This column welcomes the submissions of all Concordia faculty and staff to promote and encourage individual and group activities in teaching and research, and to encourage work-related achievements.

Congratulations to Marketing Professor Michel Laroche, who was presented with an honorary doctorate on Oct. 17 by the University of Guelph and addressed the graduating class of the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences.

Congratulations to Cheng Cao, an MBA student, who won the Robert L. Richardson Award for Excellence in International Trade Studies. The award, given by the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME), was presented at the group’s annual convention held recently in Montreal. His paper was called “Extending RMB Loans Against Security of Foreign Exchange.”

Christopher Trueman (Electrical/Computer Engineering) was presented with the IEEE Education Society’s 2001 Best Transactions Paper Award at the Frontiers in Education Conference, held in Reno, Nevada. His award-winning paper was “Interactive Transmission Line Computer Program for Undergraduate Teaching,” and was published in the February 2000 issue of IEEE Transactions on Education.

The annual symposium of the Electromagnetic Compatibility Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers was held in Montreal in August, the first time outside the U.S. Staff of Concordia’s EMC Laboratory of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering played an active role: Robert Paknys, Christopher Trueman and Stanley Kubina each chaired technical sessions, and their graduate students provided technical support at the sessions. Kubina was a member of the conference coordinating committee, and hosted a delegation from Beijing.

William Curran, Director of Concordia Libraries, was a speaker at the annual conference of CORPO, the Corporation of Professional Librarians of Quebec. He asked, rhetorically, Y a-t-il une relève de bibliothécaires gestionnaires?

Ronald Mackay (Education) published, with three co-authors, Evaluacion del Desarrollo de Capacidades en la Gestion de la Investigaction Agricola, a 91-page research report and CD, through the International Service for National Agricultural Research, in The Hague.

Susan Hoecker-Drysdale (Sociology/Anthropology) has published a book co-edited with Michael R. Hill, Harriet Martineau: Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives (New York and London: Routledge, 2001).

Sandra-Lynn Spina, director of Marketing Communications has been elected to the board of directors of the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE). CCAE is the professional organization representing over 1,000 advancement professionals involved in alumni relations, communications, fundraising and development, government relations, student recruitment, media and information services, marketing and public affairs. Ann Vroom, former Concordia director of alumni affairs and director of recruitment, has been hired as CCAE’s first executive director.

Professor Emeritus P. David Mitchell gave the opening presentation, “The End of All Our Exploring,” to the Association for Learning Technology conference, held in Edinburgh.

David Ketterer, emeritus professor of English, now living in London and Liverpool, gave a paper at the University of Ottawa’s annual Canadian literature symposium, which was devoted this year to fiction and fantasy. He also presented a reduced version of the paper, which was on Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin, at the Science Fiction Research Association Conference in Schenectady, N.Y. In England, he presented a paper on John (Wyndham) Beynon and appeared on a Wyndham panel at the University of Liverpool.

Four alumni of the Faculty of Fine Arts recently showed at an exhibition titled Three from Away, One from Here at the P.E.I. Arts Council Gallery in the Guild, in Charlottetown. They are Donald Andrus, emeritus professor of art history, Catherine Everett, Bernadette Phan and Myung Jin Yu.

Elizabeth Saccá (Art Education/Graduate Studies) and several colleagues made a presentation at Congrès AQÉSAP 2001, held on Ile Charron, to the Association québécoise des enseignants spécialisés en arts plastiques. It was called “Power of Art: Artists’ Stories of Transformation,” and was presented with Carol Beer (MA Art Education), Arshi Dewan (MA SIP) and Deena Dlsuy-Apel (MA Art Education).

According to a study of academic business research done by Erhan Erkut, of the University of Alberta’s School of Business, Suresh Goyal (Decision Sciences/MIS) is in the top 5 per cent in terms of citation credits and top 0.5 per cent in terms of paper credits among all Canadian business academics who have published papers in the study period (1,154 professors).

Ollivier Dyens (Études françaises) was awarded the 2000 grand prize from the Society of Canadian Writers, Montreal section, for his essay Chair et métal.