Stepping up to the plate
Geography professor Barry Smit is critical of Canada’s efforts to fight climate change, as well as the efforts of almost every other industrialized country in the world. It’s an issue that needs global leadership, and he doesn’t see the world’s chief polluters stepping forward to set an example for developing nations like China, India and Brazil.
 Barry Smit Smit holds a Canada Research Chair in Global Environmental Change and is director of the Canadian Climate Impacts and Adaptation Research Network and a member of the scientific advisory committee on the United Nations Environment Program.
Smit’s recent research has focused on the ability of vulnerable communities – including the Inuit in Canada’s Arctic – to adapt to the inevitable impact of global environmental change. He’s also addressed the sustainability of agriculture and agroecosystem health, and the implications of changing conditions for resources and livelihoods.
Classwork turns a profit for charity
A group of Guelph students in the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management completed a class project and gave a big boost to Variety - The Children’s Charity, in one fell swoop. Their Student Life 2007 calendar raised more than $5,000 for the charity.
Student Life Calendar The calendar was the brainchild of 14 students enrolled in the organizational behaviour class taught by Prof. Jamie Gruman, who asked them to come up with an idea for a money-raising event or product. Group member Hernan Ortegon-Rico says the models, photographer and designer were volunteers, and they secured a corporate sponsor to increase profits for the charity.
Writer-in-exile comes to Guelph
 Goran Simic Award-winning Bosnian writer Goran Simic was at the University of Guelph for the 2006/2007 academic year as part of the PEN Canada writers-in-exile program. Simic delivered a public lecture, but spent most of his time working with students and local writers.
One of the most prominent writers in the former Yugoslavia, he was trapped in the siege of Sarajevo, which destroyed his home and killed his brother and many friends. In 1996, he and his family were able to settle in Canada thanks to a Freedom to Write Award from PEN. Before the war, Simic was the editor of several literary magazines in Bosnia and founder of PEN Bosnia-Herzegovina. “PEN has helped a lot of artists establish themselves in Canada in new circumstances,” he said.
Improving lives and livelihoods
 Cate Dewey Sometimes the best way to get things rolling is to push the ball yourself. That’s why veterinary professor Cate Dewey has made four trips to Africa in the last year, despite taking on new duties as chair of the Department Population Medicine.
She’s continuing a research project launched last year to investigate the links between pigs, the Taenia solium (TS) tapeworm and epilepsy in the Busia district of western Kenya. Poor husbandry practices, combined with nearly non-existent sanitation and rudimentary meat inspection have created a situation where the parasite is being passed from pigs to people, and people to pigs, and people to people. It’s a vicious cycle that is destroying lives and livelihoods.
While working with rural farmers, Dewey was also moved to “adopt” a local primary school. More than a third of its 700 students have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS, and many more orphans don’t go to school because their adoptive families can’t afford school uniforms or even basic supplies like pencils. She has raised $20,000 to provide those supplies and start a library at the school.
Let’s get a move on
 Pat Richards Pat Richards, the University’s long-time supervisor of fitness and lifestyle programs, is concerned because of the disturbing increase in the number of Canadian kids dealing with obesity. The trend prompted her to develop an activity program called “Movin’ On,” a pilot project that was launched in three Guelph grade schools last fall.
“We know the situation is critical because we’re beginning to see Type 2 diabetes in children, which typically is a disease of a 50-year-old,” says Richards, who also founded the Gryphon Activity Camp for kids. She raised $26,500 to launch the pilot program and assembled teams of U of G students, graduates and staff to deliver 40-minutes of activity three to four days a week.
John Klironomos Underneath the soil
Prof. John Klironomos, Integrative Biology, received a 2006 E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) to continue his pioneering studies of how plants and microbes interact underneath the soil surface. Future research will look at so-called invasive plants.
Klironomos, who already holds a Canada Research Chair in Soil Biology, hopes to learn more about why invasive plants thrive in their new home — often at the expense of native species — even as they remain in relatively low abundance in their native lands.
A critical tool for scientific information
 David Anderson The new Guelph Institute for the Environment (GIE), to be headed part time by former federal environment minister David Anderson, will help connect University research with policy-makers at all three levels of government.
Anderson says he views the institute as a critical tool for sharing scientific information. Drawing on his wide-ranging political experience and his background in environmental consulting and public administration, he plans to help Guelph take on a stronger role in environmental policy-making. His job, he says, will be not so much to serve as a U of G spokesperson but “to make contact with policy-makers to ensure that the research done here receives appropriate consideration in the policy process.”
Through the institute, Guelph faculty will also launch discussions about environmental issues with the city and region, establish ties with non-governmental organizations and spark public discussion of policy issues.
The journey begins with one step
 Talya Postan Talya Postan, a 2006 graduate in women's studies and philosophy, was chosen to give the “Last Lecture” to her fellow graduating students. Her theme was “The Journey Is the Reward,” and she talked about her own experiences journeying through U of G. One of her first steps was to participate in Project Serve, a day of volunteering offered to Guelph students every September. Volunteering with a community organization helps students learn more about campus and the local community, and it encourages them to continue making a difference in the years to come. In addition, local agencies receive genuine assistance and the chance to both connect with the campus community and recruit new volunteers. Postan continued to volunteer in Guelph and spent Reading Week helping to feed the homeless in Calgary. She also became senior peer helper on campus.
We pursue research and teaching with equal vigour because collaboration often underpins innovation, and the ability to apply new ideas is crucial to increased productivity.
National network targets obesity
Guelph researchers will play a key role in a new national group intended to help fight a growing epidemic in obesity that threatens the health of millions of Canadians. The Canadian Obesity Network (CON) will bring together researchers, health professionals, industry and policy-makers, including a multidisciplinary team from U of G.
Guelph will play a “dominant role” in the network through studies of nutrition, metabolism and obesity interactions, says Prof. Terry Graham, chair of Human Biology and Nutritional Sciences. Although more than half of the Canadian population is classified as overweight, people often lose sight of the fact that obesity is associated with many other diseases, says Graham.
The human-animal connection in disease
Scott Weese Clinical studies professor Scott Weese specializes in diseases that pass between animals and humans. In 2006, he co-authored a report with Prof. David Waltner-Toews and PhD candidate Sandra Lefebvre of the Department of Population Medicine that found that 80 per cent of therapy dogs visiting patients in hospitals and nursing homes are carrying zoonotic disease pathogens.
Weese cautions that the presence of bacteria doesn’t mean people will automatically become infected, but their study has raised a public health concern. Weese says more research is needed to determine possible infection rates.
These studies are typical of work that will be fostered through a new Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses established at the Ontario Veterinary College. The centre will co-ordinate the activities of researchers from OVC, other U of G departments and government agencies.
Closing the gap
U of G has a history of running the largest annual United Way campaign at any Canadian university. The three-month campaign raised $392,000 in 2006 from employees, students and retirees to help United Way Community Services of Guelph and Wellington close the gap between donations and needs in the community.
The U of G family also makes up a large contingent of volunteers for United Way agencies and programs, and faculty members David Douglas, Rural Planning and Development, and Tim Mau, Political Science, chair the United Way planning and fund distribution committees.
Older adults need nutritional help
Heather Keller (left)
We need to encourage older adults to use support programs like Meals on Wheels to ensure they maintain health nutrition. That’s the advice of Prof. Heather Keller of the Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition following a study in which she found that meal assistance programs, family support and formal nutritional programs help prevent the elderly from becoming malnourished. The 18-month study showed that those who try to do all of their own cooking are more at risk because they may not feel like cooking or choose small, less nutritious food. The research was published in the Journal of American Dietetic Association and the Journal of Nutritional Health and Aging.
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