Junior drummers Jordan Wallis (left) and Kyle Wallis (right) flank award winner Steven McWhirter (centre).

SFU Pipe Band member Steven McWhirter wins the adult grade of the World Solo Drumming Championship in Belfast, Ireland. It's the highest level of international competition, and McWhirter is the first corps drummer of a grade one band to take the prize in 30 years.

Physics Star
Science dean Michael Plischke is made a fellow of the American Physical Society - an honour afforded to less than one half of one percent of the group's membership per year. He is recognized for his work on the statistical mechanics of complex systems.

Punjabi 101
Sue Hammell, Surrey-Green Timbers MLA, and fellow MLA Bruce Ralston from Surrey-Whalley are busy doing their homework. Both New Democrats are enrolled in beginner Punjabi classes at SFU's Surrey campus.

VIRTUAL ROAD RAGE
The psychology department's driving simulator allows researchers to study driver attention phenomena in a realistic setting. Researchers can observe stress levels, decision-making patterns, and other factors that prompt safe or aggressive driving.

Professor emeritus Robin Blaser

TRAIL BLASER
Professor emeritus Robin Blaser (left) is honoured with a special Lifetime Recognition Award by the trustees of the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry. Blaser, who is a Member of the Order of Canada, is mentor, teacher, and inspiration to generations of students. He also has two new books out (see Book Takes).

Transformative Economics
Professor emeritus Richard Lipsey changed how we see economics with his groundbreaking Introduction to Positive Economics. It introduced millions of students to the concepts of supply and demand and influenced the world's thinking on free trade, productivity, technology, inflation, and unemployment. Now he is changing our take on new technology with his book Economic Transformations: General Purpose Technologies and Long Term Economic Growth. He is also looking at population growth and global warming, and he recently won a $100,000 lifelong research achievement award. <www.sfu.ca/~rlipsey/>

COURAGEOUS!
Psychologist Doreen Kimura (left) receives the prestigious Kistler Prize from the Foundation for the Future. The prize honours courageous dedication to scientific research in the face of criticism and opposition. Kimura is a world expert on sex differences in the brain. <www.sfu.ca/~dkimura/>

REAL ESTATE BONANZA
Profits from SFU's mountain top neighbourhood are funding education research and a project that could help revolutionize medical procedures. The Community Trust Endowment Fund invests money in multidisciplinary research. Economist Jane Friesen and chemist Neil Branda are the first recipients. Friesen leads a team of 16 researchers in looking at education systems and outcomes in diverse communities. Branda leads eight researchers who are taking molecules and nanomaterials from the lab into clinical settings, initially to treat kidney stones and prostate cancer.

Digital Hollywood North
The World Centre for Digital Media is taking shape at the Great Northern Way campus. The first students will be admitted to the program in September 2007, and the campus is looking for the best people in the world to build on the Lower Mainland's already strong industrial cluster.

Eating Up Pollution

GREAT GIFTS

The SFU Seniors Program receives $1.5 million from an anonymous donor. The university will match this to establish an endowment to fund the salaries of the program’s director and program assistant in perpetuity.

The Jarislowsky Foundation gives $1 million, matched by the university, to support the Stephen Jarislowsky Chair in Religion and Cultural Change Dynamics. The chair holder will advance the understanding of different cultures and religious traditions, and of how globalization and other contemporary forces are having an impact on them.

A $1 million gift from Amin Lalji and family will help create a Centre for the Comparative Study of Muslim Societies and Cultures. A $5.5 million endowment is needed to create and sustain the centre.

The Worms Crawl In
Virtual worms that crawl through medical images of blood vessels, air passages, and spinal cords are offering medical researchers a fresh look inside their patients. Computer science’s Ghassan Hamarnh (right) and graduate student Chris McIntosh (left) developed
the “3D crawlers.”

Column Art by: Drummer photo: MArianne Meadahl/PAMR Professor emeritus Robin Blaser photo by: David Farwell, Doreen Kimura photo: Daniel J. Weeks illustrations: Rod Filbrandt. Fiona Brinkman photo by: Carol Thorbes/PAMR Ghassan Hamarnh and Chris McIntosh photo by: Barry Shell

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