a putt, address the ball and then putt with their eyes closed. Or he has them putt with their eyes fixed on the hole rather than down at the ball.

FIND A PUTTER THAT FITS.

Make sure it’s the right length, with the club face square to the ball when you go through the hitting area. “You use your putter for nearly 45 per cent of your shots, but most people don’t like to spend money on a putter,” says Stewart. “Instead, they spend a lot of money buying the latest driver every year. It’s kind of a weird disconnect.”

ALWAYS PUTT OUT.

If you miss a practice putt, don’t pick up the ball and return to your original spot. “That makes no sense. In golf, you never putt from the same spot twice.” Instead, Stewart suggests, carry through with your next putt until you sink it. PRACTISE, PRACTISE, PRACTISE.

ACCEPT OUTSIDE HELP.

Get a lesson, and learn what really should be going on.

“If you can eliminate three putts in one round, you’re three strokes better right there,” Stewart says. – S.R.

NO.7 SIZZLING SUMMER DISHES Summer, with its abundance of fresh produce, is the perfect time to eat healthily. We paired nutrition expert Cynthia Strawson, ’05 BA, ’13 MSc, with chef and food advocate Gail Hall, ’85 BA, (seasonedsolutions.ca) to bring you healthy dishes sure to wow at any summer soirée.

25 to 30 fresh asparagus spears, ends removed 1/4 to 1/2 cup lemon Parmesan vinaigrette

Lemon Parmesan Vinaigrette Yield: ¾ cups 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice 2 to 3 large garlic cloves, peeled 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard 1/2 cup olive oil 1/2 cup fresh, finely grated Parmesan cheese salt and pepper to taste Place lemon juice, garlic and mustard in a blender or food processor. Process on low speed, adding olive oil and blending until smooth. Add Parmesan and blend until slightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper. Vinaigrette will keep for two weeks in the fridge. If it separates, bring to room temperature and shake well before using. Serves 6 to 8 Optional: Garnish with 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh lemon balm.

SUMMER GUIDE TO HEALTHY EATING ASPARAGUS by Cynthia Strawson

Peak growing season: May and June in the Prairie provinces; as early as March or April in temperate climates Why it’s healthy: High in vitamins A, C and K, asparagus is also a rich source of folic acid. This makes it the perfect vegetable for healthy skin, eyes, teeth and bones, metabolizing fat and building healthy babies. Origin: An offshoot of the Liliaceae genus, Asparagus officinalis is native to the eastern Mediterranean but now grows globally, even in Alberta’s subarctic continental climate. There are 200 species grown worldwide; three are endangered.

PHOTOS BY JOHN ULAN

Blanch or steam asparagus. Drain and toss with lemon Parmesan vinaigrette. Serve with shards of Parmesan.

Who’d have thought? Not everyone’s pee stinks after eating this mighty green vegetable, nor can everyone smell the asparagusic acid in the urine. new trail spring 2014 27

My top rides: 1) Penticton to Naramata, B.C., road ride, and the other backcountry winery roads in the area. 2) Cassiar Highway from Smithers, B.C., to the Yukon — quiet, beautiful and great camping. 3) The Kootenay Sufferfest 100-km course from Kaslo to New Denver, B.C. Spectacular scenery and world-class single track!” – Janis Neufeld

HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT BIKE

START

Every spring our city streets gradually fill up with bikes of all shapes, styles and sizes. Riders are commuting, getting fit, going shopping, hanging out with their kids and grandkids or just letting off some steam. Your neighbours are on their bikes each weekend, co-workers arrive at the office unloading their saddlebags, sporting a healthy glow and a trimmer waistline, and your regular Saturday morning coffee hangout is now overrun by Lycra-clad “roadies” back from a quick spin in the countryside. Now it’s your turn. We asked Janis Neufeld, ’95 BPE — avid cyclist and owner of Nakusp, B.C.-based Shon’s Bike and Ski — to give us some advice about how to choose the right bike for your needs. – W.V. YOUR BEST CHOICE Commuter/ Hybrid Bike

Commuter or hybrid bike A commuter bike is perfect for riding to and from work, around town for recreation with family and friends or even for shopping. There are many different commuter bikes to choose from, so make sure yours can do everything you need it to do, whether that’s accommodating a shopping basket or saddlebag, or hooking up to a child trailer. If you think you will eventually want to get into multi-day bike rides, you could also consider a touring bike, which meets all your commuter bike needs but is more robust and could pull loads in a small bike trailer.

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Are you an experienced rider?

YES NO

Are you an adventure seeker? Do you see yourself someday doing a fun race or road trip?

YES

YOUR BEST CHOICE Triathlon/Touring/ Road Bike

Triathlon, touring or road bike Your goal is to ride slightly longer distances, or perhaps even take part in a fundraising bike tour or race. Frame geometry is the difference in these bikes and fit is critical here — being too close or far from the handlebars can make for an excruciating ride. Triathlon cyclists spend more time tucked over their bikes, while road cyclists ride a little more upright. If you plan on riding in flat areas, choose a bike with larger gears; hill riding requires a few smaller gears (or stronger quads!). Start by riding with pedal cages and work your way to clipless pedals.

Are you competitive?

YES

YOUR BEST CHOICE Mountain Bike

Mountain bike So you’ve decided to let your inner daredevil out a bit and take to the trails to go mountain biking. Be prepared to have fun and see parts of your town and surrounding countryside you might never have seen before. Bikes vary a lot in terms of what they are made of, wheel circumference, geometry, weight, brakes, gearing and amount of suspension. Go to a good shop and tell the clerk what kind of riding you plan to do: Wide-open trail riding? Technical single track? Lots of climbing? Racing long distances on wider, more open tracks?

No.9

Take your kids to a gallery

[1] First, take care of the basics. “Make sure you go when your kids are rested, fed and watered.” [2] Have a conversation in advance. “Prep your kids. Children really do look with their hands. Sometimes that doesn’t work so well in a gallery setting!” All of these factors help determine the right bike for you. There are also downhill bikes, which are heavier for more momentum and have huge suspension forks on the front to dampen the jarring that happens going quickly downhill over roots and rocks. Cyclocross is gaining in popularity. The bikes for this sport are more heavy-duty. Their geometry is similar to that of road bikes, but these bikes have knobby tires that make them perfect for riding crosscountry through rolling countryside.

[3] Take advantage of kid-friendly programming. “Many of the best institutions out there are primed for kids. They’ll have an area of the gallery that is really hands-on and multi-sensory.” [4] Don’t underestimate your kids. Explore beyond the kids’ room and you might be surprised by your child’s capacity to appreciate art. “Kids are naturally imaginative and curious beings,” says Kitteringham. “Even

contemporary art that doesn’t have a literal story — maybe just shapes and colours — can provoke a child. They can take it in.” [5] Spark their imaginations. “Ask them some questions,” Kitteringham urges. “What do those colours make you feel? If you could hear this painting, what would it sound like? Those seem like sophisticated questions, but kids don’t put barriers on their thinking the way some adults do.” [6] Splurge on an annual pass. A pass provides freedom for quick, nopressure visits rather than daylong ordeals. “When we had a pass, we went to the museum a lot,” recalls Kitteringham. “My son enjoyed the routine of going to visit all the sections that he knew.” new trail spring 2014 29

PHOTO BY EPIC PHOTOGRAPHY, BIKE PROVIDED BY HARDCORE BIKES, EDMONTON

Early exposure to art can lay the foundation for lifelong appreciation. But, as U of A fine arts communications lead Salena Kitteringham, ’00 BA(Hons), can attest, even an artsy parent can slip up. She recalls with chagrin one visit to a sculpture gallery with her then-five-year-old son. “He was just out of reach, and I could see the wheels turning as he reached his hand toward the statue. It was almost like slow motion: Noooooo! Fortunately, he just brushed it.” Kitteringham offers some tips to make sure all your shared memories are fond ones. –S.R.

SUMMER GUIDE TO HEALTHY EATING POTATOES by Cynthia Strawson

Peak growing season: July to September Why it’s healthy: Don’t avoid spuds because they’re a carbohydrate. The magnesium in potatoes actually helps keep blood sugars level and they’re as high in fibre as oat bran. Eaten with the skin, potatoes provide twice the potassium of a banana. Origin: This mighty tuber was domesticated in the Andes 10,000 years ago and was introduced to European palates from South America in 1567. Cultivated potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) are a member of the deadly nightshade family along with tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) and eggplant (Solanum melongena). Who’d have thought? Potato kingdoms like Idaho and P.E.I. get many of their seed potatoes from verdant farmland in northeast Edmonton.

4 medium to large floury baking potatoes 12/3 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated 2 eggs 1/2 to 2/3 cups pesto salt, pepper and nutmeg, to taste grated Parmesan cheese, for garnish 1 / Wrap potatoes in foil and bake at 375 F until tender. Unwrap and peel the potatoes and pass them through a ricer, food mill or fine grater. Set aside to cool briefly. 2 / Pour the flour onto a work surface, form a well in the middle and add the cheese and seasonings. Distribute the potatoes evenly over the flour. Add the eggs to the well and heap the flour and potatoes from the outside over top of the well. 3 / Working from the centre outward, mix the ingredients together with your hands. Knead to a smooth dough, pressing and squeezing with both hands. Do not work the dough longer than necessary. 4/ Let the dough rest (about 5 minutes) then divide into 4 equal pieces, shaping each piece into a long roll 1-inch to 11/2-inches in diameter. Sprinkle rolls with flour. Cut each roll into 1/2‑inch pieces. Using a fork, gently press the top of each gnocchi piece, making grooves in one side to allow the gnocchi to better absorb the sauce. At this point, you can freeze the gnocchi, spacing them on a tray in the freezer. Once frozen, transfer to plastic bags or containers. 5 / For every serving of gnocchi, bring 2 cups of salted water to a boil. Add gnocchi, reduce heat to a softer boil and cook until they float to the surface. Remove with a slotted spoon into a serving bowl and toss in pesto. Serve immediately with grated Parmesan cheese. Pesto Yield: approximately 1 cup 1 teaspoon garlic, crushed 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 cups fresh basil, chopped 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated 1 cup pine nuts 2⁄3 cup olive oil Combine the garlic, salt, basil, cheese and pine nuts in a food processor. Purée and scrape down sides of bowl until blended well. Add olive oil in a slow, steady stream with processor running. Blend well and serve. Will keep refrigerated for 7 to 10 days or in freezer for up to 6 months. Serves 8 as entree, 12 side dishes

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NO.11

If your little ones love to look at bugs, here’s an easy way to collect and study several different kinds in one night. A great activity for your backyard, or try it while you’re camping and see if you find some new critters for your collection. Hang a large white bedsheet from a clothesline or a rope and wait until dark, recommends Tyler Cobb, ’07 PhD, curator of invertebrate zoology at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton. Once night falls, shine a bright light onto the bedsheet and wait for the fun to start. Just as bugs are attracted to your porch light, they will come and land on the illuminated part of the sheet. Then you can help your child gently capture the bug

and examine it up close. A cheap butterfly net, readily available in stores in the summer months, makes collecting the bugs easier. Even though some collectors mount their catches, it’s much more fun for the little ones to keep the bugs alive, says Cobb. “Insects are a wonderfully diverse group of animals to watch and study, and the more we learn about them, the more we want to protect them and their habitats.”

If you want to keep your catch around for longer than one night, you don’t need much more than a clear container with a few air holes punched into the lid and perhaps a few leaves. If you want to keep your pet for a bit longer, be sure to add some water and learn what kind of food it might eat. Now all you need is a name. Once you have learned all you can, be sure to release your new friend near where you found it so it can go about its business. – L.C.

GARDEN FRIENDS OF THE BUG VARIETY  Bees and wasps pollinators  Spiders insect pest hunters  Ladybugs another insect predator

How to be friendly back: Provide cover in the form of undisturbed leaf litter in the garden. Grow flowers for pollinators from the beginning of spring to the end of fall. Provide sources of water. Do not disturb nest sites unless they are a hazard. “Encouraging these beneficial insects will lead to less dependence on insecticides,” says Justine Jenkins-Crumb of the U of A Devonian Botanic Garden. –K.S.

Clean up your neighbourhood or help build a house for someone in need. Join other alumni and make a difference during the Alumni Association’s Summer of Service Do Great Things Volunteer Challenge. Or start your own alumni volunteer initiative in your community. We’re looking for 2,015 volunteers to pitch in to celebrate the association’s 100th birthday in 2015. alumni. ualberta.ca/volunteer

MASTER GARDENER TIP:

LAZY LAWNS

Take the long view. Take off your glasses and look at your lawn from the neighbour’s yard across the street. Good enough? Leave it.  Learn to love clover. (“The bees do — hurrah for pollinators!” says JenkinsCrumb.) The clover is fixing nitrogen in the soil, to the benefit of the grass.  Cut down on cutting. If you water and fertilize less, you won’t have to mow as often, leaving time for that great book you want to read — or more gardening. – K.S. new trail spring 2014 31

LEFT PHOTOS BY JOHN ULAN, TOP PHOTO BY EPIC PHOTOGRAPHY

No.10

COLLECT BUGS WITH YOUR KIDS

MAKE A DIFFERENCE

No.12

How to Make Great Backyard Southern Barbecue (Even if your backyard isn’t southern) By Allan Suddaby, ’08 BSc(ElecEng), a food blogger and sous-chef at Elm Café and Catering in Edmonton. Watch a video on southern barbecue at newtrail.ualberta.ca. Fruit beers are perfect for summer. We like Main Squeeze Grapefruit Ale by Edmonton-based Alley Kat.

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Northerners like us are becoming increasingly interested in southern barbecue, which is very, very different from outdoor grilling. Southern barbecue is smoking very tough cuts of meat such as beef brisket and pork shoulder for several hours, until the meat is extremely tender and smoky. Thankfully, you can smoke meat in this manner on a typical backyard barbecue — it’s easy and very hands-off, leaving you free to enjoy the day with your guests. 

SUMMER GUIDE TO HEALTHY EATING SASKATOON BERRIES by Cynthia Strawson

1 / In a saucepan, bring all ingredients except honey to a boil; reduce to a simmer until berries are soft (about 20 minutes). If too tart, add honey to taste and stir. 2 / Purée half the mixture and combine with remaining compote. For a thicker sauce, continue to simmer until desired consistency. Serve warm with sliced beef, bison, turkey, ham, chicken or pork.

Once you’ve decided what cut of meat you want to smoke, put it on a wire rack and keep it in your fridge, uncovered, overnight. This will slightly dry out the surface of the meat, forming a tacky exterior called a “pellicle.” This process increases smoke adherence and makes a big difference in the final appearance and flavour of the dish. Smoking meat on a conventional barbecue is simple. The goal is to use one of the barbecue burners to smoulder wood chips and create smoke while maintaining a temperature of 225 to 250 F in the chamber of the barbecue. I remove the grate from the left side of my barbecue to expose the heat source and distribution panels. You can buy apple, maple and hickory wood chips from butcher supply shops or a local hardware store like Canadian Tire. Of course, if you have

your own apple or maple tree, you can use the twigs and cuttings from pruning. I soak some of my wood chips in water overnight, then combine two-thirds soaked chips and one-third dry chips in little envelopes made from aluminum foil. Use a fork to perforate both sides of the envelopes. This will let air flow through the packet and help the wood burn. Place one or two woodchip packets directly onto the exposed distribution panels and light the burner underneath. After a few minutes, the wood chips inside the aluminum foil will ignite and start to generate smoke. Leave the burner on the right-hand side of the barbecue turned off. Place the meat on the right-hand grate so it is not over direct heat. You will have to play with the burner setting on the left-hand side so the wood chips continue to smoke and the barbecue stays between 225 and 250 F. Once the chips

Peak growing season: Ripe in July and August Why it’s healthy: The berries’ blue-purple, anthocyaninrich skin makes them age-fighting, anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory powerhouses. Their high fibre content (six grams per 100 grams of berry) will really move you, too! Origin: Also known as serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia Nutt.), this deciduous shrub is native to

have burned out, replace the envelopes. Continue the process until the meat is fork tender. This will take several hours, depending on the type of meat and the size of the roast. Smoking meat takes time, but it’s a laid-back process and worth it when you haul an entire brisket out of the barbecue and carve it for your guests. Or … stay northern If you’d rather stick with a more traditional barbecue, here are some tips on how to make it memorable (in a good way). If you’re after the classic, fatty, tender steak that you would get at a steakhouse, pick up some rib steaks cut as thick as you can find them. Good steaks like this should be rubbed with salt and pepper and finished with butter. Possibly garlic, too, but nothing else. There are some cheaper, tough-but-flavourful

the northern prairies and plains of North America and is prolific enough to make the berries a viable commercial crop. Who’d have thought? Not really a berry at all, saskatoons are actually a pome fruit (Rosaceae) along with apples and pears. They have higher levels of antioxidants than wild blueberries, strawberries and raspberries, and they grow wild and free in Edmonton’s river valley.

steaks, such as flank, hangar and skirt, that benefit from extensive marinating. The meat needs to be marinated at least three days, but preferably five, for the marinade to have any tenderizing effect. Because they are a bit tougher, these steaks need to be cooked medium-rare, then sliced against the grain. For pork chops, avoid the lean, bland centre-cut chops. Rib chops are the way to go. Whether you are grilling or smoking, don’t forget to add some fantastic side dishes. My favourites:  Slaw  Potato salad  Brown beans  Mac and cheese  Rhubarb iced tea See these recipes and more at Suddaby’s blog, buttonsoup.ca.

new trail spring 2014 33

LEFT PHOTO BY JOHN ULAN

1 cup water 1 cup apple juice (preferably organic unfiltered) 1/4 cup cider vinegar or 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 tablespoon finely diced shallots 2 sprigs fresh rosemary or thyme 3 cups saskatoons, washed 1 to 2 tablespoons honey (optional)

MASTER GARDENER TIP:

GARDENING FOR NON-GARDENERS

Grow one thing you love. Is it sunflowers, mint or lettuce?  Reap what you sow. Eat what you grow or make bouquets of the flowers.  Do it again. Try growing another thing you love, maybe next summer, and then another. Before you know it, you’re a gardener. – K.S.

Researching and writing the book was enjoyable, but promoting the book was enlightening. Anecdotal evidence gathered during my readings and book events revealed that, apparently, 100 per cent of Canadians have memories of a childhood family road trip. Comparing data sets only muddies the waters, given that the statistics from the period reveal that Canadian family car ownership was not 100 per cent. This can only mean — applying rigorous scientific methodology — that there were a lot of families crammed into those cars. Never mind. Taking the response to my book into account, it would appear that the family vacation road trip has not yet gone the way of various other obsolete sociocultural artifacts, such as Blockbuster, trans fat and teenagers talking face to face. But why has the road trip persisted? There are various theories to explain its resilience. One posits that it reflects a deep nomadic genetic marker; as prehistoric hominids, we had no choice but to move, to trek, to explore. Another theory is that the road trip intersects conveniently with a predominantly middle-class, family-oriented, automobile-obsessed westernized culture — it’s affordable, knowable and yet individual. A third theory, the one to which I subscribe,



No.13

SURVIVE THE FAMILY ROAD TRIP

By Curtis Gillespie, ’85 BA, author of Almost There, The Family Vacation Then and Now and editor of award-winning magazine Eighteen Bridges (eighteenbridges.com)

I recently wrote a book titled Almost There, in which I combined a history of the family vacation with the history of my family vacations. The central narrative event of the book was a road trip my family took in 1974, in which eight of us took a station wagon from Calgary to Mexico City and back in the dead of winter. You’ll have to read the book to find out what happens. (Though I’m happy to report that eight departed and eight returned. The same eight.) 34 newtrail.ualberta.ca

NO.14 NO.15

STAYING SAFE IN THE SUN Marlene Dytoc, associate clinical professor in the U of A Division of Dermatology, offers reminders on how to protect your skin this summer. –W.V.

Sunscreens and sunblocks should have broad-spectrum UVA and UVB protection of at least SPF 30. Sun protection doesn’t work if you just smear it on casually. The rule is: apply about two milligrams of sunscreen per square centimetre of skin every 20 minutes — or when

you get wet or sweat. What does that mean? Apply way more than you think you need. Stay in the shade. Wear clothing with UV protection, wide-brimmed hats and sunglasses, especially between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Summer wouldn’t be summer without ice-cold treats, hot summer jams and taking in at least one of our country’s finest cultural events. Here we give you some summer Top 5s. TOP 5 FAVOURITE ICE CREAM FLAVOURS — Canadian Dairy Information Centre

holds that parenting is an inherently bonkers pursuit anyway so why not double down? Given that it has survived and looks set to remain a vacation staple, I have provided a list of tips that will, I hope, assist you in surviving, and possibly even enjoying, a family road trip. RULE 1: VOMIT

It’s not a family road trip unless someone throws up in the car. To avoid the escalation of tension, it’s best if someone throws up as soon as possible upon departure. Avoid all methods of digital and/or chemical inducement, as these are dangerous and do not count. It also does not count if you throw up while planning the road trip (though this may be a sign you should consider a different style of family vacation … or a different family).

quiet this afternoon, I’m going to jump into the deep end of the motel pool even though there’s no water in it.” Whatever you call it, remember that life is about contrast and if everything were perfect, nothing would be perfect.

1/ Vanilla 2/ Chocolate 3/ Strawberry 4/ Butterscotch 5/ Caramel

RULE 3: DIVERSITY (OR NOT)

TOP 5 SUMMER SONGS OF ALL TIME

Activities. Motels and hotels. Pools. Food. Especially food. Diversity is crucial … until it isn’t. Care is required, because if you fail to understand why your kids “need” pizza and chicken wings three nights in a row, then you are clearly a bad parent with no insight into your children. RULE 4: RESPECT

Allow the kids to share with you what it is they like and dislike. Share with the kids what you like and dislike. And then everyone just put a sock in it and fall in line with what Mom wants.

RULE 2: CHILL

Embrace as a family the quieter moments and the inevitable bit of boredom. Take care, however, to avoid using the actual word “boredom” in front of the kids, which is the equivalent of waving a red cape in front of a bull. Instead, call it “down time.” Call it “recharging the batteries.” Call it “chilling,” “relaxing” or, to invoke eye-rolls, “chillaxin’.” Call it, “If you mob don’t give me 10 minutes of peace and

By strictly following these four rules, you will give yourself a better-thaneven chance of returning home as the same single family unit that left two weeks earlier. Fun, excitement, togetherness, adventure, relaxation … sure, anything’s possible. But don’t worry if you don’t hit your marks in one go. The good news is that you can always turn around and try it all over again. That’s also the bad news.

— Rolling Stone 1/ Dancing in the Street Martha and The Vandellas (1964) 2/ Summertime Blues Eddie Cochran (1958) 3/ School’s Out Alice Cooper (1972) 4/ California Girls The Beach Boys (1965) 5/ Rockaway Beach The Ramones (1977)

TOP 5 CANADIAN SUMMER FESTIVALS — About.com Canada Travel 1/ Bard on the Beach Vancouver 2/ Calgary Stampede Calgary 3/ Edmonton International Fringe Festival Edmonton 4/ John Arcand Fiddle Festival Regina 5/ Dauphin’s Country Fest Dauphin, Man. new trail spring 2014 35

No.16 READY FOR MORE?

HEADING FOR THE HILLS

Lots of places in major cities rent camping gear, or you can borrow from friends and family. If it all sounds overwhelming, inquire with a local hiking club. They love helping people get into backpacking.

A hiking trip can be a life-changing experience. If you’re one of those people who panic at the thought of packing everything you need into a bag, shouldering it, walking for a few hours and then sleeping in a tent, Mike Barnes, ’94 BPE, ’08 BScN, has a few tips on making it easier. Barnes spent nearly 15 years working at Mountain Equipment Co-op in Edmonton before switching recently to a career in nursing, so he knows that hiking is not as hard as you think. And it could end up being the healthiest pastime you ever take up. – W.V.

A comfortable backpack is very important. If you rent or borrow a pack, load it with all your stuff and do a practice walk first to see how it feels. Whatever you do, don’t take up Great Uncle Harry’s offer of using his external-frame pack from the 1970s! First, line your pack with a heavy-duty plastic garbage bag — nothing is worse than wet gear. Then take the following approach to filling your pack, but remember: it should weigh no more than 15 per cent of your body weight. Less is even better.

Pack your sleeping bag in the bottom.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT HIKING FOOTWEAR

HIKING SHOES

FULL BOOTS

Pack heavy items close to your body near the frame.

You are interested in day hikes You have good balance

Remember to keep snacks handy at the top of the pack, along with a water bottle.

You are unsure on uneven ground You plan to carry a full or heavy backpack You plan to hike in stony or alpine areas You plan on crossing some water and need fast-drying boots.* LOW CUT

ANKLE SUPPORT

SYNTHETIC

LEATHER

*Most boots now offer a waterproofing option. It’s worth the investment.

GEAR UP The main items you will need for an overnight camping trip are:

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Food goes in a bag close to the middle of your back.

 Tent  Sleeping bag  Sleeping mat  Backpack  Flashlight

 Cooking paraphernalia  Water purification system  First aid kit

 Change of clothes  Foul-weather gear  Toiletries  Food  Map/compass

Pack your clothes and everything else on your list around the food. Separate things with a couple of clothes bags.

 Water bottle  Camp sandals  Spare socks  Fire starter  Sun hat

No.17

READ A GOOD BOOK (OR TWO OR THREE) Alumni share their favourite summer reads

by Jane Goodall SAYS: Andrew Derocher, ’87 MSc, ’91 PhD, professor, U of A Department of Biological Sciences

How to Do What Bears Do in the Woods If you’re heading off the well-beaten path and into the woods — or at least onto a trail in the woods — there’s a matter you’re going to have to deal with eventually: how to do your business. The idea of going to the toilet while camping or hiking can be off-putting, but Mike Barnes, ’94 BPE, ’08 BScN, offers tips to make things go a little more smoothly. – W.V.

Bring along two ziptop plastic bags, one to carry toilet paper and hand sanitizer, the other to hold the used toilet paper if you’re out on a trail. Also bring a small trowel. Most designated campsites and trailheads (the start of a trail) have pit toilets or outhouses. Use them before you hit the trail. They come in all shapes and sizes and some are pretty rustic, so it’s best to have your own supply of toilet paper and hand sanitizer. If you have to go while on the trail, tell your fellow hikers that you have to stop — and make sure they wait for you.

Walk a distance from the trail, bringing along your trowel and plastic bags. Dig a “cat hole” (no more than 15 centimetres) and do your business. Put the used toilet paper in your plastic bag or stir it in with your business. Cover up the hole and mark it with a couple of sticks so no one digs it up after you. Use the hand sanitizer. Remember, everyone has to go sometime.

“It provides concrete examples of why optimism, action and the dedication of individuals can make a difference and lead us all to a richer future.” The Gargoyle

by Andrew Davidson SAYS: Cathie Crooks, ’85 BCom, sales and marketing manager, University of Alberta Press “Our book club found this debut fascinating on many levels. Be sure to check out the book club questions (available on bookbrowse.com); the author created ‘easter egg’ acrostics that you’ll never know about otherwise.” Beautiful Ruins

by Jess Walter SAYS: Todd Babiak, ’95 BA, author of Come Barbarians “One of the lighter, sweeter books I’ve read recently — among my favourite novels in the last few years.” Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks and the Hidden Powers of the Mind

by Alex Stone SAYS: Marty Chan, ’90 BA, author of Barnabas Bigfoot: The Bone Eater “Great for anyone who has an interest in stage magic and human psychology. It’s non-fiction, but the author weaves a compelling personal story throughout. If you have kids who are Star Wars fans, I would suggest Tom Angleberger’s

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. You can make a game of spotting all the Star Wars references.” The End of Elsewhere: Travels Among the Tourists

by Taras Grescoe SAYS: Zac Robinson, ’07 PhD, assistant professor, Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation “A hilarious on-the-road journey. [The author] crosses the entire Eurasian land mass, purposefully plunging into the places where tourists are the thickest. Both a riotous journey and a lament for tourism’s intrusion into the remote corners of the globe.” Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell With the Rolling Stones

by Robert Greenfield SAYS: Tim Caulfield, ’87 BSc(Spec), ’90 LLB, professor, Faculty of Law, and author of The Cure for Everything “A thrilling look at how not to spend a summer in France, unless you are an out-of-control hedonist bent on making an extraordinary album.” Runaway

by Alice Munro SAYS: Kristine Kowalchuk, ’97 BA, ’12 PhD, Edmonton writer and English instructor “Munro has long been my favourite writer, and this is one of my favourite collections. How could it not be, when it includes a character named Delphine, who says, while trying to mash hot chocolate powder lumps, ‘Come on, you buggers. Come on, you.’ Short stories are perfect for summer because they encourage time for reflection between each story; they don’t weigh on the reader like a novel.” – W.V. new trail spring 2014 37

PHOTO BY EPIC PHOTOGRAPHY, EQUIPMENT PROVIDED BY TRACK ’N TRAIL, EDMONTON

Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species Are Being Saved From the Brink

Rivers Not Roads

The canoe is as much a piece of iconic Canadiana as the beaver and the maple leaf, says Neil Hartling, ’82 BPE, outfitter, author of three books about northern rivers and founder of Nahanni River Adventures (nahanni.com), based in Whitehorse, Yukon. This summer is the perfect time to find your inner voyageur and get to your vacation destination under your own steam, says Hartling. Here, he offers tips for beginners and more experienced paddlers. “It is not as hard as it looks, but there are a few things you should know before you pick up a paddle.” – W.V.

Choose the Right Canoe for the Job Make sure you know how you want to use the boat before making a big purchase — or better still, rent or borrow before you buy, says Hartling. There is a difference between a canoe and a kayak: a canoe is usually open and a kayak has a cockpit. The most popular canoes for recreation are: GENERAL RECREATION

TOURING AND CAMPING

WHITEWATER CANOEING

These canoes are stable and durable. They are generally made of plastic or aluminum and don’t have too many extras. They are usually deeper, wider and less likely to tip. You will probably find these boats at sport stores or as rentals at a lake. They are sturdy and reliable, but fill them up with gear and you might not have much energy to paddle all day because of weight and inefficient design.

These boats are generally lighter and have more space, allowing you to carry all of the cargo needed for longer and overnight trips. Your choice of boat will also depend on whether you intend to tour on slow-moving rivers or on lakes. Lake travel is easier in shallow, sleeker boats while slow-flowing rivers are better paddled in slightly deeper and more stable boats.

Designed for manoeuvrability and seaworthiness in turbulent water, they have higher sides to keep them dry inside. A rockered bottom helps the boat turn faster, and the paddler generally kneels. Once you’ve mastered the basics, these boats are a joy for exploring. Plus, paddling them looks so Canadian. All you need is a red-checkered shirt under your personal flotation device.

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BEGINNER TIPS > Practise capsizing and righting your boat at a beach. These skills will serve you well when you flip. > Remember: it’s an aquatic sport, so wear a personal flotation device at all times. > Canoe courses are fun and a great way to advance your skills.

TIPS FOR LONGER TRIPS ❯ Ensure that all group members have the appropriate skills and confidence. (Always travel in groups of three or more.) ❯ Find others who have done the trip before and get their advice on the best places to put in, camp and exit. Ask what hazards exist and where they are. Local canoe clubs are a great resource. ❯ If you plan to canoe a river, check out the conditions beforehand at wateroffice.ec.gc.ca/ index_e.html. ❯ Bring along a good map and file a float plan before you leave, including time, location and descriptions of the vessel and people on board. You can find a handy float plan template at floatplancentral.org.

Unlike a backpacking trip, you can afford to take a few more luxuries along on a canoe-camping trip because you don’t have to carry it all on your back. Decide what to take and make sure everything is in good working order before you leave — zippers fixed and holes patched. Be sure everything is packed in waterproof bags or containers; commercial dry bags are best. Before setting out: Pack your gear into bags and name each one to make it easier to find things when you’re making camp. Test load your canoe. The rules for loading are the same as backpacking: heavier gear in the middle on the bottom, and then lighter stuff around. Fasten everything securely so you won’t lose anything if you flip. Keep maps and other paperwork handy in a waterproof bag. Always keep a spare paddle close at hand in the canoe. Make sure it is secured but not so secure that you can’t unleash it in a hurry. Make sure you have water, a snack, sunscreen, bug spray, a knife and a flashlight close at hand. Padded, fingerless gloves are great to avoid blisters and keep your hands warm when paddling in the rain. Keep your rain gear handy in case the weather turns when you’re on the water. Don’t forget to wear a personal flotation device at all times. Have fun, be safe and “keep the open side up.”

My top destinations: 1) Nahanni River, Yukon – with Canada’s deepest river canyons and Virginia Falls twice the height of Niagara, it has the most unique and dramatic features within one river corridor. 2) Wind River, Yukon – a swift alpine river flowing beneath dramatic peaks. 3) Mountain River, N.W.T. – exciting canoeing for the experienced whitewater paddler.” – Neil Hartling

MASTER GARDENER TIP:

FARMING IN MINIATURE

Space isn’t the final frontier. Grow edibles like tomatoes, kale and basil in containers. Scarlet runner beans can be grown in a big pot, with vines trailing up a wall.  Soil to order. For best results in containers, use potting mix and add slow-release fertilizer.  Try edible flowers. Pansies, calendula and pinks look lovely in a salad.  Follow the sun. Pots let you capitalize on sun and warmth by moving containers around. (Don’t forget to water.) – K.S.

The Canoonie? Did you know that you almost had a canoe on your $1 coin instead of a loon? When the Royal Canadian Mint was planning to introduce a $1 coin to replace the paper bill, the coin had a voyageur motif — with two paddlers and a goods-laden canoe. It is the same design used on the 1935 voyageur silver dollar. But the original master dies were lost in transit on their way to Winnipeg, according to the mint. At that point, the federal government decided it had to change the coin’s design to prevent counterfeit coins from popping up. The loon design was the second choice and quickly earned the nickname loonie after its release in 1987. new trail spring 2014 39

LEFT PHOTO BY EPIC PHOTOGRAPHY; ROYAL CANADIAN MINT

Packing for an Overnight Trip

ALUMNI CONTRIBUTORS

Gurvinder Bhatia left a career practising law to pursue his passion for wine and food. As you might expect, his favourite summer activity is hanging out on the patio or deck with family and friends, eating great food, listening to great music and drinking great wine, beer and cocktails.

Allan Suddaby is the sous-chef at Elm Café and Catering in Edmonton and has a blog called Button Soup, where he writes about his unique ideas on local food. Suddaby’s favourite part of summer in Edmonton is being able to eat dinner in the backyard.

Curtis Gillespie has written five books, including the memoir Almost There. His summers tend to revolve around golf, beer and cycling … though rarely at the same time.

Chef Gail Hall is in the centre of Edmonton’s movement toward fresh and local foods. Her favourite summer activity is camping with her husband in their 1985 Westfalia camper van.

Cynthia Strawson is Edmonton’s only Mediterranean diet specialist, which she admits is a bit of a niche specialty in these parts. She says summer is for fresh berries and early mornings in the sun.

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No.19

Scott Rollans is an award-winning writer and regular New Trail contributor. His favourite activity this summer will be taking long outdoor walks on his soon-tobe-installed pain-free new hip.

HOW TO BUILD A GREAT SANDCASTLE

Phil Haug, ’81 BSc(CivEng), knows a thing or two about sand. He is business manager at Edmontonbased Sand Recycling, so we asked him for advice on how to build the best sandcastle on the beach. Like the recipe for a mud pie, the ingredients for an amazing sandcastle are short and sweet, says Haug: sand, water, a few tools for digging and carving, and a bucket, preferably with the bottom cut out. – W.V. The most important thing to remember is that sand needs to be wet to be worked, says Haug. Use lots of water and let it drain through the sand before beginning your masterpiece. In fact, the rule of thumb for the best sandcastle mixture is one part sand to one part water. Pound on the sand to pack it down and create the “bridges” that hold the particles together.

A great trick used by sand artists is to take the bottom out of buckets. This prevents suction, making the bucket easier to remove from the moulded sand. If you’re really serious about creating a high-end sandcastle, don’t forget three other important tools: a big spade, your creativity and a healthy measure of the Buddhist principle of impermanence.

by Cynthia Strawson

Peak growing season: Ripe in August Why it’s healthy: These cherries are tart rather than sweet. However, the sweetness improves as the season progresses. Although nutritional analysis hasn’t been done on Evans cherries (yet), their bright red skin suggests they could contain age-fighting antioxidants. Origin: The trees might have been handed out to settlers in Alaska and then brought to northern Alberta during the gold rush. Most certainly they have European roots. Who’d have thought? The Evans cherry (Prunus cerasus) was cultivated in the late 1970s, propagated from a cold-tolerant cherry orchard in north Edmonton that had been producing fruit since the 1920s.

2 to 3 cups fresh-pitted Evans cherries* 2 tablespoons sugar 3/4 cup whole milk 3 eggs 1 tablespoon amaretto 2 tablespoons melted butter 3/4 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt Topping: 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1 tablespoon sugar Distribute cherries in a buttered 10-inch pie plate and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of sugar. In a small bowl, beat together milk, eggs, amaretto and melted butter. Add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and beat to a smooth batter. Pour over cherries. Bake at 375 F until golden brown and set in the middle (about 30 minutes). Will puff slightly. Sprinkle with cinnamon and remaining sugar. Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes before cutting into wedges. Serve warm with whipped cream. *If Evans cherries are not available, substitute fresh, sour, firm, pitted cherries, sliced black plums, apricots or nectarines.

new trail spring 2014 41

TOP PHOTO BY JOHN ULAN

SUMMER GUIDE TO HEALTHY EATING EVANS CHERRIES

PHOTOS BY JOHN ULAN

THIS YEAR, STUDENTS AND ALUMNI HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO CHOOSE THE U OF A INSTRUCTOR WHO WOULD GIVE THE PRESTIGIOUS LAST LECTURE OF THE YEAR

Students were urged to nominate their favourite professors to deliver Last Lecture 2014. More than 140 instructors were nominated and the three finalists — David Begg, Robert Burch and Linda Kerr, ’92 PhD — were put to an online vote. Close to 4,600 students and alumni cast more than 20,000 votes in 16 days. This year’s winner was philosophy professor Robert Burch, who retires this term after 30 years of teaching. He delivered the last lecture of 2014 on April 9. We invited three student nominators to share how the three Last Lecture finalists inspired them.

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ROBERT BURCH HE TAUGHT ME LESSONS I CAN APPLY TO MY LIFE

by Iain Hill, second-year philosophy major, Faculty of Arts

“Robert Burch is a truly brilliant professor who not only has a deep and passionate love for philosophy, and for education in general, but who also cares deeply about his students. I have had many wonderful classes with amazing professors at the U of A. The fact that he stands very tall above the others illustrates how truly exceptional he is. His way of teaching is to not just tell you about philosophy, but to have you actively engage in philosophy itself. In my first course with him, a 100-level course, we jumped right in with books by Plato, Descartes and Martin Buber — very challenging works. Everything I learned then about philosophy is just as relevant to my life now. Every week I’d walk out of the room and think, ‘I’m learning these things that I can apply to my life practically in so many ways.’ Before the semester was over, I had switched my major to philosophy. When Burch lectures, he just gets up and talks. It feels like he’s talking especially to you because he makes eye contact with every student in the room. After class, there’s always a line of students who want to ask him questions, and he will always stay to talk, sometimes for an hour. Not a day goes by that I don’t go back to what I’ve learned from him, whether for help in other classes or in my day-to-day life.”

Burch 101 TEACHES: History of philosophy BORN: Niagara Falls, Ont. EDUCATION: PhD on Martin Heidegger, historical relativism and the essence of ontology, University of Toronto HAS TAUGHT AT U OF A SINCE: 1983 RESEARCH INTERESTS: Reviving talk of the love of wisdom as a wisdom of love in the form of a genuinely finite philosophy of experience COOL FACT: He has published on such thinkers as Arendt, Croce, Heidegger and Kant as well as in phenomenology and the philosophies of literature and technology. new trail spring 2014 43

DAVID BEGG DO WHAT YOU LOVE

by Edward Spink, third-year biological sciences major, Faculty of Science

“I took Anatomy 200 with David Begg in my first year. Three years later, I still consider him the best professor I have ever had. His great sense of humour made an otherwise contentheavy class entertaining and enjoyable. He cares deeply for his students. He was always looking out for us: telling us to get enough sleep before exams, to eat well. He respects his students and so his students respect him back. There wasn’t a divide between him as a professor and us as students. I will never forget shaking his hand as I handed in my final exam; he is the only professor I have had who has taken the time to shake every one of 44 newtrail.ualberta.ca

his students’ hands as a final farewell. I still hold dear the motivational speech he gave at the end of the last lecture that year. He spoke of how university is a time when students are figuring out their lives and that it can be tough. He told us how he got through difficult times in his life. He said, ‘If you do what you love, you’ll bring more love into the world, and that’s the very best thing you can do with your life.’ By following his words, I’ve come to know better what I like to do, what I love. Whenever I take on a new project, whether it’s volunteering or taking a class, I always ensure I am doing it because I truly love it.”

Begg 101 TEACHES: Human anatomy BORN: Boston EDUCATION: PhD in cell biology, University of Pennsylvania HAS TAUGHT AT U OF A SINCE: 1991 RESEARCH INTERESTS: Cell and developmental biology with an emphasis on cellular motility COOL FACT: He’s a beer enthusiast and award-winning home brewer, with particular interest in beers of Belgium and Great Britain.

LINDA KERR SHE HELPED ME FIND MY PASSION

by Jessica Bresler, fifth-year history major, Faculty of Arts

“Linda Kerr changed my life. In my second year, I decided to take a night class and thought History 110 would be easy enough. It was my first class with Kerr, and the way she taught made it the one class I looked forward to every week. Kerr has a great sense of humour, and her excitement about what she’s teaching is infectious. She made a subject that I initially thought to be ‘just OK’ the most interesting thing I had ever learned. Her teaching opened up a whole new world and I became incredibly passionate about it, so I switched my major to history. Even my minor, East Asian studies, I chose because the history of India she covered in class was so interesting. Her

classes aren’t easy but they’re fun. In one class, on medieval Scotland, we learned Scottish swear words, which come up a lot in court case documents. She taught us how you’d use swear words in a sentence to insult someone and even what the other person would probably retort with. Kerr offers different vantage points for the history you’re studying and makes you think about the people behind the history — you can imagine someone doing these things, and the emotions and reasons behind what they did. In my original nomination, I said she changed my life, and I stand by that. I credit her with helping me discover one of my truest loves: history.”

Kerr 101 TEACHES: Canadian, Scottish, British and world history BORN: Glasgow, Scotland EDUCATION: ’92 PhD on Quebec in the aftermath of the British conquest, University of Alberta HAS TAUGHT AT U OF A SINCE: 1992 COOL FACT: She and her son have created YouTube talks about world history called The History Hut. HER MENTORS: Philip Lawson and Ken Munro, University of Alberta; and David Whitefield, University of Calgary. “My life was changed by these three professors, who showed by example what it is like to spend a life sharing knowledge and trying to inspire students.” new trail spring 2014 45

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by KATE BLACK Alan Nursall takes a spin on the Multi-Axis Trainer in the Telus World of Science’s Health Gallery.

Alan Nursall,

’81 MSc

The new CEO and president of Telus World of Science Edmonton and host of Daily Planet’s The Alan Nursall Experience talks about his world records and wildest TV moments What is your favourite thing you’ve done on TV? Oh, golly. Probably the most memorable was skydiving from 12,000 feet. I’m a world-record holder, too: it took us a day to set up and a day to film, but we built a 7.5-metre-tall pile of dirt and turned it into a volcano. We took 700 litres of vinegar and dumped 150 kilograms of baking soda into it.

PHOTO BY JOHN ULAN

How about your craziest experience? They’re all a little bit crazy, because it’s good television. Most of the stuff I do, whether it’s jumping out of planes or making the world’s largest baking soda and vinegar volcano, there’s always some science element in there. Recently, we filmed something that involved me driving a little Fisher Price truck that could go 50 kilometres an hour, so that was a lot of fun. When you were in university, what was your plan? My plan was to go to school, and I didn’t really know what I was going to do beyond that. I spent two years at the University of Toronto working on my PhD, but my heart wasn’t really in it. I got a phone call one day about a science centre called Science North that was under construction in Sudbury, Ont., and they needed somebody with the kind of skills I had.

I went there thinking it sounded like a good idea and ended up spending more than 23 years working there.

How did you land your gig at Daily Planet? Through Science North, I met a couple of Discovery Canada producers. They had this thing called the Discovery Challenge, where they called on viewers to improve upon an everyday item, and the item of interest at the time was automobile windshield ice scrapers. I set up this elaborate presentation and they liked it and asked if I wanted to do it on a regular basis. So I said sure, and every week for the past 18 years I’ve done something for them. Daily Planet has three U of A grads— you, Dan Riskin, ’97 BSc, and Jay Ingram, ’67 BSc, ’09 DSc (Honorary). Is it a secret society? It’s simply a testament to the outstanding science education you can get at the U of A. I think the U of A should take all the credit it can get from that. In fact, my dad, Ralph Nursall [a professor of zoology at the U of A from 1953 to 1988], taught Jay Ingram introductory biology. What made you say yes to coming back to Edmonton? Edmonton has a great, exciting vibe to it, an edge to it.

And there’s just so much opportunity in this [Telus World of Science] facility. One of the challenges this place has is that it’s a victim of its own success: it’s attracting huge audiences, but it’s too small. It needs to move some of its programming into the 21st century and take advantage of the new Imax theatre we just opened.

What is it that excites you most about science? The best thing about science is that you don’t get to know the answers in advance. The only entity that knows the answer is the universe. If you ask the right questions and observe and experiment in just the right way, the universe will give you the answer. If you do all those things well, you can accomplish amazing things. Why is it important to get people excited about science? I want to do anything I can do to engage people in discussion, or in an emotional connection with science. People always say, “Science takes the beauty out of everything.” No, it doesn’t! Science is gorgeous. We need to have a continuous, ongoing discussion about how we understand our world, and science is one of the lenses. new trail spring 2014 47

ALUMNI EVENTS SEPT. 18-21, 2014 Alumni Weekend is the time to reunite, reminisce and make new friends. With events and activities including performances, tours, speakers and more, there’s something for everyone. Whether you’re celebrating a reunion or just want to see what’s new on campus, come and join the fun. alumni.ualberta.ca/weekend

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES ON YOUR WAY TO THE U OF A! Come share your U of A story with students who are planning to attend the university in September. Volunteers will be on hand to chat with future students and share a few tips about the U of A. VANCOUVER | MAY 13 · CALGARY | MAY 21 · EDMONTON | MAY 28

SUMMER OF SERVICE SIGNATURE EVENT: RED DEER RIVER CLEANUP AND BBQ RED DEER | JUNE 1

SUMMER OF SERVICE SIGNATURE EVENT:

REGIONAL ACTIVITIES Stay involved with the U of A through one of the more than 50 active alumni chapters around the world. Check online for information about events near you.

U OF A CAMPUS SPRUCE-UP EDMONTON | JUNE 21

SUMMER OF SERVICE SIGNATURE EVENT: FAMILY PICNIC & SHORELINE CLEANUP ON JERICHO BEACH VANCOUVER | JULY 5

BECOME AN ALUMNI AMBASSADOR Alumni Ambassadors are the heart of the Alumni Association, giving back to the U of A in so many ways. From supporting events to inspiring the next generation of U of A students, alumni are involved across campus. The majority of Alumni Ambassador opportunities take place from September through April. More at ualberta.ca/alumni/volunteer.

RED DEER | MAY 15 Alumni Mixer Pub Night at the Westlake Grill JASPER |MAY 22 Dental Reunion Reception OTTAWA | MAY 26 Alumni Reception at the National Aviation Museum with U of A professor David Percy TORONTO | MAY 27 President’s Reception at Royal Ontario Museum with U of A professor David Percy CALGARY | MAY 28 Spring Term Pub Night at Wine-Ohs

EDUCATED SERIES Learning doesn’t end when you get your degree. Sign up for our Educated Alumni programs and meet fellow alumni, gain new skills and keep the joy of learning alive. THE EDUCATED PALATE Try Some Dim Sum EDMONTON | MAY 21

CALGARY | JUNE 5 19th Annual Reception and Dinner at Spruce Meadows

THE EDUCATED REEL The Pride Alumni Chapter recognizes the International Day Against Homophobia with a screening of Transamerica and guest speaker Andre Grace. EDMONTON | MAY 22

EDMONTON | JULY 24 Family Eskimos Football Game

THE EDUCATED TRAVELLER EDMONTON | JUNE 19

VANCOUVER ISLAND | MAY 31 PERAA Golf Tournament and BBQ

Dates are subject to change; events are added daily. For more or to register, visit

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SAVE THE DATE

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION CENTENARY The University of Alberta Alumni Association celebrates 100 years in 2015 and we are planning some great events to mark the occasion. The year’s events kick off in grand style Jan. 29 to 31 with a winter celebration in Quad, including a light parade, family activities and pyrotechnics. Dan Riskin, ’97 BSc, co-host of Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet, will deliver a lecture on “Cool Science and Unexpected Discoveries.” Look for more on this and other centenary celebrations in the Autumn 2014 issue of New Trail or at ualberta.ca/alumni/events.

1. Greg Zeschuk, ’90 BMedSc, ’92 MD, host of The Beer Diaries, gives alumni the inside scoop on brews during Educated Palate: Craft Beer night at Craft Beer Market in Edmonton.

2. David Markle, ’58 BSc(EngPhys), Priya Saraswati, ’97 BCom, and Theresa Markle, ’57 BA(Hons), chat at the Alumni Association’s San Francisco reception.

3. Wayne Lui, ’84 BSc(ChemEng) and Megan Watson, ’87 BCom, came out for the President’s Alumni Reception on the 54th floor of The Bow in Calgary. The real star of the evening was the Calgary Tower, which lit up every time Team Canada earned a gold medal at the Sochi Olympics.

4. Alexis Hillyard, ’06 BEd, ’11 MEd, (right) and U of A employee Brianna Murphy show off their pink T-shirts as part of the International Day against Bullying, Discrimination, Homophobia and Transphobia. Pink T-shirt Day kicked off the second annual Pride Week on the U of A campus.

5. Nearly 700 people came out Easter weekend for the Alumni Association’s annual Easter Eggstravaganza, which took place on North Campus. Guests enjoyed face painting, an egg hunt, a visit from the Easter bunny and, of course, a hug from Guba.

Advertise in New Trail Magazine Your message delivered to the doorstep of more than 150,000 U of A grads. ualberta.ca/alumni/newtrailads new trail spring 2014 49

CL A SS NOTES

1940s 1950s ’48 Phyllis Fowler (Fitch), BSc(HEc), wrote in to tell us: “Six members of the 1948 class of home economics at the University of Alberta met for lunch Sept. 27 at my home to celebrate the 65th year since we graduated. Attending were June Tye (McCutcheon) of Calgary and Norma Robertson (Smith), Marilyn Moret (Veronneau), Kay Sawka (Puchalik) and Anne Sawka (Puchalik), all of Edmonton. We sent cards of greetings to seven class members who were unable to join us. We all felt blessed to be able to be together and enjoyed lots of laughter, shared memories of our years in the South Lab and other parts of the campus and tales of our lives since then, professional and personal. None of us dreamed we would be celebrating 65 years. Dare we think about our 70th in 2018? Who knows!”

’48 Roy Y. Powlan, BSc, ’50 MD, shared this photo of the owners of the Tuck Shop, taken just outside the shop entrance on 112th Street. They were selling apples, probably for a charity drive. Roy remembers that one of the owners bought a Kaiser car and the other a Fraser when they first became available, and they used to park them outside the shop. At the time Roy took the photo, probably in the summer of 1948, he was in the accelerated, combined BSc and MD program and was living in St. Stephens College across the street from the Tuck Shop. After graduating, he practised orthopedic surgery in the San Francisco Bay area until his retirement, which he is enjoying with his wife of 59 years, Helene.

50 newtrail.ualberta.ca

’51 Jocelyn Pritchard (Rogers), BA, wrote to let us know that she turned 85 last summer and celebrated her birthday by holding a fundraising concert. The concert was free and instead of gifts, she asked her guests to make a donation to the Townships Project, a microfranchising organization working in South Africa. All of the performers were people Jocelyn had known for several years — singers, pianists and even a whistler — who featured in a varietyshow format, followed by cake and a chorus of Happy Birthday. She reports the 150 relatives and friends in the audience raised nearly $3,500 and had a great time.

’54 Brian L. Evans, BA, University of Alberta professor emeritus, announced the release of his new book, The Remarkable Chester

WE LOVE TO HEAR WHAT YOU’RE DOING Tell us about your new baby or your new job. Celebrate a personal accomplishment, a volunteer activity or share your favourite campus memories. Submit a class note at alumni.ualberta.ca/connect/class-notes or email alumni@ualberta.ca.

Ronning: Proud Son of China, a biography of one of Canada’s most renowned diplomats. Born in China of missionary parents, Ronning was a former principal of Camrose Lutheran College (Augustana). He entered the Canadian diplomatic service in 1945, serving in China, in Norway as Canada’s first ambassador and in India as high commissioner. ’55 Lubomyr Romankiw, BSc(ChemEng), has been elected as a foreign associate by the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest professional distinctions that can be accorded an engineer. Lubomyr, who received a University of Alberta Distinguished Alumni Award in 2012, co-invented the thin-film magnetic storage head, which revolutionized computer data storage. Watch his story at youtube.com/ualbertaalumni. ’56 Jack Snedden, DDS, sent in this photograph from the 57th reunion of the Dental Class of 1956, hosted by Elaine and James (Jim) Wright in August in Kingston, Ont.

From left to right: (back row) Eli and Phyllis Adler, Carol Snedden, Sylvia Kuzyk, Jack Snedden, Elaine Wright, Mel Taskey; (front row) Bohdan Kuzyk, John Zaparinuk, Jim Wright

1960s

’63 David Vassos, DDS, has been honoured by the American Academy of Implant Dentistry for a lifetime of outstanding achievement. David is an honorary fellow of the academy and a Diplomate of the David Vassos American Board of Oral Implantology/Implant Dentistry. He is also a founding member of the Canadian Society of Oral Implantology. After graduating in 1963 in general dentistry, he decided in 1968 to focus his career on dental implants and has a private practice in Edmonton.

1970s ’70 Antonio Peruch, BA, ’74 MA, and his Logos Futura CD enjoyed an auspicious 2013, including nominations for a Juno Award, an Orpheus Award (Italy) and two Western Canadian Music Awards — one for the CD, plus a nomination for Classical Composition of the Year for Malcolm Forsyth’s Concerto for Accordion and Orchestra, featured on the CD. The year concluded with Antonio winning a $1,000 runner-up inaugural Edmonton Music Prize and trophy. He was the only classical musician shortlisted for this prestigious award.

’75 Allan Mah, BCom, reports that he was elected president of the Edmonton-Castle Downs PC Association. ’75 Kenna Mary McKinnon, BA, shared a story from her first day on campus: “I lost my rain hat somewhere on campus that

day in September 1972 when I registered for my first semester. In those days, we students had to trudge outside to various buildings and stand in long lineups to register, only to be told in some cases that the class we wanted wasn’t available, necessitating another trek. It took me most of the day to

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new trail spring 2014 51

70s CL A SS NOTES

register, I remember. The rain poured down my white plastic hat and onto my nose as I trod from building to building. At some point, the hat was left behind, but not my enthusiasm. It was a lifelong dream, to attend university — a dream almost forgotten through my abusive and unhappy teen years, a pregnancy at 17, a marriage a year later and two more precious children in my early 20s. My young husband died in a motorcycle accident when I was 26. I quit work a year later and registered for classes at the University of Alberta. I was so excited. I graduated in 1975 after taking six courses that semester to finish my degree with distinction. Fast forward to today. I was 69 in October. With my dream of university a memory, my lifelong ambition to be a writer is taking shape. I have published two middlegrade science fiction novels — SpaceHive and Bigfoot Boy: Lost on Earth — and selfpublished two other books: a collection of poetry and The Insanity Machine, co-authored with Austin Mardon, ’11 LLD (Honorary), about our respective journeys with paranoid schizophrenia, including some of

the latest research at the time of writing in 2012. I learned to think at the University of Alberta. I learned to feel in life since then. My dreams are almost complete. Thank you to the professors and students at the U of A in the 1970s, so long ago now, and to my children, friends, family and employers since then.”

’76 Donald James, BA, who earned a master of divinity from McMaster University after graduating from the U of A, wrote to say that following careers as a pastor and a civil servant, he was recently appointed national development director of Bridges for Peace Canada, which builds bridges between Christians and Jews by supporting new emigrants to Israel and by educating Christians about the Jewish roots of Christianity. ’78 David Sproule, BA(Hons), ’81 LLB, has been named Canadian ambassador to Norway. David joined the Department of External Affairs in 1981 and has served in Singapore, Bangkok, Washington, D.C., Dhaka and Kabul. In Ottawa, he has worked in the Privy Council Office as well as in the divisions of economic law, political intelligence analysis, legal operations, international economic relations and summits, legal advisory, oceans and environmental law, and United Nations and human rights. He served as high commissioner in Bangladesh, ambassador to Afghanistan from 2005 to 2007 and ambassador to Thailand and Laos from 2007 to 2009. He was most recently deputy legal adviser in the department’s legal affairs bureau.

’79 Tololwa Mollel, MA, has published From Lands of the Night, a new addition to African-Canadian children’s literature. Tololwa, who lives in Edmonton, has published 17 books as well as several plays and stories for performance.

’79 Steve Hanon, BA, ’81 SpecCert(Arts) has published a book, The Devil’s Breath: The Story of the Hillcrest Mine Disaster of 1914, through NeWest Press of Edmonton. ’79 Jamie McNamara, BEd, ’86 Dip(Ed), recently retired as superintendent of schools for St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic Schools. Jamie continues to work as an education consultant in addition to serving as executive director of the Council of Catholic School Superintendents of Alberta.

The Perfect Gift for a U of A Grad Order your official crested degree frame today! ualberta.ca/alumni/degreeframes 52 newtrail.ualberta.ca

T U RN I N G P O I N T

The university years are a time of change and growth for us all, but some can pinpoint a moment in their university careers that changed the course of their lives. This is one such story. Share your own at alumni.ualberta.ca/connect/class-notes.

VICKY HORN: HOW I BECAME CHIEF SHEPHERDESS

PHOTO BY AMIE BELL PHOTOGRAPHY

Why treat sick animals when you can raise them to be healthier in the first place? That question changed this alumna’s future CHIEF SHEPHERDESS is not a title one typically expects to put on her business card after graduating from university. Nobody was more surprised than Vicky Horn (Spenst), ’05 BSc(Ag), who proudly fills that role at Tangle Ridge Ranch, a lamb farm she owns with her husband, Shayne Horn, ’07 BSc(Ag). Growing up, Horn always thought she’d be a veterinarian. Her story of altered destiny reflects that of many graduates who can tell you about a point in their university careers where their lives shifted course: perhaps a comment from a professor, a new relationship or a personal epiphany — what novelist and poet James Joyce called the “most delicate and evanescent of moments.” For Horn, the turning point came two years into her pre-veterinarian coursework. A fellow student gave a talk about his experience at a custom grazing ranch during an optional, for-credit internship, part of the animal science program in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science. “I asked a bunch of questions in that class, not realizing the owner of the ranch was in the room,” Horn remembers. “My questions must have made an impression on him.” The ranch owner, Jake Burlet, asked if she would take on the internship at his ranch in Cherhill, a hamlet about 80 kilometres northwest of Edmonton. “From the moment I arrived at the ranch, the ranch manager, Nolan Regier, constantly challenged me, asking, ‘Why do you want to be a vet?’ ” He felt that dealing with sick animals meant always treating symptoms without addressing the underlying causes of disease. Why not work to raise healthy animals? “He challenged me to focus my energy on the land,” Horn recalls. “If the soil and plants were healthy, that would ensure the cattle

were healthy.” Healthy land means healthy cattle, Regier told her. “It was like a light bulb; it just made sense.” Horn never did apply to vet school. “After the internship, my heart was with pasture management,” she says. In 2007, she and Shayne (another life-changing part of her internship, but that’s another story) bought a quarter section of land near Thorsby, Alta., and got married, all in the same week. Horn says she applies many aspects of what she learned at the U of A. She and her husband grow various legumes to fix nitrogen in the soil and a variety of protein-dense grasses for forage for the sheep. The sheep are moved every two to three days to distribute the manure evenly as they graze. The land is given a 45-day break before it’s grazed

again so the pasture can regrow strong roots and top plants. That also helps break disease and worm cycles, she says, which keeps the flock healthy without the use of antibiotics and hormones. They don’t use pesticides or fertilizers on the pastures. “It’s tremendous how our land has responded and how healthy it is, managed this way,” says Horn. “We have lots of bugs living in the soil, and diverse plants and wildlife, including birds that use the sheep’s fallen wool to build their nests.” It has all come together in a successful business, meeting a demand for local, natural and humanely raised meat. Every season, their lamb sells out, scooped up by some of Edmonton’s best chefs and discerning diners. — Tina Faiz new trail spring 2014 53

CL A SS NOTES

1980s

’80 Shirley Serviss, BA, is Writer at Work for the City of Edmonton, a pilot project with the Writers Guild of Alberta. An Edmonton writer and writing instructor who holds a master of theological studies from St. Stephen’s College, she also works part time as the staff literary Artist on the Wards for the Friends of University Hospitals. Her poetry, essays and articles have appeared in numerous magazines, textbooks and anthologies. She has also published three collections of poetry and co-edited two anthologies. Shirley collaborated with Wendy Gervais, ’82 BFA, on an exhibit called House/Homes at the McMullen Gallery in Edmonton this winter. ’81 Stan Blade, BSc, has been appointed dean of the U of A Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences (ALES), effective

Aug. 1. He is currently chief executive officer of Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions and serves as vice-chair of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation, which is funded by the Gates Foundation. Stan was appointed recently by the federal minister for international cooperation to the governance council of the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund (IDRC/CIDA). ’81 Geoffrey Gregson, BPE, has a new book out titled Financing New Ventures: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Business Angel Investment. The book incorporates the views of business angels, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and legal advisers, draws on the latest academic thinking on financing new ventures and provides comparisons between business angel and venture capital investing.

It is available at businessexpertpress.com and amazon.com. Geoffrey is a director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship Research at the University of Edinburgh Business School in the United Kingdom. ’82 Donald Kennedy, BSc(MechEng), ’88 MSc, ’05 PhD, wonders whether someone at the U of A knows who has taken the most courses and units. “While at the University of Alberta, I passed 74 courses with a unit total of 228.5. I note I also withdrew from a class halfway through, audited another and have two courses that I did not complete worth 0.5 units each; none of these are included in the 74-count total. I counted my two theses (master’s and PhD) as zero points and zero courses. I also see from my transcripts that I have taken courses from six faculties — engineering, arts, science,

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54 newtrail.ualberta.ca

’82 Wendy Gervais, BFA, presented an exhibit, House/ Homes, at the McMullen Gallery in Edmonton this winter. The series of colourful chalk drawings of homes in the Garneau neighbourhood was accompanied by fictionalized narratives of events and people by Garneau poet and writer Shirley Serviss, ’80 BA, reflecting the character of the houses. Historian Ken Tingley, ’73 BA, ’81 MA, presented a provenance of the houses represented in the drawings and stories.

phys-ed, agriculture and law — and courses from 16 departments, some of which no longer exist, such as Agricultural Engineering.” [Editor’s note: We want to help answer Kennedy’s question. If you know of someone who might equal or surpass Kennedy’s accomplishment, please let us know at alumni@ualberta.ca.] ’84 Edward S. Shihadeh, BSc, ’88 MA, is the chair of the Department of Sociology at Louisiana State University. He leads the crime analysis group for the Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination (BRAVE) anti-crime initiative in Baton Rouge, La., a collaboration among sociologists, police officers and sheriff’s

deputies that has gained the support of non-profit and social services organizations, faith groups and the community at large. The program has succeeded in lowering homicide by nearly 27 per cent, the third-largest decline of any major city in the United States in 2013. ’87 Andrew Hillson, BSc(Spec), ’89 BSc(SpecCert), and Bruce Lix, ’99 MBA, are working together at Calgary startup Nanalysis, despite never having met in person before and taking very different paths to get there. Andrew came through Nortel and a Calgary-based GPS startup; Bruce worked at an Edmonton pharmaceutical research firm

and at the U of A managing the National High Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Centre. Both helped design and bring to market Nanalysis’s first product: the NMReady. The compact nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, which fits on a bench top and features one-button operation, can be used for teaching in undergraduate labs or for research support in the laboratory. Nanalysis has two NMReadys filling a vital research role at the U of A, in pharmacy and engineering. ’88 Karim Mawani, BA, ’91 LLB, and Greg Pickering, ’81 BA, ’87 MEd, registered psychologist, along with another colleague, Sharon Seidler, have been working together for the past three years to bring Parenting Co‑ordination to the Edmonton region. Parenting Co‑ordination is an innovative practice in family law that helps divorced parents manage their co-parenting duties more effectively. Parent Co‑ordinators have the authority to make decisions about many aspects of parenting, which avoids the emotional and financial costs associated with litigation and assists parents to adopt a more effective co-parenting model.

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GOAL: 2,015 Make your time count! Be a part of the Alumni Volunteer Challenge. Get involved at alumni.ualberta.ca/volunteer.

new trail spring 2014 55

CL A SS NOTES

1990s

’90 Krista Connell, MHSA, is CEO of the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation. She was recently named one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 in the public sector category by the 19,000-member Women’s Executive Network, which celebrates the professional achievements of women across the country in the private, public and not-forprofit sectors. Krista says: “I am so excited to receive this recognition. I owe my professional success, as I do most things in my life, to incredible and powerful female role models, especially my mother and grandmother.”

’90 Marty Chan, BA, has published two new books: The Bone Eater, the third instalment of his Barnabas Bigfoot series, and a young adult steampunk fantasy novel, The Ehrich Weisz Chronicles: Demon Gate.

Her work focuses on the benefits of natural systems such as wetlands, rivers, coral reefs and forests around the world that can assist in creating solutions to challenges such as water and food scarcity and disasters such as storm surges, flooding and sea-level rise. She works with international organizations and global leaders to find policy outcomes that benefit people and nature.

’93 Bruce Campbell, BCom, sent in this news: “The Redwood Equity Growth Fund, which is managed by my firm, StoneCastle Investment Management ican ameR ine Inc., was ranked No. 1 by ul Morningstar Inc. for Canadian maSc equity funds in 2013. The annual return was 35.22 per cent. My firm, StoneCastle, manages two mandates for Redwood: the Redwood Equity Growth Fund and ieS StoR the Redwood Income Growth Fund.”

’96 Shann Ray Ferch, PhD, wrote to say that his book of short stories titled American Masculine received starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and the American Library Association’s Booklist, and critical acclaim from Esquire, High y a Country News and the R nn’ Co nf er en Ce Ba ke Les s Pr ize Sha ite rs d Lo af Wr ea Br Montana Arts Council. ’94 Krista Lynn Singleton-Cambage, e th Wi nn er of The book also won the BA, has recently taken on a new global Bakeless Prize, the High Plains Book Award position with the Nature Conservancy, and the American Book Award. the world’s largest conservation organization.

’98 Karen Wall, PhD, is an associate professor in communication studies at Athabasca University. Her book Game Plan, about Alberta sports history, was published in 2012 by University of Alberta Press. ’99 Debra Komar, PhD, recently published The Lynching of Peter Wheeler, a historical crime novel of wrongful conviction and racism set in Nova Scotia in the 1890s. Debra has worked as a forensic anthropologist in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, and has investigated human-rights violations resulting in violent deaths on behalf of the United Nations and Physicians for Human Rights. She is author of Forensic Anthropology: Contemporary Theory and Practice, published by Oxford University Press. Bruce Lix, ’99 MBA, wrote in to say he’s working with another alumnus at Calgary startup Nanalysis. See 1980s notes.

After 20 performances, 1,042 student participants and 257 agricultural trivia questions, the university has bid a fond adieu to its beloved experiential learning program There’s a Heifer in Your Tank. Rooted in the teachings of Animal Science 200, the program challenged undergrad students to give “science answers to quirky questions you never knew you had about animal agriculture.” In celebration of the program’s 10th anniversary and final community performance on March 26 in Spruce Grove, Alta., here is just one of the many questions posed.

56 newtrail.ualberta.ca

Q: How many sheep would it take to make a wool sweater for each student on the U of A campus? A: Well … If it takes 818 grams of fleece to knit one sweater … and you can shear an average of 1,814 grams of fleece from one sheep … you could make roughly 2.2 sweaters from one sheep. So, it would take 17,273 sheep to knit a sweater for the U of A’s 38,000 students. Not baaa-aaaad, right? Are you a Heifer in Your Tank alumnus? Visit our Facebook page to share your favourite HIYT story or tell us about the professor that inspired you.

BOTTOM PHOTO BY EPIC PHOTOGRAPHY

FAREWELL HEIFER IN YOUR TANK

2000s

’02 Nicole Beart, BEd, wrote to say: “I am the founder of Memory Catcher Inc., an Edmonton-based personal and corporate video autobiography company. Concerned about the isolation of seniors, I started a Life Chapters initiative that sees seniors engage in weekly reminiscence therapy sessions as well as recording video memoirs. In March, my partner and I were invited to present at the annual convention of the Alberta Senior Citizens’ Housing Association and the Alberta Continuing Care Association in Calgary about the benefits of the program for seniors and their families. My vision is to see the Life Chapters program in every senior residence. More information is available at memorycatcher.ca.” ’06 Tawana McLeod, BPE, a U of A Pandas volleyball alumna, wrote to say that Angela Bell (Zawada), ’03 BSc, received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, which honours “significant contributions and achievements by Canadians.” Tawana goes on to report that Angela travelled to Alberta to attend the U of A more than 13 years ago.

’05 Melissa Morelli Lacroix, BA, published her first book of poetry, A Most Beautiful Deception, with University of Alberta Press. The book explores the love and longing, loss and pain, grief and healing found in the music of Frédéric Chopin, Clara Schumann and Claude Debussy.

After playing on the Pandas volleyball team, she developed a love of yoga, which has led to a career seeking the healing aspects of hot yoga. Angela is owner of Moksha Yoga Studios in Edmonton and part owner of studios in Kelowna and Calgary. ’06 Justin Pahara, BSc, ’08 MSc, wrote with the news that his company, Synbiota, won the top SXSW Accelerator award for Innovative World Technologies. Synbiota Inc. was founded in April 2013 with the mission to streamline life science R&D and to make it universally accessible. Using Synbiota, groups of any size, or even an individual, can create a virtual research institute complete with DNA development tools, integrated data storage and management,

’04 Andréa Zariwny, BA, is putting her industrial design skills to good use in her thesis for the master of science program at the University of Toronto. Andréa created an app that uses augmented reality as an educational/teaching tool for the anatomy of the inner ear geared toward medical students and professors. “Anatomical accuracy is paramount in the biomedical communications field; the end user must have an accurate description of the science they are learning,” she says. Her app, available on iTunes, has been so successful that University of Toronto plans to use it in the anatomy labs as of September, she says.

colleagues, secure communication, attribution, IP, performance metrics and a marketplace. ’06 Erica Jo Sharp, BEd, was inducted into the Wrestling Canada Lutte Hall of Fame in the Athlete category at the ASICS Senior Canadian Wrestling Championships held in March at the University of Alberta. She was one of the first female wrestlers to represent Canada at the Senior World Championships in 1993 and went on to represent Canada at numerous international competitions over 16 years. Erica, a nine-time Senior Canadian Champion, had six Top 5 finishes at the Senior World Wrestling Championships, coming home with two medals: a silver medal in 1999 and a bronze in 2007. ’06 Stephanie Wahlstrom, BA, sent in this news: “I currently live in London, U.K., but was born and raised in Edmonton. I’ve written a novel set to be published in April by Swoon Romance in North America and Piatkus Entice (an imprint of Little, Brown) in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The book is called The Accidental Socialite and is about a girl from Edmonton — a U of A graduate — who moves to London and accidentally becomes famous on her first night out.” ’07 Iain Bushell, MBA, was appointed fire chief for Strathcona County Emergency Services as well as serving as the director of emergency management for Strathcona County. Iain served as deputy fire chief for the last seven new trail spring 2014 57

00s CL A SS NOTES

years. He replaces Darrell Reid, ’05 MBA, who has been named as deputy chief of communications and technology for Toronto Fire Services.

’07 Christy Foley, MBA, applied to become an astronaut with the Mars One project and has made it to the second round. More than 200,000 people applied to the project, which is planning human settlement on Mars in 2024. Only 1,058 applicants made it past the initial selection stage. Christy is one of that 0.5 per cent who will now go on to interviews and medical and psychological screenings, followed by regional and international competitions to select the project’s first team to train to go to Mars. ’07 Stephanie Stitt (Wehlage), BSc(Hons), ’11 MD, and Leslie Stitt, ’08 BA, ’11 LLB, would like to announce their marriage on July 6, 2013.

2010s

’10 Beverley Brenna, PhD, was honoured to receive a 2013 Governor General’s Awards nomination for her young adult novel The White Bicycle, third in a trilogy about a teen with high-functioning autism. The book was also named a Printz Honor Book by the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association. ’12 Brittany Anderson, BCom, wrote to announce: “I have recently opened a new business: the Edmonton Paintball Centre. My business partner and I took over an 85,000-square-foot, three-storey building in downtown Edmonton and demolished the offices to convert the space into indoor paintball playing fields. We recognized the need for more fun, safe recreational activities in the Edmonton area and thought this would be a great asset to the city. Check us out at edmontonpaintball.ca or come down and play!” ’12 Catharine Eckersley, MA, has been backpacking solo through Australasia and Southeast Asia for the last year. During her travels, she decided to spend her time more meaningfully and volunteered in Vietnam with International Volunteer HQ and its local partner SJ Vietnam. She used her kinesiology background to provide massage and play

58 newtrail.ualberta.ca

’11 Greg Bechtel, PhD, has published a debut short story collection called Boundary Problems, 10 stories about the impossible-turnedpossible. Greg studied physics before completing a PhD on the intersections between contemporary Canadian fantasy, fantasy theory, genre theory, cognitive science and syncretism. He teaches at the University of Alberta.

therapy to children with mental and physical disabilities at an acupuncture hospital. Catharine encourages people to contact her on LinkedIn for information or advice on getting involved or volunteering abroad, or to share similar future opportunities with her. She is also excited to announce she will be starting her master of occupational therapy degree at UBC in September. [Editor’s note: You can connect with other alumni at the official alumni LinkedIn account: UAlberta Alumni.] ’13 Fanny Kung, BA, has developed an underwater diving case for several models of smartphones. “The iSkita smartphone diving case is a waterproof phone case that allows one to capture life’s beautiful moments without the fear of your smartphone incurring water damage,” she reports. She has launched a crowdfunding initiative on Kickstarter and hopes to begin shipping her first cases this spring.

We all have a campus memory that sticks with us long after convocation — whether it be a formative personal moment or one of those shared college experiences that connects us all. Share your memory at alumni.ualberta.ca/connect/class-notes.

F O REV E R G RE E N & G O LD

A CULINARY EXCHANGE

ILLUSTRATION BY GENEVIEVE SIMMS

A home-cooked meal, an eye-opening conversation and a connection to the other side of the world THE DOOR TO ONE OF HUB Mall’s many anonymous cement stairwells slammed behind me. The sound of my entrance reverberated off the cold grey walls as warmth rushed past me into the winter night. As it escaped, my nose and cheeks began to thaw. I’d walked 10 blocks from the off-campus apartment I shared with my husband and three oscars (as in: large, carnivorous fish). It was one of the coldest nights of the year, and dark had descended at a time that most of the world referred to as “late afternoon.” I felt disoriented. I wasn’t accustomed to walking into the U of A’s Hub Mall at dinnertime. Usually by 5 p.m. I was at home, a couple of hours into an essay on the Free Trade Area of the Americas or hopelessly confused by Nietzsche. As I climbed the stairs to the dorm rooms, I felt anticipation. I had never lived in a student residence. I had never even visited one. I’d never had any reason to leave the mall’s centre spine, its main hallway crammed with tables, textbooks and students, the alternating dark and light windows in the stacks of rooms above always seeming to wink at me. Teasing. Finally, in my last semester, I had been invited upstairs. The smells weren’t that different from the hall below: the heavy oils of fried food and coffee. I knocked and Jing opened the door. Her round face beamed welcome. I walked inside and was enveloped by smells of Chinese home cooking. I had met Jing through the U of A’s International Centre. She was an exchange student studying mechanical engineering. I was a domestic student from a tiny Alberta town, a virtual wasteland in terms of cultural diversity. When I moved to Edmonton for university, I’d eagerly anticipated a host of intercultural experiences. It turned out that being invited to someone’s home for suhoor or Diwali was harder than I thought. (Because, you know, I invite random strangers to my home for Christmas morning all the time.) In my final year

of school, I took matters into my own hands and volunteered to be matched with an exchange student through the International Centre. So, in exchange for me showing her the art of making gingerbread, Jing had prepared a meal for me. She’d bought dumpling wrappers and noodles at Lucky 97, then bused to T & T Supermarket for a particular Chinese vegetable. We feasted on her findings: stir fry and noodles and soup with wontons. The dumplings, made from scratch, were filled with pork and leek. In her tiny kitchen, she boiled the dumplings, then methodically extracted each one with a slotted spoon. Jing was a careful cook. I was struck by our differences: had it been me, I’d have accidentally disembowelled most of the pockets well before they reached my plate. I would come to appreciate other differences that night. Jing chose her education based on how it would equip her to care for

her parents and disabled brother. She politely disagreed with my take on Tibetan sovereignty. She was grateful for her father’s extreme discipline that motivated her as a schoolaged child. She had been an agnostic who discovered the Christian church around the same time that I’d grown disillusioned. Warmed by good food, discussing childhood and politics with someone from the other side of the world, I realized that this meal in a Hub Mall dorm room would be a defining moment. It was the experience of university at its best. Carissa Halton, ’03 BA, lives with her husband and three kids in Edmonton’s Alberta Avenue area. She is currently at work on a book of essays: literary portraits of her neighbourhood. new trail spring 2014 59

IN MEMORIAM

The Alumni Association notes with sorrow the passing of the following graduates (based on information received between October 2013 and March 2014) ’34 Marion Armstrong (Clarke), BA, of Penticton, BC, in January 2014

’43 Victoria Odette McLeod (Totton), BSc, of Oakville, ON, in October 2013

’35 Mary Lily McLean (Hole), BA, of Edmonton, AB, in December 2013

’43 James Overgard Metcalfe, BSc, ’46 MD, of Edmonton, AB, in January 2014

’36 Evelyn Victoria Cave, BA, in February 2014

’43 Harold Daniel Simonson, BSc(Ag), ’47 MSc, of Wetaskiwin, AB, in February 2014

’37 Charles Kenneth Hurst, BSc(CivEng), of Ottawa, ON, in November 2013

’43 Donald Murray Smith, BSc(ElecEng), in March 2014

’38 Edna Dorothy Brett (Smith), Dip(Nu), in February 2014

’43 Lloyd Muir Smith, BSc(Ag), ’49 MSc, in June 2013

’38 Stephen Samuel Cosburn, BSc, of Victoria, BC, in October 2013

’44 Irene Barbara Christensen, Dip(Ed), ’44 BEd, ’48 BA, of Carmichael, CA, in March 2014

’38 Dorothy Eileen Haverstock (Hutton), BA, of Victoria, BC, in October 2013

’44 Benjamin McNichol MacLeod, BSc, of High River, AB, in November 2013

’38 Maclean Everett Jones, BA, ’39 LLB, in March 2014

’44 Francis Drake Shelton, BA, ’48 BEd, of Calgary, AB, in October 2013

’38 Kenneth Albert McKenzie, BA, ’39 LLB, of Edmonton, AB, in March 2014 ’38 Nelson William Nix, BSc, ’41 MD, in February 2014 ’39 Donalda Macpherson Weatherilt (Russell), Dip(Nu), of Edmonton, AB, in November 2013 ’41 Eva Myrtle MacKlam (Wheeler), BScN, of Edmonton, AB, in February 2014 ’41 Francis Richard Matthews, BCom, ’48 LLB, of Calgary, AB, in October 2013 ’42 Saul Bernard Gelfand, DDS, of Richmond, BC, in February 2014 ’42 Margaret May Leavitt (Redmond), Dip(Nu), of Portland, OR, in March 2014 ’42 Fred Tarlton, BSc, ’47 BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in October 2013 ’43 Gilbert Plante Brimacombe, BSc, ’47 BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in December 2013

’44 Roma Doris Simonson, BSc(Ag), of Wetaskiwin, AB, in January 2014 ’45 Duncan Thomas Bath, BSc(ElecEng), of Peterborough, ON, in December 2013 ’45 Gwendolyn Gladys Hall (Scott), Dip(Nu), of St. Albert, AB, in December 2013 ’45 Beverly Mae Holmes (Dahl), Dip(Nu), of Victoria, BC, in September 2013 ’45 Mary Margaret McKirdy, BSc(HEc), in September 2013

’47 Earl S. (Bud) Brabbins, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in September 2013 ’47 John Donald Hay, BEd, of Calgary, AB, in November 2013 ’47 William Richard N. Lindsay, BSc, ’49 MD, of Toronto, ON, in November 2013 ’47 Jean Winnifred McDonald (McGillis), BEd, in November 2013 ’47 Mary McIntosh, BEd, of Calgary, AB, in November 2013 ’47 Rudolph Steve Melnychuk, BSc, ’49 BEd, ’64 MEd, of Edmonton, AB, in December 2013 ’47 Orene Joyce Robinson (Ross), BSc(HEc), of Richmond, BC, in October 2013 ’47 Joseph John Stratton, BA, ’48 LLB, of Edmonton, AB, in November 2013 ’47 Benjamin Bernard Torchinsky, BSc(CivEng), ’49 MSc, of Miami, FL, in December 2013 ’47 Desmond Burk Watt, BSc(Ag), of Naperville, IL, in August 2013

’45 Mabel E. Robblee, Dip(Ed), of Olds, AB, in December 2013

’48 George Wellington Camp, BCom, of Calgary, AB, in December 2013

’45 Hazel Sylvia C.C. Smith, BEd, of Eugene, OR, in August 2013

’48 Albert Benton Chiswell, BEd, ’51 BA, of Victoria, BC, in December 2013

’45 Margaret Anita Townsend (Crockett), Dip(Nu), in August 2013

’48 David Gerald Gillies, BSc(CivEng), of San Diego, CA, in September 2013

’46 Dorothy Erica R. Cox (Coggles), BSc, ’48 MSc, of Edmonton, AB, in January 2014

’48 Jean McLaws (Martyn), BSc, in January 2014

’43 Beth Empey, BSc(HEc), in November 2013

’46 John Dick, BSc(ChemEng), of Calgary, AB, in October 2013

’43 Cam Elliott, BSc(ChemEng), of Victoria, BC, in November 2013

’46 Donald Richard Low, BSc(CivEng), of Cardston, AB, in December 2013

60 newtrail.ualberta.ca

’46 Robert George Proudfoot, BSc(ElecEng), ’50 MSc, ’67 BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in January 2014

’48 A. Gerald Richards, BSc, ’50 MD, of Victoria, BC, in October 2013 ’48 William Glyndwr Roberts, BEd, ’52 MEd, ’66 PhD, of Calgary, AB, in February 2014

’49 Don Evert Berg, BSc(Ag), of Duchess, AB, in September 2013

’50 Malcolm Duncan MacDonald, BSc(Ag), of Lethbridge, AB, in January 2014

’49 Marguerite Mary Bryant (Miltimore), Dip(Ed), of Coaldale, AB, in June 2013

’50 Gregor Donald McGibbon, BSc(EngPhys), of Los Gatos, CA, in January 2014

’49 Varge Gilchrist, BSc(Ag), ’52 MA, of Ottawa, ON, in January 2014

’50 A. Genevieve Moreau, BEd, ’69 MA, in October 2013

’49 Louis Peter Gorman, BSc(Pharm), of Ponoka, AB, in October 2013 ’49 Gerald Patrick Heaney, BSc(CivEng), of Edmonton, AB, in October 2013 ’49 Charlotte Elizabeth Hughes (Ward), BSc, of Stony Plain, AB, in February 2014 ’49 John Brant Kerby, BSc(CivEng), of St. Albert, AB, in January 2014 ’49 Michael Wilfrid Koslowski, BSc(MiningEng), of Edmonton, AB, in March 2014 ’49 Andrew John Shandro, BA, ’55 BEd, ’72 Dip(Ed), of Edmonton, AB, in March 2014

’50 Wallace Elton Mydland, BSc, ’52 MD, of Calgary, AB, in March 2014 ’50 Arnold Willy Norris, BSc, ’51 MSc, of Calgary, AB, in October 2013 ’50 Robert Howard O’Connor, BSc, of Calgary, AB, in December 2013 ’50 Gerald Arnot Pinsent, DDS, of North Vancouver, BC, in October 2013 ’50 Calvin Arthur Reber, BSc(Pharm), of Auburn, AL, in August 2013 ’51 Joseph Frank Berlando, BEd, ’73 MEd, of Calgary, AB, in October 2013

’49 Harry Shaw, MD, of Coquitlam, BC, in June 2013

’51 James Strathearn Carlisle, BSc, ’53 MD, of St. Thomas, ON, in March 2014

’49 Paul Noble Somerville, BSc, of Indialantic, FL, in September 2013

’51 Jean Elise Clark, Dip(Nu), of Kelowna, BC, in January 2014

’49 Robert Francis Staysko, BCom, of Calgary, AB, in November 2013

’51 Ronald D. Connell, BSc(ElecEng), in October 2013

’49 Beryl Tyler (Bisset), BA, in January 2014

’51 Jennie M. Emery (Heibein), Dip(Ed), ’53 Dip(Ed), ’57 BEd, of Lethbridge, AB, in October 2013

’50 Kenneth Earle Brown, BEd, of Calgary, AB, in October 2013

’51 George Harold Laycraft, BSc, ’53 MD, in February 2014

’50 Daniel Patrick McCartney Brownlow, BEd, of Dartmouth, NS, in July 2013

’51 John Warner Loven, BSc, of Calgary, AB, in June 2013

’50 Robert C. Crocker, BSc(ChemEng), of Centralia, WA, in September 2013 ’50 Cyril James Harke, BSc(Ag), of New Westminster, BC, in December 2013 ’50 Frank Harrison, BSc(Ag), of Edmonton, AB, in November 2013 ’50 Harold Richard Hawes, BSc, in 2007

’51 Benjamin Eastwood Metcalfe, DDS, of Victoria, BC, in January 2014 ’51 Mary Albina Peterson, Dip(Ed), ’78 BEd, of Grande Prairie, AB, in July 2013 ’51 Douglas Haig Shearer, BSc(Ag), of Edmonton, AB, in September 2013 ’51 Ronald Cecil Thomas, BSc, ’54 MSc, of Victoria, BC, in November 2013

’51 Robert William Tipper, BSc(CivEng), of Winnipeg, MB, in August 2013

’54 Marcel Joseph Albinati, DDS, of Calgary, AB, in November 2013

’56 Barbara Anne Christenson (Smith), BScN, of Lone Pine, CA, in January 2014

’58 Joseph Frederick Ferguson, BA, of Calgary, AB, in February 2014

’60 Victor Krupka, BCom, ’67 BEd, of Mesa, AZ, in December 2013

’52 Jack Allford, BA, ’55 LLB, of Edmonton, AB, in February 2014

’54 James Michael Dacyszyn, BSc(CivEng), of Edmonton, AB, in October 2013

’56 Bernard Hughes, BPE, of Jasper, AB, in October 2013

’58 James Baird Haddow, MSc, of Victoria, BC, in January 2014

’52 Hugh Campbell, BSc(Ag), of Victoria, BC, in October 2013

’54 Richard Gail Duffy, BSc(PetEng), of Calgary, AB, in January 2014

’56 L.D. Hyndman, BA, ’59 LLB, of Edmonton, AB, in November 2013

’58 Bruce Henry Jackson, BA, ’61 LLB, of Calgary, AB, in December 2013

’60 Fredrick Garth Worthington, BEd, ’61 BA, of Edmonton, AB, in February 2014

’52 Charles Robert Elliott, BSc(Ag), ’59 MSc, of Richmond, BC, in October 2013

’54 Edwin Marr Foo, BSc(CivEng), of Vancouver, BC, in December 2013

’56 Edward Millard Kemp, BSc(PetEng), of Calgary, AB, in November 2013

’58 John Robert Liss, BSc(Ag), of Coldwater, ON, in September 2013

’52 Stanley Albert Herzog, BSc(PetEng), of Calgary, AB, in January 2014

’54 Leo A. Jackiw, BSc(CivEng), of Calgary, AB, in January 2014

’56 William Roy Knopp, BSc, of Sherwood Park, AB, in February 2014

’58 David Leonard McNair, DDS, of Vancouver, BC, in October 2013

’52 Irmadell Kathleen Kerr (Stanley), BA, of Edmonton, AB, in December 2013

’54 Wilma Roberta Rix (Reid), BEd, in February 2014

’56 Catherine Alice Oxner, Dip(Nu), of Oceanside, CA, in January 2014

’58 Lawrence Michael Snaychuk, BA, ’59 LLB, of Edmonton, AB, in November 2013

’54 Derald Colin Willows, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in October 2013

’56 Julian P. Thomas, BSc, ’73 MEd, of Edmonton, AB, in October 2013

’58 John Peter Strack, BSc, of Calgary, AB, in February 2014

’55 Henry Rod De Paiva, BSc(CivEng), of Cobble Hill, BC, in August 2013

’57 Patricia Anne Blakely, BSc, of Calgary, AB, in January 2014

’58 Karene Margaret Wagner, BSc(HEc), of Lacombe, AB, in February 2014

’57 Nick Bugiak, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in December 2013

’59 Ray Aoyama, DDS, of Prince George, BC, in September 2013

’57 Robert Erwin Graham, BSc(CivEng), of Prince George, BC, in January 2014

’59 Harold George Bennett, DDS, of North Vancouver, BC, in February 2014

’57 Derek Rollinson Jepson, BSc, of Calgary, AB, in March 2014

’59 Lowell Eugene Horlacher, MD, of Spokane, WA, in December 2013

’57 George Harry Klimiuk, BEd, ’68 BSc, of Nanaimo, BC, in October 2013

’59 Daniel Reid Kuss, BA, ’60 LLB, in November 2013

’52 Charles Edward Laverty, BSc(ElecEng), of Calgary, AB, in January 2014 ’52 William Douglas McGinnis, BSc(Ag), ’56 DDS, of Vancouver, BC, in January 2014 ’52 Stanley Ernest Overby, Dip(Ed), ’53 Dip(Ed), ’53 BEd, of Calgary, AB, in November 2013 ’52 Muriel Corrine Torgunrud, Dip(Ed), ’61 BEd, of St. Albert, AB, in November 2013

’55 Glenna Mae Gorrill, Dip(Nu), ’62 BScN, of Calgary, AB, in February 2014 ’55 Clara Amanda Hare, BEd, of Kelowna, BC, in October 2013

’52 Hilda Voth (Tellefson), Dip(Ed), of Sidney, BC, in October 2013

’55 Sharon Louise Kottbauer (Burwash), Dip(Nu), of Vancouver, BC, in September 2013

’53 Gerald Morton E. Alexander, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in October 2013

’55 J. Ralph Marshall, BA, ’57 BDiv, ’57 BEd, ’81 MEd, of Edmonton, AB, in January 2014

’53 Joan Alison Berger (Webster), Dip(Nu), of Edmonton, AB, in December 2013

’55 Joseph Haruo Takahashi, BSc, ’58 MD, of Picture Butte, AB, in August 2013

’53 Peter Robert Broda, BA, ’54 LLB, of Edmonton, AB, in October 2013

’55 Kenneth Townsend McKie, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in February 2014

’53 Walter Dmitroca, BSc, of Calgary, AB, in January 2014

’55 Elaine Joyce Wade, BEd, ’65 Dip(Ed), in February 2014

’53 Lawrence Alexander Mazurek, BSc(ChemEng), of Calgary, AB, in October 2013

’55 Stewart Alderson Wells, PhD, of Lethbridge, AB, in September 2013

’53 Theodore J. Twack, BCom, of Calgary, AB, in October 2013

’55 Ralph A. Yuodelis, DDS, of Kenmore, WA, in August 2013

’53 Norman L. Witten, LLB, of Edmonton, AB, in November 2013

’56 William Ross Blain, BA, ’61 LLB, of Calgary, AB, in December 2013

’57 Allan James Nicholson, BSc, ’62 MD, of Fort McMurray, AB, in January 2014 ’57 Donald Andrew Peirce, BA, of Ottawa, ON, in March 2014

’59 Charles Joseph P. Laisnez, BSc(Ag), of Stettler, AB, in October 2013 ’59 Evelyn Samuel, BA, ’71 Dip(Ed), in January 2014

’57 Ronald Organ Powlan, BSc, of Calgary, AB, in October 2013

’59 Henry Shimbashi, DDS, of Calgary, AB, in February 2014

’57 Walter S. Rosenquist, BSc(CivEng), of Ottawa, ON, in August 2013

’60 Glen Frederick Andrews, BSc(MiningEng), in September 2013

’57 William Burgess Shaw, BEd, of Medicine Hat, AB, in August 2013

’60 Earl Douglas Carr, DDS, of Vancouver, BC, in December 2013

’57 Stephen F.H. Threlkeld, BSc(Ag), ’58 MSc, of Hamilton, ON, in January 2014

’60 James Allan Coutts, BA, ’61 LLB, of Toronto, ON, in December 2013

’58 Leroy Mathew Anholt, MD, of Edmonton, AB, in September 2013

’60 George Evanoff, BSc(Pharm), of Edmonton, AB, in March 2014

’61 Doris Elizabeth Chapman (Brosseau), BEd, of Three Hills, AB, in November 2013 ’61 Trevor F. Cuthill, BSc(MineralEng), of Kelowna, BC, in March 2014 ’61 David Alexander Luchko, BPE, ’83 Dip(Ed), of Edmonton, AB, in February 2014 ’61 Edmund J. Lyne, BSc(ElecEng), of Edmonton, AB, in January 2014 ’61 Harry Petryshen, BEd, ’70 BA, ’79 Dip(Ed), of Sherwood Park, AB, in February 2014 ’61 Diane Bernice RichardBuchanan, Dip(Nu), ’91 BScN, of Edmonton AB, in November 2013 ’61 Marshall Lawrence Serediak, BSc(Pharm), of Edmonton, AB, in December 2013 ’61 Gerald David Thomson, BSc(MechEng), of Calgary, AB, in November 2013 ’61 Violet Nadjah Wasylynchuk (Fyk), Dip(Nu), of Edmonton, AB, in October 2013 ’62 Hugh Samuel Kent, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in December 2013 ’62 Elsie May McRoberts, BEd, ’75 BA, of Red Deer, AB, in September 2013 ’62 Catherine Mildred Mountain (McCurdy), BA, in January 2014 ’62 John Tharin, BSc(MineralEng), of North York, ON, in July 2013 ’62 Erich Henri Wahl, BSc, ’76 LLB, of Edmonton, AB, in February 2014 ’62 Robert D. Wohl, BSc(MechEng), of Calgary, AB, in December 2013 ’63 Edward Wong Aie, BSc(ChemEng), of Calgary, AB, in March 2014 new trail spring 2014 61

IN MEMORIAM ’63 Erwin Harold Bissell, BSc(Pharm), of Fauquier, BC, in March 2014

’65 Don Whidden, BCom, of Edmonton, AB, in February 2014

’67 Monib Sayed Tawfik, PhD, of Edmonton, AB, in October 2013

’69 Ada Ellen Fortunaso, BEd, of Hillcrest Mines, AB, in November 2013

’71 John Roger Proctor, BEd, ’86 MEd, ’01 PhD, of Lethbridge, AB, in October 2013

’63 Joyce Lorraine Clark, Dip(Nu), of Wildwood, AB, in October 2013

’66 Margaret Joan Burton (Weber), BSc, of Newmarket, ON, in March 2014

’67 Arthur Franklin Tilma, BSc(Ag), of Thorsby, AB, in January 2014

’69 Vera Victoria Hampel, BEd, of Camrose, AB, in October 2013

’71 Robert John Provan, DDS, of Calgary, AB, in January 2014

’63 William Keith Good, BSc(MechEng), of Calgary, AB, in December 2013

’66 Emil Dmetro Chapelski, BCom, in November 2013

’68 Deana Kathleen Bard, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in December 2013

’69 John Ottis Kvill, BEd, of New Norway, AB, in December 2013

’71 Jobst Rainer Rickert, BSc, of Salmon Arm, BC, in November 2013

’68 Michael Burton G. Brown, BEd, of Sherwood Park, AB, in December 2013

’69 Margaret Gertrude Richel, BEd, of Calgary, AB, in November 2013

’71 Wilhelm Friedrich Roland, Dip(Ed), of Calgary, AB, in January 2014

’68 Earl Arthur Clark, BEd, ’69 MEd, of Leduc, AB, in December 2013

’69 Rosaleen Ann Rosenberger, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in October 2013

’71 Adolph J. Ryll, BEd, of Bonnyville, AB, in November 2013

’68 Mary Sumiko Huumonen (Kariatsumari), BSc(MedLabSci), in October 2013

’69 Gerald Sidney Schick, BEd, ’73 BA, ’82 Dip(Ed), of St. Albert, AB, in February 2014

’71 David Frank Steer, BEd, of Sturgeon County, AB, in February 2014

’68 Krishan C. Joshee, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in February 2014

’70 William Morley Ferries, BA, ’73 LLB, of Sylvan Lake, AB, in October 2013

’71 Donald Terry Unger, BSc(Med), ’73 MD, of Edmonton, AB, in September 2013

’68 John Joseph Kane, BA, ’72 LLB, of Edmonton, AB, in March 2014

’70 Norman Frederick Lavoie, MA, ’72 PhD, of Thunder Bay, ON, in March 2014

’71 Tim Etienne Van Ramen, BSc(ElecEng), of Nipomo, CA, in December 2013

’68 Mary Ann R.R. Komaran, BA, of Edmonton, AB, in November 2013

’70 Christann Sheryll MacIntosh, BEd, of Sherwood Park, AB, in December 2013

’71 Karen Ann Ward, BA(RecAdmin), of Calgary, AB, in February 2014

’68 Alex Tom Melnychuk, BA, ’73 MD, of Trail, BC, in May 2012

’70 Doug James Mustard, MA, of Port Alberni, BC, in August 2013

’72 A. Bernard Bryden, MA, of St. Albert, AB, in January 2014

’68 Mary Gertrude Murray (Durkin), BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in January 2014

’70 Thomas Roy Peterson, BA, of Edmonton, AB, in September 2013

’72 Paul Constance E. Eriksson, MEd, of St. Albert, AB, in November 2013

’68 Catherine Anne Smith (Paul), BEd, ’91 Dip(Ed), of Edmonton AB, in February 2014

’70 Susan Delores Skuba (Viteychuk), Dip(DentHyg), of St. Albert, AB, in September 2013

’72 Lorna Mary Grainge, BSc, ’74 Dip(DentHyg), in September 2013

’63 Nels Gordon Johnson, BSc(Pharm), of Victoria, BC, in September 2013 ’63 Frederick Revega, BEd, ’69 Dip(Ed), of Abee, AB, in March 2014 ’63 Hugh Alexander Robertson, BA, ’66 LLB, of Victoria, BC, in October 2013 ’63 John P. Ryder, BSc, ’65 MSc, of Thunder Bay, ON, in January 2014 ’63 Vera Esther Stevens, BA, of Wetaskiwin, AB, in November 2013 ’64 Robert Allin Folinsbee, BSc, of Calgary, AB, in November 2013 ’64 Krishna Kumar Jha, PhD, of Oakland Gardens, NY, in September 2013 ’64 Laura Jane Schrock, MD, of Rector, PA, in July 2013 ’64 Norman Albert Sherritt, MEd, of Surrey, BC, in August 2013 ’64 Daniel Peter Stetsko, BEd, ’69 Dip(Ed), of Redwater, AB, in February 2014 ’65 Dwayne Allen, BSc(ElecEng), of Kamloops, BC, in November 2013 ’65 Nestor Bobey, MSc, of Calgary, AB, in November 2013 ’65 Robert Russell Haney, BA, ’68 MSc, of St. Marys, GA, in March 2014 ’65 Alexander Kane Lewoniuk, BCom, ’71 MBA, of Edmonton, AB, in February 2013 ’65 Patricia Ellen Pelech, BSc(MedLabSci), in December 2013 ’65 Allan D. Throndson, BEd, of Camrose, AB, in March 2014

62 newtrail.ualberta.ca

’66 Mervyn George Jones, BEd, in October 2013 ’66 Sheila Mae Jones (Johnson), BEd, of Calgary, AB, in February 2014 ’66 Henry Richard Kolacz, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in December 2013 ’66 Sara Joanne D. Lavender, BA, ’71 MD, of Millarville, AB, in October 2013 ’66 William Andrew McGladrie, BEd, ’72 Dip(Ed), of Wetaskiwin, AB, in November 2013 ’66 Sherry Ann McKibben (Schymizek), BA, of Edmonton, AB, in January 2014 ’66 Robert George Milson, BA, of Edmonton, AB, in December 2013 ’66 William Albert Mokoski, BA, of Red Deer, AB, in December 2013 ’66 Marjorie Belle Owens (Robson), Dip(PHNu), of Calgary, AB, in December 2013 ’66 Mary Grace Ruzicka, BEd, ’69 BA, of Peterborough, ON, in March 2014 ’67 John Jacob Bergen, PhD, in December 2013 ’67 Wayne R.R. Ingram, BSc, of Edmonton, AB, in March 2014 ’67 Neil Law Malcolm, PhD, of Alexandria, VA, in June 2013 ’67 Alastair Semple Rankin, MD, of Edmonton, AB, in December 2013 ’67 Guy Evan Rudyk, BEd, ’69 MEd, of St. Albert, AB, in February 2014 ’67 Richard Sadoway, BEd, ’73 Dip(Ed), of Smoky Lake, AB, in October 2013 ’67 Lilian Mary Schick, BEd, in January 2014

’68 Margaret Starko, BA, ’70 BEd, of Sherwood Park, AB, in March 2014 ’68 Laurence Walker, MEd, ’73 PhD, of Lethbridge, AB, in March 2013 ’68 Jane F. Wetsch, BA, of Calgary, AB, in December 2013 ’68 Clifford James Wyllie, BSc(Ag), of Peterborough, ON, in June 2014 ’69 Douglas Frank Bahr, BEd, ’73 Dip(Ed), of Edmonton, AB, in October 2013

’71 Terri Evelyn Andrews, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in January 2014 ’71 Grace Hans Burke, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in November 2013 ’71 Alva Arlene Crawford, Dip(Nu), of Fort Saskatchewan, AB, in December 2013 ’71 Terry William Hudema, BSc(CivEng), of Calgary, AB, in January 2014

’72 Wendy Lorraine Halvarson, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in March 2014 ’72 Joseph William Pashelka, BA, of Calgary, AB, in October 2013 ’72 Christopher George Thomas, LLB, of Calgary, AB, in February 2014 ’72 Allan Vernon Walker, MEd, of Edmonton, AB, in June 2013

’71 Raymond Zenon Joly, BSc, in November 2013

’72 Kenneth Ernest West, PhD, of Bragg Creek, AB, in November 2013

’69 Lily Alice Danyluk, BEd, of Hinton, AB, in March 2014

’71 Mervin Dale Massie, BSc(Ag), of Calgary, AB, in October 2013

’73 Zofia Danuta Benz-Lepoole (Benz), Dip(Ed), of Alberta, in November 2013

’69 Lenora Marie Forster, BEd, ’73 Dip(Ed), of London, ON, in March 2014

’71 Gerald Patrick Mullen, BCom, of Victoria, BC, in March 2013

’73 Colin Pearce Davey, PhD, of Brighton, AU, in July 2013

’73 Gerald Frederick Hannochko, BSc(ElecEng), of Vancouver, BC, in November 2013

’75 Patricia Cora Thomas, BEd, of Devon, AB, in November 2013

’73 Erika Schroeder (Drews), BScN, of Edmonton, AB, in March 2014

’76 Lamont Morrison Bissett, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in February 2014

’73 Henry Alex Taschuk, BEd, of Sherwood Park, AB, in February 2014

’76 Robert Marcel Gerst, BA(Spec), ’79 MBA, of Calgary, AB, in March 2014

’73 Brian M. Traynor, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in November 2013

’76 John William Lovse, BSc(CivEng), of Calgary, AB, in December 2013

’74 Patricia Audrey Camplin, BEd, ’85 Dip(Ed), in October 2013

’76 Gerald Ralph Ludwig, BA, ’79 LLB, of Courtenay, BC, in February 2014

’74 Karen J. Harries (Duncan), Dip(Ed), of Edmonton, AB, in November 2013

’76 Linda Christine Plante, Dip(Nu), of Littleton, CO, in March 2014

’74 Andrew Munn Hendry, PhD, of Spruce Grove, AB, in October 2013 ’74 Enid Anne Liddell, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in January 2014 ’74 Barbara Elizabeth Masson, BSc, ’76 Dip(Ed), of Calgary, AB, in October 2013 ’74 Edith Louise Miller, BEd, of Nanaimo, BC, in December 2013 ’74 John Grant Miller, LLB, of Cardston, AB, in January 2014 ’74 Munsamy Shunnumugam Naidoo, BEd, ’79 Dip(Ed), of Yellowknife, NT, in January 2014 ’74 Florentine Emma Reiter, BEd, of Wetaskiwin, AB, in August 2013 ’74 Gladys Margaret A. Rhine, BEd, of Camrose, AB, in January 2014 ’74 Sally Ann Swimmer, BA, in August 2013 ’75 Barry Andrew Boychuk, BSc(Spec), of Edmonton, AB, in November 2013 ’75 Alice Linda Lahey, MA, of Saskatoon, SK, in November 2013 ’75 John Norman McDougall, PhD, of London, ON, in October 2013 ’75 Kurt Paul Ratzlaff, MSc, ’82 BSc(CivEng), ’95 PhD, of Calgary, AB, in September 2013 ’75 Jane Ann Ruptash (Shortell), Dip(Nu), of Edmonton, AB, in December 2013

’78 William Roy Stewart, BA(Spec), in November 2013 ’79 Mary Joan Gates, BScN, of Nanaimo, BC, in February 2014 ’79 Gordon George May, BA(RecAdmin), of Victoria, BC, in September 2013 ’79 Harold Weissenborn, BEd, of Spruce Grove, AB, in February 2014 ’80 Karen Lee Kennedy, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in February 2014

’83 Gillian Grace Rennie, BEd, ’92 MEd, of Edmonton, AB, in November 2013 ’83 William Anthony Wosar, BEd(VocEd), ’84 Dip(Ed), of Edmonton, AB, in December 2013

’92 John Joseph Mark O’Flanagan, Dip(Nu), ’04 BScN, of Beaumont, AB, in January 2014 ’93 Robert Abram Janzen, PhD, of Coaldale, AB, in August 2013

’83 Donna Mae Zimmer (Homan), BEd, of Daysland, AB, in December 2013

’93 Patricia Wagensveld, BFA, of St. Albert, AB, in December 2013

’85 Fern Marie Delamere (Hicks), BA(RecAdmin), in December 2013

’94 Helen Doreen Hughes, BA, of Edmonton, AB, in October 2013

’85 Kevin Michael Guidera, LLB, in July 2013

’96 Sheila Rae Walker (Blouin), Dip(Ed), ’01 MEd, of Edmonton, AB, in June 2013

’80 Bill Meeuwissen, BSc(ChemEng), of Calgary, AB, in March 2014

’85 Victor Keith Hart, MLS, of Edmonton, AB, in January 2014

’76 Donald Kenneth Quesnel, BEd, of Red Deer, AB, in October 2013

’80 Sharon Louise Saunders (Fahlman), BEd, ’91 Dip(Ed), of Edmonton AB, in December 2013

’85 Shirley-Anne Hensch (Lawrenuk), BCom, ’87 MSc, ’91 PhD, of Edmonton AB, in October 2013

’76 Paula Kee Yeung (Chu), Dip(DentHyg), ’79 BSc, ’81 DDS, of Edmonton, AB, in October 2013

’81 Sherrill Jean Brown, BEd, ’93 MEd, ’99 PhD, of Leduc, AB, in March 2014

’85 Melvin Kenneth Wirth, BSc(Spec), of Carstairs, AB, in December 2013

’00 Brennan Dorian Bagdan, BDes, ’03 MBA, of Edmonton, AB, in November 2013

’77 Robin Howard MacLaren, BCom, of Edmonton, AB, in December 2013

’81 Bruce C. Fielder, BSc(MetEng), of Saskatoon, SK, in February 2014

’86 Robert Stanley Evenson, BSc(MechEng), ’88 MSc, of Calgary, AB, in October 2013

’00 Margaret Helen Boeske, BA, of Edmonton, AB, in February 2014

’77 Marlene Rose Lidkea, BMedSc, ’79 MD, of St. Albert, AB, in December 2013

’81 Carol Eleanor German, BA, of Edmonton, AB, in September 2013

’86 Richard Darrel Simpson, BA, in October 2013

’00 Jonathan Homfray Davies, BSc(MechEng), of Edmonton, AB, in January 2014

’78 Neil Roger Edmunds, BSc(MechEng), of Calgary, AB, in December 2013

’82 Dorothy Anne Cochrane, BScN, ’86 MN, of St. Albert, AB, in October 2013

’78 Joan Denise Fraser, BA(Spec), ’13 MBA, of Edmonton, AB, in September 2013

’82 Lillian May Familinow, BA(Spec), of St. Albert, AB, in December 2013

’78 Patricia Joyce Gillespie, BEd, of Valleyview, AB, in January 2014

’82 Karen Christine Larone, BEd, ’05 MEd, of Edmonton, AB, in January 2014

’78 Larry Kenneth Hook, BCom, of Nanaimo, BC, in October 2013

’82 Christine Jeanette Rougeau (Cooper), BA, of Kamloops, BC, in October 2013

’78 Patrick Joseph Mannas, BSc, of Calgary, AB, in February 2014

’82 Pamela J. Samuels (Hardy), BEd, in January 2014

’78 Patricia Janet McMordie (Salt), BEd, of North Vancouver, BC, in October 2013 ’78 Margaret Adelaide Meikle, BSc(HEc), of Vancouver, BC, in December 2013 ’78 John Michael Pinkney, BCom, of Surrey, BC, in December 2013 ’78 Jacobus Fredrick Smit, BSc(Pharm), of Edmonton, AB, in January 2014

’83 Dawnita J. Diduck (Zyla), BSc(MedLabSci), of Edmonton, AB,in February 2014 ’83 Katherine Mae Lawson (Sayers), BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in November 2013 ’83 Rosaleen Moran, BA, of Sherwood Park, AB, in December 2013 ’83 Ann Laraine Moritz, BA, of Edmonton, AB, in March 2014

’87 Ronald Roy Rumpel, BEd, of South Baptiste, AB, in November 2013 ’87 Roderick William Peden, LLB, of Calgary, AB, in December 2013 ’87 Kelly Gordon Morstad, BCom, in March 2014 ’87 Victor Zariski, BA, ’90 SpecCert(Arts), of Edmonton, AB, in January 2014 ’88 James Donald Eadie, BSc(Forest), of Vanderhoof, BC, in October 2013 ’89 Glenda Evelyn Peardon, BA, of Edmonton, AB, in March 2014 ’89 Martin Gabriel Rapati, BSc, of Edmonton, AB, in November 2013 ’90 Tom Joseph Podivinsky, BSc(Spec), of Calgary, AB, in February 2014 ’90 Andre L. Vincelette, BA, in January 2014 ’91 Michelle Rae Sims, BSc(PetEng), of Gabriola Island, BC, in March 2014

’97 Karen Jean Virag, MA, of Edmonton, AB, in January 2014 ’00 Gordon Allen Mark, BSc(MiningEng), of Hinton, AB, in October 2013

’00 Jessica Ellen Lyons, BSc, of Calgary, AB, in January 2014 ’05 Stephen John Campbell, BSc(Spec), ’12 PhD, in November 2013 ’09 Keyvan Dustin Chandonnet, BA, in November 2013 ’09 Marnie Leanne Slator, BScN, of Edmonton, AB, in December 2013 ’10 Christine Angela Hachey, BCom, of Edmonton, AB, in January 2014 ’10 Katherine Colleen Slocombe, BScN, of Edmonton, AB, in February 2014

Submit remembrances of U of A graduates by sending an email to alumni@ualberta.ca. Tributes are posted to the “In Memoriam” web page at ualberta.ca/alumni. new trail spring 2014 63

Muppet Medicine

PHOTO BY JASON FRANSON

Jonathan White, professor of surgery, is the University of Alberta’s newest 3M National Teaching Fellow. White created Surgery 101 podcasts and an app to bring a playful, human side to learning about surgery. The latest episodes star two Muppets, Dr. Scalpel and surgical resident Thumbs. Surgery 101 boasts more than 1.2 million downloads in more than 170 countries.

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LEADERS FROM

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FOR THE WORLD ExECuTIvE EDuCATION Short Courses Certificate Programs Custom Programs For information visit: www.executiveeducation.ca

ALBERTA MBA MBA Executive MBA Master of Financial Management For information visit: www.mba.net

KATE McIntosh SENIOR ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS CONSULTANT, THE CITY OF EDMONTON

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What will your legacy be? The arts have played a central role in the lives of Alex and Joan Hawkins. Alex is a retired University of Alberta drama professor. Joan has worked as an art teacher, graphic designer, and set designer. Creating the Alex and Joan Hawkins Bursary in Drama and the Alex and Joan Hawkins Scholarship in Drama through a gift in their estate will further support the community they love. “I won’t live to see the recipients, but after teaching for 33 years, I have a sense of who these students are,” shares Alex. Joan agrees: “Alex worked with so many students, and this is part of that legacy of guidance.”

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To create a legacy gift that keeps on giving, please contact us: P 780-492-2394 | Toll-free 888-799-9899 | email giving@ualberta.ca