February 2007 ISSUE
STUDENT COLUMN
Conference Sets Lofty Standard for U of A
BY PEGGY ELSEN
University of Alberta Student Columnist (Geosciences)
The slogan Friendly Manitoba was recently replaced with Spirited Energy. No matter — both certainly applied to the annual Western Inter-University Geoscience, hosted by the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Jan. 4-7.
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GOING FOR THE GOLD |
I must start by congratulating organizers. Everything went down smoothly and was very well organized. Talks by students and professionals were great, the tours were interesting, the industry representatives at the fair were helpful, and, of course, the social events were splendid.
I hope we will be able to do just as great a job next year, when it’s Edmonton’s turn to host the WIUGC.
This was the 43rd such conference. The main objective is for undergraduate and graduate students alike to present their research topics and interact.
The first evening started off with the famous boat races, which is a beer-chugging contest. The Percival Sydney Warren Geological team consisted of three girls (Andrea Ewing, Becky Schmidt and me, all of us APEGGA student members) and one guy (Shane Tylosky), and we made it to the semi-finals.
The champions this year, however, were the University of Saskatoon team. Perhaps they get a lot of practice for this sort of event.
The next day, 27 students rode a bus for three hours to take part in an underground tour of the Rice Lake Gold Mine in Bissett, Man.
For the students who stayed behind, there was a poster presentation session, an industry fair and talks all afternoon. As well, the luncheon featured a talk about the geology of the Thompson Nickel Belt.
That evening, the students went to the Empire, a local club.
On Saturday, a handful of students toured the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre, in Morden. The day’s events were similar to Friday’s, except this time it was David Nordin from Nordin Resource Consultants Inc. His talk was titled Looking for Work in Oil and Gas in Calgary — A Process That Works.
Although for the students from Alberta the process seems to be generally easier, the talk was great, and the information he gave is applicable to any industry.
That night, we attended a banquet in the Fairmont Hotel, where we got to enjoy a nice meal among newfound friends. The meal was followed by the guest speaker, Dr. Harvey Thorleifson, director of the Minnesota Geological Survey, who outlined the importance of being a geoscientist in today’s world.
The conference concluded with a dance, and the torch was passed
on
to us — the
University of Alberta. We are much honoured to hold the conference in Edmonton
next year and we hope that it will be as much of a success as Winnipeg was.
I especially want to thank APEGGA for easing the costs of our trip
to Winnipeg.