NOVEMBER 2000

Choir director named alumna of the year

Susan Dyer Knight was named Alumna of the Year for 2000. It is the highest honour awarded by the Memorial University Alumni Association. Ms. Knight is the founder, director and conductor of the internationally acclaimed Newfoundland Symphony Youth Choir. She is also a schoolteacher, a university lecturer, a clinician and an energetic advocate of the arts. Munden Batstone, a Memorial alumnus, nominated Ms. Knight for the award, calling her "a person with outstanding talent and accomplishments." Ms. Knight graduated from the School of Music in 1983 with a bachelor of music and a bachelor of music education, winning university medals for academic excellence in both disciplines. [more]

A Landmark deal

Landmark Graphics Corporation of Dallas, Texas, presented a complete integrated software package and support services worth $13.5 million to Memorial's Earth Science department and the faculty of Engineering and Applied Science. The specialized petroleum exploration and geosciences computer software will enable researchers to create virtual reality images of the extensive amounts of seismic and geological data which characterize oil and gas reservoirs. Memorial will build an advanced visualization center, or Decisionarium, to host the software and facilitate more accurate interpretation than the 2-D projection on paper or computer screens currently in use. The software is expected to augment student and professional training in the area, and lead to improvements in the region's drilling programs, reservoir management, and offshore safety. Mastery of advanced visualization techniques is expected to place Memorial graduates among the best-educated specialists in the world.

Forest Centre rooms dedicated

Two veterans of the Canadian Forest Service were honoured in a rooms dedication ceremony at the Forest Centre, Grenfell College. About 70 colleagues and friends attended the ceremony, which dedicated rooms to Dr. W. Joe Carroll and the late Dr. John Hudak.