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Chris Spence, BA '85
 Chris Spence (BA'85) is the youngest school superintendent with the Toronto district school board. As a principal he's credited with turning the troubled Toronto inner-city Lawrence Heights Middle School into a national model and the only school to receive a 2000 Canada Award for Excellence from the National Quality Institute. His work is featured in a cover story in the June 2001 issue of Reader's Digest magazine. The former Clan and B.C. Lions football player is this year's Outstanding Alumni Award winner in the professional achievement category.
Other Outstanding Alumni Award winners are Chris Wilson (BBA'99) for athletic achievement, Gyda Chud (PDP'71) for service to the community, D'Arcy Warner (EMBA'72) for service to the university, and Scott Logie for student leadership.
Taking on Milosevic
Former SFU student Dirk Ryneveld has the task of proving that Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic masterminded the atrocities committed in Kosovo. Ryneveld is senior trial lawyer at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal at The Hague. He attended SFU in the 1960s, but left for law school before graduating. In 1978 he handled an inquest into the deaths of 43 people when a PWA jet crashed into a snowplow on the Cranbrook runway. In 1997 he prosecuted the Victoria teenagers who beat 14-year-old Reena Virk and left her to die.
Texas-size
Pitcher Jeff Zimmerman (MBA'97) earns a raise as big as the Lone Star state. His 812 percent pay hike from the Texas Rangers gives him a US$500,000 signing bonus, US$2 million this year, US$3.2 million in 2003, and US$4.3 million in 2004. Zimmerman ended last year with a team-record 17 straight save conversions.
The Publishing Biz
Graduates of SFU's summer publishing workshops are cutting a swath in the industry. Allison Fripp is founder of children's book publisher Lobster Press. Suzanne Brandeth is an editor at Doubleday, Michael Schellenberg is climbing the ranks at Penguin Books, and Lucy Kenward is an editor at Douglas & McIntyre. The summer publishing workshops are professional development programs run during July and August by top people in the industry. For information on the workshops visit their website, or contact them via email.
Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
Geographic profiler Kim Rossmo (MA'87, PhD'96) is shaking things up on both coasts. His geographic profiling gets him on the New York Times Magazine's list of 80 ideas that shook the world. The Times cites 2001 as the year that Rossmo's science of predicting where criminals live based on where they commit crimes moves from "academic novelty into a mainstream crime-fighting technique." And the Vancouver Police Department is shaken as his wrongful dismissal suit provides a behind-the-scenes look at squabbling among Vancouver's top cops. Rossmo loses.
Virtual Africa
Log on to www.catt-trax.bcit.ca for a look at sustainability issues facing Africa. BCIT instructor Danny Catt (BSc'87, MSc'91) is documenting environmental and conservation issues during a six-month trip that will take him from Cape Town, South Africa, to Cairo, Egypt, with side trips to Indonesia, Ireland, and Scotland. Through video clips, photographs, articles, and an interactive component, Catt is documenting research projects and protected ecological sites.
21C
Making a splash in the Toronto TV world is DominicPatten (BA'92). He is co-host and producer of CTV's 21C, a weekly newsmagazine for teens. He has also worked on other shows including ndercurrents, Imprint, and This Morning.
On View Now
Opening in theatres this spring is Khaled by Ashgar Massombagi (BSc'94). This is the story of a 10-year-old boy in Toronto's squalid housing projects who keeps the death of his mother a secret so he won't be sent to a foster home. Massombagi, who explores themes of exile and ethnicity, arrived in Canada from Iran in 1985 with only $100 to his name.
Eminent Entomologist
Jocelyn G. Millar (BSc'79, PhD'84) receives an award from the Entomological Society of America (ESA) for making significant contributions to agriculture. Millar, who teaches at the University of California, Riverside, has published more than 115 scientific papers, 90 technical reports, and 23 symposia proceedings. ESA is a non-profit organization with more than 6,000 members.
Rice Is Nice
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines serves its clients with a healthy dash of influence from SFU. The IRRI's distance education program, which trains rice researchers all over the world, worked with the Lohn lab to develop an online course in experimental design and data analysis.
And three SFU alumni, who didnāt know each other at the university, independently arrived to work at the IRRI. Graham McLaren (MSc'82, PhD'85) is head of the biometrics and bioinformatics unit; Michael Cohen (MSc'85) studies host plant resistance to insect pests in the entomology and plant pathology division; and Richard Bruskiewich (BA'87) provides bioinformatics support to the institute's rice functional genomics activities. Visit the IRRI website.
More Awards for Anderson
Criminologist Gail Anderson (MPMā'86, PhD'92) racks up more honours as she wins the Canadian Society of Forensic Scienceās (CSFS) highest honour, the Derome Award. Anderson is the only woman to receive the award, which recognizes outstanding contributions in the field of forensic science. She is also the recipient of this year's President's Award for Service in Media and Public Relations.
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Photograph of Chris Spence by Bernard Weil.
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