Monday, June 5, 2023

2023 Statistical Society of Canada Gold Medal awarded to Charmaine Dean

Wendy Lou, Chair of the SSC Awards Committee, Dr. Charmaine Dean, and Bruno Rémillard, SSC President. Photograph by Peter Macdonald.

A message from the Office of Research.

Charmaine Dean has received the prestigious Gold Medal from the Statistical Society of Canada (SSC) for her high quality research contributions to the statistical sciences in Canada.

Charmaine B. Dean, professor in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science and vice-president, research and international at the University of Waterloo was awarded the 2023 SSC Gold Medal at its recent Annual Meeting in Ottawa. This award recognizes her outstanding contributions to statistical methodology and applications including survival and longitudinal analyses, disease mapping and spatio-temporal modelling, and for her important novel contributions to fostering truly collaborative interdisciplinary statistical and wildfire research and research leadership in Canada, according to the SSC announcement.

Dr. Dean’s work has been recognized with other major awards including Fellow of the American Statistical Association, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. She has contributed much of her time in service to organizations such as the SSC, NSERC, and the International Biometric Society. She has also held associate and senior editorship roles with journals such as Environmetrics, Statistics in Biosciences, Statistics in Medicine, and Biometrics.  

Read more about Dr. Dean’s award.

Participants sought for low child mood study

The Child and Adolescent Neuropsychology Lab located in the Department of Psychology is seeking participants for a research study examining cognitive and family factors that might impact low child mood.

This study has been reviewed by, and received ethics clearance through, a University of Waterloo Research Ethics Committee.

What is this study about?

This study will examine cognitive and family factors that may impact low mood in children.

Who can participate?

This study will examine cognitive and family factors that may impact low mood in children. Mother-child pairs who are biologically related. Children must be aged 7 to 12 years. Mothers must be able to read English, while both mothers and children must be able to speak English, have access to a computer and internet connection, and must both be willing to participate.

What will you receive?

Mothers and children each receive a $10 digital gift certificate to Walmart for their participation in the study. Mothers and children who participate in both parts of the study will have an opportunity to opt in or out of a draw for an additional $100 gift card to Walmart.

Who are we?

The Child and Adolescent Neuropsychology Lab is a team of researchers from the Department of Psychology at the University of Waterloo, whose research focuses on brain development in children and adolescents. Our goal is to find ways to promote positive mental health outcomes for youth and their families.

What will you be asked to do?

This study has 2 parts.

Part 1: Mothers complete questionnaires online at home (approx. 30-45 minutes) about demographic information, their own mental health, family dynamics, ruminative thinking tendencies, and perceptions of their own and their child’s cognitive skills.

Part 2: Children will participate in a virtual meeting in which they will complete an activity with cartoon pictures and fill in questionnaires to assess low mood and coping skills. The virtual meeting will take approximately 30 minutes. A parent must be present (at home) to assist with the virtual platform but should be in a separate room while the meeting takes place.

For additional information and participation contact the Child and Adolescent Neuropsychology Lab at extension 32053 or via email at canlab@uwaterloo.ca.

Empower your student staff with Student Leadership Program (SLP)

A message from the Student Success Office (SSO).

Looking for professional development opportunities for your part-time student staff or co-op students? Ask them to enroll in the Student Leadership Program (SLP)! 

The SLP is a free-of-charge series of workshops where attendees develop their leadership skills while getting involved in the UWaterloo community.  

SLP attendees learn about conflict resolution, communication and intercultural competence. These skills will help them in their current student roles and prepare them for future leadership positions. 

Students who complete all workshops receive a University of Waterloo Certificate in Leadership Development, signed by the University of Waterloo President and Vice-Chancellor Vivek Goel. 

June workshop registration is now open. Workshops are offered in-person or online. 

Remembering Dr. Palmer Patterson

This article was originally published on the History department's website.

Dr. Palmer Patterson, retired Professor of History at the University of Waterloo, passed away on May 17, 2023. He was a scholar of the history of Indigenous peoples in Canada, and later in his career of the American South during the post-Civil War period.  

Originally from New Orleans, he completed his PhD in History at the University of Washington in 1962 on the Squamish Nation activist Andre Paull. He began his career at St. Jerome’s College at the University of Waterloo in 1962, and he joined the Department of History at the University of Waterloo in 1964. As a scholar of Indigenous histories, his monograph The Canadian Indian: A History Since 1500 (1972) was a pioneering academic study of the history of Indigenous peoples in Canada. He later studied the interactions of European missionaries with the Nisga’a Nation, as well as the histories of Haida and Inuit communities.  

Dr. Patterson also lived his scholarship, engaging in social justice and public history activities such as leading a teach-in in protest of violence during the Biafran War in the late 1960s, and writing elementary and secondary school textbooks on Indigenous histories. Those interested in Dr. Patterson’s scholarship can consult his fonds in the University archives.

The Biafra teach-in held in the Campus Centre's Great Hall on November 27, 1969.

Dr. Patterson retired in 1992, but he continued to pursue his scholarly interests long into retirement. A committed philanthropist, he made a mark both at the University of Waterloo and in the community. 

Dr. Patterson is pre-deceased by his wife Nancy-Lou Patterson, Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of Waterloo and a founding member of the Department of Fine Arts.  

Dr. Patterson at the University Book Store in 1971.

A funeral service will be held on Tuesday, June 27, 2023, at 11:00 a.m. at St. Columba Anglican Church, 250 Lincoln Road, Waterloo.