Climate and environmental change, and biomedical physics will be the hot topics at the 2008 Atlantic Undergraduate Physics and Astronomy Conference (AUPAC), which will be held at the University of Prince Edward Island from February 8 to 10.AUPAC is an annual conference that showcases the research activities of undergraduate physics and astronomy students across the region.

“AUPAC really gives students the opportunity to share and discuss their ideas and knowledge with friends and colleagues from other universities in a friendly, slightly competitive environment,” says physics professor Dr. Sheldon Opps, who is chairing the conference along with students Chris Lund and Ali Fatehi Hassanabad.

The conference, which will be attended by over 125 delegates, including more than 100 undergraduates from across Atlantic Canada, will include invited talks by high-profile researchers, presentations by the students, a poster session, an NSERC panel discussion and a graduate fair.

Dr. James Drummond, Canada Research Chair in Remote Sounding of Atmospheres in Dalhousie University’s physics and atmospheric science department, will give a plenary speech on Friday, February 8, at 7:30 p.m., about the role that Canada has to play in the International Polar Year (IPY), a scientific program focused on the Arctic and the Antarctic from March 2007 to March 2009. One component of Canada’s contribution to IPY is the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL), a laboratory in Eureka, a laboratory in Eureka, Nunavut, where scientists conduct research in the areas of climate, ozone and air quality.

Island native and UPEI physics graduate Heather Auld will speak on Saturday, February 9, at 4 p.m., about her work as a meteorologist and climatologist for Environment Canada for nearly 29 years. Currently a manager with the Adaptation and Impacts Research Group of Environment Canada, she has worked as a weather forecaster across Canada and as an engineering climatologist.

On the biomedical side, Dr. Bill Whelan, Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Optics at UPEI, will be the guest speaker at the conference banquet, which will be held on Saturday, February 9, at 6:30 p.m. An associate professor in the UPEI physics department, Dr. Whelan will speak about his research into the use of light and sound to diagnose, treat and monitor disease.

On Sunday, February 10, at 11:30 a.m., Dr. Cécile Fradin, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at McMaster University, will talk about her research on fluorescence and how it can be used to detect the motion of proteins in living cells, and how biological systems such as cells and molecules can be used to probe or modify physical systems.

The presentations by Drummond, Auld and Fradin take place in the Duffy Science Centre Amphitheatre and are free to the public.

Award-winning playwright Don Hannah will give a public reading at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, February 15, in the Main Building Faculty Lounge, University of Prince Edward Island.

Born in Shediac, N.B., Hannah is also a prolific director and novelist. The East Coast has long been a focus in his work. His first plays, The Wedding Script (winner of the Chalmers Award), Rubber Dolly and In the Lobster Capital of the World, were produced at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre. The Wooden Hill, based on the journals of L.M. Montgomery, won the AT&T OnStage Award. In 2002, Hannah was nominated for the prestigious Simonovitch Prize for Outstanding Playwright.

Of The Wise and Foolish Virgins, his first novel, The Globe and Mail writes, “Hannah's novel uses sprawling energy and a dozen colourful characters to break the pattern of ‘dour’ and ‘morose’ Maritime fiction.”

In his new novel, Ragged Islands, it is September 2001, and eighty-five-year-old Susan Ann Roberts lies dying in a Toronto hospital, when she resolves to return to the places in the Maritimes that defined her as a girl, wife, and mother. Her children are at her bedside, but her dearest grandson Tommy is stuck in New York, where something dreadful is happening. Susan begins her magical journey at the family farm where she spent childhood summers. She then travels to Ragged Islands, N.S., and the house she shared with her husband – pondering why she was given away to relatives at birth, when siblings born earlier and later were kept.

Hannah has been writer-in-residence at the Tarragon and Canadian Stage theatres, the University of New Brunswick, and for the Yukon Library System. He is a founding member of the Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre and, for the last eight years, has directed the Tarragon Theatre’s Young Playwrights Unit. He is associate program dramaturge for the Banff PlayRites Colony, and works in the playwriting department at the National Theatre School of Canada.

Hannah’s reading is sponsored by the UPEI English Department, with support from the Canada Council for the Arts.

The UPEI Department of Psychology and the Psychological Association of Prince Edward Island will mark February as Psychology Month with a series of lectures, starting on Valentine’s Day.

On Valentine’s Day, Thursday, February 14, Dr. Stacey MacKinnon will give a presentation called “Finding and Keeping Love in the New Millennium” in Lecture Theatre A of the Atlantic Veterinary College at 7 p.m.

Dr. Fiona Papps will present “‘Dying at 15?’ Living (A) Female Adolescence” on Friday, February 15, at 3 p.m., in UPEI’s Memorial Building, Room 215, at 3 p.m. A reception and discussion will follow.

On Wednesday, February 20, Dr. Christina Campbell will talk about “Sexual Behaviour in University Students” in Lecture Theatre A of the Atlantic Veterinary College at 7 p.m.

Dr. Colleen MacQuarrie will talk about “Feminist Research in Action: Exploring the Nexus of Psychology and Social Justice” on Thursday, February 21, at 7 p.m. in Lecture Theatre A of the Atlantic Veterinary College.

The series wraps up on Thursday, February 28, at 6 p.m., with a presentation called “Almost Famous: Muse or Groupie,” by Dr. Fiona Papps in the Atlantic Veterinary College, Lecture Theatre A. The film, Almost Famous, will be shown, and a discussion will follow.

All are invited to attend these free presentations.

The University of Prince Edward Island's Robertson Library is debuting its new series, Celebrating The Book, on February 15, from 2 to 4 p.m. in the library's recently renovated periodicals section on the second floor.

With this inaugural event, the library acknowledges the continuing importance and relevance of books in this increasingly high-tech world, and it also showcases the renovation of its periodicals area into a more comfortable study and work space for students.

Celebrating The Book, which is open to the general public, features three members of the UPEI faculty who have written or edited recent publications.

Philosophy professor Dr. Malcolm Murray recently published The Moral Wager: Evolution and Contract (Springer, 2007). The Moral Wager illuminates and sharpens moral theory, by analyzing the evolutionary dynamics of interpersonal relations in a variety of games.

Madness, Architecture and the Built Environment: Psychiatric Spaces in Historical Context (Routledge, 2007), edited by UPEI history professor Dr. James Moran with Leslie Topp and Jonathan Andrews, is the first volume of papers devoted to an examination of the relationship between mental health/illness, and the construction and experience of space. The first rigorous scholarly analysis of its kind in book form, it will be of particular interest to the history, psychiatry and architecture communities.

In Agents of Empire: British Female Migration to Canada and Australia, 1860-1930 (University of Toronto, 2007), history professor Dr. Lisa Chilton explores the work of the women who promoted, managed and ultimately transformed single British women's experiences of migration to Canada and Australia between the 1860s and the 1920s.

The faculty members will read brief excerpts from their publications and/or lead a discussion about them.

All are welcome. Refreshments will be served. For more information, please contact Communications and Outreach Librarian Suzanne Jones at (902) 566-0393.

In response to the recent UPEI Senate decision to introduce a new required course that will enhance undergraduate students' knowledge and understanding of important world issues, the University has created a multidisciplinary working group to guide the development and delivery of the first-year course.

Chaired by the Dean of Education, Dr. Graham Pike, the group will develop a writing-intensive curriculum and identify the most effective ways of delivering University 151: World Issues to take advantage of the considerable teaching and international expertise that the Faculty of Education and other members of the campus community have to offer.

The working group is made up of representatives from the faculties of education, arts, science, and business, the Robertson Library, the Webster Centre for Teaching and Learning, and the Student Union. The composition of the group reflects the University's commitment to consider the needs of all students and disciplines. Its members are Sandy McAuley, Joe Velaidum, Andrew Trivett, Sean Hennessey, Mark Leggott, Martha Gabriel, and Willy Gauthier.

"Our priority will be to ensure that this new course is both writing-intensive and thought-provoking; that it will present students with exciting opportunities to consider important world issues and strengthen their abilities to present their ideas about these issues in written form," says Dr. Pike.

The course is part of a larger initiative that requires all students to complete a second writing-intensive course as well. The University is also enhancing its writing support to individual students through the tutoring services of the Webster Centre for Teaching and Learning. In addition, the Webster Centre will work in co-operation with departments across campus to support the integration of writing-intensive elements in existing courses.

The University 151: World Issues working group held its first meeting on February 12. One of its priorities will be to identify a well-qualified co-ordinator for the new course and agree on the skill sets needed for instructors, who will be drawn from the UPEI Faculty Association membership. They will also consider the role that senior students can play as writing mentors.

"We are doing something innovative and valuable by introducing University 151: World Issues, something that other Canadian universities are also considering in different ways," says Dr. Pike. "And while we are looking at the role that peer mentors can play in supporting student writing, we have no intention at all of using students as teachers. This is a very important distinction to make."

The three-credit course will be introduced in September and offered during the fall semester of each year. All students will be required to successfully complete it by the time they graduate. The only exceptions will be those who have already completed English 101.  The University is continuing to offer English 101 to students who wish to take it.

Shine Ji Youn Chung, a second-year sociology student, accepts the 2008 UPEI International Student Award from Dr. Vianne Timmons, Vice-president of Academic Development , while Dr. Graham Pike, Dean of Education and Chair of the International Development Week Committee, looks on.

Shine received the award at a lunch held on February 8 to conclude UPEI's seventh annual International Development Week. The award is given to a full-time undergraduate international student in his or her second year.

Shine is a mature student who came to UPEI in the fall of 2006 from Korea. She has taught English as a Second Language in Korea and has volunteered as a Teaching English to Children teacher in Tibet. She wants to pursue a career in educating people in developing countries. Because of her desire to help others, she is a member of the UPEI Advocacy and Support Services team this semester.

Other activities during International Development Week included a student symposium on global change, guest speakers and an exhibition of booths related to international development.

The Tourism Research Centre (TRC) at the School of Business of the University of PEI and the Tourism Advisory Council (TAC) today announced the release of a report profiling the tourism market for “Anne” related activities during the summer of 2007.

The report follows closely on the heels of the full exit survey report released two weeks ago and is based on responses to two questions on the Exit Survey of visitors to PEI that is managed by the TRC. The first question concerns travel activities visitors participated in while on PEI, while the second concerns the primary feature that attracted first-time visitors to PEI. The data analyzed was collected from June 28 to September 30, 2007, from 3,173 completed surveys.

For activities, the report examines differences between visitors who visited Anne of Green Gables attractions versus those who did not. The report touches on many characteristics of the two types of visitors, such as place of residence, travel party type (i.e., couples, families with young children, etc.), regions stayed in overnight, and spending.

The second section of the report focuses on first-time visitors to PEI, specifically the differences between visitors who selected the “World of Anne of Green Gables and Lucy Maud Montgomery” as the primary feature that attracted them to the Island versus those who selected other options.

“The Exit Survey was designed so results could be cross-analyzed to provide a depth of data for further analysis. This report is the first example of what we can do with the exit survey data beyond a basic, top-line analysis. We were able to isolate a specific segment of visitors and compare and contrast them with PEI visitors as a whole,” stated Sean Hennessey, Faculty Director of the TRC. “Anne of Green Gables is the ‘face’” of PEI around the world; she is a character that is closely associated with the Island tourism industry. Studying the ‘Anne’ market was an unplanned opportunity, but we felt it important to analyze this important niche visitor. Some of the results are quite surprising and really highlight areas where we are doing well, and where we have the potential to do even better.”

This is the second report to be released from data collected by the Exit Survey. Over the next ten weeks, a series of reports profiling different segments of PEI visitors, based on activities, origin, regions visited while on the Island, and more, will be released. The full report is available on the TRC’s Website at www.trc.upei.ca/exitsurvey. Some highlights of the report include:

· A total of 53,000 visitor parties (169,000 people) visited Anne of Green Gables attractions during the study period in 2007. This was equivalent to a quarter (25.3 percent) of total pleasure visitors.

· Visitors to Anne attractions originated from all market areas. Canadian markets were the leading source of visitors (74 percent). The US ranked second (16 percent), and International markets supplied the remaining 10 per cent.

· The ratios of visitation by origin were the reverse of volumes. Fuelled by Japanese visitors (75 percent visited Anne attractions), almost one half (49 per cent) of international visitors visited Anne attractions. US visitors ranked second (39 per cent visited) and Canadian visitors ranked a distant third (approximately 21 per cent visited Anne attractions).

· Visitors to Anne attractions tended to participate in a wider variety of travel activities and at higher rates than non-visitors to Anne attractions. Exceptions were outdoor- and sport-related activities (including golf) where participation rates for Anne visitors were lower.

· Well under half of visitors to Anne attractions (43 per cent) attended plays, performances or live theatre.

· Anne attractions drew a modestly above average ratio of family travellers. Families accounted for 26.4 per cent of visitors to Anne attractions. A leading 31.2 per cent of total visitors to Anne attractions were in the age range 35-54. Only slightly less (30.8 per cent) were 55 plus. Children under 18 years of age accounted for 20 per cent of total visitors to Anne attractions.

· While Anne attractions had fairly universal appeal to Island visitors, there were some notable weaknesses. Visitation was weak for return visitors. First-time visitors visited Anne attractions at more than three times the rate of returning visitors (50.0 per cent of first-time visitors visited Anne attractions as compared to only 13.7 per cent of returning visitors).

· A total of 61,300 travel parties visited Prince Edward Island for the first time during the study period in 2007. Approximately 6,500 of these first-time visitor parties (10.7 per cent) indicated the main reason they were attracted to the Island was because of Anne of Green Gables and the World of Lucy Maud Montgomery.

· First-time visitors attracted primarily by Anne leaned toward females by a ratio of almost 60:40. An above average 14.1 per cent of first-time family visitors were attracted by Anne as compared to only 8.5 per cent of adult couple visitors.

· First-time visitors attracted mainly by Anne were on longer trips than other first-time visitors, yet they stayed considerably less time on the Island (3.5 versus 4.3 nights). As a result, Anne visitors spent only 30.4 per cent of their trip nights on the Island as compared to 43.3 per cent of nights spent by non-Anne visitors.

· They spent an average $87.88 per person per night which was almost identical to the average expenditure of other first-time visitors. Because of their shorter length of stay, their total trip expenditures averaged $1,065 as compared to $1,131 for non-Anne visitors.

· First-time visitors attracted mainly by Anne gave the Island good (on average) ratings on travel services, complaints, and travel evaluation with the exception of intent to revisit, which they rated somewhat below average.

“Anne of Green Gables has been a fixture of Prince Edward Island for 100 years. As this is the 100th anniversary of the publication of the first Anne novel, it is only appropriate that we try to learn more about the effects Anne has on our tourism industry and who she is drawing to the Island. This report documents the substantial influence Anne has on the tourism industry on PEI,” stated David MacKenzie, Chair of the TAC. “Armed with this knowledge, industry and government alike can make even better informed decisions about the Anne tourism experience, programming and product development, as well as providing a benchmark for measurement of the Anne 2008 impact.”

Further information about the report can be obtained from the Tourism Research Centre, School of Business, University of PEI, at (902) 566-6096 or trc@upei.ca.

Graham Watts, owner of a company called Nature Trails and a full time business student at UPEI, has been named the 2008 Prince Edward Island Student Entrepreneur Champion by the national charitable organization, Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE).

Since 1999 Watts has owned and operated Nature Trails, a company that manufactures walking sticks, twig pencils, bird houses, bat boxes, and bird feeders. Most recently, he purchased 148 acres of land to supply the raw materials for his wood products. To replace the trees that he uses, he replants his land with fast-growing, high-quality trees.

Watts started his business at the age of 12 to make extra pocket money. Now 20, he is the owner of a business that employs three people full time.

“This competition provides the opportunity to recognize student entrepreneurs across Canada who have taken the initiative to start their own business endeavors at a young age,” says Watts. “I am proud to represent Prince Edward Island moving forward in the competition and look forward to potentially raising the profile of my business through out the country.”

Watts will compete in the regional competition at the 2008 ACE Exposition in Halifax on March 7. Provincial champions from Atlantic Canada will present their companies to a panel of business professionals who will select the two regional champions. The winners will each receive a $1,000 cash prize and will move on to the final round of competition at the 2008 ACE National Exposition in Toronto on May 14. The national champion will receive a $10,000 cash prize and will represent Canada at the international level of competition, the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards.

Founded in the mid-1980s, ACE is a national charitable not-for-profit organization that is igniting young Canadians to create brighter futures for themselves and their communities. Working in partnership with business and higher education, ACE provides post-secondary students with the opportunity to gain entrepreneurial and leadership skills, outside of the classroom, through its team-based Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) and individual-based Student Entrepreneur programs.

For more information about the 2008 Student Entrepreneur Competition taking place regionally and nationally, please visit www.aceexpos.ca.

The UPEI Men's basketball team this past weekend wore red shoelaces in memory of the members of the Bathurst High School boys' basketball team, who died in a tragic accident earlier this year.

Members from both the men's and women's UPEI basketball teams went through the stands and collected over $525 for two scholarships set up to honor the memory of the seven boys and teacher Elizabeth Lord, who also died in the accident. This amount will double before it is donated, thanks to the generosity of UPEI.

'It is wonderful to see members of the men's and women's UPEI basketball teams raise over $525 for the Boys in Red. The University is pleased to support our basketball teams' initiative for this very worthy cause and congratulates the team players for their leadership and compassion,' says Dr. Vianne Timmons, Vice-President of Academic Development.

Fifth-year player Jared Budd was the Panther who stepped forward and made the event come together. A native of New Brunswick, he played against Bathurst High during his high school years.

'After hearing about the tragedy, I tried to put myself in their shoes, and I just felt compelled to do something to help out. When I heard about the scholarship fund, I e-mailed Coach, and that got the ball rolling. I'm very grateful to Dr. Timmons and UPEI. Many people came together to make this worthwhile cause possible. Our hearts and prayers are with the Bathurst community,' says Budd.

"I'm very proud of Jared Budd and everyone else involved in this fundraiser for their strong desire to honour the Bathurst boys' basketball team," says Panthers Head Coach Matthew Davis. "Our thoughts and prayers will continue to go out to those affected. I hope that this effort will help keep those who passed in everyone's hearts."

The money will be passed on to the Boys in Red scholarship fund, set up at CIBC locations across the country, to benefit the families of the boys. It will also be used for the Elizabeth Lord Scholarship set up for Bathurst High School students.

Nova Scotian writer Leo McKay Jr., who reads at UPEI on February 25, was teaching English with his wife Kathy in Japan, when he woke up one morning to the word “Stellarton,” his home town, on the radio. The Westray Mining Disaster had just occurred. That event, fictionalized as the Eastyard disaster at Albion Mines, along with McKay’s lineage as the descendent of miners and his childhood in Pictou County, is at the heart of his novel Twenty-Six.

McKay, and Alberta poet and UNB graduate Erin Knight will read at 7:30 p.m., February 25, in the UPEI Faculty Lounge, Main Building. A reception and book signing will follow.

McKay’s fiction debut, Like This, was an impressive collection of gritty and potent short stories, with characters and a narrative voice that grabbed readers by the heart and gut. It was a finalist for the Giller Prize. A graduate of UBC’s MFA program in Creative Writing, he teaches English and Creative Writing at a high school in Truro.

In Twenty-Six, a family is changed forever after the devastating mining accident. Alistair MacLeod writes, "Universal in its scope, this is a novel about those who live and die in the underground of a coal-mining community. It is also about the families they leave behind on the surface. ‘Subterranean’ in a variety of ways–some of them quite wondrous–the novel is about memory, loss, guilt, and the light of redemption–sometimes, but not always, before it is too late."

And David Adams Richards writes that "Leo McKay Jr. has given us a book compassionate as love, tough as nails. The novel is a magnificent human drama, profound, haunting, and elegiac."

Erin Knight’s first book of poetry, The Sweet Fuels, reflects on the notion of orientation--whether in terms of magnetic north or street signs, the entrails of an animal or the vowels in a name--as a task of translation. Originally from Edmonton, she received an MA in Creative Writing and English from the University of New Brunswick.

This event is sponsored by the UPEI English Department, with support from the Canada Council for the Arts.