Around the Ring

UVic researchers lead the NSERC pack—again
UVic continues to be a national leader in research in the sciences and engineering. In this year's competition for funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), UVic researchers have been awarded 63 new grants totalling $1.8 million for research projects and equipment across the full range of science and engineering disciplines. "We continue to top all other comprehensive universities in Canada in the amount and number of NSERC grants per faculty member," says Dr. Martin Taylor, vice president research. "That we can achieve this year after year in a national, peer-reviewed competition speaks volumes about the calibre of our researchers and their work." It's estimated that in the last 10 years alone, UVic researchers have attracted more than $100 million in funding from NSERC in areas as diverse as genetics, cosmology, climate change, and alternative energy systems.

UVic hosts national youth orchestra
For the month of July, Canada's next generation of orchestral musicians will call UVic home. The 94 budding musicians, who range from 14 to 26 years-old, will be participating in the National Youth Orchestra of Canada's (NYOC) intensive four-week training session where they'll receive instruction from internationally renowned faculty, including UVic's Kurt Kellan and Ann Elliot-Goldschmid. While at UVic, the NYOC will perform the world premiere of Canadian composer Rodney Sharman's "Mirrors, Echoes" on July 28 at 7:30 p.m. On July 29, the orchestra will perform Steven Chatman's "Tara's Dream" at 7:30 p.m. Both performances take place in the University Centre Farquhar Auditorium. Sharman and Chatman are NYOC's composers-in-residence while the orchestra is in Victoria. The NYOC is a federally chartered, non-profit organization devoted to the discovery and training of young Canadian musicians. For more information call 721-8480.

Change is the ticket for the University Centre
If you're planning to attend an event at the University Centre Farquhar Auditorium, no need to book your ticket through the McPherson box office—UVic now has its own. Until now, patrons could order tickets by calling the McPherson box office or by contacting the organizers of individual events. This meant significant service charges from McPherson and sometimes a lack of communication between patrons and organizers. The UVic ticket centre opens in September at full operation but is already selling tickets for July and August events. The auditorium is a venue for more than 124 events a year ranging from dance festivals to high school drama productions. Nearly 100,000 people from across the community fill its seats in that time. The UVic ticket centre is open weekdays from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Summer hours in August are 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The phone number is 721-8480.

Parking rules change near residences
Students returning to campus in September will notice a change in the parking regulations in the lots adjacent to the residences. Effective Sept. 1, residence students issued with a new gold-coloured parking pass will be restricted to the cordoned off area of lot #1 and the middle and lower portions of lot #5 between 7 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday. Holders of other general parking passes will be excluded from using these areas during the times they're reserved for residence students. Residence students are free to park elsewhere on campus after 4:30 p.m. and on weekends. The change ensures adequate close parking for the increased number of students checking into new student residence buildings in the fall. The new student residence passes are also valid in the parking lot at the Ian Stewart Complex.

Astronomers FUSE together in Victoria
Nearly 150 astronomers from around the world will gather at UVic Aug. 2–6 at a conference to celebrate the accomplishments of the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE), a satellite observatory developed jointly by NASA and the Canadian and French space agencies. The FUSE observatory is sensitive to far ultraviolet light, which is beyond the reach of the Hubble telescope. So far, it has accumulated 47 million seconds of science data on more than 2,200 objects in the sky, ranging from planets in our solar system to galaxies and quasars in the distant universe. "FUSE has been a fantastic research tool for Canadian astronomers," says Dr. John Hutchings, an adjunct professor in UVic's department of physics and astronomy and one of 40 Canadian astronomers involved in the project. Topics to be discussed at the conference include planets in our solar system, distant quasars, and everything in between. For more information, visit www.uvcs.uvic.ca/conf/FUSE/.

UVic entrepreneurship students dream big
Five UVic business students won the annual Peter Thomas Innovation Project award for dreaming big and raising more than $5,000 in 10 days for a student-focused informational DVD. In the competition, groups start with a total of $5, and have 10 days to think of a product or service, produce it, sell it, collect the money, pay for expenses and return to class to report their earnings. The winning DVD covers just about everything a new student needs to know about life at UVic—from where to eat­, to where to study. The students broke the previous record of $3,100 raised and will get their names engraved on the trophy. Peter Thomas is president of Thomas Pride Inc. and founder of Century 21 Real Estate for Canada.