Monday, June 25, 2018

Environment PhD candidate named Trudeau Scholar

Phoebe Stephens has been named one of Canada’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation scholars for her project investigating the need for sustainable food systems.

“Increasingly we are seeing food being treated as a financial product, vulnerable to stock market volatility. This is dangerous for something everyone needs to survive,” said Stephens. “On top of this, the financialization of the food system tends to favour an industrial model of production.”

Stephens is as a PhD candidate in social and ecological sustainability in the School of Environment, Sustainability and Resources at the University of Waterloo. She is also a researcher for Sustain Ontario’s Food Enterprise Network, a member of the Waterloo Food Interest Group, and co-founder of Natural Interest, a consultancy geared towards supporting the growth of social finance in Ontario’s food sector.

"Phoebe's work has the potential to not only transform the way we think about food, but also restructure the way in which sustainable food alternatives are made available to Canadians and the world,” said Jeff Casello, associate vice-president, Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs. “The impacts of her work, like so many graduate student researchers at Waterloo, are being recognized.  The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation scholarships are among the most sought-after and highly respected honours that can be received by emerging scholars, and we congratulate her and her supervisory team on this remarkable accomplishment."

“I am honoured to be given this amazing opportunity to study a topic of great importance by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation,” said Stephens. “Deepening our understanding of the viability of impact investing as a means of promoting food system sustainability will contribute to the advancement of knowledge necessary to build a more sustainable future for Canada. My research is poised to make both theoretical and practical contributions.”

David Sprott Lecture will focus on risk assessment

The latest in the David Sprott Distinguished Lecture Series, "Assessing Financial Model Risk," will take place today. 

The distinguished lecturer is Pauline Barrieu, professor of Statistics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is the co-Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Time Series (CATS).

"Model risk has a huge impact on any financial or insurance risk measurement procedure and its quantification is therefore a crucial step," says the talk's abstract. "In this talk, we introduce three quantitative measures of model risk when choosing a particular reference model within a given class: the absolute measure of model risk, the relative measure of model risk and the local measure of model risk. Each of the measures has a specific purpose and so allows for flexibility. We illustrate the various notions by studying some relevant examples, so as to emphasize the practicability and tractability of our approach."

The Distinguished Lecture Series is named for David A. Sprott, the first chair of the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science and the first Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics. The lecture series was created in recognition of his leadership at a formative time of the department.

The lecture takes place at 4:00 p.m. in STC 0060.

Writing the next chapter of Print + Retail Solutions

A message from Print + Retail Solutions.

Print + Retail Solutions is beginning the gradual transition to centralized services in South Campus Hall. Phase one will be completed by July 5 and will incorporate all of the academic supplies, office supplies and stationery products currently located inside Write Stuff into the Book Store.

Students, faculty and staff tend to shop for these items at the same time and putting them together in one location is a natural fit that will make shopping more convenient. The Book Store can be reached at extension 84673 or by email at bookstore@uwaterloo.ca.

Moving forward, the Write Stuff brand will no longer exist as a stand-alone business unit for Retail Services. This physical space will transition to a new home for print services, which includes large format printing, colour printing, black and white printing, binding and many finishing options.

Yvonne Ertel who currently works at the Media.doc location in the Math and Computer Building will be relocated to this space in South Campus Hall to support this new initiative. She can be reached by phone at extension 32251, by email at yvonne.ertel@uwaterloo.ca or in person in South Campus Hall. Poster print orders can be submitted directly to prs.poster@gmail.com.

Note that, if preferred, print orders can still be submitted in person to any Media.doc location, and they can be picked up from any Media.doc location or be delivered for free across campus. This move will be complete by September 1 in time for the fall term without disruption to the services offered in these areas.

This transition is part of a plan to better serve the campus community. Please contact Director Ryan Jacobs at rjacobs@uwaterloo.ca with any questions or concerns regarding these changes.