New dean of Medicine & Dentistry appointed

I am delighted to announce that the Board of Governors has approved the appointment of Dr. D. Douglas Miller as Dean, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, for a five-year term of office effective July 1, 2012. Dr. Miller is an internationally recognized physician and clinician-scientist, a leader in academic medicine, and experienced chief academic/executive officer with a proven record of success.

Dr. Miller is currently University System of Georgia Regents’ Professor of Medicine, Georgia Health Sciences University, and served as the 2010-2011 Robert G. Petersdorf Scholar, Association of American Medical Colleges. From 2006 to 2010 and 2008 to 2010, respectively, Dr. Miller served as Dean of the School of Medicine and Senior Vice-President for Health Affairs of the Medical College of Georgia (MCG).

As Dean and Senior Vice-President for Health Affairs, Dr. Miller instituted many innovative initiatives with measured outcomes that are truly impressive. He has a strong reputation of integrity and a genuine desire to seek consultation. He listens with thoughtfulness and leads with the best interests of the organization at heart. He has a passion for the continual improvement in health care systems and the intellectual and strategic abilities to be effective in this pursuit.

A native of Brockville, Ont., who spent his formative years in Montreal, Dr. Miller attended Concordia University, Loyola College in Montreal, where he received the Diplôme D’études Collegiale, and McGill University, where he earned his M.D., C.M. (Doctor of Medicine). He later went on to receive an Executive Master of International Business from Saint Louis University Cook School of Business and Administration.

The full memo about Dr. Miller's appointment, including dates and times for Faculty Forums in April, is online.

To learn more about Dr. Miller, go to the online story.

I hope you will join me in welcoming Dr. Miller to the U of A community,

Sincerely,
Carl Amrhein
Provost and Vice-President (Academic)

Response to the 2012 federal budget

What's the first impression of the 2012 federal budget announced this afternoon and what does it mean for Canadian universities? Here are a few highlights at first glance that relate to research universities such as ours.

President Samarasekera's comments on the budget are on her site, including a statement from the presidents of the U15 (Canadian research universities).


For more information on the 2012 federal budget, please visit www.budget.gc.ca.

University 101: Board of Governors

The university can be a complicated entity with many moving parts. If there are aspects to the University of Alberta that you don’t understand, chances are you’re not alone. To assist the campus community in better understanding who does what and how things get done at the university, Folio, the staff/faculty newspaper, introduced a feature in the fall of 2010 called University 101. Since so many members of the U of A community come and go over time, especially students, staff and post-docs, we will post the links to these features periodically here for those who may not have seen them the first time around.

Given the recent appointment of Doug Goss as chair of the Board of Governors, it seems appropriate to start with the role of the board at the university. This piece originally appeared Oct. 8, 2010, so individuals have changed, but the description of the role and responsibilities of the board remains accurate.

AASUA pension & benefits town hall March 26

All AASUA members are invited to a town hall Monday, March 26 from noon-1 p.m. to hear more about and have your questions answered about the Academic Benefits Survey and proposed changes to the UAPP. The town hall takes place in Edmonton Clinic Health Academy 2-150. Chris Cheeseman, AVP and Vice-Provost of Human Resource Services, and Tom Scott, Vice-Dean School of Business and chair of the Academic Benefits Committee, will be on hand to answer your questions.

Text, video of State of the U Address online

President Samarasekera delivered her annual State of the University address this afternoon to a full house in the Edmonton Clinic Health Academy. The text of the speech and the video are posted now.

Gairdner Award for VP Research Lorne Babiuk

Our own Vice-President (Research), Lorne Babiuk, has been named the recipient of the 2012 Canada Gairdner Wightman Award for his work in infectious diseases and vaccine development. The Gairdner Foundation announced this year's recipients at a breakfast in Toronto this morning.

The Gairdner Awards are among the world's most prestigious international research awards for medical science and have often been a precursor to the Nobel Prize. Since the awards began in 1959, 78 recipients have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize.

According to the foundation, Dr. Babiuk is being honored "for his extraordinary national and international leadership in vaccine development and research in human and veterinary infectious disease control.” More information on Dr. Babiuk and the award are here.

Our most sincere congratulations to you, Dr. Babiuk. We are proud to have you among our colleagues.

GFC committee applications due March 26

The General Faculties Council Nominating Committee seeks applications from academic and support staff members who are interested in being actively involved in a high level of institutional governance.

The committee is filling vacancies for terms beginning July 1, 2012, which are normally 3- year terms, on the following GFC committees:

· Academic Planning Committee
· Campus Law Review Committee
· Committee On The Learning Environment
· Facilities Development Committee
· Undergraduate Awards And Scholarship Committee
· University Teaching Awards Committee
· Academic Appeals Committee / University Appeal Board

Application forms should be completed and returned to University Governance by Monday, March 26.
Full details on GFC committees, memberships and applications are available online. Application forms can also be picked up at University Governance, Room 3-20, University Hall.

If you have any questions, please contact me at your convenience.

Ann Hodgson
Associate Secretary, Governance Services
780.492.1938 or ann.hodgson [at] ualberta.ca

Festival of Teaching wrap up

The Festival of Teaching drew to a close yesterday afternoon, and I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who participated and the very many instructors, students, and staff who attended events. The teaching fair and FoT Spots were both informative and highly entertaining, the student video contest was great fun, the live streamed panel at Augustana Campus was inspiring, the World Café was lively, and the keynote sparked lengthy discussion and debate.

A big thank you to:
* the faculty, students, and staff who served on the steering committee and planned, promoted and ran the events
* the students who produced videos for the contest
* the instructors who opened their classes for peer observation, and those who shared their teaching innovations and insights on engaging and empowering learners.

Below are just a few of the pieces that profile teachers and teaching within our community if you didn't catch them online or in Folio.

Thank you for your support and joining in the celebration of excellent and innovative teaching at the U of A,

Colleen Skidmore
Vice-Provost (Academic)

********
Music professor and acclaimed violinist Guillaume Tardif links musical culture and business in his new course, Culture and Creativity: Music and Business Perspectives. The course for both undergrad and grad students from business and arts is funded by the Kule Institute for Advanced Study.

Electrical and computer engineering professor (and Canada Research Chair) Abdul Elezzabi, recent recipient of a Killam Annual Professorship, is quick to give credit to his grad students for his success. He also works to provide research opportunities for his undergrads. He studies ultrafast optics and nanophotonics. Dr. Elezzabi also is the recipient of several teaching awards, including the Rutherford Teaching Award.

Dominic Sauvageau from chemical and materials engineering, Julia Foght from biological sciences, and PhD student Abigail Adebusuyi created an interactive virtual bioreactor to help teach students about microbial biotechnology and its applications in industry.

Jonathan White's Surgery 101 Podcast is an international hit with more than 350,000 downloads. The weekly podcast provides basic information on surgical techniques and procedure. Dr. White is the first Tom Williams Endowed Chair in Surgical Education with appointments in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry and Faculty of Education. He is also a McCalla Professor and 2010 recipient of the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Education.

Award-winning teacher, 2012 3M National Teaching Fellow and infectious disease researcher Sarah Forgie organized World Café as part of this year's Festival of Teaching to "generate ideas that will help create effective learning environments that promote self-discovery, develop scholarship and enhance exemplary teaching at the U of A." Forgie is known for employing creative approaches in her own courses in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, including the development of podcasts with the support of a TLEF grant.

Virtu-O-Chem: Enhancement of Student Learning and Safety in Organic Chemistry with a Virtual Organic Chemistry Laboratory. Dennis Hall and Hayley Wan in chemistry used TLEF funds to develop a virtual lab.

The FUTURA (FUndamenTal Undergraduate (big science) Research in Alberta) Project. James Pinfold in physics used a TLEF grant to develop this department-wide project. He, Askel Hallin, Roger Moore and Ian Mann presented it at the FoT Teaching Fair.

Developing a reading intervention program: From theory to practice. This project is based on the research of George Georgiou in educational psychology about the critical role of reading aloud with kids is to their future literacy. He, Mariam Abougoush, Jessica Hamilton, Victoria Bagnall, Danielle Thaberge and Amy Graham-Violenus presented at the FoT Teaching Fair.

The URI is In: Engaging students through Undergraduate Research. The Undergraduate Research Initiative, led by director Connie Varnhagen and experiential learning co-ordinator Alexis Lockwood, is matching research projects with undergrads in search of hands-on experience.

President's State of the U Address March 22

Please join President Indira Samarasekera for the

2012 PRESIDENT’S STATE OF THE UNIVERSITY ADDRESS 
Thursday, March 22, 2012
12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Location: L1-490 Edmonton Clinic Health Academy (ECHA)

All members of the university community are welcome.

Please register online. If you have questions, please contact Sheila at 780.492.1525 or sheila.stosky[at]ualberta.ca

For those not able to attend, the presentation will be posted online by noon on Friday, March 23.

Canada Research Chairs announced

The federal government announced a new round of Canada Research Chairs this morning. The University of Alberta has one new CRC, one advancement from Tier 2 to Tier 1 and five renewals. These chairs are worth $7.1 million in federal funding.

Gavin Renwick in the Faculty of Arts has been named the Canada Research Chair in Design Studies. Carole Estabrooks in Nursing advances to Tier 1. The renewals are: Uwe Hacke and Randy Weselake, Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences; Steven Kuznicki, Engineering; and Simonetta Sipione and Jim Smiley, Medicine & Dentistry.

The University of Alberta congratulates our new and continuing faculty members who have received these prestigious appointments.

Congrats to our Pandas and Golden Bears

Congratulations to our Golden Bears curling team for winning the World Junior Curling Championship over the weekend. The team, led by engineering student and skip Brendan Bottcher, won 10-4 over Sweden in the gold-medal game. The team, which represented Canada, includes Evan Asmussen, Landon Bucholz and Bryce Bucholz. Last month they took the national junior curling title. Great job gentlemen! Later this week Bottcher will lead the Golden Bears senior team of Mick Lizmore, Brad Thiessen and Karrick Martin in the CIS/CCA championship tournament (March 14-18) at Brock U in St. Catherines, Ont. Good luck gentlemen!

And congratulations to all the Golden Bears and Pandas athletes who competed in their national championships over the last few weekends.
* Pandas hockey 5th place
* Golden Bears basketball silver
* Pandas track & field 7th place, Lindsey Bergevin bronze in high jump & pole vault, Kathryn McCaffrey silver in 60M hurdles
* Golden Bears track & field 13th, Stephen McPhee gold in long jump
* Pandas volleyball silver
* Golden Bears volleyball 5th place
* Pandas wrestling silver
* Golden Bears wrestling 4th place

U of A student athletes have a long history of combining athletic and academic excellence. Since Canadian Intervarsity Sport began tracking Academic All-Canadians in 1990-91, our student athletes' combination of Academic All-Canadians and national championships is unequaled anywhere in Canada. Great job!

Chemistry team takes Brockhouse Prize-top interdisciplinary research award

U of A is very proud of the Alberta Carbohydrate Science Group, which was awarded the 2012 Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering. The Brockhouse Canada Prize is recognizes outstanding Canadian teams of researchers from different disciplines who have combined their expertise to produce achievements of outstanding international significance in the natural sciences and engineering.

This year's award winning team consists of David Bundle, John Klassen, and Todd Lowary, all members of our Department of Chemistry, and their colleagues Glen Armstrong and Kenneth Ng from the University of Calgary. They are making advances in carbohydrate chemistry and using those advances in many ways, including towards the development of a more effective vaccine for tuberculosis and more effective therapeutics for E. coli infections.

Created in 2004, the Brockhouse is awarded to one interdisciplinary group across Canada each year, and this is the first time that U of A researchers been recognized with this prize. Professors Bundle, Klassen, and Lowary received their award from the Governor General of Canada at a ceremony in Ottawa on Feb. 27. The team is also part of the Alberta Glycomics Centre, funded by Alberta Innovates.

Congratulations Dave, John, and Todd!

Lorne Babiuk, PhD
Vice-President (Research)

Google's privacy update and the UAlberta domain

Google’s privacy policies for all of its services and apps are being updated and consolidated as per the notifications provided by Google to all of its end users, including users of the UAlberta domain. The university has received confirmation from Google that the new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy have no impact on our Education edition apps agreement and use. The privacy and confidentiality of university information is governed by the agreement entered into between the University of Alberta and Google. The protections agreed to will continue to govern how Google uses university and your personal information when you are logged into your UAlberta account.

Jonathan Schaeffer
AVP and Vice-Provost, Information Technology