Thursday, July 30, 2015

SEED director named CIGI senior fellow

This article was originally published on the Faculty of Environment's news site.

The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) announced the appointment of A. Neil Craik as Senior Fellow with its International Law Research Program (ILRP), effective immediately.

Craik is current director of University of Waterloo’s School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED).

At CIGI, Craik will explore issues of climate change and environmental law. He has particular interests in the intersection of international and domestic environmental policy, climate and geoengineering governance and environmental impact assessment.

“In an increasingly complex and divided world, international environmental law is being called upon to structure interactions among states, international organizations and private actors through obligations to promote inclusive, science-based deliberations,” says A. Neil Craik, CIGI Senior Fellow. “The challenge for the rule of law in transnational environmental affairs is not to replace politics, but to promote a politics based on reason and shared values.”

Craik is credited with having played an instrumental role in the success of the inaugural year of the CIGI ILRP and Balsillie School of International Affairs Summer Law Institute. In his current work, he examines the role of procedural obligations in governance structures addressing transboundary and global commons environmental issues.

NSERC support shapes future of Waterloo research

By: Staff

From advanced engineering to developing a deeper understanding of the Arctic, graduate and post-graduate students at the University of Waterloo are critical contributors to research that benefits Canadians.

It’s a competitive field, where top students from institutions across Canada strive to prove that their research deserves to be funded. At Waterloo, postgraduate and postdoctoral students are awarded more funding per capita for that research than at any other institution in Canada.

“The reasons for our success are two fold: It’s the quality of the students we’re attracting and the quality of our faculty,” says Jim Frank, associate provost of Graduate Studies. “It’s also the culture you build up in departments and Faculties that places value on graduate student success and supports graduate students financially, through mentorship, by sharing expertise and with opportunities to build a professional network.” Waterloo’s interdisciplinary approach to research also contributes to that overall success, he says.

In the 2015 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) scholarship competition, Waterloo students from all six Faculties, will receive more than $3.3 million in doctoral-level funding, with close to $1 million supporting master’s level research.  Additionally, $480,000 has been awarded to 12 postdoctoral research projects. 

This includes 12 postdoctoral fellowships (PDF), valued at $40,000 per year, 16 Canada Graduate Scholarships (CGS) valued at $35,000 per year, and 31 postgraduate scholarships (PGS), valued at $21,000 per year.

Frank says review panels look at several criteria before awarding funding, including the clarity of the proposal, the past success of the student and the value of the research not just to the research community, but to all of Canada.

That’s where Waterloo students really standout. A University-wide culture of connection to community and industry leads to research where the value proposition is a central focus.

“Asking ‘where will this add value?’ drives much of what we do,” Frank says. “It all goes back to that sense of connection.”

For a breakdown of the top three Canadian universities for NSERC funding, visit Waterloo Stories.

New additions to Waterloo Reads, other notes

The Library has added 30 new titles to the Waterloo Reads collection for the summer. 

Waterloo Reads is a popular reading collection consisting of over 400 popular fiction and non-fiction titles.

The following books are now available in either the Davis Centre or Dana Porter libraries Waterloo Reads collections:

• The Acolyte by Nick Cutter
• Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay
• The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
• Daydreams of Angels by Heather O'Neill
• The End of Absence by Michael Harris
• Fallen: A Trauma, a Marriage, and the Transformative Power of Musicby Kara Stanley
• Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis
• Gallery of Lost Species by Nina Berkhout
• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
• The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
• History of Loneliness by John Boyne
• The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
• Landing Gear by Kate Pullinger
• The Magicians by Lev Grossman
• A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
• The Martian by Andy Weir
• The Muslims Are Coming by Arun Kundnani
• Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming
• The Novel Cure: From Abandoment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You by Ella Berthoud
• The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan
• The Outside Circle by Patti LaBoucane-Benson
• Red Rising by Pierce Brown
• Revival by Stephen King
• The Room by Jonas Karlsson
• Ruby: A Novel by Cynthia Bond
• Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
• The Signal and Noise: Why so Many Predictions Fail — but Some Don't by Nate Silver
• The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
• Summer House with Swimming Pool by Herman Koch
• When Everything Feels Like the Movies by Raziel Reid

Renison University College is offering non-credit classes in Turkish this fall: Become skilled in everyday communication with a course in conversational Turkish! Consisting of one class a week (2 hours) over a 10-week period, this class is designed for the beginner level and assumes no prior knowledge of the Turkish language. In this course, basic conversational skills are introduced, which include greetings, asking well-being and basic knowledge of adjectives, classroom discourse, and days of the week. You'll learn interrogative pronouns (who, what, which) as well as how to express there is/isn’t, there are/aren’t. Tuition is $250 plus HST (an additional $30 application fee applied if this is your first time taking a non-credit course at Renison). You can register online by Friday, September 18, 2015 to reserve your spot in this inaugural class. Classes will take place on Wednesdays, 7:00-9:00 pm, from September 23 to November 25. For more information, please see our website or contact Idrisa Pandit.