UNews - John Vokey

Long Service & Retirement Recognition Ceremony

trevor.kenney — Wed, 09 May 2012 17:44:43 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge is holding its annual Long Service Awards and Retirement Recognition Ceremony on Wednesday, May 9 at 1 p.m. in the Students' Union Ballrooms.

A total of 103 employees, including 20 retiring employees and those who have completed 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 years of service, will be honoured.

All employees are invited to the ceremony and reception to honour the award recipients listed below. The reception will include light refreshments.

Retirees

Nola Aitken, Pat Anderson, Bill Cade, Maria Draper, Carol Gaetz, Mary Anne Hellinga, John Johnston, Cindy Kabelka, Frank Klassen, Michael Kubara, Christina Lastuka, Rita Law, Kathy Lee, Marg McKeen, Bruce McMullin, Shari Platt, Charlene Sawatsky, Richard Tedesco, Barbara Wolstoncroft and Joan Zimmer

Long Service Recipients

40 Years

Lois Boras and
Jean Mankee

35 Years

Barbara Dickinson, Heather Mirau and Brian Parkinson

30 Years

Rene Barendregt, Annette Bright, Peter Heffernan, Barb Hodgson, Kurt Klein, William Krysak, Judy Lacey, Phill Lema, Valerie Richardson, Kim Selk and John Vokey

25 Years

Candace Dueck, John Eng, Frank Klassen, Sheila Lowe, Fiona Randle, Thomas Staples, Greg Tompkins, Kelly Vaselenak, Peter Visentin and Diana Young

20 Years

Lynn Ambedian, Robin Bright, Naomi Cramer, Mary Dyck, Rod Gelleny, Michael Kern, Judith Kulig, Rick Peter, Robert Runte, Sandy Slavin, Maxine Tedesco and Jeff Vucurevich

15 Years

Dwayne Armstrong, Mara Baldwin, Kerry Bernes, Lesley Brown, James Clark, Tom Doyle, Larry Flanagan, Carolyn Gaebel, Cam Goater, Bradley Hagen, Rob Johnson, Ed Jurkowski, Angela Luck, Goldie Morgentaler, Dan O'Donnell, Kent Peacock, Brent Selinger, Marlo Steed and
Nicole Wilson

10 Years

Peter Alward, Christine Anderson, Ebenezer Asem, Roberto Bello, Shawn Bubel, Kris Caldwell, Michael Campbell, Connie Chaplin, John Claassen, Melanie Collado, Dagmar Dahle, Alesha Farfus-Shukaliak, Bev Garnett, Daya Gaur, Joanne Gedrasik, Betsy Greenlees, Trevor Harrison, Linda Janz, Sharon Kanashiro, John Kometz, Igor Kovalchuk, Olga Kovalchuk, Bette Jo Kulak, James Linville, Douglas MacArthur, Claudia Malacrida, Kyla McFadden, Jacqueline Montain, Mandy Moser, Bob Muskovich, Janice Newberry, Tammy Paskuski, Jill Payant, Wilf Roesler, Edward Sandzewicz, Daryl Schacher, Darren Schell, Arlan Schultz, Daniela Sirbu, Debbie Tarnava, John Usher, Derek Vincent, Bernie Wirzba and Cindy Yee

Fenske made the most of his U of L opportunities

trevor.kenney — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 21:50:46 +0000

When he enrolled in psychology at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, Dr. Mark Fenske (BSc '96, Distinction) had a goal – he wanted to help people.

The associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Guelph, and co-author of the Canadian best-seller, The Winner's Brain: 8 Strategies Great Minds Use to Achieve Success, initially thought about becoming a counsellor. But after the opportunity to work as a research assistant for
Dr. Scott Allen opened up, Fenske found he was hooked on cognitive psychology.

"Lethbridge has some really good people. You get to know these people on a level that you probably wouldn't at a larger institution," says Fenske. "Working with Drs. Scott Allen, John Vokey and Don Read, who were the cognition faculty in the psychology department at the time, was a bit of an awakening for me. I was able to learn about memory, about how we interact with the world around us, what drives our behaviour, how we make decisions and how we pay attention.
"I learned there is so much more to psychology than the commonly-held view of people lying on a couch and talking about their problems."

Alumnus Mark Fenske is thankful for the research foundation he established while still an undergraduate student.

Fenske made the most of his one-on-one opportunities with faculty.

"I was able to get a lot of face time with faculty and learn what life in a research lab is all about," he says. "It really cultivated a sense of excitement for research, and I was given a lot of responsibility. I learned a lot in terms of computer programming, setting up experiments, running subjects and how to analyze data. Those are skills and training that I otherwise might not have gotten until grad school."

By the time he graduated in 1996, Fenske knew that he wanted to pursue a career in academia.

"One of the driving forces for me has always been about how I can have a positive impact on others. A lot of the people who have had a major influence on my life have been teachers or instructors," he says. "If you are teaching three or four classes a year and each class has up to 100 students, you have the potential to have a positive influence on lots of people. And as an academic, when you are not preparing or giving lectures, you get to investigate important issues that you find interesting. It is a fantastic job."

Supported by NSERC scholarships, Fenske completed both a master's and PhD in psychology from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Waterloo by 2001. After a two-year post doc at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Wales in Bangor, Fenske moved to Boston, Mass. in 2003, where he began to integrate cognitive psychology with neuroscience, the study of the brain.

"In Boston I worked at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, where I had a dual appointment as a research fellow with Harvard Medical School and as an assistant in neuroscience at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). With rapid advances in neuroimaging technology, it became clear that we could learn a lot more by combining our study of human cognition with neuroscience," says Fenske. "Using MRI scanners, we were able to look at the structure of the brain and the areas of activation that related to different cognitive operations. What I now do is try to understand how it is that we do what we do. How do we pay attention to things, remember things and what elicits different emotional responses?"

Fenske spent four years at MGH and Harvard, the last two as faculty, before returning to Canada to work at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Guelph in 2007. In spite of the years of intense research and study, he has never lost sight of his original goal of helping people.

In recent years, he has worked on bringing the knowledge he has gained about cognitive-affective neuroscience to the general public. His work on The Winner's Brain with Dr. Jeff Brown serves as an example.

"The book is all about the neuroscience of success," says Fenske. "What we do with our brain – the different ways in which we stimulate, engage and care for it – can have a significant impact on the way it works, and even alter its physical landscape. We looked at what the latest brain science says about people that excel in key areas related to success, and the various strategies the rest of us can use to fine-tune our brains and become more successful."

GET THE FACTS

· The Winner's Brain was on Amazon Canada's bestseller list, ranking 20th in the All Books category and first in both the Psychology and Success classifications. U of L neuroscience instructor, Dr. Bryan Kolb, is featured in the book.

· Fenske writes a bi-weekly column, Better Brain, for the Globe and Mail newspaper.

· He is the recipient of grants in excess of $1 million and is currently working with the Gambling Research Exchange Ontario.

· Fenske has published more than 35 articles, abstracts and theses, and has presented at more than 40 conferences and seminars.

This story first appeared in the Legend. For a full look at the January issue of the Legend, follow this link.

Fenske appreciates opportunities he was given

trevor.kenney — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 22:48:22 +0000

When he enrolled in psychology at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, Dr. Mark Fenske (BSc '96, Distinction) had a goal – he wanted to help people.

The associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Guelph, and co-author of the Canadian best-seller, The Winner's Brain: 8 Strategies Great Minds Use to Achieve Success, initially thought about becoming a counsellor. But after the opportunity to work as a research assistant for Dr. Scott Allen opened up, Fenske found he was hooked on cognitive psychology.

Alumnus Mark Fenske is thankful for the research foundation he established while still an undergraduate.

"Lethbridge has some really good people. You get to know these people on a level that you probably wouldn't at a larger institution," says Fenske. "Working with Drs. Scott Allen, John Vokey and Don Read, who were the cognition faculty in the psychology department at the time, was a bit of an awakening for me. I was able to learn about memory, about how we interact with the world around us, what drives our behaviour, how we make decisions and how we pay attention.
"I learned there is so much more to psychology than the commonly-held view of people lying on a couch and talking about their problems."

Fenske made the most of his one-on-one opportunities with faculty.

"I was able to get a lot of face time with faculty and learn what life in a research lab is all about," he says. "It really cultivated a sense of excitement for research, and I was given a lot of responsibility.
I learned a lot in terms of computer programming, setting up experiments, running subjects and how to analyze data. Those are skills and training that I otherwise might not have gotten until grad school."

By the time he graduated in 1996, Fenske knew that he wanted to pursue a career in academia.

"One of the driving forces for me has always been about how I can have a positive impact on others. A lot of the people who have had a major influence on my life have been teachers or instructors," he says. "If you are teaching three or four classes a year and each class has up to 100 students, you have the potential to have a positive influence on lots of people. And as an academic, when you are not preparing or giving lectures, you get to investigate important issues that you find interesting. It is a fantastic job."

Supported by NSERC scholarships, Fenske completed both a master's and PhD in psychology from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Waterloo by 2001. After a two-year post doc at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Wales in Bangor, Fenske moved to Boston, Mass. in 2003, where he began to integrate cognitive psychology with neuroscience, the study of the brain.

"In Boston I worked at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, where I had a dual appointment as a research fellow with Harvard Medical School and as an assistant in neuroscience at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). With rapid advances in neuroimaging technology, it became clear that we could learn a lot more by combining our study of human cognition with neuroscience," says Fenske. "Using MRI scanners, we were able to look at the structure of the brain and the areas of activation that related to different cognitive operations. What I now do is try to understand how it is that we do what we do. How do we pay attention to things, remember things and what elicits different emotional responses?"

Fenske spent four years at MGH and Harvard, the last two as faculty, before returning to Canada to work at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Guelph in 2007. In spite of the years of intense research and study, he has never lost sight of his original goal of helping people.

In recent years, he has worked on bringing the knowledge he has gained about cognitive-affective neuroscience to the general public. His work on The Winner's Brain with Dr. Jeff Brown serves as an example.

"The book is all about the neuroscience of success," says Fenske. "What we do with our brain – the different ways in which we stimulate, engage and care for it – can have a significant impact on the way it works, and even alter its physical landscape. We looked at what the latest brain science says about people that excel in key areas related to success, and the various strategies the rest of us can use to fine-tune our brains and become more successful."

GET THE FACTS

• The Winner's Brain was on Amazon Canada's bestseller list, ranking 20th in the All Books category and first in both the Psychology and Success classifications. U of L neuroscience instructor, Dr. Bryan Kolb, is featured in the book.

• Fenske writes a bi-weekly column, Better Brain, for the Globe and Mail newspaper.

• He is the recipient of grants in excess of $1 million and is currently working with the Gambling Research Exchange Ontario.

• Fenske has published more than 35 articles, abstracts and theses, and has presented at more than 40 conferences and seminars.

For a full look at the January issue of the Legend, follow this link.

UNews - John Vokey

Long Service & Retirement Recognition Ceremony

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Fenske made the most of his U of L opportunities

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Fenske appreciates opportunities he was given

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