UNews - Chris Hadfield

Hadfield signed guitar available in raffle

trevor.kenney — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 21:29:19 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Students’ Union is presenting a chance to own a Larivée guitar signed by Canada’s most famous astronaut – Chris Hadfield.

The Rock’It Man Raffle was launched Thursday, Mar. 27 at the Calgary Alumni & Friends Dinner and with 75 per cent of tickets now already sold, only a few chances remain for those interested in acquiring a unique piece of memorabilia.

Hadfield, of course, became a world sensation over the course of his five-month space journey. As the first Canadian to command the International Space Station, he used the power of social media to make outer space accessible to millions. By sharing his experience in real time, Hadfield brought new life to the wonder of space travel. One of the seminal moments of his mission was when he played his cover of David Bowie’s Space Oddity as he stepped down from command of the station.

“Chris Hadfield serves as an inspiration to students who are exploring their own field of study,” says Michael Kawchuk, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Students’ Union vice-president (finance). “By changing the way we perceive science, he has made it fun and exciting to explore new frontiers. It is a great honour to have had him speak to our alumni and students and to present us with this amazing gift.”

Tickets for the Rock’It Man Raffle are priced at $3 each and are available in the Students’ Union Atrium from 1 to 3 p.m. daily. Proceeds from the raffle will go to support student scholarships.

Draw date for the signed Hadfield guitar is Sept. 6, 2014. If all tickets are sold by the end of next week, the draw will be held at the Apr. 15 Last Class Bash.

Hadfield to headline Calgary Alumni & Friends Dinner

trevor.kenney — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 22:24:02 +0000

Canada’s most famous astronaut, Colonel Chris Hadfield, will serve as the guest speaker at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s 2014 Calgary Alumni & Friends Dinner, Thursday, March 27, 2014 at The Westin in Calgary. And for the first time, U of L students have the opportunity to win tickets to the event by participating in a unique video contest.

Colonel Chris Hadfield is the first Canadian to have commanded the International Space Station.

Hadfield, the first Canadian to command the International Space Station, became a worldwide sensation over his five month mission in space. Harnessing the power of social media, he made outer space accessible to millions by sharing his experience in real-time and helping infuse a sense of wonder into the collective consciousness not felt since man first walked on the moon.

“Colonel Hadfield epitomizes the fundamental ideals of teaching and research that the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ embraces,” says U of L President, Dr. Mike Mahon. “From his inspirational story of first becoming an astronaut to the way in which he brought scientific study into the mainstream, he reaffirms the values of pursuing education and bettering society.”

Students will have the opportunity to attend the Alumni & Friends Dinner by virtue of a unique video contest.

The Calgary Alumni & Friends Dinner was established in 2010 with the goal of bringing alumni together in fellowship and offering attendees a compelling and engaging speaker who reflects the values and goals of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

A very limited number of tickets are still available for the March 27, 2014 dinner, priced at $175 each or $1,400 for a table of eight. Tickets are available online at www.uleth.ca/conreg/calgarydinner.

While tickets are scarce, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge students have the opportunity to win their way in to hear Hadfield speak by participating in the Out of this World video contest. Participants are tasked with creating a 30-second video that displays an out-of-this-world experience that was influential in their lives. For more information, visit www.uleth.ca/campaigns/out-of-this-world.

The Sky Is Not The Limit

david.kirby — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 20:34:55 +0000

Since blasting off in December 2012, astronaut Colonel Chris Hadfield has become a worldwide sensation, harnessing the power of social media to make outer space accessible to millions and infusing a sense of wonder into the collective consciousness not felt since man first walked on the moon.

He was sitting on the back of a neighbour’s couch in Sarnia, Ont., watching Neil Armstrong take those famous first steps on July 20, 1969, when Hadfield decided he was going to be an astronaut when he grew up.

“Me and a million other kids,” says Hadfield, who was born in 1959, making him a child of the classic space age. “I wasn’t quite 10 when they walked on the moon, but it was a seminal moment in my life.”

Having always been interested in the inner workings of the world around him, Hadfield admits he was by nature a curious child. Nevertheless, it’s impossible to deny the impact the Apollo 11 mission had on his young mind.

“If you want to show a young person the wonderful things that can result when you apply the latest in technology, science, engineering and math to make the impossible happen, it’s hard to be more inspiring than that,” recalls Hadfield, who 44 years later, is inspiring a whole new generation of future space travellers.

Hadfield admits he was a curious child by nature, and was inspired by Neil Armstrong in the late 1960s. Photo courtesy of NASA.

Called “the most famous astronaut since Neil Armstrong” by the BBC, today Hadfield is the role model he himself was looking for as a young Canadian with dreams of travelling to space. An elite group, astronauts have a variety of backgrounds and experience. Some have degrees in engineering, physics or medicine, while others come directly from the military. With no Canadian examples to follow, Hadfield made his own way, having to find an entry point into what seemed like an impenetrable world.

“In the beginning, I had no idea how I was going to make it happen,” recalls Hadfield, who eventually decided to pursue a career as a military test pilot because it seemed like a logical first step. He joined the Canadian Armed Forces and earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering before being selected to attend U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California. He did post-graduate work at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Waterloo and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Tennessee before eventually being selected by the Canadian Space Agency as one of four new Canadian astronauts from a field of 5,330 applicants in June 1992.

“It really was an early commitment to my education – education in all its forms – that allowed me to do the things that I’ve done,” says Hadfield, looking back on his success in landing one of these coveted positions. And, while he admits the prospect of gazing down at Earth’s blue marble, conducting extraterrestrial research and perhaps eventually exploring new worlds is only available to a handful of candidates, for Hadfield that’s enough.

“Today, astronaut is a viable career choice as a Canadian,” says Hadfield, acknowledging the irresistible allure the position still holds for thousands of young people. “The odds are very small, but they aren’t zero. It’s a tough road but it’s definitely something that should be on the guidance counsellors’ list of Canadian professions that students can aspire to.”

He sees this as a natural progression of our country’s involvement in the space program.

“Canada’s maturation in this business is really just a straight, linear increase in trust and accomplishment over time,” explains Hadfield, citing examples of the country’s initial involvement, followed by the development of Canadarm, and leading most recently to his role as the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station (ISS). “And with each step forward, we have opened the door a little more and helped remove some of the obstacles I faced when I was trying to get into the program.”

For him, these types of dreams are only made possible if people can see the bigger picture. “We all need to think beyond the horizons of our own street or school or town, so that we can think of ourselves on a larger stage,” says Hadfield, referring back to how watching the first man walk on the moon completely changed his perspective on what was possible.

“One of the things I’ve tried to do throughout my career is show the opportunities that do exist by helping put things on the horizon that people may not have even thought about,” says Hadfield. “The fact is that some little kid in some little town from Canada might walk on the moon one day, but you have to get their attention first.”

And that’s exactly what he did. For more than five months, Hadfield woke the world with a simple tweet: “Good morning, Earth.” And followers did not need to imagine the view from more than 423 km above Earth’s surface – Hadfield shared magnificent photos of our home planet to his nearly one million fans worldwide using social media.

“The space station is a terrific platform for sharing,” says Hadfield, adding that it’s our first permanent outpost and has been occupied since 2000. “Even amongst all the other news and noise of the world, our effort to leave our own planet resonates with people. And, as a result, millions of people around the world stop and pay attention.”

One of the major focusses of Hadfield's mission was to share his experiences with the world, inspiring wonder in millions of followers.

Hadfield has always worked hard to share his experiences in space with the rest of the world, but advances in technology have made that infinitely easier. Harnessing the power of social media to make his experience accessible to millions, his most recent mission was shared in real-time and helped infuse a sense of wonder into the collective consciousness not felt since man first walked on the moon.

“The immediacy granted by social media gave me a stronger voice than I’ve had on previous missions,” says Hadfield, whose moving photos and insightful tweets helped provide a new perspective on our world. “It’s really easy to be selfish if you’ve never been anywhere but home. It’s hard to have any regard for the rest of the world if it’s all just theoretical to you. But if you can see how similar the rest of the world is to how you are and how the actions you take today have impacts globally, it immediately changes your perspective, and as a result, your decision-making. The space station is a wonderful place to share that perspective and therefore to try and help people make better decisions.”

Although Hadfield returned to Earth in May 2013 and recently retired, he continues to bring the glory of space travel and the lessons he learned over a 35-year career to everyone he encounters and, on March 27, 2014, he will share his story with guests at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge 2014 Calgary Alumni & Friends Dinner.

“At any university, including the U of L, there are so many opportunities available,” says Hadfield, who hopes events like the upcoming dinner will help motivate people to get involved. “Too many students go through their whole education without even realizing that those exchange programs, or scholarships, or electives even exist. It’s up to the alumni and friends of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ to not only ensure the opportunities are there but to ensure students know about them and take advantage of them.”

For Hadfield, events like this bring things full circle.

“As commander of the space station, it suddenly struck me that a nine-year-old chose my career. And, more importantly, it actually worked out,” says Hadfield with a laugh. “The odds were improbable but they would have been zero if at nine I hadn’t seen the impossible happen and made the choice to pursue it.”

Fall 2013 Issue

admin — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 16:43:17 +0000

In this issue of SAM we are demonstrating that there really are no limits.

Like the evolution from summer to autumn, this time of year is all about change. This is evident in the physical transformation that takes place throughout the region as southern Alberta bursts alive with the fiery colours of the season. On campus, that energy is matched by our students whose return signifies the start of another academic year.

This semester marked some significant changes at the U of L that we’re happy to highlight in this issue of SAM, including physical changes to campus thanks to the successful completion of construction, a soon-to-be-ratified institutional Strategic Plan and the early stages of planning for the Destination Project. The stories here provide a glimpse into the amazing work that continues to define the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge as one of Canada’s leading academic and research institutions.

I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention that we are thrilled to welcome astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield as speaker for the 2014 Calgary Alumni & Friends Dinner this March! Tickets go on sale this month, so don’t miss out on your opportunity to hear from someone who’s life and career truly exemplify that the sky is no longer the limit.

I hope you enjoy.

Tanya Jacobson-Gundlock, Editor

John Will, A Peculiar Cape Breton Carpet, 1979. Oil on canvas. From the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection. Gift of Jeffrey Spalding, 1985.

Rosen explores the language of the Canadian Shift

trevor.kenney — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 16:30:40 +0000

The easy way to pick a Canadian out of a crowd is to ask them to say "out and about" – a phrase that stereotypically 'outs' a Canuck 'about' as quickly as astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield could tweet from the International Space Station.

Because of our unique way of speaking, and no matter how hard we try to hide it, experts and non-experts alike hear the inflections: Out becomes 'oot' and 'about' becomes 'aboot' – the vowels are changed to alter the sound of the word.

Linguists call this 'raising', and it means that these particular vowels are pronounced higher in the mouth than in other dialects of English.

But there's also a lesser-known way to tell a Canadian apart from other English-speaking people, and it is an important process to take note of because it may fundamentally change how words are pronounced over the next 50 years.

The process, called 'vowel shift' in linguistics, happens all over the world in a variety of ways, but it is named the "Canadian Shift" for the uniquely Canadian direction of the vowel changes.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge linguistics expert Dr. Nicole Rosen describes it as the way that people shift vowel sounds in words that cause them to be altered ever so slightly.

"For example, 'milk' becomes 'melk'; 'bag' might sound like 'beg,'" says Rosen.

"Other words can change as well – 'pit' starts to sound like 'pet'; 'pet' sounds like 'pat', and 'pat' starts to resemble 'pot'. The change in pronunciation can actually cause communications challenges, in particular within different generations of people who may feel they know how to pronounce words 'properly' based on how they learned them 50 years ago. It is definitely a generational evolution which we have to keep up with."

Rosen, a member of the U of L's Language, Identity and Assessment research group, studies endangered languages such as the Manitoba Metis' Michif language, the differences in speakers of western Canadian English, and the differences in speech patterns between members of the Latter Day Saint churches (Mormons) and non-Mormons.

She says the shift in vowel pronunciation isn't a dramatic event, but a gradual and barely perceptible change that happens over generations.

"We no longer speak Old English, which has become a completely separate language," says Rosen, a fluently bilingual (French) former Manitoba resident. "Parents or grandparents today might give their kids and grandkids a hard time for their so-called 'sloppy pronunciation,' when in fact they are changing the language by using it – it is inevitable, and not something you can 'fix' or 'undo'."

Rosen will be presenting her work at a conference in Paris, France, later this summer. The Language, Identity and Assessment research group recently hosted a conference at the U of L on language and gender.

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