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Sandra Banks, Vice-President, University Relations, announces departure
A message from Vivek Goel, President and Vice-Chancellor.
I want to share with regret, that Sandra Banks has let me know she will be leaving the University of Waterloo as of July 31, 2023.
Over the last eight years, Sandra has worked across the university and beyond with a focus on building reputation, relationships and economic development opportunities.
I am very grateful for the important contributions Sandra has made and will continue to make at Waterloo. Successfully adapting to our academic governance and culture, Sandra brought with her experience from across industry, not-for-profit and the public sectors.
Sandra will remain committed over the next several months completing the 2023/24 plan for University Relations, preparing for the launch of the Innovation Arena, supporting a smooth transition as well as leading several other key initiatives.
While we have lots yet to accomplish together, I want to thank Sandra for her eight years of dedication to the University of Waterloo. Sandra and her family relocated to Waterloo in 2015 and have enjoyed the people and life in this community. We look forward to learning about her next career pursuits.
Waterloo at 100: Draft vision paper
Over the past year, thousands in the University of Waterloo community participated in consultations and provided invaluable feedback to develop and discuss ideas for our institution’s future.
We are proud to share a draft vision paper that brings together those ideas -- a vision for Waterloo at 100.
This vision is a result of our collective effort. Drawing on the unconventional spirit of the University’s founding, our community put forward a desire to reinvent the culture of our institution as we build a better future.
What came through in these conversations was the genuine pride in our work and care for our institution evident across our university and wider community. Throughout the discussions, participants paid tribute to our past, honestly assessed what we could improve today, and looked ahead with clear-eyes and optimism.
We welcome additional thoughts on this draft before the paper is finalized for presentation to the Senate and Board. Please submit your comments by March 7, 2023.
Thank you again for your participation and invaluable feedback. We look forward to discussing this draft vision paper at the upcoming Senate and Board meetings in the coming weeks, and to sharing the vision paper this spring.
Professor inducted into the Swedish Royal Academy of Agriculture and Forestry
The new international fellows inducted into the Swedish Royal Academy of Agriculture and Forestry. From left to right: Dag Fjeld, Sally Shortall, Pamela Ronald, Jennifer Clapp, Beatrix Alsanius, and Marius Masiulis. Not pictured here is Maria Brickhaus. Photo courtesy of the Swedish Royal Academy of Agriculture and Forestry.
This article originally appeared on the Faculty of Environment's news site.
Engaged in research projects around themes of food, agriculture, and the environment, Dr. Jennifer Clapp, Canada Research Chair and professor in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, was inducted into the Swedish Royal Academy of Agriculture and Forestry as a new international fellow on January 28, 2023. As an international fellow, Clapp will have the opportunity to participate in events of the Academy and engage in collaborative research projects with other fellows that advance the goal of more equitable and sustainable food systems that promote food security for all.
While in Sweden for the ceremony, Clapp was featured in a seminar on the Challenge of Making Science and Knowledge-based Recommendations for a Global Food System, drawing on her expertise on global food security politics and governance and insights from her current role as Vice Chair of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry was founded in 1811 and is a free and independent organization that works with issues of agriculture, horticulture, food, forest and forest products, fishing and aquaculture, the environment and natural resources.
Read more about Dr. Clapp’s work.
Registration now open for the Teaching and Learning Conference
Registration is now open for the 14th annual University of Waterloo Teaching and Learning Conference taking place on May 4, 2023, with a day of online pre-conference workshops taking place on May 3, 2023. Last year saw over 500 faculty members, staff, and students gather to learn from and with one another around the theme of fostering partnerships in pedagogy.
Our 2023 conference theme is Teaching and Learning with Kindness and Care. We are excited to welcome Barbara Moktthewenkwe Wall, Professor in the Indigenous Environmental Studies and Sciences Program, and Director, PhD Studies, in the Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies, at Trent University, as our keynote speaker, as well as Sanjeev Bedi (Professor and Director, IDEAs Clinic) and Tamara Maciel (Program Director in the School of Anatomy), who will each recreate a successful instructional approach in our Igniting Our Practice plenary session, which showcases some of the excellent teaching being done on our campus.
The registration deadline is Wednesday, April 19, 2023.
Celebrating George Yu
This article was originally featured on Waterloo News and WEAL 2022.
It takes a great artist to create a great violin. The result is even more inspiring if that artist is an intrepid scientist and first-rate engineer. George Yu (BASc ’86, systems design engineering) is all of these things and more.
Yu is a renowned luthier — a maker of violins — who is based in Louisville, Kentucky, and models many of his handcrafted instruments on rare, centuries-old Italian violins. Prized by great musicians, his masterpieces delight audiences who hear professionals play them in the New York Philharmonic, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Lyra Baroque Orchestra and other ensembles.
Students at some of the best music conservatories hone their skills with a Yu violin. And the accolades from the musical world have been stunning. One of his violins won a rare, double-distinction award at the 2014 Violin Society of America Competition, which had no fewer than 246 violin entries.
To be sure, the trajectory of Yu’s life is not entirely surprising. As a child, he learned a love of science growing up in the chemistry labs of his graduate-student parents. At the same time, he inherited their passion for music and learned to play violin. When he began studying in Waterloo’s demanding systems design engineering program, he turned to playing chamber music “to put a balance in my life.”
His degree led to a nine-year stint as a software engineer. But his career path veered sharply in a different direction when he was accepted into the Violin Making School of America in Salt Lake City. Graduating from the program in 1999, he apprenticed a further two years in Boston before setting up his workshop in Toronto and then, in 2018, in Louisville.
For Yu, the three months of painstaking labour required to make a single violin is “a confluence of science, music and craft.” CT scans of vintage violins reveal the precise information he needs to make his own personal versions of these priceless instruments. Before working with a specific piece of wood, he takes measurements for its stiffness and density. Science also determines his choice of drying oils in varnish.
"I come up with what I call a platonic ideal of a model of a violin," he says, sounding distinctly philosophical. "I want my own idiosyncrasies to flow from there."
Engineer, craftsman, musician, artist: in what, far more than a job, is a life’s calling, Yu embodies them all.