Awards

SES Professor Madhur Anand has recently been elected to the executive committee as "member-at-large" of ALECC - the Association for Literature, Environment and Culture in Canada. She will serve a two year term ending December 2013 and intends to use this opportunity to foster greater exchange between the literary arts and the environmental sciences.

The Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada / Association pour la littérature, l'environnement et la culture au Canada (ALECC) is an organization for the creation, appreciation, discussion, analysis, and dissemination of knowledge about the work of nature writers, environmental writers and journalists, eco-artists of all disciplines, ecocritics, and ecotheorists in Canada. Collectively we are interested in artistic, critical and cultural studies work on activism, animals, ecology, the environment, environmental justice, geography, land, landscape, mountain literature and culture, nature and nature writing, natural history writing, plants, region, regionalism, the rural, sense of place, transborder environmental issues, wilderness and wilder places, and much more. For more information about the history and administration of ALECC please stop by our About ALECC page.

Dr. Madhur Anand recently was named a Young Scientist of the World Economic Forum and was invited to attend Summer Davos in Dalian, China. If you are curious about what this experience might be like and her reactions to this, read her article recently published in the Science Careers "In Person" series.

Congratulations to Kim Schneider and Katelyn Congreves who were both award winners at the recent meetings above which were held in conjunction with the CSSS society. Kim received an award for her poster presentation and Katelyn received an award for her oral presentation.  Way to go.

Please join me in congratulating:

Nicola Day, winner of the Director’s Award for Best Graduate Proposal Presentation, for her talk titled:  "Communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on Poa pratensis (Poaceae)."  Nicola is co-supervised by Pedro Antunes and Kari Dunfield.

Robin Hayward, winner of the Director’s Award Runner-Up for Best Graduate Proposal Presentation, for her talk titled: "Production of Recombinant Human Butyrylcholinesterase in Nicotiana bethamiana Using a Viral-Based Expression System."  Robin is supervised by Chris Hall.

Alison Forde, winner of the Director’s Award Honourable Mention for Best Graduate Proposal Presentation, for her talk titled: "Exploring the evolution of annelids through genome size analysis."  Alison is supervised by Ryan Gregory.

Jonathan Newman
Professor & Director
School of Environmental Sciences

Scott-Dupree Winegrad AwardSES Professor Cynthia Scott-Dupree  received the 2011 Dr. William Winegard Exemplary Volunteer Involvement Awards from the United Way of Guelph and Wellington and the Volunteer Centre of Guelph/Wellington.  Now in their fifth year, the awards highlight volunteerism by members of the U of G community.  Award recipients were selected from a pool of nominees by Winegard and representatives of the University, the United Way and the Volunteer Centre.  Scott-Dupree was recognized for her longtime contributions to the Special Olympics as head coach of the Fergus Phantoms Special Olympics Swim Team.  “Over the past five years, we’ve had the pleasure of honouring 15 outstanding volunteers,” said Cathy Taylor, executive director of the Volunteer Centre. “We thank not only the award recipients but also all of the volunteers from the University who make invaluable contributions to our community.”

The awards were presented before National Volunteer Week April 10 to 16. Winners received original artworks by U of G student Tori Drost.

Read Guelph Tribune article.

United Way press release.

It is with great pleasure that SES announces that retired faculty members Professors Stew Hilts and Les Evans will each receive the Universioty of Guelph Medal of Merit.  These medals recognize their outstanding contributions to teaching and service over their long and distinguished careers.  Please join me in congratulating these very worthy recipients.

Jonathan Newman
Director, SES