Forests and City Buildings Are Linked by Unseen Fungi

Concordia's V o l. 26, N O 5 November 8, 2001 pr. concordia.ca/ctr F A L L Psychologist Melissa Lieberman wins gold medal CONVOCATION BY BARBARA BLACK After Professor White died in worked with some great mentors at Faculty of Arts and Science 1999, Lieberman was supervised by Concordia." John Molson School elissa Lieberman is the recipi William Bukowski at Concordia and In the glowing recommendation of Business Ment of the 2001 Governor Lise Gauvin at the Universite de for her gold medal, Professor Anna Faculty of Fine Arts General's Gold Medal, which goes to Montreal. She finished her PhD in Beth Doyle, the PhD program direc Faculty of Engineering and the outstanding graduate student at September 2000, and did a one-year tor in Psychology, called Lieberman Computer Science fall convocation. post-doctoral fellowship at Toronto's "a most outstanding scholar." PLACE DES ARTS She earned her doctorate in psy Hospital for Sick Children in the area "When she began her master's FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 10A.M. chology, in association with Concor of eating disorders under the super studies at Concordia, Dr. Lieberman An honorary doctorate will be dia's Centre for Research in Human vision of Dr. Gail Mc Vey. was the top applicant to the pro presented to the Honorable Development. Her thesis focused on "I was attracted to the program at gram, standing out among more than Claire L'Heureux-Dube, adolescent girls and eating disorders. Melissa Lieberman Concordia because of the exciting 100 others, and meriting a j.W. Justice of the A native of Toronto, Lieberman sl!pervision of the late Donna White. research opportunities and clinical McConnell Graduate Fellowship. Supreme Court of Canada . began her life at Concordia in Sep "She was a wonderful, supportive, training that they offered. Being affili "For her doctoral studies, she was Anna Woodrow, tember 1993. She spent two years intelligent supervisor and role model ated with the Centre for Research in awarded fellowships from all three of PhD Humanities, w ill give the completing a master's degree under who had a significant impact on my Human Development provided me the federal and provincial agencies to valedictory. the supervision of Anna-Beth Doyle, academic development," Lieberman with the resources I needed to pur which she applied," Doyle said. See page 5 for more on Justice and then began her PhD under the recalled in an e-mail interview. sue my research interests, and I See Gold medal on page s L 'Heureux-Dube. Forests and city buildings are linked by unseen fungi BY SYLVA IN CO M EAU in soil. These serve the purpose of ing engineering conference to even harm mycorrhizal systems. In agricul decomposing dead leaves and twigs, include microbes on its agenda was ture, there are many practices that orests are a rich environment for but are less benign when found in in 1992." might deter the growth of these sys Fa variety of fungal life forms. high concentrations where people tems, such as deep plowing, overuse Unfortunately, so are many of the live or work. Newer buildings most toxic of fertilizers, and fungicides. " buildings in which we live and work. Widden said that there has been Ironically, newer buildings might Fungicides, for example, are used According to Biology Professor an explosion of concern and aware harbour the worst toxic growth of to prevent harmful fungi from attack Paul Widden, that fact is one of the ness of the threat that moulds in fungus and mould. "In sealed build ing crops, but they can have the reasons for sick building syndrome. buildings can pose, thanks to highly ings, you can humidify air and push opposite effect if they destroy some "The variety of fungi that you see publicized health problems like it through a filter, where there is a lot beneficial fungi. in buildings just reflects the variety those in the Royal Victoria Hospital. of dust and carbon. That's a good "Some fungi prevent trees or crops that grows in the natural environ "Ten or 15 years ago, people were environment for the growth of from being attacked by pathogens; so ment. Any fungus that can grow out hardly aware of the problem of mould and bacteria. It gets into the if you disrupt that mycorrhizal sys side will be found inside sooner or moulds in a building; now they see a ventilation, air conditioning and fil tem, that may leave them vulnerable. later, and some of them are very s(ain and they get worried. That tration systems. So some buildings "It is like the overuse of antibi toxic, like Stachybotrys, which pro changes the response I get from have had problems because they are otics. We have a bacterial flora in our duces nasty toxins and which has building administrators, for example, sealed, but an older building is leaky; guts and on our skins that protect us proven fatal to some people, espe who used to dismiss the possibility it's not airtight." from infection. If you give antibiotics cially infants." Widden cited an infa of a mould problem." Widden's work on sick buildings to healthy people, they tend to get mous rash of infant deaths caused by While awareness has improved, Biology Professor Paul Widden with is a sideline to his research on mycor sick, because they have lost that pro penicilium chrysogenum, a common Stachybotrys in several U.S. house Widden said that the problem is only fungus that lives in the soil (and rhizal fungal communities, which are tection. Using fungicides as a preven holds. getting worse in recent years because sometimes in your fridge). It gave ubiquitous in ecosystems and have tative measure is the same thing, and Professor Widden works with of changes in building design. rise to the "miracle drug" penicillin. recently been shown to affect the just invites problems. Natur/Air, a company that conducts "In the 1960s and 70s, we became competitive balance between plant "A better understanding of how building inspections and sends sam very concerned about conserving ture - and filter out fungal spores. species and the diversity of the mycorrhizal systems work can lead to ples to Widden for analysis in his lab. energy. We started constructing large But engineers did not understand ecosystem. This may lead to the agricultural or forestry practices He was approached to do that buildings that were sealed, where biology at all, how microbes grow development of agricultural and which will take advantage of these work because of his research interest you could control everything from and their requirements for growth. forestry applications. natural systems, rather than working in the communities of fungi that live the inside - humidity and tempera- "The first North American build- "In the forest, clear-cutting can against them." Kids hate phys ed? Make it fun, says Lois Baron BY ANNA BRA TULI C Baron, along with co-researcher strongest or the fastest. The new Peggy Downey, an associate profes focus is on developing movement pudgy child stares up with sor in the Department of Kinesiology competencies that will enable chil A dread at the rope he has to and Physical Education at McGill, are dren to handle their bodies well in climb in front of his classmates. in the process of analyzing data they different environments." Chances are, this kid will grow up to collected from a Beaconsfield ele Factors such as socio-economic view physical activity as a source of mentary school on the attitudes some status, parent-child and child-coach failure. children had toward gymnastics, relationships, and peer groups also Getting children - by nature dance and games. influence the child's decision to physically active - to become active While they're still looking at the remain physically active. adults can be thwarted by bad per data, Baron and Downey have found Parents who are more physically sonal experiences in sports and phys that average children in an average active themselves, and have the ical education classes. However, school have varying tastes and abili means, can provide their children according to sports psychology edu ties, and keeping to a rigid and dated with more choice in the activities cator Lois Baron, that can be changed curriculum may effectively prevent they undertake. with a simple philosophy: Make it some children from becoming active "Participating in sports and physi fu n. adults. Preliminary results indicate cal activity with children from differ "It's a matter of trying to find activ that boys rate their success higher ent backgrounds has been shown to ities that kids enjoy doing so they than girls do in games, and girls rate enable lower socio-economic status can develop a sense of confidence in themselves higher than boys in gym children to improve academically the activity and personal control over nastics and dance. and rise in status." their choices. That's what will moti Research generally supports the As her next project, Baron, along va te them to be more physically finding that girls rate their competence with Professor Randy Swedburg active throughout their lives, which in physical activity as lower than boys, Professor Lois Baron, sports psychology educator at Concordia (Applied Human Sciences) and really should be our goal," she said. particularly as they get older. Howev Melanie Drew, director of Health Ser Baron, a full professor in Concor er, the results of this study do not that should promote their continued Physical education changing vices at Concordia, will look at the dia's Department of Education, is appear to support this, demonstrating participation in physical activity. Downey said that the Quebec motivations that promote "active liv herself is a sports enthusiast who that there is a need for a variety of con "Are children participating in the physical education curriculum is ing" - in which they include such credits her parents with encouraging tent in school-based curricula.

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