U of L dots honouree list for ASTech awards

trevor.kenney — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 15:53:52 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge will be well-represented at the 2013 ASTech Awards Gala later this fall.

Today, the ASTech Foundation announced the 23 honourees of the 2013 ASTech Awards and three are associated with the U of L. Drs. Igor Kovalchuk and David Naylor were both recognized, as was the Canada-Wide Science Fair team.

These highly-respected individuals, companies and teams make up an elite group of leaders who are paving the way for future innovation and technology in 13 ASTech Award categories. The honourees will be recognized for their contributions at the 2013 ASTech Awards Gala on Oct. 25, 2013.

Naylor (physics and astronomy, Board of Governors Research Chair) and a team of researchers led Canada's contribution to the Herschel Space project on behalf of the Canadian Space Agency, developing the Herschel Space Telescope's Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) instrument. They were recently awarded the prestigious 2013 Sir Arthur Clarke Award for academic study and research.

Naylor was nominated in the Outstanding Leadership in Alberta Science award classification.

Kovalchuk (biological sciences, Board of Governors Research Chair) heads the Plant Biotechnology Laboratory on campus, investigating epigenetic and genetic regulation of plant genome stability under normal and stressful conditions. Operating under an Alberta Agriculture Research Institute Grant (2009-2013), the lab's research is aimed at analyzing the mechanisms of plant adaptation to stress, including plant DNA repair mechanisms. His activity in the area of plant transgenesis has afforded him a strategic alliance with API Labs Inc., a Canadian biotech company that seeks to develop a market for a high thebaine poppy industry in Canada.

Kovalchuk was nominated in the Innovation in Agricultural Science award category.

The 52nd Annual Canada-Wide Science Fair was hosted by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, May 11-18, 2013, and welcomed more than 1,100 students, chaperones, judges, sponsors and dignitaries to campus. An unmitigated success, the CWSF energized both southern Alberta and Alberta as a whole as the country's top young scientific minds presented to a distinguished group of adjudicators.

The Canada-Wide Science Fair Host committee was nominated in the Excellence in Science and Technology Public Awareness award category.

The theme of this year's ASTech Awards Gala is "Shaping the Future" and will showcase the significant impact each of the honourees has in the development of innovation in Alberta. Representing a broad range of industries including energy, environment, agriculture and information technology, and covering the entire innovation spectrum from research to development to commercialization, the honourees offer an inspiring breadth of fascinating stories of how they are taking innovation to new levels in their respective fields.

For 24 years, the ASTech Foundation has invited members of industry, educational institutions and government agencies to be nominated for the ASTech Awards and only the top candidates are selected as honourees in each category.

For a look at all the honourees, follow this link, or view an ASTech video about the awards here.

SPIRE earns international award

trevor.kenney — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 22:20:47 +0000

A ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge physics research team and a Lethbridge-based high tech data processing company are among the collective group of people behind the Herschel Space Telescope's Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) instrument, which has been awarded the prestigious 2013 Sir Arthur Clarke Award for academic study and research.

The award is in recognition of the scientific achievements of the SPIRE instrument, which was designed, built and operated by an international team of astronomers, scientists and engineers.

SPIRE was co-developed by Dr. David Naylor (physics and astronomy) and a team of researchers who led Canada's contribution to the Herschel project on behalf of the Canadian Space Agency.

Blue Sky Spectroscopy, a Lethbridge-based, high tech company, is one of the three international Data Processing and Science Analysis Software centres for the SPIRE instrument. The mission, launched on May 14, 2009 from the Ariane Spaceport in French Guyana, almost immediately began to shed new light on stars and galaxies by measuring a level of light called far-infrared.

Over a four-year mission period, Herschel -- the largest, most powerful infrared telescope ever flown in space -- made extraordinary discoveries across a wide range of topics, from starburst galaxies in the distant Universe to newly forming planetary systems orbiting nearby young stars. SPIRE is one of three devices attached to the Herschel telescope system.

"SPIRE detects heat and chemical signals that are not visible by optical telescopes, and turns that data into the amazing images and information we and other scientists are using to learn more about the life and death of stars and galaxies," says Naylor.

In addition to literally 'clearing up' the images people have been using for two centuries to look into space, Naylor said the Herschel mission is confirming the existence of molecules on earth that originated in space.

"With SPIRE we can look at the big picture, or the very tiny picture, and gain a whole new insight into how stars live and die. The reason the imagery is so clear is that the space observatory sits more than 1.5 million km from earth, far from our atmosphere, which absorbs virtually all radiation at which far-infrared wavelengths travel. Since the universe emits most of its energy at these wavelengths, Herschel provides us with our first comprehensive view of the universe."

The data and crisp images come from a device about as big as a large microwave oven that took more than 15 years and $100 million to develop – and has to function at a chilly -270C. Herschel operated until the end of its scientific mission on Apr. 29, 2013.

A multi-year data analysis period is now taking place.

The award was collected on behalf of the team by Tanya Lim, of the UK-based STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

"A lot of people from both science and engineering disciplines have dedicated up to 15 years of their lives of making SPIRE a scientific success," says Lim. "It is wonderful that we can all share in this award and we are very grateful for receiving it."

The UK team is led by Naylor's colleague Matt Griffin, of Cardiff ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, Wales.

"Building and operating SPIRE has taken many years of effort by a lot of very talented people in our multi-national team. They are rightly proud of the scientific success of Herschel and SPIRE, and they are delighted to win this award."

The Sir Arthur Clarke awards are presented annually in recognition of notable or outstanding achievements in, or contributions to, all space activities. They are organized by the Arthur C Clarke Foundation and the British Interplanetary Society, and this year were presented during the conference dinner at the UK Space Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

The full list of 2013 winners are available on the British Interplanetary Society website.

This is the second Sir Arthur Clarke Award for the SPIRE team, with Matt Griffin receiving the award for individual achievement in 2010.

UNews - Arthur Clarke

U of L dots honouree list for ASTech awards

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