The talk, “My Brain in Space”, will take place, Tuesday, Dec. 13, at 4pm at 519 91��ɫ Research Tower , Keele campus. A reception hosted by the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation will follow the event.

Right: Dave Williams in his astronaut suit

, a medical doctor since 1983, joined the Canadian Space Agency in 1992 and participated in two spaceflights. He was on the space shuttle Columbia in 1998, where he spent 16 days experimenting on the effect of weightlessness on the brain. In 2007, he was a mission specialist on the space shuttle Endeavour as it made its way to the International Space Station. In total, he logged 28 days and 15 hours in space. It was during his Endeavour mission that he set the record for not only the number of spacewalks, three of them, but for time spent outside in space – 17 hours and 47 minutes.

He also participated in two NASA missions to Aquarius in the Florida Keys, the world’s only underwater research laboratory, to become Canada’s first dual astronaut and aquanaut.

Left: Dave Williams

Between space missions, Williams was director of the Space and Life Sciences Directorate at the Johnson Space Center in Texas. He was also the first deputy associate administrator for Crew Health and Safety in the Office of Space Flight at NASA headquarters.

Williams was a professor in the Department of Surgery at McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and director of the McMaster Centre for Medical Robotics at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton, from 2008 to 2011. He was chief medical officer of Patient Safety and Quality at St. Joseph’s, from 2010 to 2011.

In 1992, he served as director of emergency services at Sunnybook Hospital and as an emergency physician at Kitchener General Hospital/St. Mary’s General Hospital, from 1989 to 1990.

To read a Q&A interview by NASA with Williams, .

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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McElroy has been named NSERC/ABB/CSA Industrial Research Chair (IRC) in Atmospheric Remote Sounding. The research chair is funded by NSERC, space technology firm ABB Bomem Inc., and the Canadian Space Agency. It will be based in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Science & Engineering, where McElroy has been appointed as a professor of earth and space science.

There will be a formal announcement of the new research chair today and as part of the event, McElroy (PhD '85) will deliver a public lecture titled, "Ozone Science: From Discovery to Recovery".��The lecture will take place at 2:30pm today in 519 91��ɫ Research Tower.��

Above: 91��ɫ earth and space science Professor Tom McElroy

The industrial research chair��will support an innovative research program in advanced instrumentation development and its application to ground-based, satellite and airborne measurement of atmospheric composition. The five-year position will also assist 91��ɫ in establishing and strengthening industrial partnerships that will provide opportunities for students from 91��ɫ to experience enhanced training and exposure to research challenges with industrial applications.

"With this IRC, I have been given a wonderful opportunity to share the knowledge I have gained from participating in several space projects, numerous aircraft missions and dozens of high-altitude balloon flights," said McElroy. "This kind of research is what prepared me for my long and satisfying career and I hope that I can help 91��ɫ students enjoy the same satisfaction and success in theirs."

McElroy, who recently left Environment Canada after 36 years, headed up the Space Experiments Section in the Air Quality Directorate of the Atmospheric Environment Service. He has received an international research award from the World Meteorological Organization and was involved in the landmark Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, contributing scientific data and assessments that drove policy analyses and promoted the construction of an international framework for ozone layer protection.

His experience and knowledge extends beyond his contributions to the study of the ozone layer and the impact that chemicals like chloroflourocarbons (CFCs) have on it. He is a co-inventor of the Brewer Ozone Spectrophotometer, which is used to measure ozone in 45 countries around the world. He is also co-inventor of the UV Index, now in use in 30 countries. McElroy managed the development of the AES hand-held Sunphotometer which Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau used to make ozone measurements on his first space flight in 1984. Recently, McElroy has been collaborating with other scientists at 91��ɫ and elsewhere in designing the atmospheric measurement payload for the planned Canadian Polar Communications and Weather satellite.

"We are celebrating a research leader who is using his talent and knowledge to spearhead innovation for Canada’s aerospace industry," says Suzanne Fortier, President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. "The advancements produced by Dr. McElroy’s team will provide new tools for space science. His research will also produce important data that will give Canadians new insight into issues like ozone recovery and climate change."

Henry Buijs, chief technical officer of ABB Bomem Inc., a leading Canadian space technology firm, said ABB Bomem is pleased to support McElroy’s new research program. "We feel that this collaboration with a researcher with expertise in instrument design, as well as an intimate knowledge of the science obtained with the instrumentation, will provide a significant strategic benefit for ABB as well as advance scientific research," he said.

McElroy is being greeted with great anticipation in his new role at 91��ɫ because of his longtime commitment to advocacy in the field of atmospheric science.

"The Faculty of Science��& Engineering is excited about expanding our existing partnerships and supporting the innovative and ground-breaking research of Professor Tom McElroy," says 91��ɫ biology Professor Imogen Coe, associate dean of research��& partnerships. "This research chair builds and strengthens our industrial partnerships and the innovative research of the Industrial Research Chair awarded to Professor McElroy will address pressing issues in climate science leading to significant positive outcomes for Canada."

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, which will take place throughout downtown��Toronto, features the work of more than 500 local, national and international artists��

Theatre Professor Shawn Kerwin collaborated with Laurel McDonald to create "", an “art-app” for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. The app is one of five interactive installations featured in Technological Displacement, a production of the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab, at the Bata Shoe Museum on Bloor Street.

��

Above: Professor Shawn Kerwin has developed a new art-app for the BlackBerry PlayBook. It will debut at Nuit Blanche.

"Alone Together" uses poetic wordplay and expressive videos to remind us that we can always reframe our relationships. Kerwin developed the piece during her five-month residency at the CFC Media Lab earlier this year.

Technological Displacement is one of the 38 projects in Zone A, whose overarching theme, Restaging the Encounter, attempts to capture the fleeting moment when the political become poetic.

Another project in Zone A is by 91��ɫ visual arts��alumna and multimedia artist (BA ‘73), located in Barbara Ann Scott Park at the heart of College Park. The work transforms a memorable phrase from Canada's national anthem into a giant haiku poem, made from flowers and cut wood floating in a water-filled pond.

Left: True Patriot Love by visual arts��grad Chrysanne Stathacos

The theme of Zone B is The Future of the Present. The works on view in this sector use new technologies to form a vocabulary for a non-pictorial art.

Visual arts grad (MFA ‘96) and her collaborator Lance Winn are contributing , a multimedia work that addresses the nature of surveillance, mechanization and control. Installed at Ryerson University’s loading dock on Gerrard Street, Projektor resembles a prison tower, with a roaming spotlight video projection that exposes a barren prison yard and a prisoner who attempts to escape the light.

Collaborators since 2002, Jones and Winn share a common interest in the mechanisms of reproduction and the impact they have on representation. Their work focuses on the edges of the two-dimensional image and a desire to see beyond the limits of the frame.

Also in Zone B is , an installation at 62 Bond Street by film alumnus (BFA Spec. Hons. ‘02). ��Reibling argues that the dolly shot (where the movie camera glides along rails) is the most revered, powerful and evocative moment in the making of a film.�� To create 12 Hour Dolly, a film crew will set up a circular dolly track and shoot film continuously for 12 hours straight. Located in the centre of the track is a makeshift stage with a single stool.�� One by one, spectators are invited to sit centre-stage and participate in the making of the film, which will be streamed live onto an adjacent wall.

Right: Dylan Reibling's take on the dolly shot took 12 hours to film

Reibling is an award-winning filmmaker whose work, exploring the mechanics of narrative,��ranges from stop-motion animation and drama to interactive prototypes.

Two other 91��ɫ film alumni, (MFA ‘11) and (MA ‘09) co-created , a sound, video and interactive performance installation in the form of a "silent disco" on the P1 floor of The Atrium on Bay’s underground parking lot.��The work grew from the artists’ desire to explore the troubling policies entrenched in national and territorial border politics, and to question access and mobility within those borders. Participants are invited to listen with headphones to musical tracks��with lyrics referencing the text inside passports, and to watch related video projections.��

Bamboat��is a film and video artist whose work centres around aspects of diasporas, critiques of nationalism, and the ways in which the queer body relates to sites of mobility.�� Mitchell is a documentary filmmaker and media artist whose work explores performativity, memory, statehood, space and architecture.

Left: Border Sounds is a sound, video and interactive performance installation by two 91��ɫ film alumni

Maria Coates, a graduate student in art history and curatorial studies, is interning with the curator of Zone C, 91��ɫ art history alumnus Nicholas Brown (MA ‘08), who comes to Nuit Blanche after a two-year stint as curator of Toronto’s Red Bull 381 Projects.

Brown’s theme for Zone C is You had to go looking for it. Convening in the wake of the recent civil unrest around the G20 meeting in the city, the project invites the masses to transform and occupy Toronto's financial district. Artists will open up the area as a place of otherworldly encounter, ambivalent assembly and enthusiastic competition, inverting and misusing the symbolic language of corporate capitalism.

Coates, whose research centres on contemporary Latin American art, is working on , an installation by Mexican-born, Los Angeles-based artist Camilo Ontiveros. The project is a large-scale vigil that invites audience members to light a candle in commemoration of the lost lives of migrant workers in Ontario. It reaches out to individual passersby as well as organizations that represent the interests of labour, including United Food and Commercial Workers Canada and the Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts.

“What attracts��me to Camilo's project in the context of this international, corporate-sponsored, city-run festival is how it offers a space for pause and reflection in honour of something that we tend to overlook,” said Coates.

Coates appreciates the opportunity to intern with Brown – a relationship brokered by Art History Graduate Program Director Anna Hudson. “It’s been great to work with a recent grad whom I could relate to through discussions of contemporary art and what’s entailed in becoming a curator in Toronto. Nick has been a great mentor in guiding me through the process and leaving room for me to perform in a meaningful way,” she said.

Also in Zone C are a performance installation by visual art alumnus (MFA ‘10) and Tibi Tibi Neuspiel, and by John Notten, a visual arts and education graduate (BEd ’87, BFA ‘87).

Right: The Tie Break is a performative re-enactment of the most riveting episode in the history of tennis

Pugen, whose work has been featured in publications such as Artforum and Adbusters, is a recipient of the K.M Hunter Award for Interdisciplinary Art. His collaborative piece, The Tie Break, is a performative re-enactment of the “most riveting episode in the … history [of tennis]” (ESPN): the legendary fourth set tie-break at the 1980 Wimbledon men’s singles finals between Björn Borg and John McEnroe. The matches will take place hourly at 25 minutes after the hour at Commerce Court, North Plaza on King Street.

���dzٳٱ��’s Intensity invites the audience to explore the presentation centre for a luxury condominium development, but delivers a vast and sprawling tent city.��As in the 2002 eviction of Toronto’s waterfront tent city, viewers are forced to move out of their temporary tent homes every few minutes. Installed in the Arnell Plaza of the Bay-Adelaide Centre, this all-night drama echoes the realities of makeshift communities around the world that rise up in the wake of human tragedy.

Left: John Notten's Intensity delivers a vast and sprawling tent city. Viewers must move out of their temporary homes every few minutes in a re-enactment of the 2002 eviction of residents from Toronto's waterfront tent city.

Toronto’s sixth annual Nuit Blanche kicks off at 6:59pm on Saturday, Oct. 1 and runs to daybreak on Sunday, Oct. 2.

With 134 installations, the celebration covers the city’s entire downtown area, from Roncesvalles Avenue in the west all the way to the Distillery Historic District in the east, and from Bloor Street to the Lake Shore. Admission to all events is free.

Photos courtesy��of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche

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The new directors are Professor Colin Coates, director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies (RCCS); Professor Laurence Harris, director of the Centre for Vision Research (CVR); Professor Christina Kraenzle, director of the Canadian Centre for German��& European Studies (CCGES); Professor David Mutimer, director of the Centre for International��& Security Studies (YCISS); and Professor Lisa Philipps, director of the Centre for Public Policy & Law (YCPPL).����

“On behalf of the 91��ɫ research community, I would like to congratulate Professors Coates, Harris, Kraenzle, Mutimer and Philipps on their appointments,” said Robert Haché, 91��ɫ's vice-president research & innovation.��“Their leadership expertise will be essential to further strengthening the unique and exciting opportunities for interdisciplinary research, collaborations and partnerships at 91��ɫ’s research centres and institutes.”

Colin Coates (left), Canada Research Chair in Cultural Landscapes, is also professor in the Canadian Studies program at Glendon College and president of the Canadian Studies Network-Réseau d’études canadiennes.��His research examines political culture in New France and the history of Canadian utopias.��He also conducts research in the area of environmental history, and is an executive member��of the��Network in Canadian History & Environment – Nouvelle initiative canadienne en histoire de l’environnement, funded by��the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Coates has co-edited and authored several books including, Introduction aux études canadiennes: histoires, identités et cultures (with Professor Geoffrey Ewen, Glendon) and Visions: the Canadian History Modules Project (with Professor Marcel Martel, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies,��along with four colleagues from other universities), Majesty in Canada: Essays on the Role of Royalty among others.��Coates won the Lionel Groulx-Yves Saint-Germain Foundation’s prize for Heroines and History – Representations of Madeleine de Verchères and Laura Secord (co-authored with Cecilia Morgan of OISE).

Laurence Harris (right)��is a professor in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health, a member of the graduate programs in Kinesiology��& Health Science and in Biology, and has served as chair of the Psychology Department. He is the director the Multisensory Integration Laboratory at 91��ɫ, which investigates how information from visual, auditory, vestibular, proprioceptive and tactile senses is combined by the brain to create our perception of body and space. Applications of his research include the design of virtual environments and improving perception in situations where sensory information is impoverished, such as in the unusual environments of underwater or in space, in ageing or in clinical conditions such as partial blindness or Parkinson’s disease.��Recently, Harris��ran an��experiment on the International Space Station looking at astronauts’ perception of orientation. He is the author of��more than��100 scientific articles and has edited nine books on topics pertaining to vision including Vision in 3D Environments, Cortical Mechanisms of Vision, Seeing Spatial Form, and Levels of Perception. ��He is editor-in-chief of the journal Seeing and Perceiving: a journal of multisensory science.

Christina Kraenzle (left) is a professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures��& Linguistics (DLLL) in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.��She has served as a CCGES affiliate since 2004 and been a member of the centre’s executive committee since 2005 through her role as the coordinator of the German Studies Program within DLLL.��Kraenzle’s research explores modern German literature, film and culture, with a focus on transnational cultural production, migration, travel and globalization. Her recent publications include Mapping Channels Between Ganges and Rhein: German-Indian Cross-Cultural Relations (with Jörg Esleben and Sukanya Kulkarni, 2008) as well as articles in The German Quarterly, German Life and Letters, Transit: A Journal of Travel, Migration and Multiculturalism in the German-Speaking World, and the volume Searching for Sebald: Photography after W. G. Sebald.

David Mutimer (right), a professor in the Department of Political Science, is also the founding editor of Critical Studies on Security and the editor of The Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs.�� He has been a member of YCISS since 1987 and has previously served as its deputy director.��Mutimer was also��a visiting professor at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and Newcastle University in the United Kingdom (UK), as well as a principal research fellow in the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford in the UK.��Mutimer’s research considers issues of contemporary international security through lenses provided by critical social theory and explores the reproduction of security in and through popular culture.��His research has focused on various aspects of weapons production and control, and more recently on the politics of the global war on terror, and of the regional wars around the world which are being fought by Canada and its allies.��Mutimer is presently leading a SSHRC-funded international research project on arms export controls.��His recent published work includes journal articles in Studies in Social Justice, The Cambridge Review of International Affairs and Contemporary Security Policy among others.

Lisa Philipps (left) has been a faculty member��at Osgoode Hall Law School since 1996.��Prior to that, she held appointments in the faculties of law at the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia, and has held visiting professorships at Melbourne Law School, University College London and the University of Toronto among other institutions.��She served as associate dean research, graduate studies & institutional relations at Osgoode from 2009 to 2011.��Philipps' research focuses on tax law, budgets and feminist legal studies.��She has published widely on topics, including��fiscal transparency, income splitting, gender��budgeting, the distributional impact of tax cuts, the tax treatment of unpaid work, charitable tax incentives and more. Most recently she published two co-edited books on Tax Expenditures: State of the Art and Challenging Gender Inequality in Tax Policy Making: Comparative Perspectives.����

In all, 91��ɫ��lists 29 research centres and institutes.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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The finding marks the first time that fog has been directly observed on the neighbouring world, adding to evidence that modern Mars experiences a type of ongoing water cycle akin to Earth's.

"Because the atmosphere is so thin on Mars, there is nothing to keep in the heat overnight, so the ground cools off very quickly," said study co-author , a [n NSERC post doctoral fellow and] planetary scientist at 91��ɫ [Faculty of Science & Engineering].

"Heat from the air is lost to the ground, so the air close to the ground gets colder, and as that pocket of (cold) air gets larger," more water vapour in the atmosphere condenses into ice crystals, and the fog gets thicker, Moores said.

"The fog starts closer to the ground and rises in height over time, so the cloud gets thicker and thicker and higher and higher as the night goes on," he added.

Eventually the icy haze begins to shower the ground with a light sprinkling of snow-like particles. The shower is not quite snowfall, the scientists say, but is perhaps more akin to the "diamond dust" that falls from the skies on some cold nights in Earth's Arctic regions.

"Because we have the fog," Moores said, "that means that there is a reservoir of water [in the atmosphere] to interact with subsurface water on a daily basis."

The Martian-fog study was published in the Feb. 25 issue of Geophysical Research Letters.

Moores is also a member of the (CRESS), which has had a significant role in the lander mission.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Although technically he would need only one person to achieve his goal, Balaskas has set his sights on 500 – a round number he developed based on the total number of individuals who have flown in space since the start of manned space flights 50 years ago, plus a few more for good measure.

Right: Janusz Kozinski, dean of 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Science & Engineering, takes a ‘walk’ on a piece of the red planet

A laboratory technologist in the Faculty of Science & Engineering’s and a 91��ɫ physics grad who studies meteorites, Balaskas (BSc ’79) hit upon the idea when he became interested in a meteorite known as (photo, left © Royal Ontario Museum). This orthopyroxene-bearing nakhlite from Mars was found in the Sahara Desert and purchased by meteorite dealers in 2002. The dealers, Adam and Greg Hupe, have shared fragments of the meteorite for research while the main portion is now part of the Royal Ontario Museum’s collection.

Balaskas purchased a couple of tiny fragments from the Hupes and invited 91��ɫ students and friends of 91��ɫ, including a who’s who of distinguished Canadians, to become the first to “walk on Mars” for his world record attempt. Each person who joins Balaskas’ select group treads a careful step (barefoot or socks, their option), receives a certificate of achievement and will be listed among those who helped establish the record, which Balaskas eventually plans to submit to the publisher of the Guinness Book of World Records for official recognition.

91��ɫ President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri became the latest person to walk on Mars when Balaskas visited his office in the 91��ɫ Research Tower. Janusz Kozinski, dean of 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Science & Engineering, joined Shoukri in his Mars trek and said the record attempt was a good way of drawing attention to 91��ɫ’s space programs. Balaskas said his goal in starting the project was to raise awareness of 91��ɫ’s ever-increasing reputation as one of the leading space science universities in Canada where 91��ɫ students and members of the 91��ɫ community play a big part.

Left: From left, President Shoukri with Balaskas and Dean Kozinski

91��ɫ researchers achieved world recognition in 2008 when, as part of the Phoenix Mars Mission team led by Professor Jim Whiteway, they helped determine that, like the Earth, it even snows on Mars (see YFile, Oct. 1, 2008).�� A new team of researchers from 91��ɫ’s Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering led by Professor Jack McConnell will take part in the , a partnership between the , the (CSA) and .

Whiteway is the director of the ; McConnell is also a member, as are many faculty involved in space research at 91��ɫ.

91��ɫ grad Steve MacLean (BSc ’73, PhD ’83, Hon. DSc ’93), a former Canadian astronaut who was appointed president of the Canadian Space Agency in 2008, is a member of a smaller and exclusive group of 91��ɫ space scientists who have walked on a different world and have certificates to prove it. Balaskas said he told Canadian astronaut Julie Payette, an honorary degree recipient at this year’s 91��ɫ Spring convocation, that her colleague McLean had done something she hadn’t done – walked on the moon! McLean was presented with a certificate and a fragment of NWA 482, a meteorite that originated from the Lunar Highlands that is geologically identical to the Genesis Rock brought back from the Moon by the Apollo 15 astronauts.

Left: A fragment of NWA 998, a meteor from Mars

But his project is more than just a promotional gimmick, says Balaskas, who during the day oversees the Faculty’s undergraduate physics labs. He and Sal Boccia, an engineering technologist in the metallurgy lab at the University of Toronto, have examined samples of NWA 998 under an electron microscope and found things they feel are worth further study, which they plan to pursue.

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“Obama’s vision for the future of NASA…is putting a lot of stock in the private sector,” says Paul Delaney, a professor of physics & astronomy in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Science & Engineering. “There have been a lot of groups that have been trying to position themselves to take advantage of what they see as a commercial opportunity in the coming decade. And I think they are right.”

Delaney says Obama’s vision is clear on what the next generation of space exploration vehicle should do: study near-Earth asteroids – and their potential wealth of resources – and get ready to go to Mars.

If industry can deliver on the “low-Earth orbit” side of space exploration, he says, such as the “taxi” activity of restocking the International Space Station, NASA will be free to pursue larger goals “of getting away from Earth entirely.”

But Canada ultimately stands to profit, Delaney says, pointing to our track record in robotics and space technology, which will be needed as the groundwork is laid for future travel. “There’s a good history here as far as developing space hardware, instrumentation,” he says. “I think you’re going to see stepped-up activity from Canadian industry to contribute in a more significant way.”

91��ɫ has considerable space research capacity through the (CRESS) and the . Recently, one of , funded by and the (CSA).

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, with files courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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