Coat Check

With an eye towards President Indira Samarasekera’s place of birth, U of A industrial design graduate Brett Carlyle, ’05 BA, has given the President a unique place to hang her hat on…as well as her coat.

Combining form and function in a lotus flower inspired design, Carlyle created a coat rack that was chosen by a panel of jurors to take a place of prominence in the new president’s office.

“I found out she was from Sri Lanka where the lotus flower is a pretty important cultural icon,” says Carlyle. With that in mind he created his flower-inspired metal coat rack that not only found favour with the adjudicators but, more importantly, with Samarasekera herself.

“Invariably, guests will comment on the unique design of the furniture,” she says, “and I proudly reply that it was designed by our talented students.”

The 700 Club

Three years in the making and 700 interviews later, immigrant life on the Prairies before 1939 has come alive in a collection of oral and visual histories compiled by the U of A’s Ukrainian Folklore Centre.

The complete archive of interviews conducted in over 450 locations, titled Local Culture and Diversity on the Prairies, consists mainly of audio and video recordings documenting the everyday lives of people of Ukrainian, French, German, and English heritage who recall early life on the Prairies. The tales and images are also woven into a half-hour movie highlighting these reminiscences.

“Basically,” says Andriy Nahachewsky, ’85 MA, ’91 PhD, head of the Ukrainian Folklore Centre and principal investigator for the project, “we wanted to speak with as many people as we could and get first-hand accounts of what early life was like on the Prairies. But when we finished it even we were surprised by the breadth and scope of the material we were able to gather.”

“I think it was crucial to compile these oral histories and archive them,” says Theresa Warenycia, ’93 BA, president of the Friends of the Ukrainian Folklore Centre. “If we didn’t have these records of the stories of these people, then those stories would be lost forever.”

One such story is that of Harry Husiak who recalls the first Ukrainian teacher from Winnipeg, “a man named Lysetsky,” arriving in the area “and doing a very nice deed for the district children. He took a look around and got to know the district and saw teenagers at home that didn’t attend school.

So he called a meeting and told their parents, ‘I have an idea for you. Three times a week, three hours a night, I’ll hold an open school and you make sure not just your teenagers but you yourselves come to learn one-two-three, A-B-C.’”

Another story is Margaret Brown’s anecdote about her aunt arriving to visit her brother “and she was so tired after the long trip and the train and buckboard that she said to her brother, ‘Stanley, where’s the bath?’ And so he took her outside and hanging on the edge of the shack was an old tin tub and that was her introduction to the West.”

Researchers from Campus Saint-Jean and the University of Winnipeg also participated in the project that was partly funded by a $300,000 grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism. The full collection of interviews is housed at the Bohdan Medwidsky Ukrainian Folklore Archives in the U of A’s Ukrainian Folklore Centre.

—Kim Green

Finger Tips

Though they started their study as something of a lark, researchers in the U of A’s department of biology discovered a possible connection between finger length and aggression that generated overwhelming international interest through 2005.

“We thought, ‘We’ll give it a go, ha, ha!’” says Peter Hurd, U of A professor of biology, about the research he and graduate student Allie Bailey, ’05 MSc, did. That work found a correlation between digit ratio (the length of a person’s index finger in relation to the ring finger) and tendency toward physical aggression.

Their findings were published in Behavior Psychology last March, and a summation of the study made the list of the top 10 searched items on the science news website EurekAlert! Newspapers, magazines, and radio programs around the world ran versions of the story, and even Jay Leno talked about it during one of his Tonight Show monologues.

Bailey and Hurd’s study used a questionnaire to assess aggressive tendencies in a number of men and women and found that men whose index finger is shorter than their ring finger have a slightly higher tendency to physical aggression. No correlation was found in women (although a study conducted at Ohio State University found a similar relationship in women but not in men).

Though the idea sounds quirky —“Wow! palmistry!” says Hurd — finger length is an easy thing to check, which might explain the water cooler buzz generated by the study.

But both Hurd and Bailey caution against looking to anyone’s hands for a quick read of personality. As Hurd says, “we’re explaining five percent of the variation in aggressiveness. The idea of classifying someone by their digit ratio is loony tunes.”

However, that didn’t stop the media frenzy that began after the Edmonton Journal ran a front-page story and photo of Bailey. In addition to being interviewed for stories in the New York Times and other newspapers — including a Chilean newspaper that printed the article in Spanish — Bailey says, “I gave a couple of radio interviews, one as far away as a morning show in Sydney, Australia.”

Hurd’s lab is continuing the digit ratio study with a study of the connection between digit ratio and physical aggression in hockey players. And Bailey, who received her master’s in 2005, has resumed studies at the U of A in stage management. As for her whirlwind media experience, she says, “It was a bit hectic and overwhelming but overall it was very positive. It was definitely a highlight to my master’s degree.”

—Shelagh Kubish, ’85 BA

Sewell Ceremony

Along with the smell of burning sage and sweet grass there was a spirit of celebration in the air as Jerry Wood, a First Nations elder, slowly walked through the U of A’s Aboriginal Student Services Centre (ASSC) blessing each room in a smudge ceremony. The occasion marked the 31 January official opening of the Sewell Reference Room in the Centre and the renaming of what has been known since 1975 as the Office of Native Student Services.

Though the name is a little different — staff just decided that a change would be good — the Centre’s goal of offering guidance and support to Aboriginal students is the same. The ASSC administers a variety of programs, including a student advisor program, the Transition Year Program (TYP), an urban student recruitment and retention program, as well as tutoring and role-modelling initiatives. The renaming of the Centre and the tie-in with the opening of the Sewell Reference Room gave staff a chance to showcase their programs and celebrate their students’ successes with an open house followed by an eagle feather ceremony honouring past graduates, performances, and a reception at the Myer Horowitz Theatre.

“The event was to reconnect with the community as well,” says Irene Spelliscy, acting coordinator of the TYP. “When people can come together and celebrate with food, music, dance, and be honoured for their accomplishments, the good feeling lingers.”

The Sewell Reference Room in the ASSC was named in honour of Catherine Sewell, ’96 BA(NativeSt), ’01 MEd, who was dedicated to Aboriginal education. Sewell worked for Native Student Services and taught at the U of A’s School of Native Studies. She also studied music at Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton and formed the Aboriginal a cappella trio Asani, which continues to perform around the world to great acclaim.

Catherine Sewell died in 2001, and her family donated her reference materials to the ASSC so that students and others can access the books and videos. Sewell’s sister Anna Marie Sewell, ’91 BA, spoke to the crowd and encouraged people to use the Sewell Reference Room and to come there with joy and an open heart, ready to learn. Catherine’s brother Don Sewell then cut the ribbon to officially open the room — with his jackknife instead of the office scissors that were offered to him.

The Aboriginal Student Services Centre is in 2-400 Students’ Union Building.

Lego Legerdemain

L aszlo Szojka’s specialty in Lego construction, as listed on the Northern Alberta Lego Users Group (NALUG), is “Bridges and Large Scale Projects.” He’s not kidding.

Although no bridges were in evidence with his latest creation, he’s certainly lived up to his billing as a large scale modeller … large as in it taking six full-grown men to move the finished product; large as in it personally costing him over $4,000 to purchase the blocks needed to build the model (not to mention the labour involved); large as in largesse in that he did it all out of love for the art of Lego construction and a fondness for a place he was in residence at from 1988 to ’92 — St. Joseph’s College at the U of A.

Visitors walking into the main foyer in St. Joe’s were greeted by the sight of Szojka’s labour of love — a completely to scale model of the College made out of over 40,000 Lego blocks and taking almost eight months to complete. “I made it at home on the dining room table,” laughs Szojka. “Wives love that stuff.”

Although the sign attached to his almost two metre long creation said it was six months in the making, he personally modifies that time frame by pointing out that there was a lot of preparation involved before construction could even begin. “I had to get the blueprints for the building from the St. Joseph’s archives,” he says. “The entire model is built completely to scale with each Lego brick actually representing one foot.”

That’s not the only bit of paying attention to the details that Szojka engaged in. “The pieces in the model come from all over the world,” he says, “because you can’t just walk into a store and buy them here.”

Of course, it’s not the first large-scale project Szojka has built. One of his other creations is an over-five-metre-long foot suspension bridge modelled after a similar structure in Saskatoon that took him six months alone just to gather the 20,000 pieces needed to create the water effect under the bridge. The complete model comprises a total of 70,000 Lego pieces including 44 large base plates and the 25,000 pieces needed to construct the bridge that’s supported by black string threaded from twin towers that are over two metres high.

It’s not exactly the kind of money- and time-consuming hobby the financial consultant who left the University before graduation to begin a business career would recommend his clients pursue. But for Szojka, who says he’s “been playing with Lego since he was five,” part of the fun is seeing people’s reactions to his — and the other members of NALUG — creations as they ask the inevitable question: “Is this all really Lego?”

As for what’s eventually going to happen to his full-scale replica of St. Joseph’s College, or his other creations, for that matter, he says, “I basically just put it together. What happens to it afterwards is beyond my control.”

Well, not exactly, in this case. Although still intact, the model is now back in Szojka’s hands. However, you can see more pictures of it at www.ualberta.ca/~stjoseph/. Or to see more of Szojka’s and NALUG’s other creations visit www.nalug.org

Millions See Spot Run

After years of hard work honing his skills, Vern Thiessen, ’92 MFA, finally got a spot at the Olympics — a TV spot, that is. Thiessen, a well-known Edmonton-based playwright and Governor General’s Award winner, is the actor in a 30-second commercial promoting the U of A that aired on CBC and CBC Newsworld during the Turin Olympics.

Thiessen’s modesty almost kept him from auditioning for the commercial. He hadn’t acted for decades and says, “I sat with the producer and director and told them I was the completely wrong person...that they should get someone famous or a good-looking jock or a babe.”

It’s just that kind of stereotypically Canadian, self-effacing attitude that the commercial pokes fun at. In the commercial, shots of successful U of A athletes, students and researchers strutting their stuff follow Thiessen’s tongue-in-cheek descriptions of Canadians as modest, quiet, and not too serious.

“The ad was very well written,” says Thiessen of the commercial produced by the University’s Public Affairs Office and created by Edmonton’s The Idea Factory, “and I had a lot of fun doing it.”

The interest Thiessen shows in his alma mater during the commercial is no act. “I care about the University,” he says, “and I was very pleased to be able to help in this way. The U of A has been very, very good to me and was a big part of my success. I’m happy to see that they’re promoting themselves, as they should be.”

“I was very impressed,” University President Indira Samarasekera says. “They did a fabulous job with this commercial. In just 30 seconds, they manage to showcase science, sports, the arts, teaching, research, and capture the all-round excellence of the U of A.”

The commercial aired more than 200 times during the Turin Olympics, reaching an audience of around 10 million viewers. If you missed it on TV, check the University’s website at www.ualberta.ca and follow the link to the “U of A Olympics commercial.”

—Shelagh Kubish, ’85 BA

Wild Rose Washington

Alberta will be front and centre in Washington, D.C., this summer thanks to the good folks at the Smithsonian Institute.

The Folklife Festival, an annual event held at the Smithsonian since 1967, runs late June and early July on the grounds of the National Mall. Each year a different country is featured at the Festival, and this year it’s Canada’s turn … or, rather, Alberta’s.

What with the election and all, the federal government said it was too busy to accept the Smithsonian’s invitation to feature Canada this year. That’s when Alberta stepped forward and volunteered. “I think it’s another extension of Alberta’s push to improve relations with the United States,” says Lorna Arndt, Project Manager at folkwaysAlive!, a U of A partnership with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. “And the relationship that already existed between the Smithsonian and the U of A made the proposition do-able.”

Exhibits promoting Alberta will be set up in an area the size of two football fields and will be open to the public each day during the Festival. A Folkways-inspired concert at the Terrace Theater in the Kennedy Center will be held on 29 June. A joint U of A/Smithsonian Folkways event, the concert will feature two groups from Alberta and two from the United States. A pre-concert reception for alumni from Alberta universities, the Banff Centre and the Alberta College of Art and Design will provide a chance to mingle and celebrate the province.

My Favourite Year

You’ve probably already got your calendar for this year, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t use a large (35 cm x 50 cm) important date marker to hang on your wall with lots of pretty pictures courtesy of the Faculty of Engineering.

Since 2002 engineering alumni have contributed the photos on a fixed theme — this year’s was Expanding Our Reach, Exploring Our Potential — that go into making a glossy calendar to help raise money (through optional donations) for the Engineering Student Life Enhancement Fund. The 2005 calendar brought in over $86,000 that helped financially strapped students do such things as attend international conferences and compete in vehicle building projects.

The calendar is free and features remarkable photos, such as Amin Ahmed’s, ’02 BSc(Eng), picture of Venice at night that, he says, appealed to him “because of the vast contrast between our fast, automobile-based lifestyle versus the tranquil, water-based culture of Venice.” Or Rachel Parker’s ’99 BSc (Eng), picture of water storage tanks in India built in 1499 that to her were “an awe-inspiring reminder of how India’s ancestors approached engineering and design with both function and decoration in mind.”

“The calendar theme for 2007 hasn’t been cooked up yet,” says Sherrell Steele, ’02 MA, the Faculty’s head of communications, “so if you have any suggestions, we’re open to ideas.”

Theme suggestions, calendar requests or queries about future photographic contributions, if you’re an Engineering Faculty grad they can all go Steele’s way. Reach her at (780) 492-4514 or sherrell.steele@ualberta.ca

Heavens Above!

There are lots of ways of acknowledging your alma mater—donating to a scholarship, attending Reunion weekend, cheering on the football team while wearing green and gold. But one U of A grad has taken his appreciation to new heights. Asteroid-hunter Andrew Lowe, ’82 BSc, has named a celestial discovery Uofalberta in honour of his alma mater.

“I have lots of fond memories of the U of A,” says Lowe. “As a result of my training there I have had a successful career.” That career involves a day job searching the Earth for oil and gas reserves as an exploration geophysicist for EnCana. At night he searches the sky for asteroids.

Lowe’s father sparked that interest in the night sky back in May 1967 by pointing out a partial solar eclipse over Edmonton. When the then-eight-year-old Andrew saw that wonder, he was hooked on astronomy for life. So much so that as a teenager he spent money from his first job to buy a big telescope, attached a camera to it, and began taking pictures of asteroids.

The technology has changed significantly since then. Now that celestial photographs taken in California and New Mexico have been digitized and put on the Internet, Lowe can search the sky with his computer. For a few hours each night, long after his family has gone to bed, Lowe is awake and alert, looking for asteroids. “Certainly I don’t get as much sleep as I should,” he says.

“Asteroids are so small that they look like faint stars, but because they’re relatively close to us, they appear to move quite quickly,” says Lowe. “You discover them by taking pictures of the sky throughout the night and then looking for anything moving.”

When he sees the motion that distinguishes an asteroid, Lowe tracks its movement long enough to determine a recognizable orbit. He then sends his data to the Minor Planet Center, part of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. If his discovery of a previously unknown asteroid is confirmed, he’s given the opportunity to name it. A committee of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), an association of professional astronomers, must also approve the name.

The process can take up to a few years, depending on how long it takes to follow and confirm an asteroid’s orbit. He first found the now-named Uofalberta asteroid in 2002. Over the years he’s found almost 250 asteroids and, in recognition of advances in the way he tracks asteroids, the IAU has even named an asteroid after him.

“I discovered my first asteroid in June 2000, although it wasn’t confirmed for a few years, so it wasn’t the first one I numbered and named,” he says. The first asteroid he numbered and named he found in September 2002 and named the following March. “I named it for my wife, Blythe.”

Since then Lowe has named asteroids for his children, his in-laws, and friends including Doug Hube, professor emeritus of physics at the U of A. When he sent in the information about the asteroid now called Uofalberta, it was given the provisional designation 2002 QV53.

The name “was a complete fluke,” Lowe says. “But I had a vague recollection that the QV sounded a bit familiar, so I did a bit of poking around and found out that the letters were the initials of the University motto, Quaecumque Vera [whatsoever things are true].” Inspired by this sign from above, Lowe made the decision to name the asteroid after his alma mater.

His U of A-designated asteroid is 5 km in diameter and takes about 5.7 years to go around the sun. “It’s a very typical asteroid,” says Lowe, “moving in the mid- to-outer part of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.” And although not huge, it’s still, he says, “mountain-sized on the scale of the Earth.”

—Shelagh Kubish, ’85 BA