Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

100th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

Celebrations are in the works for Dr. Thelma Finlayson, SFU professor emerita, an entomologist, and founding member of SFU’s Centre for Pest Management and its graduate program. Upon her retirement, Dr. Finlayson continued to counsel students for 40 years.

Finlayson has been recognized with a YWCA Woman of Distinction Award (2007) and an honorary degree from SFU (1996). She is a member of the Order of Canada and a fellow of the Entomological Society of Canada. To contribute a birthday wish, please visit <www.sfu.ca/science/alumni/thelma-finlayson.html>.

AT RISK

B.C.’s grizzly bear management strategy is risky according to a recent study by biologists, including four from SFU. Doctoral students Kyle Artelle (above) and Sean Anderson and faculty members John Reynolds and Andrew Cooper conclude that current government policy may underestimate the risk of overkilling grizzlies during trophy hunting in up to 70 percent of its records. The report is published in the online journal PLOS ONE.

Investigating Our Birds

Oliver Love (PhD’07), assistant professor in biological sciences, is now  Canadian Research Chair in Integrative Ecology. The position brings $500,000 in research funding to the university in the next five years. Most of Love’s work is focused on birds, particularly those in the Arctic, and how environmental stress from climate change affects their physiology.

International Acclaim

Ecologist Anne Salomon (above) receives the International Recognition of Professional Excellence Prize awarded by East Europe’s International Ecology Institute. Salomon’s research explores how fish and shellfish harvesting plus the expiration and recovery of predators such as sea otters are pushing coastal ecosystems to tipping points.

CULTURAL HERITAGE

Archaeologist George Nicholas (above) heads a global team looking at intellectual property issues in indigenous groups. The team has now received $50,000 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to expand its work in 15 community-based initiatives undertaken by 52 scholars from 26 partnering universities and organizations.

TRUDEAUMANIA

It’s not 1968, but historian Elise Chenier is sparking her own mini-revival. Chenier has launched the Trudeaumania Project to collect letters, photos, paintings, and other memorabilia from the Trudeau era. Electronic files can be sent to the Trudeaumania Project on Facebook or by mail to the SFU Department of History, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6.

ANOTHER BEST

Student Kurt Mehnert wins the Canadian Bureau for International Education’s photo contest. Mehnert shot a portrait of himself looking down Prague’s Book Tower. The tower is built of old Soviet-era books.

FOLLOW THE BIRDS

Humpback whales are waiting for diving seabirds to identify the position of herring stocks, according to Christie McMillan, a fisheries scientist master’s student. The humpbacks, more than 2,000 strong off B.C. waters, watch the birds and then lunge to gobble up massive amounts of stock. The research has implications for fisheries management strategies.

Building Blocks of the Universe

SFU’s Dugan O’Neil, Noel Dawe, Michael Trottier- McDonald, and Andres Tanasijczuk are part of a team of physicists making another huge discovery involving the Higgs boson. They have found evidence that the Higgs particle can decay to a pair of fermions called tau leptons, which are like heavy electrons. The study is helping us determine how the world works at the most basic level.