Tuesday, January 6, 2026

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• Celebrating thirty years of the Farvolden lecture series

• Stratford School student designs illuminate Lights On

• Reminder: campus ENS test set for this afternoon

Celebrating thirty years of the Farvolden lecture series

Students, postdoctoral scholars, research faculty and staff who have worked with 2025 Farvolden Lecturer David Blowes over the years take the stage.

By Vanessa Parks. This article was originally published on the Faculty of Science website.

This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Farvolden lecture series.

Hosted by the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, this annual lecture honours Dr. Robert Farvolden, who established the department’s world-renowned groundwater research program in the 1970s. It brings together members of the department, alumni of the hydrogeology program, and the groundwater community at large.

What started as a grassroots effort to bring alumni back to campus has evolved into one of the largest alumni events, attracting between 150 and 200 alumni annually. Dr. David Rudolph and Lorraine Albrecht have been organizing the event since its inception. Looking back, they are thrilled at how the event has evolved to serve the Waterloo community over the last three decades.  

“When we started, we expected it might last 10 years,” says Rudolph. “Instead, it has grown into something so popular, that if we thought about cancelling it, we would have a riot on our hands!”

When the series went online during the pandemic, Albrecht notes, it was attended by people from around the world. As a result, the series is still streamed live, recorded and posted.

The Farvolden lecture series continues to attract attention from the groundwater community abroad. “To be asked to be a Farvolden lecturer is a prestigious invitation,” says Rudolph. “The series now has an international reputation.”

This year’s lecture, delivered at the end of October by Dr. David Blowes, addressed mineral resource development, a topic particularly relevant today. “David was ideal for our thirtieth anniversary,” says Rudolph. “Not only was his topic timely, he’s also one of our superstars who hasn’t yet been able to give this lecture.”

This will be the last year Rudolph and Albrecht organize the series. Albrecht is retiring in the spring, and Rudolph feels it’s a good time to pass it into fresh hands. With new organizers, they look forward to the series continuing to evolve to stay current and interesting to the next generation of groundwater researchers as well as those outside the field while retaining the character it has come to embody.

“It's important that it gets to transition to a new generation,” Rudoph says. “Lorraine and I are biased, but we think we’re handing off a Ferrari! We hope it maintains its spirit. It’s free. It’s open to everyone. And it’s a super fun afternoon every year.”

Check out the most recent Farvolden lecture:

Stratford School student designs illuminate Lights On

This is an excerpt of an article originally published on the Faculty of Arts website.

The City of Stratford’s award-winning annual winter festival, Lights On, features interactive installations designed by students in the Global Business and Digital Arts (GBDA) program at the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business. Their work will be featured alongside international exhibits.

46 students from the course GBDA 412, Special Topics in Digital Culture, were challenged to create large-scale interactive media art pieces for the Lights On festival. Inspired by the Thirteen Grandmother Moons stories, an Indigenous knowledge tradition, the students created installations that explore light as a symbol of knowledge, community, and continuity.

From December 12 to January 18, three student-designed installations from the class will be featured within Destination Stratford’s Welcome Centre:

• Healing Currents is an interactive projection installation that transforms reflective prompts into radiant digital sucker fish - symbolizing collective healing through light and renewal.
• Ripples Through Time uses interactive digital windows and body-motion tracking to represent how human relationships with water have shifted across generations.
• When We Come Together is an interactive light installation that explores reconciliation as an ongoing and cyclical process shaped by movement, presence, and collective participation.

“It is such an incredible honour for our students to be given the opportunity to showcase their creative talent and critical design skills in a festival of this magnitude,” said David Han, an instructor at the Stratford School who led the course.

“This is the second year we’ve collaborated with UWaterloo to create student light art displays, and I continue to be amazed at their creativity and brilliance,” said Zac Gribble, Executive Director of Destination Stratford.

Learn more about the collaboration and the ideas behind the installations, or visit Lights On from December 12, 2025 to January 18, 2026, Thursdays to Sundays, 5:00 p.m.  to 10:00 p.m.

Check out the full story with photos and video

Reminder: campus ENS test set for this afternoon

This is a reminder that there will be a test of the emergency notification system (ENS) on a campus-wide basis this afternoon. 

The test will include the following communications channels: 

• SMS/text 
• Email
•  X (formerly Twitter) 
• Regroup Mobile (safety app) 
• Desktop Alert 
• Campus Safety webpage 

Please ensure that you have:

1. downloaded Regroup Mobile to your device and follow the login and recommended settings steps,
2. ensured your cell phone number is up to date either in the app if you are staff, or in Quest if you are a student,
3. downloaded and installed the Desktop Alert tool onto your computer if your computer is not managed by the University.

If you have any questions about the upcoming test, or about how to make sure Regroup’s app and desktop alert are installed properly on your devices, email ens@uwaterloo.ca.