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News Release

December 12, 2006

Winegard Establishes New Lectureships, First Talk Wednesday

Former University of Guelph president Bill Winegard has created two more lectureships that will bring esteemed scholars to Guelph to enhance learning for faculty and students.

His latest gift will establish the Winegard Visiting Lectureship in New Materials Engineering and the Winegard Visiting Lectureship in Condensed Matter Physics. They join the Winegard Visiting Lectureship in International Development that the former president created last year.

The first Winegard lecture in new materials engineering is slated for Wednesday at 10:45 a.m. in Room 1307 of the Thornbrough Building. The inaugural lecturer is Kim Woodhouse, a world leader in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. She is a professor of chemical engineering and applied chemistry at the University of Toronto's Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering and a scientist at Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre.

Woodhouse's research on the development of artificial skin has established her as a field leader. Using a combination of tissue and polymer materials, she hopes to encourage cell growth and limit water loss when treating chronic wounds and burns.

The talk is free and open to the public.

Winegard said he was inspired to establish and endow the lectureships “out of appreciation of my long association with the University. I also have great passion for teaching and research and have always been grateful for the opportunities I experienced as a student to meet with and learn from visiting lecturers."

Winegard is often called U of G's “intellectual founder." He came to Guelph three years after the University's founding in 1964 and served as president until 1975.

“Once again, our university is benefiting from the generosity and commitment of Bill Winegard," said president Alastair Summerlee. “We continue to be humbled and inspired by his dedication and enthusiasm to teaching and learning and to this institution."

The first Winegard physics lecture will be held in 2007. Meanwhile, the second annual Winegard lecture in international development has been set for Jan. 17 at 7 p.m. (location TBA). It will be given by Margaret Catley-Carlson, former president of the Canadian International Development Agency and former deputy executive director of UNICEF. She will discuss “The New World of Water."

Catley-Carlson is chair of the Global Water Partnership, a network that links thousands of water-management professionals around the world. She is also chair of the water-policy advisory committee of Suez Lyonnaise and the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International. Her 35-year career has included terms as deputy minister of Health and Welfare Canada, president of the Population Council and chair of the Geneva-based Water Supply Sanitation Collaborative Council.