91938_bi-weekly feb12 rep 2/7/07 12:14 PM Page 1 FEBRUARY 12, 2007 ISSN 1206-3606 Publications Mail Agreement #40065347 P1 RESTLESS RETIREMENT P2 BELIEVING IN LOVE P3 NARROWING THE GAP P4 CAMPUS WELLNESS The ATLAS Collaboration In ancient Greek mythology, The ATLAS experiment the Titan who held the heav- involves 35 countries, 164 ens on his shoulders to keep institutions and close to 2,000 them separated from the earth scientists. It is based at the was named Atlas. It’s appropri- Large Hadron Collider ate, then, that the titanic 35- (LHC), a new particle acceler- country ATLAS project ator located near Geneva, researching the nature of the Switzerland at CERN – the universe should bear the same world’s largest particle physics name. It’s also appropriate that laboratory. The $9.5 billion the University of Regina’s par- LHC is located 100 metres ticipation in ATLAS rests underground in a 16-mile mainly on the shoulders of long circular tunnel which one person – physics professor runs under the Franco-Swiss Kamal Benslama. border. Benslama, whose passion Inside the LHC tunnel, for the ATLAS project is readi- two particle beams will be ly apparent, maintains a more accelerated to extremely high modest view of his involve- (back row, left to right) Kamal Benslama, Katherine Bergman and Randy Lewis are energies, and then crashed ment in the experiment. excited about ATLAS and the possibilities it holds for the U of R. Ph. D student Gia Khoriauli into each other forty million “One person is really (bottom left) and post-doctoral fellow Meng Wang (bottom right) are two U of R researchers times per second. The result- who will be working with data generated by ATLAS. responsible for the fact that ing conditions will correspond the U of R was accepted in Katherine Bergman,” he says. dents at the U of R can now physical sciences.” to those which existed approx- October 2006 as a member of “Because of Dr. Bergman’s take part in the largest experi- But what exactly is this imately 1/10,000,000,000 of a ATLAS – Dean of Science commitment, faculty and stu- ment in the history of the international research project? – continued on page 2 Keeping up with John Boan Just going down the list of his Chorus and the Regina was approached to deliver the activities and accomplishments Philharmonic Chorus. Hall Memorial Lecture, named is enough to weary the average Boan's career with the in honour of Justice Emmett person. Dr. John Boan, U of R U of R spans 44 years, 23 of Hall, and administered by a Professor Emeritus of them in retirement, if you can charitable foundation. Boan Economics, recently completed call it that. Asked about his had a hand in creating the more than six years as co-chair tenure as a professor emeritus, foundation in 1997. of the Saskatchewan Rate Boan points to fellow econo- “I was so flattered I blurted Review Panel. He's also a mist John Kenneth Galbraith out 'OK'”, Boan recalls. “Only founder and board member of as someone he chose to emu- five people before me had the University's Group for late. “Galbraith retired, but he delivered this lecture, and they Refugees, founding member just never stopped,” he were all big, home run hitters. and Secretary-Treasurer for the observes. And while Boan lives I felt like they'd sent out a U of R Academic and the U of R motto, “As One midget to the plate.” Administrative Pensioners' Who Serves,” he is ever the In typical fashion Boan put Association since 1988, and a receptive student. “I learned a a lot of thought and effort into member of the Editorial Board lot during my time with the his lecture, which dealt with for the Saskatchewan Rate Review Panel. It was a Justice Hall's landmark Report Encyclopedia. He remains pretty darn positive experi- on Health Care, medicare and active researching and teaching ence,” he says. its future. An audience of Economics, especially as it Some recognition and rare 1,000, plus another 600 watch- relates to health care. honours came Boan's way in ing on closed circuit television, Beyond the campus, 2006. At the Spring gave him a standing ovation. Boon’s involved with the Convocation he received the “Oh, you wouldn't believe it” Regina Early Learning Centre, U of R Board of Governors he says, describing his feelings. Regina Coalition for Refugees, Distinguished Service Award; Looking forward Boan Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry, the first recipient in 16 years, already has a to-do list for and Justice Ministries with his and only the fifth recipient 2007 that includes subbing for church;“Filling holes I think since the award was created in other professors in a few classes need to be filled,” he says. For 1980. While that award is and preparing papers for con- John Boan has spent the past 23 years of his retirement good measure, he sings with important to him, he says he ferences - filling holes that need researching and teaching at the U of R. the Living Skies Barbershop was “bowled over” when he to be filled. 91938_bi-weekly feb12 rep 2/7/07 12:14 PM Page 2 FEBRUARY 12, 2007 U OF R REPORT PAGE 2 courtship has been replaced by dom. Despite the linguistic stylized fairy tale of Tom “dating,” which takes place amalgams of celebrity mar- and Katie, secretly horde Writ between incognito strangers riages—Brangelina, Bennifer— bridal magazines, cry at over the internet or on “party no one really expects them to chick flicks. When I ask lines,” with fees, contracts and last until the movies that them why they continue to money-back guarantees. spawned them have come out Large be entranced by romance Compatibility has become the on DVD. Divorce, once a when they see so much product of algorithmic com- great social tragedy, is now Dr. Lynn Wells puter programs, a dance of bathetically common; every- falseness, they’re unsure Professor of English pheromones, virtual, telephon- where, marriage rates are what to say. Could it be that Faculty of Arts ic and physical. Beauty, avail- down, people are remaining real love, with its faithful able for sale from hucksters single. Even children, those commitment, self-sacrifice, and physicians alike, is now a erstwhile symbols of lasting deep compassion and caring, One of my favourite poems to cookbooks (“you / can cook source of both attraction and romantic union, have become to teach around Valentine’s with it too”). Whenever I ask is too powerful a fantasy to morbid suspicion. The air- designer commodities that can Day is Margaret Atwood’s students to respond to this be destroyed completely by waves are swimming with be cooked up by science or “Variations on the Word poem, they dutifully tell me capitalism? Atwood ends “Girls Gone Wild” videos, picked up cheap by the rich her poem by saying “This Love,” which begins “This is what they think I want to and, as Sheryl Crow put it, “all and famous in developing word is not enough but it a word we use to plug / holes hear--that love has become our pop stars look like porn.” nations, all without benefit of will / have to do. / You with.” She goes on to suggest commercialized and only a There are the well-publicized “love.” a number of ways that “love,” fool would take it seriously travesties of Brittany Spears, Yet despite having all this can / hold on or let go.” as a ubiquitous cultural signi- anymore. with her clenched teeth smile, to be cynical about, the young On this Valentine’s Day, fier, can be used to market It is little wonder that as she brazens out the public people I teach are still madly I urge us all to hold on to pretty well anything, from young people might think so. boxing-match of her divorce, in love with romance as an whatever foolish romantic Valentine’s cards to magazines In our late capitalist world, so inevitable as to breed bore- idea. They avidly follow the notions we have left. Writ Large is written by campus leaders and is intended to challenge readers to engage with and learn about the various ‘parts’ that make up the wider University of Regina community and connect us to the world. If you have a topic suggestion for Writ Large, please e-mail [email protected] and include your contact information. Please put “U of R Report” in the e-mail subject line. – from page 1 ATLAS second after the “Big Bang,” Blue Cross funds when the temperature was 1,000,000,000,000,000 disease prevention degrees Celsius. The ATLAS detector will electronically reg- ister these conditions, allowing program through physicists to analyze the reac- tions that created them. BDF The experiment, which has been 15 years in the making, will begin collecting When Al Barabash had his combines education sessions data this summer. As a project annual physical last summer, with exercise programs tai- collaborator, the University of his doctor told him there were lored to meet the needs of Regina is one of only 11 a couple of readings that were each participant. Canadian universities that will “not where they should be.” “We began looking for have access to the data. Besides changing his diet, funding for risk reduction “ATLAS opens up a Barabash decided further cor- programming as soon as we new and exciting era for the rective action was needed, so moved into CKHS,” says Saskatchewan Blue Cross President and CEO Arnie Arnott, U of R,” Bergman says.