Lighting in the shelter is powered by solar panels installed last fall atop the adjoining Raithby House.

The wood and steel shelter holds 90 bikes in two tiers of new removable racks. Emptied of its racks, it can be used as an open-sided pavilion for small groups. The structure, which is as big as a four-car garage and just over a storey high, was completed in December. Its green roof will be planted this spring with drought-tolerant, low-maintenance plants.

The project was funded entirely by students through the Green Gryphon Initiative, which uses student fees and matching University contributions to support sustainable and energy-efficient projects around campus. Other recent projects include installation of the Raithby solar panels, retrofits to campus lighting and installation of a chilled water reservoir.
–ANDREW VOWLES

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Every year, OVC treats more than 2,000 dogs, cats and other pets referred by veterinarians for advanced diagnostic and surgical procedures.

A new $9-million fundraising campaign was launched last fall to establish new surgery and anesthesia facilities at OVC to benefit companion animals. The proposed facilities will contain surgical and diagnostic video and imaging devices, including operating microscopes, orthopedic and neurological equipment, and a sophisticated anesthesia and pain management unit.

A $1-million gift to the campaign from Lindy Barrow will be used to create the Lindy Barrow Minimally Invasive Procedures Suite, the first unit of its kind for a veterinary teaching hospital in Canada.

A previous campaign raised more than $13.5 million for OVC’s Mona Campbell Centre for Animal Cancer.

“These facilities will have far-reaching impacts on both pets and pet owners,” says Jeff Wichtel, OVC dean. “They will help ensure our continued ability to improve the health and well-being of pets, whether we are providing advanced diagnosis or life-saving procedures, raising the standard of care, or making meaningful contributions to clinical research and innovation.”

Learn more at pettrust.ca.

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By day, Jason Thomas, B.Sc. ’00, M.Sc. ’02, is a full-time U of G physics professor. Off campus, his alter ego, Burnaby Q. Orbax, is one half of the Monsters of Schlock, a vaudevillian stunt show that also includes his twin brother, Sweet Pepper Klopek (a registered name).

In the fall, the duo broke their latest world record when Thomas lay on a bed of nails while 50 motorcyclists took turns jumping over his body. Seventy jumps were recorded in two minutes, shattering the previous record of 31 jumps.

The 2014 edition of Guinness World Records featured the duo six times, including the most baking trays buckled over the head (55) by a team of two. Other record-breakers include towing a 4,082-kilogram truck with two shark hooks in his back, and hammering the most four-inch-long nails in and out of his nasal cavity (13) in 30 seconds.

“They’ve all worked out well, no major problems,” says Thomas. “It all seems really dangerous to people, but it’s a level of danger we’re trained to do.”

For a physics instructor, there’s even something instructive about all the mayhem.

In a recent episode of the Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet, Thomas discusses how the linear drive shaft works in a giant tattoo machine, which he uses to inscribe a design on his brother’s thigh in 30 minutes.

You find physics principles everywhere, he says, whether it’s Orbax inserting hooks into his forearms to lift a 45-kilogram weight or Thomas explaining to a first-year class how a figure skater uses conservation of angular momentum to speed up or slow down during a spin.

“For a subject people consider boring, it explains so much about the world around them,” says Thomas.
– ANDREW VOWLES

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“People are nice here,” she says with a slight Arabic accent. “People treat you differently than in Lebanon.”

By mid-February she had her bearings, but she was still missing her parents and siblings scattered between Lebanon and Europe.

Kuwatly arrived at U of G as a specially sponsored student under the Student Refugee Program run by the local chapter of the World University Service of Canada, an international development organization based in Ottawa. A second student is expected to start at Guelph in the fall semester.

Since the Syrian conflict began in 2011, and especially since the militant Islamic State took over parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014, millions of Syrian refugees have arrived in camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

Kuwatly never endured the camps. Along with her mother and brother, she travelled in spring 2013 from her home in Damascus, Syria, to Beirut, Lebanon, where they found an apartment.

She had never heard of “Gelf,” as she pronounced the name while Googling U of G. And she knew practically nothing of Canada, except that “it was so cold here and far away.” Her online investigation turned up something even more important: Guelph was a safe place.

Her joy at being accepted was tempered by the notion of leaving her family. The worst moment was bidding farewell to her mother, a recollection that sparks tears.

She flew overnight on a chartered plane full of Syrian refugees travelling from Beirut to Canada. After staying overnight in Toronto, she was picked up by a University of Guelph team.

Kuwatly is taking a full course load this semester in a general science degree program. She’s thinking about medical studies and plans to return to Syria one day.

Referring to her generation’s responsibilities to that divided nation, Kuwatly says, “We have a country to build.”

She says she’s still lonely in Canada, but she’s grateful for a chance to live and study in a safe place where basic rights such as education are respected. “It’s a huge transition for me, everything is different, the people, the weather, the time difference. I sometimes feel like I’m not totally settled in here. There’s still a lot to know and do.

“I thought I couldn’t stay without my mom and here I am.”

–ANDREW VOWLES

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The new centre involves seven lead cardiovascular scientists and clinicians, as well as dozens of collaborators and graduate and undergraduate students from across U of G and beyond. It’s one of a few centres worldwide looking at cardiovascular disease from single molecules to animal models.

Led by leading heart researcher Prof. Tami Martino, Department of Biomedical Sciences, the centre is dedicated to discovering novel diagnoses of heart disease, advancing treatment therapies and training the next generation of scientists.

About 1.3 million Canadians are diagnosed with cardiovascular disease annually. About 70,000 heart attacks occur in Canada every year, 16,000 of them fatal.

“By joining forces, our scientists will draw on each other’s strengths, resources and areas of expertise,” says Martino. “Together, they will learn more about what causes this disease and make discoveries that can help improve the lives of Canadians.”

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Operated by Hospitality Services, the food truck features a menu of locally sourced food prepared fresh on the truck. Since opening in September, Gryph N’ Grille has served about 350 customers per day.

Fuelling the food truck frenzy is its convenience and mobility, which caters to busy students, faculty and staff who want a quick bite to eat. Another driving force is lack of space on campus to build new food outlets, says Ed Townsley, assistant director, Food and Retail Services. “As far as I know, we’re the only Ontario school that has one,” he adds.

With its focus on local food and sustainability, the food truck recycles its cooking oil for biofuel, and uses energy-efficient appliances and biodegradable food containers.

The menu consists of 10 items, including burgers, fries and poutine that will rotate on a daily basis. The burgers are made from local beef and the honey in the sauces comes from the Honey Bee Research Centre on campus.

The only thing that’s not local is the truck itself, which was built by Venture Food Trucks, based in Napanee, Ont. Guelph graphic designer and U of G alumna Cai Sepulis, BA ’02, was commissioned to create the truck’s unique exterior.

Although the City of Guelph recently allowed food trucks on its streets, Gryph N’ Grille will stay on campus, and may also be used to cater special events on campus. The truck’s location is posted on Twitter at @GryphNGrille using the hashtag #GryphNEats.

–SUSAN BUBAK

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In 1964 the University Senate approved the bachelor of landscape architecture program at the newly established University of Guelph. Ten years later, U of G launched the master of landscape architecture program, the second of its kind in Canada and the first in Ontario.

Since 1964, U of G has graduated nearly 1,500 landscape architecture students, who make up a large percentage of practising and academic landscape architects in Canada. Perhaps the most exciting part of their legacy is the mark that the five decades of students have left on our local landscape and beyond.

“We wanted to celebrate and recognize the fantastic alumni that have come out of the landscape architecture program,” says Prof. Sean Kelly, School of Environmental Design and Rural Development. “We started by collecting information on 50 notable alumni, but couldn’t stop there. We have over 70 alumni profiles complete and plan to keep adding to it.”

View the Notable Alumni of LA project.

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“You do what you can to help your kids, and I was a fan of the show, so I was up for it,” he says. “You really have to step outside of your comfort zone in experiences such as this if you want to be successful.”

Lumsden has coached with the Gryphons for five seasons, and won three Grey Cups while playing for the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos. But he says playing football was nothing like the experience of competing on the reality show, which saw the team paragliding in Santiago, Chile, performing the tango in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and diving for lobsters in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

“It’s very unique, and the only thing you can expect is the unexpected,” says Lumsden of the race.

The duo was the sixth team eliminated after taking a two-hour penalty on a mentally challenging flight schedule test that involved matching time zones and flight durations to create a 25-hour itinerary. The senior Lumsden then struggled on a trampoline challenge.

“It was a great experience,” he says. “You take the whole race and roll it up into one memory that you will look back on and be glad that you were a part of.”

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This multidisciplinary facility will bring together scientists, students and stakeholders from Ontario and beyond to study environmental, social and economic issues for the dairy industry, including genetics, nutrition and quality improvement to animal welfare, food safety, and animal and human health.

Highlights of the LRIC include:

• A maternity wing and nursery with sophisticated lighting and ventilation controls that allow calves to be fed individually or through a robotic feeder.
• High-tech sensors for studying feeding behaviour to help researchers learn about dairy cow behaviour, nutrition and welfare, and improve cattle feeding.
• A custom-designed metabolic research wing for researchers to study and monitor individual animals.
• A robotic milker that uses an identification system to recognize individual animals, and helps ensure product quality by recording information such as milk yields and by rejecting subpar milk.

The facility involves U of G, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario and Dairy Farmers of Ontario.

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