Gazette Flashback
(Gazette, Jan. 9, 1997)
Remembrances of Memorial past...
25 years ago: International meeting of biologists held
January 1972 -- Biologists from five countries meet at Memorial this month to discuss a
collaborative project between the Centre for Environmental Biology and a French research group
in West Africa. Organized by Dr. Marshall Laird, director of the Centre for Environmental
Biology, the meeting is being held to discuss the problem of river blindness (onchocerciasis),
which affects about 40 million people. Local scientists are bringing together large quantities of
parasites of Newfoundland blackflies for transportation to West Africa where they will be used in
experiments against the blackfly which transmits the disease.
In other news, Dr. Wilfred Templeman, a native of Bonavista, is named the first J. L. Paton
professor at Memorial, in the field of marine biology and fisheries. The establishment of a limited
number of J. L. Paton professorships was approved recently by the Board of Regents.
20 years ago: Research featured in Gazette articles
January 1976 -- This month's issues of the Gazette feature in-depth articles on university
research. A piece on the Maritime History Group describes an extensive archive which includes
documents and studies concerned with shipping, fishing, and Newfoundland generally. Documents
go back to the year 1500 and are concerned primarily with the North Atlantic.
Another article focuses on the Institute for Educational Research and Development. Among the
institute projects described is one by Dr. Robert Crocker and Dr. Roda Amaria; it's a study of the
instructional process in elementary science classes. This study is concerned with the degree of
teacher control that occurs in sciences classes and whether pupils can engage in certain thought
processes that characterize a scientific approach to problems.