Thursday, June 18, 2020

Convocation continues with Science today

The University of Waterloo's virtual Convocation celebrations continue today with the Faculty of Science. Today, more than 980 graduands will receive recognition for their undergraduate and graduate degrees, diplomas, and certificates. 875 undergraduate students, 65 Master's and 41 PhD candidates are eligible to graduate this spring.

Each graduand will receive an email from President Feridun Hamdullahpur with a personalized video featuring senior University leaders that marks this exceptional moment in the lives of each graduating student and their families. Students having difficulty finding the email this week should check out the University's student email migration website for more information, as student emails are switching from edu.uwaterloo.ca to uwaterloo.ca addresses.

The following graduate students will receive the Dean of Science Awards at the Master's level and the W.B. Pearson Awards at the doctoral level:

Dean of Science Award - M.Sc.

• Sarah Barwell, Biology
• David Beriashvili, Chemistry 
• Mohammad Roostaie, Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Jill Woods, Optometry and Vision Science
• Haein Huh, Pharmacy
• Patrick Daley, Physics and Astronomy

W.B. Pearson Medal - Ph.D.

• Mike Mansfield, Biology
• Tijana Vasiljevic, Chemistry
• No Recipient, Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Mohana Kuppuswamy Parthasarathy, Optometry and Vision Science
• Alanna McEneny-King, Pharmacy
• Marika Kieferova, Physics and Astronomy

Family and friends of graduates, along with the entire UWaterloo community, are being asked to share their congratulatory messages online with stories, videos and social posts. 

Check out the University's Convocation website for more information and resources you can use to celebrate Waterloo's graduating students this week.

Waterloo signs the Responsible Investment Charter for Canadian Universities

A message from Feridun Hamdullahpur, President and Vice-Chancellor.

While we continue to grapple with challenges across our society, climate change and its effects on our world continue. The University of Waterloo has not forgotten this. This is why I am happy to announce that Waterloo is now a signatory of the Responsible Investment Charter for Canadian Universities, along with 14 other Canadian universities.

Being a signatory to the Charter is more than a symbolic gesture. It is a call-to-action that includes, but is not be limited to:

1. Adopting a responsible investing framework to guide decision-making, in line with recognized standards such as the UN-supported Principles of Responsible Investment (UN-PRI)
2. Regularly measure the carbon intensity of our investment portfolios and set meaningful targets for their reduction over time;
3. Evaluate progress towards these objectives on a regular basis and share the results of such assessments publicly;
4. Ensure that the performance evaluation of our investment managers takes into account their success in achieving such objectives, alongside the other criteria for assessing their performance

We are looking forward to leveraging this investing framework that reflects the UN-PRI. This and the other steps above are keeping in line with our other efforts to create positive change on our campus, nationally and globally.

Our signing of the Responsible Investment Charter for Canadian Universities builds on and takes further action beyond the existing commitments adopted by the University as a result of the Responsible Investment Working Group’s recommendations.

As a place of higher learning, our teaching has the power to enhance understanding of the principles of sustainability. As we look to create new knowledge across a wide range of disciplines to propel our society forward, our research is essential in advancing knowledge about climate change and helping identify effective, evidence-based solutions. As major owners of property and facilities, we have an important opportunity to reduce the carbon emissions arising from our own operations. Our new Shift: Neutral climate action plan sets out a framework for how the University will take steps to reduce the carbon footprint of its own operations and activities. And, as stewards of long-term investments, we have a responsibility to manage our capital in ways that accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy and protect our stakeholders from the growing risks associated with climate change.

We take this responsibility very seriously. This is an important step to take, though certainly not the final step. We will continue important conversations as we look to make needed policy changes and physical improvements to the University of Waterloo to build a resilient, prosperous and sustainable future.

Professor John Thompson retires after 52 years at Waterloo

A message from the Office of Research.

The University of Waterloo was in its early days when John Thompson joined the Faculty of Science in 1968 as a biology professor. He was attracted by Waterloo’s strong commitment to research and its vision of working closely with industry through the co-op program and research partnerships.

Fifty-two years later as he prepares to retire on June 30, Professor Thompson says that vision has been a cornerstone of Waterloo’s success and one that has benefited him personally for the duration of his research career.

“When you’re doing research, every day is a highlight. You feel the experiments in progress are the most exciting you’ve ever done,” he said.

Midway through his research career, he co-founded Senesco to commercialize a technology inherent in the discovery of a gene that appears to function much like a biological switch. It regulates both cell death and cell survival. The discovery was accidental, but its applications in both agriculture and human health were methodically guided by the partnership with Senesco and its successor and developed in conjunction with talented graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Over the decades, Professor Thompson has received various academic awards and distinctions in recognition of the pioneering research conducted in his lab, including election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1987 and inclusion in the ISI (Thomson Reuters) list of most cited researchers in 2005.

In addition to his involvement in research,  Professor Thompson also taught  undergraduate courses in Cell Biology for many years  and  served as Chair of the Department of Biology for two terms, as Dean of Science for three terms, and as the inaugural Associate Vice-President, Research – a role he has held for 18 years. In these positions, he came to appreciate how wonderful Waterloo students are, the incredibly important role that staff play in the operation of the University, and the importance of collegiality at all levels of administration.  

Upon retirement he expects that what he will miss most about Waterloo are his research lab (which he closed three years ago) and active involvement in research with grad students and postdoctoral fellows, the close working relationships with administrative colleagues he has enjoyed over the years, and the wonderful staff in the Office of Research. His plans for retirement are to spend more time with his family including his six grandchildren.

For young researchers embarking on a research career in a different century and different times, he has a few words of wisdom about research (and life).

“Be sure research is something you want to do, for it will consume every ounce of energy (and time) you can give it.  Follow your heart and follow your instinct,” he said. “Every well executed experiment  provides new information. Sometimes the result is different from what you hoped for and expected, and it’s easy to be despondent and chalk it up to a failed experiment. But look at the result again and try to understand what it is telling you. And remember that a number of profound discoveries, including the discovery of restriction enzymes which are the cornerstone of molecular biology, came from a careful re-evaluation of failed experiments.”

How co-op got this Science student graduate ready

This article originally appeared on Waterloo Stories.

Five years ago, Lydia Vermeer was graduating high school and decided to go to the University of Waterloo because of its co-op program — little did she know that co-op would influence her studies, personal growth and help her find a career she was passionate about. She was even recognized with a Co-op Student of the Year award for the Faculty of Science.

“I chose to participate in co-op because when I started university, I was unsure of what to do after I graduated,” Vermeer says. “I thought experiencing different workplaces would be valuable, but being part of this program had far-reaching benefits I never anticipated.”

Unlike most students in her Honours Biochemistry program, Vermeer was interested in research rather than medical or professional school. For her first work term, she worked as a research assistant in McMaster University’s Centre for Microbial Chemical Biology. The lab is part of the Institute for Infectious Disease and focused on solving multi-drug resistance. Much of their work examines novel drugs and treatments using automated, high throughput equipment.

Since much of the equipment was shared by other labs, Vermeer collaborated with lab technicians and graduate students to develop and execute projects in the areas of high-throughput screening, protein quantification and purification and mass spectrometry. She independently programmed and ran high-throughput screening assays using automated liquid handling systems. She also organized a collection of clinical strains of bacteria by species to increase the ease and efficiency of their use.

Vermeer really enjoyed her genetics courses especially the history of genetics and genetics of human disease. So for her second work term she decided to work as a Genetics Research Laboratory Technician at Robarts Research Institute, a medical research institute at the University of Western Ontario. Her supervisor, Dr. Rob Hegele, specialized in certain types of diabetes and cholesterol abnormalities in patients. Vermeer extracted DNA from human blood samples and prepared DNA samples to sequence for variants that could explain the conditions seen in patients.

“The excitement of applying something learned in the workplace to the classroom, and vice versa, is a unique benefit of participating in co-op. Biochemistry can be frustratingly abstract. The practical applications of my coursework — introduced to me on co-op — motivated me.”

Despite the focus on genetics in her second work term, Vermeer discovered lab work was not what she wanted. She missed working with people and being in an open, interactive environment. So, for her next co-op work term she tried working in a clinical setting.

While working as a Genetic Counsellor Assistant at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Vermeer worked with genetic counsellors and administrative staff to collect relevant medical information, such as family histories, from patients with a personal or family history of cancer. She would prepare genetic testing forms for patients.

Vermeer enjoyed the environment, empathetic nature of the work and their dedication to see co-op students grow that she applied to the Cancer Genetics Department for her final eight-month work term. When she returned, she asked for more work to do and they took her request to heart.

She prepared a 40-page document along with numerous supporting materials for the development of a new format of genetic counselling and testing for breast-cancer that is physician-initiated.

She helped curate a database of clinic patients with mutations which involved comparing 4,000 mutations to online databases to ensure they were entered in standard notation.

She also rewrote the student manual, to include instructional documents, screenshots and diagrams, ensuring future Waterloo co-op students would experience a smoother transition into the workplace.

During her year at Sunnybrook, Vermeer reflected on the experience and found genetic counselling to be an interesting career. She enjoys how it blends science and her favourite topic genetics with human interaction, which was missing from her previous lab jobs. This fall, she will apply for her master’s in genetic counselling.

“I feel far less fear and much more confidence and excitement. It’s no longer the abstract excitement I had at the beginning of my degree for things yet to be experienced, but a grounded sense of anticipation for a career that fits my professional skill set and personal goals.”

In her final co-op term at Sunnybrook, Vermeer also got a taste of clinical research when she worked on the ethics board submission for a pilot study to improve the efficiency of genetic testing and counselling. She thoroughly enjoyed the process of putting the application together, including doing the background research, writing the application and working with administrators and various medical professionals.

She implemented the new protocol in the clinic and worked directly with oncologists and general practitioners on how to order genetic testing and guide them on which patients are eligible for further genetic testing. The data she collected from patients will be published in an academic journal and Vermeer will be credited as an author.

This coming September, she’ll begin an online, one year graduate certificate program in Clinical Research at Humber College. Clinical research and genetic counselling are closely related and often intersect. Vermeer sees the value of understanding both fields and hopes to combine the two in her future. She hopes her clinical research placements will be as impactful and fulfilling as her Waterloo co-op experiences.

“I have a profound depth of gratitude for co-operative education. I doubt I would be on the same path I am if I did not participate in this program.”

Warriors jump into June with wellness challenge

Athletics and Recreation's Jump Into June Challenge is now in its second week. Jump Into June is a four-week wellness challenge with prices including the weekly chance to win a TruLocal box and a grand prize at the end of the month.

Each week of the challenge has a theme that represents a certain aspect of wellness, including sleep, water, and nutrition (Movement was the first week's challenge). Each themed week will have a specific requirement that you need to complete.

In order to be entered into our challenge, you must post an instagram story that you have completed the weekly challenge and tag Waterloo Recreation (@wloorec). If you have a private account, you are also welcome to send Waterloo Recreation a direct message on instagram that you have completed the challenge.

For more information read the article on the Athletics and Recreation website.