Creating a more inclusive economy
Solving poverty in our communities goes far beyond charities and social agencies. Graduates with business, civic planning, arts and other backgrounds have just as much to contribute as social workers, according to University of Alberta poverty researcher Maria Mayan. “We have great young thinkers within our university who want to make a difference in the world…
Strong partnerships with employers help bring U of A into top 100 globally, top five in Canada
The University of Alberta is ranked among the top 100 post-secondary institutions in the world and top five in Canada when it comes to preparing students for the workforce, according to the latest global ranking of graduate employability. The U of A is listed as 99th globally, 35th in North America and fifth nationally according…
Underpinning it all, like the safety net to a secure supply, will be fossil fuels
The kingdom of Queen Elizabeth I was humming along quite nicely when, around the mid-1500s, Her Majesty caught wind of an environmental crisis in the offing. The forests were disappearing. Wood was the first energy source and had been so for millenniums. But kilns of industry and hearths of homes had been eating up the…
Changing colour of alpine lakes may be a sign of worsening water quality, according to reports
Another casualty of the disappearance of glaciers in the Canadian Rockies is the vanishing of the iconic turquoise of glacier-fed alpine lakes, according to a University of Alberta limnologist who documented the unfortunate change in the latest look at the health of Canada’s mountains. In an essay written for the fourth annual State of the Mountains…
A helpful guide to easing the transition
Kids anxious about heading back to school after a year of pandemic lockdown can best be helped by parents and teachers getting themselves grounded and present, says a University of Alberta education expert. Connecting with how their bodies respond to stress or fear can help adults deal with any stress or trauma children are experiencing,…
Alberta program builds skills to take sustainable energy projects from concept to completion
A new certificate the University of Alberta started offering this fall will help fast-track workers into the province’s rapidly growing renewable energy sector. The Renewable Energy Technologies (RET) Certificate is the first of its kind in Alberta to offer learners the flexibility of online, part-time classes, without admission barriers. It can be completed in as little as…
New materials could harness energy from cellphones or body heat, and improve solar power, geothermal
Extra heat is generated from any form of energy conversion – even with something as green as solar panels. But with up to 72 per cent of it left unused, there’s also great potential to harvest electricity from that waste. A University of Alberta researcher has successfully developed a way to figure out the chemistry…
‘Wind and solar are cost competitive, or cheaper, than any of the conventional energy carriers'
The interest in renewable energy may be growing, but there are still many misconceptions out there. Pierre Mertiny, ’05 PhD, comes across these myths all the time. He’s a mechanical engineer and principal investigator with the University of Alberta’s Future Energy Systems. He’s here to share some facts. Myth 1: The technology isn’t fully developed.…
Discovery that technology is viable moves it closer to becoming part of a low-carbon economy
University of Alberta research is making new strides in discoveries about capturing and storing carbon – while yielding a high-value end product from carbon dioxide. A process that injects the greenhouse gas deep below ground, then circulates it to extract heat and geothermal energy, has proven viable in a feasibility study by U of A…
Vital learning experience – a rite of passage for the past 50 years – reimagined for safety and sustainability
By the time Ben Strelkov started high school, the self-described “city kid” assumed that once he was in the workforce, he’d be confined to an office, doing basically the same thing every workday. His summer job following Grade 10 shattered the illusion. “I spent the whole time in northern Alberta – building trails, helping communities…
Schulich Leaders put their love of technology to work solving problems
Kevin Uzomechine says his fascination with technology began as a youngster transfixed by the brief static blue text on his TV set that read “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” By the time the large blocks of unabashed yellow text had crawled vertically up through the screen to Star Wars’ signature trumpets, the…
Blood transfusions from people who recovered from the disease didn’t help patients improve
Giving severely ill COVID-19 patients a blood transfusion from donors who have already recovered from the virus did not help them improve. In some cases, according to a major Canadian-led clinical trial reporting results in Nature Medicine, it made them sicker. “Convalescent plasma had been found to boost immunity in patients infected with some other viral…
Synthetic data based on records ensures confidentiality
A University of Alberta researcher is developing an inventive solution to a problem plaguing health-care research around the world: how to make data-driven decisions without compromising the privacy of personal medical records. Dean Eurich, professor in the School of Public Health, is academic lead on a project that has successfully created a “synthetic data” set that…
Former UN force commander leading ‘critical conversations’ on mental impact of moral injury
The term “moral injury” is relatively recent in our understanding of trauma. When Canada’s Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire led United Nations peacekeeping troops in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi that took a million lives over 100 days, few Canadians beyond the military were aware of the severe psychological damage witnessing such moral atrocities…
New partnership ensures vaccine makers now have an option to manufacture their products domestically
Vaccine makers, medical researchers and pharmaceutical companies now have a new full-service option to get their products manufactured in Canada, thanks to a partnership announced this week. The U of A’s Alberta Cell Therapy Manufacturing (ACTM) facility has signed a memorandum of understanding with The Ottawa Hospital’s Biotherapeutics Manufacturing Centre (BMC) and BioCanRx, a Canada-wide research network to develop…