Wednesday, October 11, 2023

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• Donna Strickland receives gold medal from Spanish National Research Council
• Mapping the future of flood response
• Indigenous Speakers Series presents Niigaan Sinclair
• How to be a board member, and free fitness classes for staff

Donna Strickland receives gold medal from Spanish National Research Council

This article was originally published on the Faculty of Science news site.

In a ceremony in Madrid, Spain, Noble Prize winner Donna Strickland received a Gold Medal from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the highest distinction granted by the organization. Presenting the award were the acting minister of science and innovation, Diana Morant, and the president of the CSIC, Eloisa del Pino. Strickland was nominated and won this prestigious award, “for her discoveries in the field of optics, both from the conceptual and applied point of view.” Many letters of recommendation from scientists all over Spain accompanied her nomination, according to the CSIC. 

After the award presentation, Donna gave an engaging lecture entitled Generating high-intensity, ultrashort optical pulses. She drew in the audience of scientists and non-scientists by explaining her research in a way that was enjoyable and educational for everyone in the room.  

Earlier in the day, Strickland also met with the acting president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez and acting minister of science and innovation, Diana Morant. The trio discussed how Strickland’s research and notoriety has been a great inspiration to women and girls in Spain interested in STEAM. 

Congratulations to Donna Strickland for this noteworthy award win. 

Mapping the future of flood response

A message from the Office of Advancement originally published in the Report on Giving.

Donor support enables Robert Chlumsky (BASc ’15, MASc ’18) to pursue his PhD and explore a new method of floodplain mapping that could impact flood mitigation – and save lives. This is just one of the inspiring stories you’ll find in the 2022-23 Report on Giving. 

In the early stages of his doctoral degree, Robert Chlumsky (BASc ’15, MASc ’18) had doubts about whether he had made the right choice to return to school. 

There were days Robert wondered why he had left a full-time job as a water resources consulting engineer, particularly when he wasn’t successful in applying But now as a recent recipient of the Jain Family Award for Entrepreneurship, he is no longer questioning coming back to the University of Waterloo for his third environmental engineering degree. 

For Robert, the award made possible by a gift from the Vijay Anand Foundation to encourage student entrepreneurship at Waterloo is providing financial assistance and, perhaps more importantly, confirmation that his research has significant potential. 

“Before I received the award, I definitely had some moments of self-doubt,” he said. “Part of receiving the award was validation that I had made the right decision to pursue a PhD.” 

It was during his time as a municipal engineering consultant that Robert discovered the need for new floodplain mapping technology. 

“I had seen how things are done and practised and I had some ideas about how the technology could be improved,” he said. “Floodplain mapping is becoming an increasingly important issue with climate change where more intense flooding is expected, not less.” 

Together with civil and environmental engineering professors James Craig and Bryan Tolson, Robert is developing Blackbird, a more effective method for floodplain mapping. 

Unlike flood maps used today, Blackbird’s will be both real-time and two-dimensional and could substantially impact flood mitigation and emergency response, potentially leading to lower costs and risk to life. 

Shortly after he began his PhD in 2020, Robert launched Heron Hydrologic, a company that provides training and other services related to hydrologic modelling, calibration and data analysis. Craig, Robert’s MASc supervisor, and Tolson, his doctoral supervisor, are also part of Heron Hydrologic. 

The father of three under three has a fourth-degree black belt and both practises and teaches karate at Legacy Martial Arts and Fitness in Kitchener, where he has been a member for over 24 years. 

In addition to impressive time management skills, Robert credits the support of his wife and awards such as the Jain Family Award for Entrepreneurship for allowing him to work on his PhD and keep up with all the other professional and personal parts of his busy life. 

He expects to complete his doctorate in spring 2024 and then work full time on Blackbird and Heron Hydrologic. 

“The University of Waterloo is the right school to provide the best opportunities to succeed,” Robert said. “I’m looking forward to what the future will bring.” 

Indigenous Speakers Series presents Niigaan Sinclair

A message from the Faculty of Arts.

We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Niigaan Sinclair to Waterloo’s Indigenous Speakers Series on Tuesday, October 17.

Niigaan Sinclair is Anishinaabe (St. Peter’s/Little Peguis) and a professor at the University of Manitoba, where he holds the Faculty of Arts Professorship in Indigenous Knowledge and Aesthetics.

Please join us for Niigaan’s engaging presentation about Indigenous experiences in Canada, land and water rights, and what it means for his home province of Manitoba to have recently elected an Indigenous Premier, Wab Kinew. Niigaan will also speak about the Liberal government’s actions and inactions towards reconciliation since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report was released in 2015, and the experiences of the Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, located on the Ontario/Manitoba border whose recent construction of a water filtration plant has ended a decades-long boil water advisory. His presentation will be followed by a Q & A moderated by Dr. Bimadoshka Pucan of United College. 

Niigaan Sinclair is an award-winning writer, editor and activist who was recently named, with his father Murray Sinclair to the “Power List” by Maclean’s magazine as one of the most influential individuals in Canada. “If legal titan Murray Sinclair was the first person in the room, his media-savvy son is trying to change the room altogether,” reports Macleans. Niigaan brings important Indigenous stories to the public and builds greater awareness of First Nations experiences. In 2018, Niigaan won Canadian columnist of the year at the National Newspaper Awards for his bi-weekly columns in The Winnipeg Free Press and is a featured member of the Friday "Power Panel" on CBC's Power & Politics. 

A former secondary school teacher, he won the 2019 Peace Educator of the Year from the Peace and Justice Studies Association based at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. His research includes Indigenous literature, graphic novels, and masculinities. Niigaan co-edited several award-winning collections, including Centering Anishinaabeg Studies: Understanding the World Through Stories and the Idle No More Movement. 

Please join us for this Indigenous Speakers Series event on October 17, 4:00 p.m. in the Theatre of the Arts.

How to be a board member, and free fitness classes for staff

A message from the University of Waterloo Staff Association (UWSA).

Volunteering to be on the board of directors for a charity or not-for-profit organization can be intimidating. Board Foundations is a 60- to 90-minute virtual workshop for UWaterloo staff that focuses on the key concepts and responsibilities of board leadership, with a goal to answer questions and make board roles more accessible.

Participants will learn about the legal roles and responsibilities of boards and board members. The session will provide an overview of fiduciary, strategic, and generative leadership responsibilities, and will touch on the legislation that provides the framework for governance in Ontario.

An organization is strongest when it includes diverse perspectives. A board’s culture needs to celebrate diversity of voices and enable everyone to safely contribute. The workshops will apply an anti-oppression lens on governance and help participants understand their role in developing an inclusive organizational culture. This is a new component that will be beneficial to those who attended the workshop last year.

Registration is open on Portal; there are five offerings of the workshop between October 16 and March 21, so you can choose a date that works for you.

Funding for this workshop is provided by the Staff Excellence Fund. Other currently funded projects you can attend include: Workplace Yoga, Pilates Party, and daily fitness and wellness programming from Athletics. Any staff member can submit a proposal for funding at any time.