World’s most advanced microscope is here
The University of Victoria is now home to the most powerful microscope ever built. On May 22, the 7-tonne, 4.5-metre tall Scanning Transmission Electron Holography Microscope (STEHM) arrived on campus in 22 pieces. The next day, four large pieces were lowered into a special room in the basement of the Bob Wright Centre, where the microscope is now being assembled.
“Bob the barber” back in business, thanks to CanAssist
Update – November 2012
UVic a partner in new national oceans network
Ocean and climate scientists at the University of Victoria are prominent partners in a new national oceans research network announced in late May by the federal government. The Marine Environmental Observation, Prediction and Response Network (MEOPAR) Centre of Excellence links more than 40 university, government and private sector researchers across the country to tackle issues related to human activity in the marine environment, and the impact of marine hazards on human activities in coastal regions.
Daily life in Fort Victoria ca. 1850
What was daily life like in Fort Victoria in the mid 1800s? Now you can read first-hand accounts online and find out for yourself. To mark both the 150th anniversary of the City of Victoria’s incorporation and the 50th anniversary of the University of Victoria, two exciting online additions to Victoria’s history have been launched: the Fort Victoria Journals and the Historic Cartographic Collections.
Electronic guide offers rare glimpses of deep-sea life
Bloodybelly comb jellies, sea pigs, deep sea spiders—real images and video of these and over 125 other little-known inhabitants of the Pacific Ocean—can now be viewed on an iPad. NEPTUNE Canada’s recently published Marine Life Field Guide is a “living book,” explains NEPTUNE Canada Director Dr. Kate Moran. “Not only does it show animals in their deep-sea homes, it will also be updated to add new creatures, new images and new videos as we discover them.”
NEPTUNE Canada begins installation of tsunami detection array
The installation of components of a deep-sea tsunami “antenna”—the first of its kind in the world—is one of the highlights of the current NEPTUNE Canada ocean expedition off the west coast of Vancouver Island. The star-shaped array of four ultra-sensitive bottom-pressure recorders is being positioned at the ends of new 25-km arms of powered fibre-optic cable and will, when completed, provide real-time data to Canadian scientists and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Network.
Residential school resistance narratives: Video project
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) regional event in Victoria Apr. 13-14 included the premiere of seven videos produced by seven young Indigenous researchers for the UVic Centre for Youth and Society (CFYS)’s project, “Resistance Narratives: Strategies and Significance for Indigenous Youth.” Using digital storytelling, the youth identified and celebrated strategies of resistance that enabled family and community members to survive the Indian Residential Schools of Vancouver Island.
Teaming up to revitalize Salish languages
On Apr. 25, Dr. Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins (linguistics) accepted a 2012 BC Community Achievement Award at Government House in Victoria in recognition of her highly consultative approach on the Coast and Straits Salish language revitalization project. She was not thinking of herself that day.
Cells of hope: Stephanie Willerth's stem cell research
When Stephanie Willerth was five years old she asked her parents for one of two things for Christmas—a chemistry set or a pair of tickets to a college bowl football game. “It wasn’t much of a choice since bowl tickets are pretty pricey, so they gave me the chemistry set,” says Willerth, who at 31 now has a much bigger “chemistry set”—a research lab at the University of Victoria.
Making historical sense of census data
What can data stored in a bunker under the Clearihue building in the early part of this century tell us about life 100 years ago? Dr. Eric Sager (history) has devoted his own life to exploring such questions and on Apr. 11, he received a career achievement award from the Confederation of University Faculty Associations (CUFA) of BC in recognition of this work, marking a special personal milestone in his own history.
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