Portico Magazine - Spring 2018

SPRING 2018

UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH MAGAZINE FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS

OUR NORTHERN LAND

Monitoring human, animal and environmental well-being in Canada’s changing North. p.12

Road trip

Audiobooks may improve your driving. p.9

Family fun

U of G grad designs theme parks worldwide. p.28

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Contents

22 18 28 12

FEATURES COVER STORY

12 Eyes northward How the University of Guelph looks to improve lives in Northern climes

COVER PHOTO: ALEXANDRA SAWATZKY ILLUSTRATION: LARISSA ABRAMS-OGG PHOTOS: FORREC; ALEXANDRA SAWATZKY

18 Making machines smarter VOICES

SECTIONS

4 Leading edge 4 Letters 5 President’s message 33 Class notes

6 Around the ring

IN EVERY ISSUE

News and views from around campus

8 Discovery U of G research, innovations and ideas

31 Alumni matters 28 Alumni spotlight 30 New chapters, sights & sounds 36 Passages 37 Time capsule

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Researchers study machine learning, vision to help maintain Canada’s AI lead

22 From Klingon to comedian How U of G grads are lighting up screen and stage

38 Last look The new pavilion at Alumni Stadium

Events, updates and class connections

Spring 2018 PORTICO | 3

Letters Spring 2018, Vol. 50, Issue 1

Be sure to check out the new and improved digital version of Portico.

It contains more stories, photos and videos to

complement the content of print issues mailed to you each spring and fall.

Check our new sections to read about the achievements of alumni and to stay updated on what’s happening at U of G yearround.

Visit porticomagazine.ca regularly to keep tabs on your alma mater and its incredible alumni – including you!

My son, Chris Dunford, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’96, just sent me an article about Drew Cumpson. I couldn’t help sending you my version of meeting Drew, which I’m sure he does not remember.

My husband spent 40 days in ICU in Kingston in July and August of 2012. While pacing the floor I walked by Drew’s room and read the newspaper clipping about his accident.

My heart was breaking for him, but I soon saw the guts and determination with which he faced each day.

That September, we too were transferred to St Mary’s. Our first real outing, with lots of help, was to Swiss Chalet. Well, guess who also chose to eat there that evening? Drew and entourage! I will never forget seeing that red milk crate with all his extra needs. Now that took courage!

We continued to see Drew around the grounds, usually dressed well and chatting and laughing with a buddy! So thanks to your article, I now know he continues to amaze and live his life with grit and determination!! Way to go, Drew!! You are indeed an inspiration. Remember, we cannot direct the wind but we can adjust our sails!

–Karen Dunford Yes, you were close. This is the fall of 1973 and that is the illustrious FIRST group preparing for a semester in London, England.

The professor is John Bruce who went to oversee the affair.

That is me in the front on

Connect with Portico portico@uoguelph.ca 4 | PORTICO Spring 2018

porticomagazine.ca

PUBLISHERS

Time capsule

Daniel Atlin, vice-president (external) Chuck Cunningham, assistant vicepresident (communications and public affairs) EDITOR

Lori Bona Hunt ART DIRECTOR

Janice Van Eck

THE YEAR

1970 PHOTO: SYDNEY HARRIS / U OF G ARCHIVES

LEADING EDGE

With its limestone clock tower and the spacious green out front, Johnston Hall has been a consistent symbol of the University of Guelph since its opening in 1932 – at least on the outside.

But inside, its corridors, rooms and spaces have changed and been rearranged over the years. Constructed after the original Johnston Hall was demolished in 1928, the building has always doubled as a student residence. We believe this photo was taken in a common area on the third floor of the central portion of the building (note the spiral staircase). The plaid carpeting hints at the 1970s, but we are not sure.

Can you date the photo? Do you see yourself in the shot? Recognize anyone? Bonus points if you can recall what this gathering was about or if you can name the mystery bearded speaker. Send a note to porticomagazine@uoguelph.ca and let us know! @porticomag

2017_PORTICO_FallISSUE_CC2017.indd 37

ON CAMPUS

OFF CAMPUS

+ The University approves plans to develop the U of G Arboretum.

+ Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invokes the only peacetime use of the War Measures Act.

+ An exhibit of sculptures and drawings by the renowned French artist Auguste Rodin comes to campus.

+ Canada amends its Criminal Code to outlaw hate propaganda.

+ An observatory opens atop the then-Physical Sciences building for teaching, research and stargazing. + The Dairy Cattle Research Centre opens in Elora. + U of G gets its own radio station, Radio Gryphon. + Campus discusses whether educational TV has a place in the classroom.

+ The Beatles call it quits.

+ Four unarmed Kent State University students protesting the Vietnam War are shot and killed by the Ohio National Guard. + Thousands of Canadian lakes are declared “dead” due to acid rain. + The world watches as NASA works to return the crew of the disabled Apollo 13 spacecraft to Earth.

Fall 2017 PORTICO |

37

COPY EDITOR

Andrew Vowles CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Deirdre Healey, Hannah James, Rob O’Flanagan, Andrew Vowles

2017-09-28 1:39 PM

the left with long brown hair, checked shirt and my wallaby shoes. Susan Hanneson, then Foster and now Smith. I arrived at Guelph in the fall of 1968 as Hanneson and stayed in “New Res” (as Lambton Hall was called on those days!).The Complex B was being built at that time and I moved in the next summer and got a single room. I did six semesters straight.

To my left sits Freeman Boyd, smoking. The woman at my far left, front row, is Sydney...

In the back row, the smiley girl in glasses is Doris Van Den Breckle.

Would this be taken in the upper Arts building in one of those seminar/meeting rooms?

I think that the London Semester of Jan. 1974 should have a reunion!

–Susan Smith

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Rob O’Flanagan

Portico is published by Communications and Public Affairs at the University of Guelph. Opinions expressed in the magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the editor or the University.

FEEDBACK

Send letters and story ideas to portico@uoguelph.ca or by mail to Communications and Public Affairs, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ont., N1G 2W1. We reserve the right to edit all submissions.

ADVERTISING

Send advertising inquiries to Lori Bona Hunt at lhunt@uoguelph.ca or 519-824-4120, Ext. 53338.

MOVED?

Send address changes to alumnirecords@uoguelph.ca or 519-824-4120, Ext. 56550, or by mail to Records c/o Alumni Affairs & Development, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ont., N1G 2W1.

ISSN 1714-8731

Printed in Canada Publication Agreement #40064673 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Portico Magazine, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ont., N1G 2W1.

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

‘Adaptable minds’ key to improving life

I

n the film The Martian, Matt Damon’s astronaut character improvises to survive, including adapting his botany smarts to grow food on the red planet while awaiting rescue.

The movie is about the adaptability of the human spirit – a favourite theme of mine. We often fear the unknown, and still we are driven to explore, whether the journey takes us outward to Earth’s limits and beyond, or inward to the mind.

This issue of the Portico takes us outward and inward.

For many Canadians, the North helps define us as a country. “We the North,” say the Toronto Raptors – or, since a recent marketing shift, “North Over Everything.”

Viewed from Yellowknife, Iqaluit or northern Labrador, the GTA is hardly the North. Only a small percentage of Canadians can claim any real acquaintance with Northern Canada.

But as a country, we claim Northern-ness as a vital part of who we are.

That means that we also bear responsibility for the Canadian North.

From its environment to the heritage and well-being of its inhabitants, that part of our country is undergoing rapid change. How to protect and preserve the

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North? By understanding the causes and effects of those changes, and by finding ways to continue adapting to them.

That’s the goal of researchers and scholars whose varied projects are discussed in this issue.

At the same time, our researchers are also exploring another kind of frontier: artificial intelligence.

Through machine learning, we aim to enable computers to learn in ways that mimic what humans do from birth.

Smarter machines are intended to improve life for humans and to help improve prospects for our growing planet – for instance, by enabling the kind of precision agriculture envisioned under U of G’s Food from Thought project and Arrell Food Institute.

Learning about machine brains also promises to tell us something about the nuances of our own complex, unpredictable and adaptable minds.

By understanding how machines think, we stand to learn more about the workings of the human mind – arguably the most important tool we have for meeting tomorrow’s challenges on this planet, or on any other.

We often fear the unknown, and still we are driven to explore, whether the journey takes us outward to Earth’s limits and beyond, or inward to the mind.

Franco Vaccarino President and Vice-Chancellor Spring 2018 PORTICO | 5

CAMPUS NEWS

LEADERSHIP

Gender equity initiative underway

Vaccarino reappointed president

A new University of Guelph initiative is intended to advance the status of women and underrepresented gender groups across campus.

Charlotte Yates, provost and vicepresident (academic), launched GenEQ – Advancing the Status of Women at U of G. Goals include increasing the proportion of women in senior leadership positions; improving recognition of women’s research and scholarship; increasing the number of women holding research chairs and positions in non-traditional fields; and new and improved programs promoting leadership and mentorship.

CAMPUS NEWS

$713-million agri-food research and innovation partnership renewed The provincial government is investing up to $713 million toward a unique partnership between the University of Guelph and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA).

The goal is to further discovery and innovation, and position Canada as a world leader in agri-food.

The OMAFRA-U of G partnership brings together academia, government and industry to support and enhance Ontario’s agri-food sector through cutting-edge research and innovation.

This includes new advances in artificial intelligence, big

6 | PORTICO Spring 2018

data analytics and precision agriculture.

U of G and OMAFRA first established an enhanced partnership agreement in 1997; it was renewed for 10 years in 2008. The new 10-year agreement will take effect April 1.

Under the new agreement, the University manages research and innovation programs and related facilities, including the Ridgetown Campus, the Agriculture and Food Laboratory program, the Animal Health Laboratory program, and 20 research stations and centres. The partnership also supports knowledge mobilization and commercialization.

Franco Vaccarino has been reappointed as president of the University of Guelph.

“President Vaccarino’s first term has been filled with many successes,” says Kevin Golding, chair of the University’s Board of Governors.

Golding added that “there is enthusiasm among faculty, students and staff, as well as government and external stakeholders, for U of G and the role it can play in Canada and beyond in teaching, learning and innovation.”

First appointed to a fiveyear term in 2014, Vaccarino is U of G’s eighth president.

“I’m gratified to be able to continue promoting the important work being done at this worldclass institution, including finding solutions to such key challenges as feeding our growing population in sustainable ways. Collectively, we have an opportunity to make a real difference for people here at home and abroad,” Vaccarino says.

Vaccarino’s aspirational leadership approach and energy, and his engagement with the U of G community as well as donors and University partners, were noted during the review process.

He was also praised for developing the strategic framework, strengthening the executive team, exceeding advancement targets, promoting economic development and guiding internationalization efforts.

Before joining U of G, Vaccarino was principal of the University of Toronto Scarborough and vice-president of the University of Toronto.

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Around the ring CAMPUS NEWS AND VIEWS

CAMPUS NEWS

PEOPLE

$5-million gift supports sustainable food engineering

Mary Coyle, BA ’78, MA ’85, and Robert Black, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’85, have been appointed to the Canadian Senate. Coyle, who will represent Nova Scotia, works in post-secondary education. Black, chief executive officer of the Rural Ontario Institute, will represent Ontario.

The University of Guelph has created Canada’s first academic chair in sustainable food engineering, backed by a $5-million gift from the Barrett Family Foundation.

It’s one of the largest single donations in U of G history.

Based in the School of Engineering and connected to the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph, the Barrett Family Chair in Sustainable Food Engineering will focus on the design, construction and operations of food processing.

This will include improving food packaging, developing new “green” technologies and finding ways to prolong shelf life and reduce food waste.

Besides the chair amount, $1.5 million from the gift will support a sustainable food engineering research fund. Another $500,000 will support Barrett Family Graduate Scholarships to train the next generation of leaders and skilled researchers in sustainable food engineering.

“This important investment in the School of Engineering will allow us to build on the University’s world-class expertise in food science, nutrition and agricultural production,” says Mary Wells, dean of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences.

“It will help position U of G as a national and global leader in sustainable food engineering and innovation.”

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RECOGNITION

Grad Ambera Wellmann won the 2017 RBC Canadian Painting Competition.

MFA grad wins coveted national painting prize In an immaculate studio in Berlin, Canadian artist Ambera Wellmann, MFA ’16, creates the painstaking and complex paintings that have made her an acclaimed figure in contemporary art. Wellman has described her somewhat surreal work as having a subconsciousness of its own.

She made a big noise on the Canadian art scene in 2017 when she won the $25,000 RBC Canadian Painting Competition prize. It was the seventh year in a row that a U of G student or graduate has won or been a finalist for the prestigious prize.

The juried competition, created in 1999 and organized by the Canadian Art Foundation, honours young and emerging Canadian painters. The 15 finalists from among more than 600 submissions by artists across the country included Amanda Boulos, MFA ’17.

Wellmann’s winning submission, done in oil on wood, is titled Temper Ripened. It is now part of RBC’s corporate art collection. Wellmann was also a finalist in 2016. The jury, made up of some of Canada’s top artists, art directors, curators and art critics, called Wellmann “a powerful new voice in Canadian art.”

Bernadette Ardelli, M.Sc. ’94 and PhD ’00, was appointed dean of science at Brandon University in Brandon, Man., in January.

Esther Rhee, BA ’05, was named a Top Difference Maker in Canada by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Rhee is the national program director of Autism Speaks Canada in Toronto.

Ben Cullen, Dip. ’11, has joined his father, Mark Cullen, a wellknown author and broadcaster, in writing a weekly horticulture column for the Toronto Star. A fourth-generation gardener, Ben Cullen has also worked for Halifax Seed.

Food science professor Keith Warriner won a prestigious Premier’s Award for Agri-Food Innovation for helping design a way to sanitize produce that reduces health risks and increases shelf life.

Spring 2018 PORTICO | 7

Discovery RESEARCH, INNOVATION, IDEAS FINDINGS

Mammals move less in human-modified landscapes

U of G researcher, 8-year-old team up to fight ‘bug’ bullies When Sophia Spencer was bullied at school for her love of bugs, the eight-year-old couldn’t have imagined that she would gain international attention and a credit along with U of G researcher Morgan Jackson as a co-author and subject of a journal article.

Spencer and Jackson, a PhD candidate in the School of Environmental Sciences and an entomologist with the U of G Insect Collection, co-wrote “Engaging for a Good Cause: Sophia’s Story and Why #BugsR4Girls.”

Published in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America, their article was one of the most read papers on the publication’s website.

At school, Sophia had been bullied for befriending caterpillars, grasshoppers and insects of all sorts – even letting them ride on her shoulder or head. Her mother, Nicole 8 | PORTICO Spring 2018

Spencer, emailed the Entomological Society of Canada looking for an insect expert who could encourage her daughter’s interest.

Jackson, the society’s social media coordinator, tweeted to the entomological universe: “A young girl who loves insects is being bullied & needs our support.”

That tweet reached more than 175,000 Twitter users, garnered international media attention, attracted dozens of offers to become the girl’s pen pal, and sparked numerous calls for the advancement of girls and women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“Sophia is a very enthusiastic young girl who really likes bugs, and who is fun and full of joy,” says Jackson.

PHOTO: (BOTTOM) SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

PUBLISHED

Bug lover Sophia Spencer with U of G’s Morgan Jackson.

Most mammals are on the move every day searching for food, finding a mate or seeking shelter. But mammals in humanmodified landscapes move much shorter distances on average.

A new international study co-authored by University of Guelph biologists found that, over a 10-day period, mammals in areas with high human activity range only half to onethird as far as those living in more natural landscapes.

“We need to come to grips with what limitations on mobility might mean,” says Prof. John Fryxell, chair of U of G’s Department of Integrative Biology.

Fryxell and postdoctoral researcher Tal Avgar partnered with more than 100 global researchers for the new study.

FINDINGS

FINDINGS

What they want, what they really, really want

Audiobooks improve focus on long drives

Employers brace yourselves: Generation Z is coming, and they expect high salaries and jobs that feed their passion and purpose.

Those are among the findings of a new national report involving University of Guelph management professor Sean Lyons, based on a survey of more than 2,000 people aged 14 to 36.

At the top of the list for Millennials is job security, followed by interesting work. For Gen Z, interesting work is the most important value, followed by pride in the organization.

“I always had a sense that this was a more pragmatic generation,

but among its top priorities are work you’re passionate about and an organization you’re proud of,” Lyons says.

Millennials and Gen Z have similar first job salary expectations, starting at about $41,500 a year.

But Gen Z envisions a peak salary of $126,000, higher than Millennials’ expectation of an average $102,000.

Gen Z-ers are independent and determined to chart their career paths, but they worry that robotics, artificial intelligence and mechanization will replace jobs, Lyons says.

FINDINGS

ILLUSTRATION: NADIA SNOPEK / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM; PHOTOS: AMI; ROB O’FLANAGAN

U of G coding whiz improves access to music for people with dementia Listening to music can reduce anxiety and revive memories for people with Alzheimer’s and dementia. But operating devices that play favourite songs can be challenging for those with the conditions.

“Independent access to music for people with dementia is hard, because with something like a record or CD player, they slowly lose the ability to use it,” says Frazer Seymour, a computer science student at U of G who started programming at 13.

After witnessing both of his AMI features interchangeable grandmothers develop dementia, control modules based on the Seymour helped create AMI user’s capacity.

(Adaptable Music Interface).

An electronic interface that attaches to an iPad, AMI makes it much easier to play music. Its large buttons and knobs are user-friendly and can be configured to suit the user. porticomagazine.ca

Lana Trick in U of G’s DRIVE lab simulator.

If you lose your attention behind the wheel, you can lose your life. But listening to a good story during long or boring drives can keep your responses sharp, says a pioneering study published

by U of G psychology professor Lana Trick in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention.

“Nature abhors a vacuum, and it also abhors an empty brain; your brain will start wandering and wanting to do other things like pick up a cellphone,” Trick says.

“We wondered if there was a way to distract people just enough to enhance performance.”

Trick, along with researcher Ryan Toxopeus and master’s student Robert Nowosielski, tested how drivers responded to different driving conditions while listening to a Harry Potter audiobook.

Using U of G’s DRIVE lab simulator – a car body surrounded by screens – the researchers projected simple and complex environments, including traffic, scenery and curving roads.

Some participants just drove, and others listened to an audiobook while driving.

The researchers tested braking response time to sudden hazards, speed and lateral position.

Overall, the study found that listening to an audiobook improved performance during uneventful drives in which the subject risks experiencing mental “underload.”

Trick says the findings are particularly useful for people with long daily commutes on familiar routes or on long stretches such as rural roads.

Spring 2018 PORTICO | 9

Discovery FINDINGS

Study uncovers new insights into cause of cell death in Parkinson’s

10 | PORTICO Spring 2018

FINDINGS

Geckos may hold key to human spinal cord repair Under threat, a gecko can detach its tail, distracting a predator and enabling the lizard to hightail it to safety. In about 30 days, the tail grows back – a feat of tissue regeneration that could hold clues for repairing spinal cord injuries in humans, according to Ontario Veterinary College professor Matthew Vickaryous.

Vickaryous discovered that stem cells called radial glial cells allow the gecko’s tail to regrow.

Humans, he says, are missing the key cell types needed to repair spinal cord injuries. When such injuries occur, scar tissue quickly seals the wound. That quick repair prevents regeneration.

“Geckos are able to regenerate many tissues throughout their bodies, making them ideal models for studying wound healing and tissue redevelopment.”

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

A U of G researcher has discovered one of the factors behind nerve cell death in Parkinson’s disease, unlocking the potential for treatment to slow the progression of this fatal neurodegenerative disorder.

Prof. Scott Ryan has found that cardiolipin, a molecule inside nerve cells, helps ensure that a protein called alpha-synuclein folds properly. Misfolding of this protein leads to protein deposits that are the hallmark of Parkinson’s disease.

These deposits are toxic to nerve cells that control voluntary movement. When too many of these deposits accumulate, nerve cells die.

“Identifying the crucial role cardiolipin plays in keeping these proteins functional means cardiolipin may represent a new target for development of therapies against Parkinson’s disease,” says Ryan, a professor in U of G’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology.

“Currently there are no treatments that stop nerve cells from dying.”

FINDINGS

RESEARCH BRIEF

Prof identifies protein key to spread of cancer cells

U of G researchers publish first-ever scientific study on cannabis production

PHOTOS: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

A U of G researcher has learned that suppressing a protein called cadherin-22 could prevent cancer from migrating throughout the body.

Prof. Jim Uniacke and his research team in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology found that cadherin-22 is produced by cancer cells under hypoxia, or low oxygen conditions.

While hypoxia harms normal tissue, it can cause cancer tissue to thrive.

“We found that the more hypoxic a tumour was, the more cadherin-22 there was in the area of the hypoxia,” Uniacke said.

“Not only that, but the more cadherin-22 that there is in a tumour, the more advanced the cancer stage and the worse the prognosis is for the patient.”

After researchers removed the protein from cancer cells, the cells were largely unable to adhere and spread.

porticomagazine.ca

NOTEWORTHY U of G is developing researchbased growing techniques for the cannabis industry.

As Canada prepares to legalize recreational marijuana, a U of G research team in the School of Environmental Sciences (SES) led by Prof.Youbin Zheng has been formulating growing methods to improve the production of medicinal cannabis plants.

Last year, they published what is believed to be the first-ever scientific paper on growing better marijuana using science.

“Growing marijuana has been illegal for so many years that there has been hardly any scientific research up until this point on how to produce this crop,” says Zheng, who worked with SES Prof. Mike Dixon and PhD student Deron Caplan.

The researchers analyzed optimal fertilizer rates and soilless growing substrates to achieve higher yields and more concentrated medicinal components in marijuana.

Partly funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the study garnered international media attention after it was published in the journal HortScience.

The researchers continue to investigate ideal horticultural practices for indoor cannabis production.

RESEARCH BRIEF

Genetics may affect how kids snack Whether your child asks for crackers, cookies or veggies to snack on could be linked to genetics, according to new findings from the Guelph Family Health Study at the University of Guelph.

Researcher Elie Chamoun investigated whether genetic variants in taste receptors related to sweet preference, fat taste sensitivity and aversion to bitter green leafy vegetables influence the snacks chosen by children. He found that nearly 80 per cent of preschoolers in the study carried at least one of these potential at-risk genotypes that could predispose them to poor snacking habits.

Published in the journal Nutrients, the study looked at connections between the genes of the three at-risk taste receptors and linked them to snacking patterns among preschoolers.

Chamoun discovered that kids with a sweet tooth, who have the gene related to sweet taste preference, ate snacks with many more calories from sugar. They also ate those snacks mostly in the evening.

Children with the genetic variant related to fat taste sensitivity consumed snacks with higher energy density. Kids with the genetic variant related to avoiding bitter vegetables also consumed snacks with high energy density.

Sugar linked to opioid addiction, overdose A brain wired on refined sugar may be more susceptible to opioid addiction and overdose, according to research by Prof.

Francesco Leri in the Department of Psychology.

Tens of thousands of North Americans

have died recently of fentanyl-related overdoses, as government and health officials scramble to address the growing crisis.

Leri is studying possible links between high-sugar diets and changes in the brain’s responses to opioids.

A substantial amount of evidence suggests that refined sugar activates the brain’s reward centres in the same way as addictive drugs, Leri says.

He says improving diets may help reduce environmental factors that contribute to opioid addiction.

Spring 2018 PORTICO | 11

NORT

U OF G EXPERTS TRACK A CHANGING NORTH TO IMPROVE HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT AND FOOD SECURITY STORY BY ANDREW VOWLES

S

ince arriving at U of G six years ago from abroad, Krishna Bahadur KC has never ventured farther north in Canada than Ontario’s Georgian Bay. But putting together his agricultural smarts and expertise in GIS and remote sensing, the geography researcher has looked well beyond Canada’s southern latitudes to gauge an unlikely-sounding prospect: farming across the North, from Yellowknife to Hudson Bay. That forecasting project involving the Department of Geography is just one way that University of Guelph researchers are studying aspects of Canada’s North. Beyond climate-driven agricultural prospects, U of G initiatives in the country’s Arctic and Subarctic range from cataloguing tiny but ecosystem-critical northern creatures, to enabling Inuit communities to track environmental and health factors, to gauging carbon release from melting permafrost beneath Canada’s sprawling boreal forests. For all their diversity, those

HERN LIGHTS

surveillance and testing for a disease parasite in Nunavut providing safe, nutritious country food in Nunavut human health impacts of natural resource developments such as the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project in Nunatsiavut

14 | PORTICO Spring 2018

twenty-first century. The Inuit are on the front lines of climate change right now.They’re going to be the leaders and teach us,” says Harper, who teamed up on the project with Ashlee Cunsolo, a PhD grad of the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development (SEDRD) who is now director of the Labrador Institute, a division of Memorial University in Labrador. “The World Health Organization is suggesting the biggest health impact of climate change is going to be on food security and food systems. That’s not just an Arctic problem, it’s an international problem.”

Along with the community of Rigolet and the Nunatsiavut government, Harper, Cunsolo and Gillis are developing eNuk, a mobile app being piloted since early 2017. Users enter environmental information on their mobile devices to share with other residents and with government agencies and other organizations. For instance, a user might use photos or text to report unsafe ice or snow conditions or migration of food animals, along with an emoji to convey how they feel about the situation. In turn, public health officials might issue travel or safety advisories – all in less time and with greater accuracy. Stressing the importance of involving community members in the project, Harper says, “They’re super excited about it. This app belongs to them.”

In Labrador, U of G PhD student Jamie Snook is executive director of the Torngat Wildlife, Plants and Fisheries Secretariat in Labrador. Besides using eNuk to receive user data about landscape conditions, he says, the agency might use the app to

share information about hunting licences or safety measures.

“Once the app is built, there’s endless messaging we would use to improve communications with the community,” says Snook, a member of the project’s advisory board and former mayor of Happy Valley-Goose Bay. In the Department of Population Medicine, he’s looking at how governance and co-management of fish and wildlife in the North affect the health and well-being of Indigenous people.

For boards such as the Torngat Secretariat, the eNuk app can help in advising on everything from fish and wildlife harvest levels to conservation measures.

Those topics are all affected by climate change in ways that the new app is intended to capture,

PHOTO: (PREVIOUS SPREAD) ERIC GRIMSTEAD

Labrador’s JAMIE SNOOK is just one of several U of G grad students enrolled in the Department of Population Medicine whose studies occur in their northerly home communities, including:

projects are all monitoring effects of changes on northern landscapes, and how creatures – from mites to people – are being forced to accommodate changes that are worldwide in scope but particularly acute across the circumpolar North.

In the process, some of those U of G researchers have also had to adapt themselves to new situations. Computer scientist Dan Gillis first visited Canada’s North in February 2016. One day, he bundled up to go ice fishing with Inuit residents of Rigolet in Labrador’s Nunatsiavut region.

How cold was it? Rock cod pulled from the hole and dropped onto the ice froze solid in about 10 seconds. “It blew my mind,” says Gillis. “We were definitely not in Guelph anymore.”

He’s part of an interdisciplinary team of University of Guelph researchers and graduates working with Inuit on a new computer app intended to help people weather the effects of climate change, ensure food security and address health problems. As conditions change in the North, those residents are experiencing more physical, social and mental health problems. “All aspects of their well-being are being affected,” says Gillis.

That’s what prompted Nunatsiavut residents to ask population medicine professor Sherilee Harper to help design and implement this app-based environment and health monitoring system. Earlier she worked on climate change effects on water-borne diseases with Nunatsiavut communities as part of an international project on climate change and health adaptation among Indigenous people.

“Climate change is one of the biggest health challenges of the

PHOTOS: ERIC GRIMSTEAD; ALEXANDRA SAWATZKY

Snook says: “Climate change is real and does affect people’s ability to travel in winter and their ability to harvest. That affects culture, which is all connected to public health.”

It was in northern Labrador last summer that PhD student MonicaYoung boarded the Canada C3 vessel that traversed all three marine coasts in 2017 to mark the country’s sesquicentennial. A member of U of G’s Centre for Biodiversity Genomics (CBG), Young spent a week between Labrador and Iqaluit collecting soil mites for her own research project and gathering insects for CBG colleague Jeremy DeWaard. This year, they will conduct DNA barcoding on those samples to identify and catalogue northern species. porticomagazine.ca

“ CLIMATE CHANGE IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST HEALTH CHALLENGES OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY.”

U of G ecologists hope to help establish baseline data so that scientists may track climate change effects.

Mites play a vital role in soil nutrient recycling, Young says, but biologists know little about their prevalence and diversity, particularly in the North. She hopes to help establish baseline data so that scientists may track climate change effects. “Being able to monitor environmental change is important, but if we don’t know what’s there to begin with, we can’t measure changes.”

Monitoring ecological change also drives a long-term project by integrative biology professor Andrew McAdam in southwestern Yukon. As part of the Kluane Red Squirrel Project in the territory, he studies the animals to learn about evolutionary biology, including how populations are affected by genes and environment. Among his proSpring 2018 PORTICO | 15

16 | PORTICO Spring 2018

from precipitation and soil traits, to lack of farming infrastructure, to the potential release of carbon from newly cultivated soils.“Not all northern soils are high in carbon,” he says. “Maybe we focus farming on areas of low soil organic carbon.”

Referring to experimental projects in various communities, including the Northern Farm Training Institute in Hay River, Northwest Territories, Turetsky says,“The North needs economic opportunities.The highest level of food insecurity in Canada is among Indigenous households.”

She says precision agriculture may

FROM HEALTH TO BIOLOGY TO FOOD SECURITY, CHANGES IN THE NORTH MAY SEEM FAR REMOVED FROM THE LIVES OF MOST CANADIANS.

Labrador’s eNuk app can help monitor fish and wildlife harvest levels.

enable farming while mitigating greenhouse gas release and other environmental problems: “We can’t just say no. We need to develop technology.” (In a separate project, environmental sciences professor Mike Dixon has looked at modular farm systems for growing crops in the North. He says use of controlled environment technology – akin to life-support systems envisioned for long-distance space travel – might help feed northern communities and offset the cost of importing perishable produce from the southern United States and Mexico.)

From health to biology to food security, changes in the North may seem far removed from the lives of most Canadians clustered near the country’s southern border. That’s changing as more southerners look to explore a more accessible Arctic aboard expedition cruise ships. For her master’s degree completed in 2016 in the School of Hospitality, Food and Tourism Management, Brittany Manley surveyed cruise passengers about their environmental attitudes and behaviours. Many participants said that, post-cruise, they paid more attention to environmental issues, from volunteering or donating money, to supporting environmental protection initiatives, to choosing more sustainable products. Now operations coordinator for Adventure Canada based in Mississauga, Ont., Manley serves aboard a chartered vessel during summer voyages through part of the Northwest Passage, along the Labrador coast and on other northern jaunts. She says passengers learn how Northern ways of life are changing: “They learn how impacts like climate change

PHOTOS: ALEXANDRA SAWATZKY

jects, McAdam is looking at how the squirrels communicate and adjust to their surroundings. He expects his results will help in understanding ecosystem interactions not just in the North but almost anywhere on Earth.“Ecosystems are changing generally,” he says. “We need to know how organisms are going to be able to cope with those changes.”

Ask integrative biologist Merritt Turetsky about the effects of climate change in northern Canada. The North has seen “some of the most rapid ecological change observed anywhere on the planet, and that’s because of climate change,” she says. Over the past two decades, Turetsky has studied wildfires in Alaska and the Northwest Territories. Her studies connect climate change with fires that burn longer and stronger and that hamper regeneration of the boreal forest. She has also observed the effects of melting permafrost on people and ecosystems, from undermining of built infrastructure to the potential release of carbon long locked in frozen soils.

Along with researchers at U of G and elsewhere, she is now exploring the possibility of growing crops in the North.

Various modellers have predicted that Canada’s traditional crop zones will move northward under global warming. At U of G, a recent simulation by geographers under the University’s Food from Thought project suggests that crops including wheat may eventually thrive in a broad belt stretching from northern Quebec and Ontario to the Northwest Territories and into Yukon. Team member Krishna Bahadur KC says further research is needed to learn about factors

PHOTO: ALEXANDRA SAWATZKY

are affecting the North so much more than here in the south.”

Those impacts on Inuit lives and livelihoods are evident to the Labrador Institute’s Cunsolo. In 2013, she filmed the documentary Lament for the Land with the five Inuit communities of Nunatsiavut. “We did interview after interview of people crying and sharing very strong emotions and talking about sadness, loss and grief,” says Cunsolo, who is also an associated graduate faculty member at U of G. Last year, she published Mourning Nature, a collection of essays about ecological change worldwide, co-edited with SEDRD professor Karen Landman. “People talked about grieving for the environment and mourning nature,” says Cunsolo.“More people are having very real grief responses and asking how the idea of grief and mourning can change policy action.”

Besides film and literature, fine art has also served to document changes in the environment and porticomagazine.ca

ways of life in the North. Some of those impacts were evident in works selected for 150 Acts: Art, Activism, Impact at the Art Gallery of Guelph earlier this year.

Drawn from the gallery’s extensive collection of Indigenous art featuring Inuit drawings, paintings and sculpture, the exhibition included pieces by Pudlo Pudlat, Jessie Oonark, Shuvinai Ashoona and Annie Pootoogook, among others. Senior curator Andrew Hunter, who joined the AGG last fall from the Art Gallery of Ontario, has visited the North through his ongoing work with Inuit artists.

He recalls a mid-winter visit onto the sea ice with Cape Dorset artist and hunter Tim Pitsiulak, who died in 2016. For a southerner like Hunter accustomed to thinking of the North as white and silent, that trek offered a sensory awakening, from their snow-squeaking footsteps to the ever-changing blues, purples and greys of sky, snow and ice. Upending preconcep-

tions about Northern Canada is partly the point of the gallery’s collection, he says: “How can art address issues, share and build a dialogue – and not just show things but engage viewers? Art is both public and political.”

Those ideas resonate with other researchers, including Cunsolo. She says it’s important to gather evidence for making decisions that integrates Indigenous and western science.

Paraphrasing one Mi’kmaq elder who likened the tension between western and traditional knowledge to travelling with an Inuit komatik sled, she says, “Sometimes you have to pull from the front. Sometimes you have to push from the back. Sometimes other people push and pull while you take a rest.You’re all moving in the same direction; the key is to know when to pull, when to push, and when to rest and let others take the lead. We all have different skill sets, different ways of understanding and experiencing the world.”

As conditions change in the North, residents experience more physical, social and mental health problems.

Spring 2018 PORTICO | 17

COMPUTERS THAT THINK AND ACT LIKE HUMANS ARE THE GOAL FOR AI RESEARCHERS STORY BY ANDREW VOWLES ILLUSTRATION BY LARISSA ABRAMS-OGG

OF MINDS AND MACHINES

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utside the Richards Building on campus one winter morning, it’s a few degrees above freezing. Inside, Prof. Graham Taylor reaches down to the heating control below the window to boost the temperature in his School of Engineering office.The device isn’t very smart, he says – and certainly not in comparison with the electronic climate controls at home. Installed in his century home in Guelph’s St. George’s Park neighbourhood, that Nest thermostat has learned his family’s daily and weekly routines and adjusts the temperature round-the-clock to suit. Maybe the house’s double-brick construction isn’t the best option for a frigid Canadian winter. But Taylor figures the computing smarts nestled in that 21st-century thermostat help offset some of the built-in inconveniences of a 19th-century dwelling. “We can have old-world charm, and we can make it more efficient by integrating machine learning,” he says.

That example brings home – in literal and figurative ways – Taylor’s studies since he arrived at U of G six years ago. Whether it’s your thermostat or other household fixtures and appliances, your phone or your (future) self-driving car, tomorrow’s smarter devices will increasingly rely on machine learning, a promising avenue being pursued by more artificial intelligence (AI) researchers in Canada and abroad all intent on making computers think and act more like 18 | PORTICO Spring 2018

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Spring 2018 PORTICO | 19

humans. The U of G engineer hopes future breakthroughs – particularly in computer vision applications – will come from his own machine learning research group of some 20 students, postdocs and other investigators.

Along the way, Taylor also aims to use so-called deep learning to help Canada further elevate its already-prominent international standing in the AI field.

From his office overlooking the Bullring and Reynolds Walk, he is tapped into regional and national networks of academics, companies and governments aiming to make this country a hub for artificial intelligence research and technology adoption. That goal is shared by Ottawa, which last year provided $125 million for a pan-Canadian AI strategy that encompasses research clusters in Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton. “Canada is really a leader worldwide when it comes to research in AI,” says Taylor.

Maintaining that lead by attracting and retaining AI talent and expertise is a key target of those networks, including the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Launched last year in Toronto, the institute aims to train the world’s largest cohort of graduate students in AI and to help commercialize research and

Prof. Graham Taylor

Dhanesh Ramachandram

Taylor and other researchers hope to enable computers to teach themselves. technology. As its sole U of G member, Taylor brings his interests in machine learning and computer vision to that group.

He’s also academic director of NextAI, a Toronto incubator for AI-enabled ventures in fields 20 | PORTICO Spring 2018

from finance and human resources to health care. There, he teaches machine learning and advises ventures in a program to launch businesses enabled by artificial intelligence. In 2016, the U of G professor was named as an Azrieli Global Scholar in the Learning in Machines and Brains program run by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) in Toronto.

That program links researchers worldwide in efforts to create computers that can “think” as humans do – the basis of Taylor’s work in deep learning.

How would you train a robot to tend your garden with all the unknowns from weather to soil conditions? Or how would you teach a self-driving car to navigate safely and efficiently through rush-hour traffic inVancouver or Montreal, let alone Guelph?

Following the conventional route of programming systems to account for every scenario and surprise, you’d quickly run up against roadblocks. “Humans can’t think through all the possibilities,” says Taylor. “You’d have to represent all these scenarios by programming, and include all sorts of rules and exceptions. To imagine all the possibilities is beyond our abilities.”

Instead, he and other researchers hope to enable computers to teach themselves. That challenge involves feeding in piles of data about a given scenario or application, and then allowing the machine’s interconnected neural networks to seek out patterns – a so-called “deep learning” process originally conceived to mimic the operations of neuronal networks in the human brain. That non-learning thermostat in his office understands “on” and “off ” but not much more. By contrast,

deep learning (what Taylor calls today’s “sexier” term for neural networks) involves more inputs, outputs and computation, as in a smart thermostat that uses those data to learn and adjust to the habits and patterns of building occupants. “You can build a system more efficiently by learning than by programming,” says Taylor, who credits his former PhD supervisors, Geoff Hinton and the late Sam Roweis, for much of this thinking.

Originally from London, Ont., Taylor worked with Hinton – considered a pioneer in the neural network approach to machine learning and now an adviser for both the Vector Institute and the CIFAR program – during grad studies in machine learning at the University of Toronto.

After finishing his doctorate in 2009, he pursued a post-doc at New York University with Yann LeCun, co-director of the CIFAR program and now Facebook’s director of AI research; Taylor arrived in Guelph in 2012.

Along the way, he became fascinated by computer vision, or teaching computers to “see.”

Working with his lab members at U of G and with various collaborators, including researchers in France, he hopes to train machines to recognize body pose and activity.

Post-doc Dhanesh Ramachandram works with Swift Medical, a Toronto startup company tracking wound healing for diabetic ulcers, surgical wounds or cancer lesions in hospitals or long-term care facilities. Treating and tending wounds costs Canada’s health-care system almost $4 billion a year; a machine-learning algorithm might better monitor healing and provide more accurate prognoses.

In an undergraduate project, Angus Galloway looked at using machines to help predict pending brain seizures. Now pursuing a master’s degree, he’s testing vulnerabilities in AI systems to protect them from hacking.

Master’s student Terrance De Vries works on training algorithms to “know what they know” to improve machine learning, work that might apply in anything from medical diagnosis to driving navigation.

Reflecting Taylor’s proximity to plant and animal scientists on campus, the professor’s own research has ranged from use of aerial drones to assess soil health on farms, to sifting through video information to identify

individual animals, to monitoring for a moth pest in orchards.

Referring to the range of projects in the machine learning research group,lab manager Brittany Reiche says, “There are endless possibilities of applications to help with everyday life.”Those everyday applications will multiply in our “Internet of Things” future, says Taylor. As machines mediate more of our lives at home, at work and in public places, they will converse among themselves in ways that will be largely invisible and inaudible to us. Tomorrow’s ever-smarter home thermostat will think for itself – but it will also talk to the other electronic brains around it.The smart fridge will keep tabs on its own contents

Prof. Rozita Dara

ENSURING DATA SECURITY AND PRIVACY IN AN AI WORLD

Artificial intelligence – especially the automation of massive amounts of personal data needed for learning by AI systems – raises various security, privacy and ethical concerns, says computer science professor Rozita Dara.

Dara, who heads the data management and data governance research program at U of G, says AI may threaten information security. How to secure data against outright hacking as well as various uses – authorized or not – by governments, businesses and other organizations? She says artificial intelligence also raises

porticomagazine.ca

Angus Galloway

Terrance De Vries

privacy concerns. Might sensitive personal data be integrated or analyzed without users’ knowledge or consent? Might systems be smart enough to predict passwords or access to data?

Paradoxically, the very systems that pose a threat may also prove the best tools for countering it, says Dara, whose interests range from big data analytics and data management, to information privacy, to ethical implications of technology. Her research might help ensure privacy through systems that understand users’ consent and preferences, and that share or protect data accordingly.

She also studies the use of AI in data management and security technologies such as “smart contracts,” or intelligent software protocols that validate digital contracts.

AI can help ensure transparency and accountability in building and controlling these systems, says Dara, who was a privacy and information technology officer

and recommend suitable recipes, and maybe even maintain the shopping list and order the week’s groceries. Not that Taylor would mind:“I’d love to see deep learning reduce waste, enable us to eat healthier meals and expose us to new foods.”

RecentlyTaylor placed a deposit on a Tesla Model 3, an electric car with certain self-driving features.

“I’m looking forward to a future where we don’t have to drive ourselves around. I think it will be safer.” He figures it will be at least another decade before self-driving cars become common.Whenever it happens, he says, he might be able to claim at least some credit by association. “It will be a deep learning car.” with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario before joining U of G. She calls for education in AI for researchers, practitioners and the public, as well as development of appropriate policies, procedures and government oversight.

As well as raising information security and privacy concerns, AI poses ethical issues, she says. How will AI affect human behaviour, values and social norms? How to account for potential biases in AI algorithms and the databases that systems learn from? Can we predict how intelligent systems will perform and prevent unintended consequences, including loss of human control?

“What concerns me are the massive amounts of data that are being collected in real time from billions of people around the world. No effective mechanism for governance, management and protections of data exist. We need to think about this as a society.”

Spring 2018 PORTICO | 21

STARS

OF THE SCREEN & STAGE STORY BY ROB O’FLANAGAN

From guiding the theatrical productions of Canada’s longest-running professional women’s theatre to playing a fierce warrior from the planet Qo’noS, University of Guelph alumni have made names for themselves in the world of film, television and stage. They’re crafting independent films, directing timely plays, mastering the art of improvisation and keeping the Klingon language alive.

FROM GRYPHON TO KLINGON

A

Kenneth Mitchell plays Kol in the new TV series Star Trek: Discovery.

ctor Kenneth Mitchell, BLA ’98, speaks fluent Klingon. He utters a few throaty, unnerving words of the alien language during a telephone conversation from his home in Los Angeles, as a pair of loud kittens vie for attention in the background.

Mitchell plays the fierce and temperamental Klingon commander Kol in the new, highly successful Star Trek: Discovery television series.

His job depends on a good command of the language and a certain blood-curdling delivery.

As soon as he is fitted with the somewhat reptilian mask with the prominent cranial features, the actor is all Klingon.The “guttural and aggressive” language is spoken exclusively in Klingon scenes.

“It’s three and a half hours of prosthetics and makeup,” he says, speaking of the

Film and television actor Kenneth Mitchell starred as a Gryphon soccer player while studying landscape architecture. He found himself acting soon after graduation.

process of getting into costume. “Once the teeth and contacts are in, I’m head-totoe unrecognizable. I love it.

It’s like hiding behind a mask and really embracing a completely different being.”

Going big, with over-thetop emotion, was the key to bringing the proud and powerful Kol to life, Mitchell said. He describes the character as an alien creature who is dedicated to the preservation of Klingon culture and wary of humans.

“He’s not me at all. I’m a

sweet, good-hearted Canadian,” he says. “But I just love embracing these new characters and finding them.”

Originally from Toronto, Mitchell graduated from the University of Guelph’s landscape architecture program in the late ’90s. He worked briefly in the field before diving full-time into acting.

He’s been steadily employed as an actor for about 17 years.

Mitchell starred in the 2017 critically acclaimed, made-in-Ontario feature film Blood Honey, and had recurring roles in the television series The Astronaut Wives Club and Frequency.

The six-foot-two-inch Mitchell – who gains more than two inches as Kol – was a striker for the Gryphon soccer team.

“The fact that I was a part of the StarTrek phenomenon really hit home for me at my first Star Trek convention, which was in Las Vegas,” he says. “Being greeted by the nearly 10,000 fans, seeing and feeling their passion, I saw what a big deal this is. It was completely infectious.”

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THEATRICAL AGITATION

A

s the curtain was flung back and the spotlight cast on sexual harassment and assault in the entertainment industry in 2017, Toronto’s stalwart Nightwood Theatre was there to help the public grapple with the shocking news.

Run by University of Guelph English and drama graduate KellyThornton, BA ’90, the long-standing Kelly Thornton learned the tools of her trade in U of G’s theatre studies. In a program noted for being a hothouse for social issue theatre, she learned the value of doing challenging theatre with social relevance.

Nightwood Theatre’s production of The Penelopiad.

24 | PORTICO Spring 2018

feminist theatre company established in 1979 crafts stage productions that advocate for women’s rights while confronting gender inequality.

“Artists in general are agitators,” Thornton says. “I have always felt that I want to entertain, but I also want

to provoke, to change people’s perspectives.”

She says her U of G training gave her the foundation she needed for success in theatre. The department focused on making theatre politically and socially relevant. “It equipped me with a well-rounded, 360-degree experience of theatre. I worked on the technical side, in costumes, acted and directed, and did a little bit of playwriting. I came out with the ability to get the show on stage.”

In the current climate, Nightwood’s productions have grown in popularity and timeliness, with sell-out audiences for 2017 shows like Asking for It and Unholy.

“At Nightwood, we’ve been fighting the good fight for a very long time,” says Thornton, the company’s artistic director since 2001.

“Just to put a woman’s story on stage is an act of political will.”

Shock waves from the revelations of sexual harassment in Hollywood and in Canada’s theatre world have reverberated around the globe, she says. Sexual harassment allegations against Soulpepper Theatre’s Albert Schultz, a prominent figure in Canada’s theatre world, rocked the country’s theatre scene.

“It’s shocking for everyone to see a company that’s had such success suddenly be turned on its head,” she says.“Everyone across Canada is looking at their workplace safety policies and sexual harassment procedures, and how artists can

PHOTOS: DAHLIA KATZ; ROBERT POPKIN

Mitchell lives in the Studio City neighbourhood of LA with his actress wife, Susan May Pratt, and their two children, Kallum and Lilah.

The kittens are Chai and Curry, rescued by the family from an animal shelter.

Canadian actor Ryan Gosling lives in the same neighbourhood, as does the original Captain Kirk himself: Canadian actor William Shatner.

PHOTO: SAAJID MOTALA

Rebeccah Love left the University with a master’s degree in creative writing to her name and a polished screenplay in hand.

How do you turn a screenplay into a film? she asked herself. You do it yourself.

be better protected.”

Theatre is a life-affirming art, and a cathartic experience for audiences, she says.

But there is a “toxic cloud” hanging over it, with sexual harassment happening behind the scenes.

“I think the reason this happens is because the power imbalance is systemic.

People working in a toxic environment who do not hold the reins of power are very concerned about their immediate livelihood and employment, as well as their professional career and reputation. So they are afraid to tip the balance.” porticomagazine.ca

Much has come out from behind the shadows in recent months, she says, but change will come only as more women and people of colour become an integral part of the industry.

Thornton says recent events have fuelled resistance and resilience.

“Sadly, I think that this abuse of power is going on everywhere, and it’s rampant.

But we are in a moment of time where we are redressing the power imbalance. I believe ultimately that we have to share power so that every voice and the needs of all are represented in our theatres.”

DIY FILMMAKING, WITH LOVE

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or her art, Rebeccah Love, MFA ’17, has baked dozens of cookies (not for eating but as props), has gone on urban expeditions for antique typewriters, fake moustaches, vintage aprons and floral summer dresses, and has taken over the porch of an abandoned house.

“All the while trying to figure out what it means to be human, what it means to love, what it means to be alive,” says Love, a U of G

MFA graduate in creative writing who is making a name for herself as an independent filmmaker.

Millennials are a do-ityourself generation, and Love is totally all right with being called a DIY filmmaker. Hovering between stylized theatrical narratives and bare-bones realism, she says, her films are about creative problem solving, with underlying themes of beauty and love.

Love says we need films about the world’s problems, “about how broken everything is, about the darkness of modern times.” But we Spring 2018 PORTICO | 25

also desperately need films about the beauty of lush green spaces and “the delight of being loved.”

She can’t explain why she is compelled to make short films.

“It is a big mystery to me why we all turn out the way we do,” she says. “There is something about the way the world has been presented to me by my family that has produced within me a great appreciation for the beauty of things, for optimism and an understanding of the preciousness of moments.”

Her film work, she says, is an opportunity to wonder and daydream, and she considers that a gift. And working independently, with a small crew, is the most fun, exciting and meaningful thing she has ever done “I definitely consider myself to be a DIY filmmaker. I see it as a style of filmmaking where you are not following the rules.You’re not submitting your script to a production company and waiting for them to hire you.You’re taking matters into your own hands, often with limited resources.”

That can mean holding auditions in her kitchen and enlisting the help of her mother to feed the cast and crew.

“Or doing something like sneaking onto the porch of an abandoned house to film a scene without any permits,” she says. “That’s all part of the game.”

With DIY filmmaking, hiring a crew is through word of mouth, raising the money is through crowd26 | PORTICO Spring 2018

funding sites and marketing is mostly through social media.

“It’s about creative problem solving, identifying resources at your disposal and making the most of them.

The best part of filmmaking is engaging with all kinds of people. Our shared experiences on-set furnish friendships with memories of great beauty, laughter and weight.”

During creative writing class at U of G, where Love specialized in screenwriting, she mingled with novelists, poets and playwrights, and gained confidence and practical skills.

“I began my academic career at the University of Guelph as a timid person unsure of my future. As a University of Guelph graduate, I feel confident in my abilities, confident in my network and confident in what lies ahead.”

THE MATHEMATICS OF LAUGHTER

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here are two things Paloma Nuñez, BA ’02,has always been especially good at – making people laugh and doing complex math.

She studied both drama and mathematics at the University of Guelph but says she soon reached the limit of her potential as a mathematician. Her potential as an actor and comedian appears limitless.

Nuñez has put together a varied career in acting and comedy. She says she can’t get

Improv is about breaking down walls, says Paloma Nuñez.

enough of improvisation.

“I’m not a gifted mathematician, but math is a fun thing to learn, and it’s a nice balance to what an art degree can provide,” says Nuñez, who is landing roles in television series like In Contempt, Killjoys, Baroness von Sketch and The Girlfriend Experience.

Nuñez says there are a growing number of opportunities for women, including women of colour, in Toronto theatre and film.

Things have been going well since her small but memorable role as a prickly legal assistant in the 2015 Academy Award-winning film Spotlight.The mother of a young son, Nuñez is also the voice of Sparky, the front-end loader in the kids’ show Terrific Trucks.

“I just always wanted to be an actor,” she says. “When I got the chance to do some theatre at U of G, I realized this is what I wanted to do with my life.”

Nuñez says she’s at her best performing improv.

She’s worked hard to excel at the spur-of-the-momentstyle of theatre. Post-university, she studied improvisation at Second City and Bad Dog Theatre in Toronto, followed by intensive training in Chicago.

Learning improvisation, whether on a theatrical stage or in the theatre of life, has benefits in different areas of life. She teaches others to shed their fears and let their true character shine through improv.

“We all have to learn to get through the many barriers

Internationally competitive swimmer turned actor, MARK LUTZ, BA ’91, has a role in the upcoming futuristic film Anon, starring Clive Owen and Amanda Seyfried.

Directed by Andrew Niccol, the film is currently in postproduction. Lutz wrote and starred in the 2008 television movie Victor, a story of triumph and tragedy based on the life of Guelph-born Olympic gold medal swimmer Victor Davis. In recent time, Lutz had roles in Transporter: The Series and the TV movie Asteroid: Final Impact.

we put up just to survive being a human in this world,” she says.“The people I teach often get caught up in doing things a certain way. Improvisation is about breaking down walls, trusting and being OK with failing – a lot.”

She works with lawyers, teachers, IT experts and

business people who want to be more spontaneous and creative.

“Improv truly gives you the gift of being able to be who you are. You get these little rushes as you face your fears.And it’s a lot of fun. I’ve been at this for 15 years. It’s starting to come together.”

Paloma Nuñez had a gift for math and making people laugh at university. Her actor/comedian side won out over the mathematician. For nearly 15 years, Nuñez has been putting together a varied career that includes acting for film and television, while keeping her improvisational chops sharp in front of live audiences.

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Spotlight

The value of play Toy blocks, tree forts were landscape architect’s creative foundation

“ THEME PARKS ARE COMPLEX DEVELOPMENTS OF STORYTELLING, ATTRACTIONS, HUMAN BEHAVIOUR AND ECONOMICS.”

David Fredenburgh spends his days dreaming up ways to entertain millions of people.

Like a lot of kids, Fredenburgh, a designer with international entertainment design company FORREC Ltd., played tirelessly with Lego, making all sorts of fun, colourful structures and environments. Now, he essentially plays every day, while working very hard, in a unique workplace that designs one-of-a-kind entertainment destinations like theme parks for people all over the world to play in – all-ages parks that are like upsized play structures designed to thrill and inspire visitors.

“At FORREC, we like to use the term ‘playing in the sandbox,’ because it is like play,” says Fredenburgh, who works, and plays, out of the company’s Toronto office. “Every day is different. Every project is different. The people I work alongside of are very talented and highly creative individuals. It’s an entertaining job.”

“When I tell people what I do, they auto-

28 | PORTICO Spring 2018

matically assume that I just play RollerCoaster Tycoon all day,” he says. “There are certainly some similarities. It’s thrilling work but also very real, unlike the video game. Theme parks are complex developments of storytelling, attractions, human behaviour and economics.”

Fredenburgh says there was plenty of room for fun and play in the University of Guelph’s landscape architecture program, which he completed in 2013. The program reinforced his playful nature, encouraged him to push the creative envelope and balanced art and science.

“But I certainly didn’t see myself designing theme parks when I first started. I didn’t even think it was a possible career path.”

As part of a professional practice course in his third year, Fredenburgh discovered FORREC and got his first glimpse into the world of entertainment design.

“I was tasked with researching and interviewing a local firm of interest. I interviewed a FORREC executive, and that turned into an internship interview and a placement.” He calls that a turning point in his career.

Following graduation, Fredenburgh was offered a job with the company.Within 18 months, he finished his first theme park project – the monumental Wanda Nanchang, a 78-hectare theme park

PHOTOS: FORREC

Wanda Nanchang, a 78-hectare theme park in the Jiangxi region of China, designed by FORREC.

Fredenburgh says his U of G program allowed him room for fun and play.

Landscape architect David Fredenburgh in his Toronto office.

porticomagazine.ca

in the Jiangxi region of China. He calls that achievement a great start to his career.

“I was halfway around the world in China, standing on a construction site and basically watching a design that I had just finished come to life.” While the scale of the project was beyond anything he had previously imagined doing, he grew up with a love of building outdoor structures.

“I was always a maker and creator as a kid. I was always making or assembling something from scraps in my parents’ garage. As I got older, I took my interest in making things to the outdoors. I was interested in making bike trails and building tree forts. This grew into a liking for the “ YOU DEFINITELY outdoor built form and eventually an aspiration HAVE AN to be a landscape architect.”

UNDERSTANDStorytelling is at the heart of the work ING THAT FORREC does.

WHAT YOU’RE “We take a story or a theme and create a place DESIGNING out of it, something that is completely immersive WILL HAVE AN IMPACT for guests,” Fredenburgh says. “And storytelling ON A LARGE really resonates well with kids and adults alike.”

NUMBER OF Theme parks and entertainment destinations, GUESTS.” he adds, are important, treasured places where entire families spend their free time having fun.

Designing them is a fun challenge.

“You definitely have an understanding that what you’re designing will have an impact on a large number of guests.These places attract Have an idea for an alumni millions of visitors a year, and it’s really important spotlight? to stay focused on the guest experience. At the Send us a note end of the day, the guests are really the driving at portico@ uoguelph.ca. factor.” –ROB O’FLANAGAN Spring 2018 PORTICO | 29

New chapters, sights & sounds

The latest books, music and exhibitions by U of G faculty and alumni SALLY COOPER

Smells Like Heaven Published by ARP Books in 2017, the stories in Sally Cooper’s Smells Like Heaven are woven together by the connecting thread of the transformational power of love. The author of two previous novels, Love Object and Tell Everything, Cooper, BA ’88, will publish a third novel this year.

unlikely juxtapositions and themes of entropy.

CHIOMA IFEANYI-OKOROM

My African Corner When Chioma IfeanyiOkorom, B.Comm.’10, realized that word of mouth was the predominant means of marketing businesses owned and services offered by members of Toronto’s African diaspora, she came up with a better way. Along with Abdul-Aziz Garuba, she co-founded My African Corner, which promotes

than 50 listings in the GTA, and plans to go global.

MARTIN GOLLAND

BONNIE ROZANSKI

Now

Damaged People

Martin Golland, MA ’06, merges seeming dichotomies – representation and abstraction, fragmentation and totality – in his most recent series of paintings.

The work in Golland’s late 2017 exhibition at Montreal’s Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran, entitled Now, explored

A multigenerational novel with an edge, Damaged People by Bonnie Rozanski, M.Sc. ’97, is rooted in leading-edge science. The book addresses the genetic imprints left by tragic events and how those genetic scars impact future generations.

The author of nine novels and five plays, Rozanski now lives in Philadelphia.

businesses, events, arts and culture owned by members of the African diaspora.

Launched in 2017, their venture now features more

In a novel process combining painting and collage, Cale often paints on plastic, then peels the dried paint and pastes it to canvas or linen.

KARRILEE FIFI

CDM Generation As leader of Trinidad’s CDM Generation, Karrilee Fifi, B.Comm ’10, promotes Caribbean dance music (CDM), which combines Caribbean musical genres with electronic music. Fifi returned to her Trinidadian homeland in 2010. Three years ago, she started the

SARAH CALE

Potpourri Visual artist Sarah Cale, MA ’05, cut, glued and assembled thousands of tiny bits of coloured paper and paint flecks to come up with the collages in her recent transitional Potpourri exhibition at Roenisch Gallery in Toronto.

30 | PORTICO Spring 2018

CDM Conference to bring international attention to the flourishing musical scene in Trinidad and Tobago. The third edition of the conference was held in late 2017.

Alumni matters COMING EVENTS

April 21 Midwest Alumni Dinner Join other alumni for dinner at the Union League Club of Chicago.

ALUMNI NEWS

The perks of staying in touch

A

s a University of Guelph student, you are here for a short time.

Upon graduation, we proudly welcome you to our alumni family. Whether you are a new grad or you’re celebrating a milestone reunion this year or you are somewhere in between, we want you to have as many reasons as possible to stay connected with your alma mater.

What’s in it for you? We’ve been expanding our alumni perks and benefits, and are now offering discounts and special promotions for restaurants, family attractions, sporting events, hotels and much more.Visit alumni.uoguelph.ca to see all that’s available to you — new partnerships are being announced regularly.

Our recent alumni survey showed that young alumni are looking for professional

development events to help build their careers and networks. We are working on programs and events for grads who are just beginning their careers.

Alumni can benefit from exclusive savings with MBNA, TD Meloche Monnex, Manulife and Pets Plus Us. On the horizon is a partnership with Travel Nation — a one-stop shop for alumni to make travel arrangements and receive special pricing.

Over the next year, you’ll find even more benefits of being a member of the alumni family. Keep your contact information up to date at alumni.uoguelph.ca/ update so you won’t miss out.

Brandon Gorman, B.Comm. ’06 President, UGAA, and proud donor to U of G

Jason Moreton, BA ’00 Associate Vice-President, Alumni Advancement, and proud donor to U of G

May 9 Gryphons on Bay Street Hosted at the Steelcase WorkLife Centre in Toronto by the College of Business and Economics.

June 22–24 Alumni Weekend Join alumni and friends at U of G’s marquee event of the year, including UGAA Awards of Excellence Gala, President’s Milestone Lunch and Department of Political Science 50th anniversary.

June 24 SummerFest on the Green Live music, beer garden, food trucks and family fun on Johnston Green.

For details and a full event list, see www.alumni. uoguelph.ca/events

GRAD PERKS

Ripley’s Aquarium Explore the wonders of the deep at Ripley’s Aquarium!

Grads and their families can enjoy a 15-per-cent discount on admission www.alumni.uoguelph.ca/promotions porticomagazine.ca

The Cutting Board Sandwich Co. The Boardroom Who doesn’t like a little bit of board game fun? Alumni receive free access to The Boardroom from Sunday to Thursday! www.alumni.uoguelph.ca/promotions

Time to please your taste buds – alumni can now receive a free side with the purchase of any sandwich at The Cutting Board Sandwich Co.! www.alumni.uoguelph.ca/promotions Spring 2018 PORTICO | 31

Alumni matters

FEATURED EVENT

Dr. Roberta Bondar provides guests with an interpretation of a piece from her collection.

President’s open house Dr. Roberta Bondar, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’68, H.D.Sc. ’90, surprised guests attending the president’s open house on Nov. 19 at the Art Gallery of Guelph.The annual open house is an event for alumni and friends with annual giving of $1,000 or more.

Bondar shared a personal narrative about her exhibition Light in the Land:The Nature of Canada, on display at the gallery this past fall. Her photographs explore the varied Canadian landscape and its biodiversity and sustainability.The beginning of 2017 marked 25 years since 32 | PORTICO Spring 2018

Bondar’s eight-day mission on the space shuttle Discovery in January 1992. Named a University of Guelph Alumna of Honour in 1992, Bondar is recognized for her pioneering contribution to space medicine research, and is a celebrated author, environmental educator and landscape photographer.

In 2018, Bondar will celebrate 50 years since graduating from U of G. In 2009, Bondar created the Roberta Bondar Foundation, a charitable organization to improve understanding of the environment, and donated many

of her photographs to it. A fundamental belief that underpins the work of her foundation is that the more we learn about our environment and the better we become at asking important questions, the better equipped we will be both to respond to change and to influence positive change.

Martin Bosch, B.Sc. ’69, M.Sc. ’71, PhD ’04, with Julia Christensen Hughes, dean of the College of Business and Economics.

ALUMNI EVENTS

CLASS NOTES

Career night

1950s

More than 40 alumni attended the College of Biological Science Career Night on Jan. 24, sharing their experience and providing career advice to more than 100 current students.

Bernard Brennan, DVM ’51, received a 150th Anniversary Medal from the Canadian Senate. The medals celebrate the achievements of Canadians who have made significant contributions, and commemorate the first sitting of the Canadian Senate. Brennan was a member of the 1951 Grey Cup-winning Ottawa Rough Riders. As a veterinarian, he helped the Canadian Department of Agriculture fight the hoof-and-mouth disease outbreak in Saskatchewan in 1952. He also served as commissioner for the Ontario Provincial Racing Commission, and was a volunteer high school football and hockey coach.

1960s Dr. David Gunderman, B.Sc. ’06, of Blue Star Nutraceuticals chats with CBS students at the Summerlee Science Complex.

Frosty Mug

Ken Sheehan, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’69, was honoured for his contributions to mental health and psychiatric care by Alberta Health Services. The new adult psychiatry wing of the Centennial Centre for Mental Health and Brain Injury now carries his name. Sheehan is the former director for Alberta Hospital Ponoka.

The Frosty Mug is quickly becoming U of G’s marquee winter event. The annual men’s varsity hockey game at the Sleeman Centre drew a record 4,715 attendees on Jan. 18. The Gryphons beat the Laurier Golden Hawks 5-0 in front of the home crowd. The game ranks as the third largest attendance ever recorded for an OUA men’s hockey conference game.

Gryphon fans celebrate their win over the Laurier Golden Hawks at the Sleeman Centre on Jan. 18.

Ken Sheehan in front of the new adult psychiatry wing of the Centennial Centre for Mental Health and Brain Injury in Ponoka, Alta. porticomagazine.ca

Spring 2018 PORTICO | 33

Alumni matters Ronald Pearson, Dip. ’69, lives in Thamesville, Ont. with his wife, Dianne. He retired four years ago, after 36 years with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Spending his time working as the ice technician at the Ridgetown curling rink and enjoying his three grandchildren in London.

B.A.Sc. ’76, and son Matthew, Dip. ’06. Their daughter, Nicole is a B.Sc. (Agr.) ’07 grad. Robert Keffer serves as mayor of Bradford West Gwillimbury.

1970s

Linda Hutsell-Manning, BA ’75, wrote a memoir, Two Years Out of Time, about teaching in a southern Ontario one-room schoolhouse in the 1960s. An excerpt, The Front Road School West, was recently published by Blue Denim Press. Her story Finding Moufette, about a cat lost on Christmas Eve, was published electronically last December.

Lena Measures, B.Sc. ’79, M.Sc. ’82, PhD ’87, retired from Fisheries and Oceans Canada in 2016. She is currently a scientist emeritus and busy writing up various manuscripts and enjoying retirement in the Laurentians.

Robert Keffer, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’76, operates Trielm dairy farm with his wife, Jean Keffer,

Robert Keffer serves as mayor of Bradford West Gwillimbury.

1980s

Scott Grigsby-Lehmann, BA ’84, and Mary Grigsby-Lehmann, B.Sc. ’83, have taught high school in Fergus, Arthur and Mount Forest – all in Ontario – for a collective 60 years. They have now officially “graduated” from high school for a second time. With their backpacks, bicycles, canoes, kayaks, cameras, pens and golden retriever Luna, they are eager to continue their global travel and discovery adventures. Recent adventures include sunrise on top of Mount Fuji, completing the entire Bruce Trail, many triathlons and celebrating 25 years of marriage with their original wedding party.

Paul Parisi, BA ’85, left American Express after 17+ years in Canada, the United Kingdom and United States to become president of PayPal Canada.

Realty ad?

1990s

Ray Darling, BA ’91, MA ’97, has been appointed U of G’s registrar, returning to his alma mater after serving as the registrar at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University

Janice LeBoeuf, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’92, and Paul LeBoeuf, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’94, recently moved to Thunder Bay, Ont., where Janice runs the heritage farm at Fort William Historical Park.

Paul spent most of the fall in southwestern Ontario winding down operations at their farm near Florence and serving his last few months on Dawn-Euphemia Township Council.

Jason Harris, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’96, with his wife, Andrea, and two daughters purchased Orr Lake Golf Club in 2006.

2000s

Mariama Barrie, BAA ’11, runs an event planning business, Premium Events. When she was starting her career, she received guidance and advice from a mentor at Toronto’s Nia Centre for the Arts. Now Barrie is giving back by sharing her expertise with youth in the community as part of a program that was recently chosen for expansion under the Ontario government’s $47-million Ontario Black Youth Action Plan.

Michael Cornelissen, Assoc. Dip. (Agr.) ’13, started his own company, Twin Creeks Greenhouse Inc., a 10-acre operation where he grows red bell peppers.

Stephanie Guth, B.Comm. ’07, was named the New Zealand Sommelier of the Year 2017, the top prize awarded annually by the New Zealand School of Food and Wine in Auckland. Guth works as the sommelier and runs the beverage program at The French Café in Auckland.

Sam Coats

Sales Representative

Rachel Hammerton, B.A.Sc. ’17, was accepted to University of Ottawa MA (Ed.) counselling psychology with funding for RA/ TA-ship.

Mobile: (519) 994-0823 Office: (226) 780-0502 ext 120 Email: scoats@homegrouprealty.ca homegrouprealty.ca Ray Darling is U of G’s new registrar.

34 | PORTICO Spring 2018

of Waterloo. A former Gryphon basketball player, he has worked in post-secondary education for more than 25 years.

Sandy Labib, B.A.Sc. ’17, was accepted to Osgoode Law School in fall 2018.

Mirela Rahneva competed on Team Canada’s women’s skeleton team for the 2018 Olympics in South Korea.

Stephanie Guth (centre) from The French Café was named New Zealand Sommelier of the Year 2017.

PHOTO: (TOP) AP PHOTO / KERSTIN JOENSSON

Marlies Molnar, B.Sc. ’15, graduated from Queen’s University’s accelerated nursing program after completing a human kinetics degree at U of G. She secured a job on graduation day at Kingston General Hospital.

Emma Plater, B.Sc. ’13, has been a registered physiotherapist for Eramosa Physiotherapy Associates since September 2015. She works part-time at their campus location in the Health and Performance Centre while pursuing a PhD in Human Health and Nutritional Sciences at U of G.

Anderson Coats ad

Mirela Rahneva, B.Comm. ’11, earned a spot on Team Canada’s women’s skeleton team for the 2018 Olympics in South Korea. Rahneva was a three-time OUA champion as a women’s rugby player with the Guelph Gryphons.

Do you have news to share with your alumni family? Send us a note: alumni@uoguelph.ca porticomagazine.ca

Spring 2018 PORTICO | 35

Alumni matters

Bilel Diffalah

Remembered as a sociable, kind and joyful man who loved life, Bilel Diffalah was determined to help the people of Burkina Faso. In late 2016, he began volunteering with the Uniterra program in the West African nation, sharing his agri-food expertise in a country where

90 per cent of the population depends on subsistence farming.

Diffalah was among 19 people killed in the capital city of Ouagadougou in August 2017 when extremist gunmen opened fire on guests at the Hotel Bravia and Aziz Istanbul Restaurant.

Originally from Algeria, Difallah had lived in Canada for five years and was one of two Canadians who died in the attack, which also left 25 injured.

Passages 1940s Julius Frank, DVM ’45, Jan. 5, 2018 Aubrey Hagar, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’45, Sept. 16, 2017 W. (Murray) Mutrie, DVM ’45 May 13, 2017 Harry Burt, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’47, Aug. 20, 2017 James (Jim) Hutchison, DVM ’47, Oct. 2, 2017 Victor Walker, DVM ’47, Aug. 31, 2015 Raymond (Ray) McCarron, Dip. ’48, Oct. 17, 2017 Robert (Bob) Milburn, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’48, Oct. 6, 2017 June Pettipiere, Dip. H.E. ’49, Sept. 20, 2017 Robert Sanderson, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’49, Jan. 17, 2017 Stanley Thomson, Dip. ’49, Dec. 25, 2017 1950s David (Carl) Jordan, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’ 50, M.Sc. (Agr.) ’51, June 1, 2017 Leona Piercey, Dip. ’50, May 31, 2017 Jacob (Jack) Pos, Dip. ’47, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’50, M.Sc. (Agr.) ’52, Jan. 11, 2018 Joan Tailyour, DVM ’50, July 8, 2017 Kenneth Lawson, DVM ’51, March 2, 2017 Neil Lee, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’51, Nov. 21, 2017 John (Allan) MacKay, DVM ’51, May 7, 2016 Gordon (Gord) Rogers, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’51, Oct. 12, 2017 Douglas Alexander, DVM ’52, M.Sc. ’69, Oct. 19, 2017 Donald (Don) Johnson, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’53, Jan. 18, 2017 Bruce McCorquodale, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’53, Oct. 28, 2017 John Norrish, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’53, Aug. 16, 2017 Edward (Ted) Buckley, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’54, Oct. 21, 2017 George (Ed) Starling, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’54, Dec. 18, 2017 Howard Martin, DVM ’55, July 19, 2015 Suzann Stevens, B.H.Sc. ’55, July 13, 2017 John Howell, DVM ’56, Jan. 14, 2016 Neal Stoskopf, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’57, M.Sc. (Agr.) ’58, July 12, 2016 Rudolph (Rudy) Leibold, DVM ’58, May 25, 2017 36 | PORTICO Spring 2018

The attack was condemned by leaders around the world, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

A veterinarian in Algeria before coming to Canada, Diffalah graduated in 2012 from U of G’s

Murray Maltby, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’58, July 31, 2017 Donal (Don) McKeown, DVM ’58, Jan. 16, 2018 Eileen Ramsay, B.H.Sc. ’58, Oct. 10, 2017 Ronald (Ron) Bogart, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’59, Nov. 2, 2017 Nan Curtis, B.H.Sc. ’59, Aug. 16, 2017 1960s Catherine (Cathy) Culbert, B.H.Sc. ’60, Dec. 12, 2017 George Roberts, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’60, Nov. 4, 2017 Terry Wilkes, Dip. ’60, Sept. 16, 2017 Henry Tieleman, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’61, Jan. 12, 2018 William McBrien, Dip. ’62, Jan. 13, 2018 Cornelius (Cor) Van Ginkel, Dip. ’63, Nov. 17, 2015 Larry Belbeck, DVM ’66, Oct. 17, 2017 William (Bill) Hurst, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’66, Dec. 24, 2016 Stanley (Pete) Meeks, Dip. ’67, June 17, 2017 Joachim (Jo) Muehmer, M.Sc. ’67, Oct. 5, 2017 David Olsen, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’67, Nov. 22, 2017 Henry (Harry) Purdie, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’67, MA ’69, Nov. 19, 2016 Hilton Virtue, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’67, Nov. 2, 2017 Clark Merritt, Dip. ’68, Nov. 28, 2017 Charles (Wayne) Robison, DVM ’68, June 30, 2017 L. Ross Hebblethwaite, Dip. ’69, Oct. 18, 2017 Christine MacKenzie, B.H.Sc. ’69, Aug. 16, 2017 1970s Donald Giffin, Dip. ’70, Oct. 23, 2017 Robin Shepherd, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’70, Sept. 28, 2017 David Stack, BA ’71, April 22, 2017 Robert Chapple, B.Sc. ’72, Dec. 6, 2016 Sarah Hayter, BA ’73, Dec. 29, 2017 Francis Sienna, MA ’73, Jan. 24, 2017 Jerzy (Jerry) Piekarski, B.Sc. ’74, Oct. 14, 2017 Brian Roe, DVM ’74, Oct. 5, 2017

Alfred Campus with a diploma in Canadian agri-food studies.

In Burkina Faso, Diffalah served as a hygiene and biodiversity adviser for a local poultry organization.

“Bilel was making a contribution to an impoverished country, using his education and passion to make a difference around the world,” U of G president Franco Vaccarino said upon learning of the tragedy.

Susan Grange, B.Sc. ’75, Oct. 19, 2017 Arlene Wilcock, B.A.Sc. ’75, Aug. 13, 2017 Stephen Smith, B.Sc. ’77, M.Sc. ’79, Dec. 19, 2017 Paul Brown, Dip. ’79, June 20, 2017 Bradley (Brad) Lyons, B.Sc. ’79, Sept. 27, 2017 1980s Joanna Grossi, B.Comm. ’80, Dec. 13, 2017 Jane Henderson, B.A.Sc. ’81, Nov. 12, 2015 Thomas (Tom) Heslip, BA ’81, MA ’83, Feb. 8, 2018 Jeffrey (Jake) Noznisky, BA ’81, Nov. 19, 2017 Anita Miniats, DVM ’82, Jan. 17, 2016 Gesa Kohn-Gould, DVM ’85, Dec. 31, 2017 David Selander, Dip ’78, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’85, Sept. 21, 2017 Elizabeth Jaszi, BA ’88, Feb. 22, 2017 Margrit Ragaz, B.A.Sc. ’88, Oct. 5, 2016 John Emslie, B.Sc. ’89, Jan. 28, 2015 1990s Gregory Leatherland, B.Comm. ’94, April 5, 2017 Vincent Cosgrove, BA ’95, Aug. 31, 2017 Louise Reeve, BA ’95, March 11, 2016 Jiyuan Yu, PhD ’95, Nov. 3, 2016 2000s Stephen Emslie, B.Eng. ’16, Student, Oct. 14, 2017 Ian Pavlinic, B.Comp. ’17, Aug. 29, 2017 FACULTY, STAFF & STUDENTS Forrest Caldwell, staff, Jan. 27, 2018 John Goddard, faculty, Dec. 20, 2017 Shady Ibrahim, student, Dec. 30, 2017 Sarah Marsh, staff, Aug. 23, 2017 James McGivney, staff, Aug. 19, 2017 Douglas Ormrod, former dean, Sept. 2017

To honour alumni who have passed away, the University of Guelph Alumni Association makes an annual donation to the Alumni Legacy Scholarship.

PHOTO: ROB O’FLANAGAN

LIVES THAT IMPROVED LIFE

Time capsule

ON

CAMPUS

Erika Gaertner with her classmates in 1942. Front From left: Eva Frankel, Rosalind Morris and Erika row from left: Rosalind Morris who graduated from Gaertner at the Vineland, Ont., experimental farm.

OAC in 1943; and Erika Gaerter and the late Eva Frankel, both 1944 OAC graduates.

THE YEAR

1942 PHOTOS: ERIKA GAERTNER

It was the wartime summer of 1942.

It was also the summer that student Erika Gaertner first spent at the Vineland, Ont., experimental farm that was once part of the Ontario Agricultural College. She graduated from OAC in 1944.

Last July, she returned to the farm, now the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, a visit that prompted Gaertner to write about her memories. Read the full article online at porticomagazine.ca. Here is an excerpt: …We anticipated an introduction to various experimental procedures, possibly leading to new varieties of corn or some other harvest. One strategy was to cover the plant to avoid ad hoc pollination and then to introduce pollen from a desirable plant. Tasting the new product was also porticomagazine.ca

a part of our job.

While such experimental procedures were welcomed, the bulk of our work included scrubbing old plant pots for future reuse – something I suspect is now done by a machine.

At the time, we improved that monotonous job by singing and storytelling.

I have also many memories of travelling while sitting in the back of a pickup truck from orchard to orchard to attend to various jobs. The best one was to test new peach crosses directly off the new tree…

In 1942, the war was still on, and we would often see training planes from the nearby St. Catharines air base overhead. I remember that one small plane did actually splash down in the lake. It was good luck that the pilot survived with the plane which landed not too far from shore…I was the only girl from the summer of 1942 to spend a second year and then a third year at Vineland.

Do you have a photo and a story to tell? Send a note to portico@uoguelph.ca and let us know!

+ The Royal Canadian Air Force occupies central campus buildings for training operations, including wireless and cookery schools. + 108 Aggies board trains for a twoweek volunteer stint to harvest wheat fields in labour-strapped Western Canada. + Farm and Home Week attracts 9,600 visitors to campus, including Princess Alice as the honoured guest.

OFF CAMPUS

+ Henry Ford patents the soybean car, whose prototype weighs almost onethird less than a regular car. + Health Canada produces its first-ever nutrition guide, the Official Food Rules, which became Canada’s Food Guide. + Canadians vote in favour of compulsory military service. + Adolf Hitler is proclaimed “supreme judge of the German people.”

Spring 2018 PORTICO | 37

Early winter, 2018 OUTSIDE U OF G’S NEW ‘HOME’ FOR ATHLETES, ALUMNI, FANS

With its graphite-tone exterior, contemporary design and impressive interior space, the pavilion at Alumni Stadium was envisioned as a facility where champions are made.

In the heart of Gryphon sports action, the structure’s predominantly glass, east-facing wall has an elevated view of Alumni Stadium’s football field and track. The words printed on those windows delineate the

38 | PORTICO Spring 2018

building’s raison d’être: “WHERE CHAMPIONS ARE BUILT.” The campus road leading to the new pavilion has been renamed Lang Way for the facility’s benefactors. Stu Lang, U of G’s former varsity head football coach, and Kim Lang, artistic director of the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival, provided funding for the new facility through their Angel Gabriel Foundation, which has supported many learning and humanitarian

projects at U of G and in the city of Guelph.

Stu Lang, who led the Gryphons to their 2015 Yates Cup victory, envisions the new pavilion as a meeting place for sports enthusiasts and players. He says it will help U of G compete for varsity recruits with schools across North America, and “hopefully help keep top athletes at home.”

PHOTOS: ROB O’FLANGAN

Last look

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ALUMNI WEEKEND 2018 University of Guelph JUNE 22-24, 2018

www.alumni.uoguelph.ca/alumniweekend porticomagazine.ca

Spring 2018 PORTICO | 39

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