University of Windsor president Alan Wildeman received the Windsor Endowment for the Arts first-ever Record of Achievement Award.

During an awards and grants ceremony on May 24, WEA president Carolyne Rourke said that Dr. Wildeman was being recognized for the positive and lasting impact he has had on the arts at the University and in the community.

“During his 10-year appointment, the University campus, including facilities in downtown Windsor, has been transformed into a welcoming and inclusive place for students and the community,” she said. “He has helped to position the city for urban renewal, positively benefiting the arts community.”

Rourke added that the new School of Creative Arts facilities in the Armouries and on Freedom Way are a visible testament to the importance of the arts to the University and region.

“It is significant and fitting that the Board of Governors of the University has announced that the Freedom Way building will be renamed the Alan Wildeman Centre for Creative Arts,” she said.

Other winners with UWindsor connections include choir director Bruce Kotowich, recipient of a Mayor’s Arts Award, and alumnae:

• Sierra Parr (BA 2015), a writer and director who received an emerging artist grant in community arts;
• poet, author, and book designer Kate Hargreaves (BA 2010, MA 2012), who received an emerging artist grant in literary arts;
• filmmaker and cinematographer Lana Oppen (B.Sc 2012, BA 2014), a current MFA candidate in film studies who received the Lois Smedick Emerging Artist Grant in Visual Arts;
• music performer and teacher Erin Armstrong Dickau (BMus 2007), who received the Elizabeth Havelock Grant and whose children’s choir Music Moves Kids received an arts infrastructure grant.

A list and brief biographical sketches of all award recipients is available on the endowment’s website.

There are many misconceptions about cancer research, says biology professor Lisa Porter: clearing them up is the responsibility of the researchers themselves. That’s why she is proud to lead a team from her lab in a walk this weekend to support the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada.

The annual fundraiser will set off from the Riverside Sportsmen Club at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 9.

“The Brain Tumour Walks remind us that it is important for us to remain connected to the purpose of what we do every day,” Dr. Porter says. “I can’t even describe the inspiration that I get from the people I meet through these events — it is often these few hours with the public that gives me the fuel I need to write the next grant proposal or to dig into months-long experiments that will take our research to the next level.”

The Windsor Cancer Research Group will staff a booth during Saturday’s event to show participants how local clinicians, academics, and students are collaborating to explore treatments and better outcomes for people with brain tumours.

“When people in our community hear about research, they think it is something that happens somewhere else,” says the group’s co-ordinator, Karen Metcalfe. “But when they have researchers present, they can see it is happening in their own community.”

Learn more, register to join, or make a donation on the foundation’s website.

A career fair dedicated to engineering provided hundreds of University of Windsor students an opportunity to engage with local employers as they prepare to transition into the workforce, June 1 in the Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation.

In collaboration with the Faculty of Engineering, the Department of Co-operative Education and Workplace Partnerships hosted its first career fair for new grads and soon-to-be grads seeking employment in the engineering industry. More than 430 students equipped with resumés met with 19 employers.

“Connecting employers to our career-ready students is very important to us, so we are thrilled with the outcome of our Engineering Career Fair,” says event organizer Sarah Overton, a campus engagement co-ordinator in the university’s department of Co-operative Education and Workplace Partnerships. “We look forward to building on the success of this event in the future.”

The free event included a LinkedIn photo booth and more than 40 representatives from industry. View photos from the event on the UWindsor Engineering Facebook page.

Kristie Pearce

The UWindsor Welcome Week committee invites individuals and organizations to submit proposals for events for the annual fall orientation program.

The committee will look after all programming prior to the start of classes. Those interested in offering an orientation program after classes begin September 6 must submit an event proposal no later than Friday, June 29.

Faculty members organizing Academic Program Orientations for Wednesday, September 5, must also complete the online form.

The committee will notify applicants by mid-July of the results of its deliberations; those approved will be included in promotional materials to be distributed in August and September.

Find the online proposal form here.

For further information or to discuss holding an event outside these two days, contact Amber Norman at anorman@uwindsor.ca or 519-253-3000, ext. 3462.

A series of public lectures in two Atlantic provinces will share UWindsor expertise in a danger lurking off Canada’s coast.

Rip currents are powerful, narrow channels of fast-moving water that can swiftly transport swimmers a significant distance off-shore. Dean of science Chris Houser, a geomorphologist of coastal and aeolian environments, will explain how to spot a rip current and what to do if you find yourself in one in his presentation “Rip currents: A Hazard in the Maritimes.”

Dr. Houser’s research includes working with officials in Costa Rica to prevent drowning deaths and improve beach safety by developing a better understanding of potentially hazardous rip currents.

He will make four public presentations over the next three days in the New Brunswick cities of Moncton, St. John, and Fredericton, and Charlottetown, PEI.

A point-of-use healthcare supply chain solution to deliver dividends and benefits to Alberta Health Services won the inaugural Supply Chain Advancement Network in Health (SCAN Health) design competition, the network announced Tuesday.

This first of its kind competition attracted innovative solutions from Canada and around the world to advance tracking and traceability of products and care processes linked to patient outcomes. The winner, TECSYS, is a Canadian market leader of supply chain management solutions for healthcare.

The announcement was made by Verna Yiu, president of Alberta Health Services, at the second annual SCAN Health Global Networking Event in Calgary, Alberta.

“Participating as the case subject of this design competition has given AHS access to a wealth of innovative ideas that have the potential to improve patient safety and quality of care,” Dr. Yiu said. “AHS is looking at all areas of the health system to improve efficiencies and deliver the best healthcare possible to Albertans. That includes areas we don’t often think about, such as supply chain infrastructure.”

TECSYS president Peter Brereton said the company was pleased with its selection.

“Our team’s efforts to advance the dialogue and pursue innovation around the healthcare supply chain is deeply rooted in our commitment to equip health systems with the ecosystem they need to provide patient care sustainably and safely,” he said.

SCAN Health is an international knowledge translation platform hosted by the University of Windsor’s Odette School of Business. With more than 100 partners from industry, healthcare, government, and academia — in Australia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada — SCAN Health will advance global capacity to adopt and scale best practices in healthcare supply chain to offer traceability of products and care processes from bench to bedside to patient outcomes.

Ten orphaned children in India will be able to pursue education thanks to the generosity of donors at the University of Windsor who patronized a party celebrating mangoes, Tuesday outside Essex Hall.

The annual Mango Party hosted by biochemistry professor Siyaram Pandey raised $625 in donations to sample several varieties of the tropical fruit.

Dr. Pandey matched those funds for a total of $1,250 going to the Canadian World Education Foundation, which sponsors educational opportunities for orphaned schoolchildren in India, Kenya, and Tanzania.

“This amount will be sufficient to support the education of 10 children of widows in India,” he said afterward. “It was a great party this year, with lots of international students in addition to the faculty and students who came around and enjoyed mango.”

Watch a video from the event:

Employers, faculty, and students will celebrate the accomplishments of senior business majors as they share what they learned during co-op placements in the winter 2018 work term through poster presentations Thursday, June 7.

Co-op employers ranged from auditing, consultancy, and corporate tax firms to agricultural and pharmaceutical producers.

The campus community is invited to drop in to view the posters and speak with the students from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the lobby of the Odette Building.