Panogiotis Vasilopoulos received his MSc from Concordia and his PhD from École Polytechnique. He joined the Physics Department as a University Research Fellow in 1991, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1992.

He has published more than 100 articles. During the current year alone, his research has produced seven publications in refereed journals, and two other manuscripts have been accepted for publication.

The research grants awarded to him since joining Concordia’s Physics Department amount to more than $400,000, including internal grants of $66,000 and collaborative grants of $25,000, an impressive amount for a theoretical physicist.

Professor Vasilopoulos has engaged in high-level international collaboration and earned wide recognition through invitations to international conferences and seminars. Since joining the Physics Department at Concordia, he has been invited to give 16 talks and seminars by universities in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Holland, Spain, United Kingdom and United States. He has also brought to the Department a number of visiting scholars and postdoctoral fellows.

He served as Graduate Program Director from 1992 to 1995, and implemented a new Graduate Studies Policy to raise standards in the Department.

Mohamed Ibrahim

Mohamed Ibrahim joined Concordia University in 1990 as an Associate Professor of Accountancy. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business and a Master’s degree in Accounting from Ain-Shams University (Cairo). He also holds MBA and PhD degrees from the University of North Texas.

He has had experience in both public and private accounting, and is an active member of the accounting track of the International Academy of Business Disciplines. He has been editor of one of its main serial publications, The Journal of Accounting and Business Research, since its inception in 1993.

Dr. Ibrahim served as Chair of the Department of Accountancy between 1993 and1996. He was a major force in strengthening doctoral studies in accounting, where he supervised several PhD students.

He is a holder of the Canadian professional designation CGA (Certified General Accountant), and is a member of the national association, as well as the provincial associations in both Manitoba and Quebec.

Dr. Ibrahim’s main line of research deals with the role of accounting information in decision-making. His research explores the implications of psychology research and theory for the advancement of accounting knowledge. Examples of this type of research include the psychology of sunk costs, decision heuristics, effects of information contents, sequence, and processing modes on decision making, desirability bias in investment decisions, and dilution effects in audit decisions.

Research papers by Dr. Ibrahim have appeared in several reputable journals and research annuals. He also wrote a book on accounting theory and two supplements to textbooks in financial and managerial accounting. He has published several book reviews in journals and presented more than 40 papers at national and international conferences.

A.K. Waizuddin Ahmed

A.K. Waizuddin Ahmed obtained his PhD from Concordia University in1986 and subsequently joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering as Research Assistant Professor. He was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 1993, and is currently serving as the Director of CONCAVE (Concordia Computer-Aided Vehicle Engineering) Reseach Centre.

His research expertise lies in vehicle systems dynamics, intelligent vehicle systems, vibration analysis and control, and simulation of nonlinear systems. Dr. Ahmed has played a key role in the development of the vehicle engineering program within the Department through active participation in related curriculum development and the creation of both the unique vehicle dynamics lab and CAD Lab of the CONCAVE Research Centre.

Dr. Ahmed has established a strong record of research and has received numerous grants and contracts, including a North American Research Fellowship. He has published more than 50 articles in international journals and conference proceedings and has supervised five PhD and six MASc theses to completion.

He is a member of both the Professional Engineers of Ontario and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Over his career, Dr. Ahmed has worked extensively with industrial partners, collaborating with organizations such as the Transport Development Centre (TDC), Northern Telecom, National Research Council (NRC) and Via Rail, among others. He has served as an invited visiting researcher at Clemson University and the Transport Research Institute of Mexico, where he initiated international academic co-operation between Concordia and several institutions in Mexico.

Gregory Butler

Gregory Butler joined the Department of Computer Science at Concordia University in 1992 after nine years on the faculty of the University of Sydney, Australia.

His research area is reusable object-oriented design with a focus on framework development, evolution, and documentation. Working closely with colleagues and students, Dr Butler is developing a framework for database and knowledge base systems.

This framework may be applied in bioinformatics to construct knowledge-bases of the metabolic pathways and signal networks of model organisms.

Dr. Butler is part of the team that recently obtained CFI (Canadian Foundation for Innovation) support for research in genomics and bioinformatics.

Dr. Butler obtained his PhD from the University of Sydney in 1980. He worked in computer algebra from 1974 developing algorithms, constructing software systems, designing languages, and investigating the integration of databases and knowledge-bases with computer algebra systems.

He has developed algorithms for homomorphisms that provided basic building blocks that significantly changed the field of computer algebra, and led to breakthroughs in the computation of Sylow subgroups and conjugacy classes. Together with O’Brien and Iyer, he did pioneering work on mathematical knowledge-bases. He was a major contributor to the Cayley and Magma systems for discrete algebraic and combinatorial computation.

He is a member of the Centre Interuniversitaire en Calcul Mathématique Algebrique. He has held visiting positions at Delaware, Bayreuth, and Karlsruhe. Dr. Butler has more than 50 technical publications in journals and conferences. His software has led to hundreds of research publications by users of Cayley and Magma.

Dr. Butler has supervised three PhD students and 15 Master’s students to completion, and currently supervises two PhD and five Master’s students. He has also coordinated and strengthened the Department’s course offerings in software engineering (COMP 354) and object-oriented design (COMP 647).

Fariborz Haghighat joined Concordia in 1986 as a research associate for the Centre for Building Studies. He currently holds the position of Associate Professor with the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering (BCE) which he has occupied since 1993. Dr. Haghighat received his PhD in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

His research expertise lies in building environment, HVAC systems, energy analysis, indoor air quality and solar thermal energy systems.

Dr. Haghighat has been actively involved in numerous University committees and councils over his 13 years with Concordia, including the Senate Research Committee, NSERC Selection Committee, and the Council of the School of Graduate Studies.

The Graduate Program Director for BCE since 1998, Dr. Haghighat has been appointed by the National Research Council of Canada to represent the country in several annexes of the International Energy Agency since 1989. He maintains professional membership with the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate, as well as Indoor Built Environment International.

Geza Joos

Geza Joos obtained his MEng and PhD in electrical engineering from McGill University after graduating from Loyola College in 1972. He returned to Concordia in 1988 as an Associate Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Prior to this, Dr. Joos was a professor in the Département d’Electricité at École de technologie supérieure (Université du Québec), and an auxiliary professor with McGill’s Department of Electrical Engineering.

His research focuses on power electronic converters and power system compensation. Over the course of his career, Dr. Joos has supervised and co-supervised eight PhD students, 18 MASc students and post-doctoral fellows. He has authored and co-authored more than 50 journal papers and over 140 conference papers, and a textbook in electric drives.

Mario Falsetto

Mario Falsetto began teaching at what is now the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in 1978. Educated at Carleton University and New York University, Dr. Falsetto received his PhD from New York University in 1990. His thesis was titled Narrative, Style and Meaning in the Films of Stanley Kubrick.

Throughout his 20 years of teaching at Concordia, Professor Falsetto has been actively involved in teaching, research and administration. He has published two books on the late Stanley Kubrick, Stanley Kubrick: A Narrative and Stylistic Analysis (Greenwood Press, 1994) and Perspectives on Stanley Kubrick (G.K. Hall, 1996).

Dr. Falsetto’s teaching has been hailed by his many students. He developed several key courses in the undergraduate curriculum in the Film Studies program, such as Studies in Film Direction, Experimental Film, Montage Aesthetics, and American Cinema of the 1970s.

He has also held several administrative positions while at Concordia: Film Studies program head, Department Chair, Associate Dean, Acting Dean, and Graduate Program Director.

He has undertaken important curatorial work, participated on juries, and organized three important film studies conferences, as well as being president of the Film Studies Association of Canada from 1985-87. He was a member of the jury for the Canada/U.S. Fulbright Exchange Program, and the Canada Council Film Production Jury.

His current project is Personal Visions: Interviews with Independent Filmmakers, to be published by Constable Publishers and Silman-James Press in the fall of 1999.

Janice Helland

Janice Helland has actively published since 1989 and is considered to be a leading scholar of international stature on the history of the Arts and Crafts movement and on the contribution of women to the development of fine and applied arts. For her research, she recently received one of Concordia University’s Research Fellows. She has also received two major individual grants from SSHRC and one from FCAR.

Dr. Helland’s first article, "Culture, Politics and Identity in the Paintings of Frida Kahlo" has become a classic in the discipline, and her first book, The Studios of Frances and Margaret MacDonald, received great praise from her peers internationally. Her latest book, scheduled for completion later this year, will bring attention to the much-neglected study of 19th-century Scottish art created by women.

Known as a challenging and generous undergraduate teacher, Dr. Helland has also actively worked with many graduate students. She is committed to mentorship and has supervised a significant number of MA and PhD students. She has been instrumental in the development of curriculum and has served on committees dealing with University-wide doctoral programs.

Dr. Helland has been coordinating editor of RACAR, the journal for the Universities Art Association of Canada, since 1996. Educated at the University of Lethbridge, she continued her education at the University of Victoria, where she received both her MA and PhD.

Dr. Helland is leaving Concordia in July 1999 to relocate to Queen’s University where she has been named Professor of Art History and Women’s Studies. For the next five years, she will have the honour of being a Queen’s National Scholar.

Marion Wagshal

Associated with the Faculty of Fine Arts since 1985, Marion Wagshal is a well-known teacher, artist, art curator and art historian. She has demonstrated remarkable and acclaimed research and is held in high regard by the Montreal and the Canadian art milieus and communities. She has been exhibiting her work for close to 30 years.

Her confrontation with issues of representation, narration, the personal and the private, gender and identity in her work has brought the admiration of her peers and has been an inspiration to her students for its authenticity and professionalism. This conviction and perseverance has ensured Professor Wagshal’s place as a role model among her students. In her work, she has championed a form of realism that is both personal and political. Human ambiguity and frailty are put in a contemporary context.

Her importance to the department and Faculty as both a painter and teacher is further enhanced by her service to the University community. She has served as Chair of the Painting and Drawing Department, and she has been active on the Board of Directors at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery and the Departmental Ethics Review Committee. Within the Department, Professor Wagshal has been an essential force in creating a balance in gender issues. She has provided a place where students may comfortably explore the issues around gender and identity.

Professor Wagschal received her education at Sir George Williams University.

Carole Zucker

Professor Carole Zucker is a leading scholar in the field of film acting and the recipient of two major research grants from SSHRC. She has published two books, The Idea of the Image: Josef von Sternberg’s Dietrich Films and Figures of Light: Actors and Directors Illuminate the Art of Film Acting. A third manuscript is in preparation, In the Company of Actors: Reflection on the Craft of Acting, and will be published by A & C Black and Routledge Publishers in the fall of 1999.

In addition, Dr. Zucker has published an edited volume of 10 essays and numerous refereed journal articles. She has been active in presenting papers at conferences, most recently at the annual meeting of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, Utrecht, and a Film/Culture/History Conference at the University of Aberdeen.

Dr. Zucker has mentored countless students while teaching at Concordia. A sampling of the courses she has taught include The Art of Film Directors, Advanced Studies in Film Genre: The Cinema of Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Moving Camera Aesthetics, Japanese Cinema and New German Cinema.

She began teaching at Concordia in 1978, was made an Associate Professor in 1985, and received tenure in 1989. She began her education at Clark University in English and Theatre and went on to New York University for her MA and PhD.

Copyright 1999 Concordia's Thursday Report.