Students Take to the Highway
for Vancouver Conference




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BY KIMBERLY FERGUSON
University of Alberta
Student Contributor

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Let’s start off with the really fun stuff, the Western Inter-University Geological Conference. The WIUGC, Jan. 8 to 11 in Vancouver, was attended by 40 U of A geoscience students, who endured a 14.5-hour bus ride through the mountains at night just to get there.

The University of Alberta was represented in both the undergraduate and graduate categories for technical talks and by undergraduates in the posters session. This paid off rather nicely when the U of A won recognition in three of eight categories. Congratulations to Katie Smart, Melissa Bowerman and Ryan Ickert for their posters and talks.

The fun side of the conference was much appreciated as well, from the traditional “bun” fight between U of A and U of C at dinner, to the semi-formal dance that ended the conference. Everyone managed to get some fun stuff in.

The conference was informative and enjoyable. The technical talks and poster session were well received and appreciated by those in attendance.
Most importantly, WIUGC was good opportunity for students from different universities to get to know one another and find out what is going on in the other little corners of the world.

Thank you to this year’s WIUGC organizer and host, the University of British Columbia.

ATLAS Graduate
Student Symposium

The graduate student society for the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department at the U of A is presenting a symposium this spring. It will showcase graduate students and their research projects, as well as feature a guest speaker.
Guy Carbonneau will be speaking about his studies concerning Ediacaran fauna from Missing Point, in East Newfoundland, which is the oldest multi-cellular fossil discovered to date.

The symposium, tentatively set for March 26 at the University of Alberta, promises to be both informative and interesting.


Everyday Happenings

This is an update as to the sports and social activities happening in at the U of A for the geos.

For the sports portion we have a few new ones this semester Curling. Both co-ed and men’s teams are entered into their respective bonspiels and we all hope they’ll do well, or at least not fall over while sweeping or while yelling “Sweep!”
Volleyball. Once again we have volleyball – men’s and women’s teams but no co-ed.

Field hockey. We have a women’s team this year and the players are trying their best. For a team made up of girls who have never seen a field hockey stick before (they look like candy canes!) let alone played the game, they are doing well. They haven’t won yet – but they have managed to keep their injuries to a minimum!
Co-ed inner tube water polo. This is a fun and we are doing relatively well, a win and a tie so far. Go Dirty Ores!

And now for the old sports that we just can’t get escape.

Men’s hockey. This is the only holdover from last semester and will continue until the end of February. The Dirty Ores have only lost one game to date, and we hope that will be the only one this season.

And now onto the social part.

Social activites this month consist of a crib tournament and the monthly movie night, put on by the P.S. Warren Geological Society (the undergraduate society for the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences), as well as the weekly ATLAS talks each Friday afternoon.

 

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