University of Waterloo
I am a professor in the Department
of Biology at the University of Waterloo. My background is in microbiology, toxicology and
information technology. My original degrees are from the University of Liverpool in
England in the late 60's - a B.Sc. Honours degree in 1966 followed by a Ph.D. in 1969.
Both were in microbiology and the Ph.D. thesis was concerned with the ecology of
actinomycetes in soil systems. After one year as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the
Microbiology Department at Macdonald College of McGill University in Montreal, I came to
Waterloo in 1970.
For about 8 years (until 1994), I
was the Associate Dean for Computing (Science) That was a very interesting period in the
evolution of computing in universities. We were moving from a terminal-based, centrally
networked system at Waterloo to many inter-networked systems using microcomputers. The
reality is simply that I have more computing power on my desk in a
2 GigaHz Pentium with
240
gigabyte of hard drive space than the University of Waterloo had in 1966. This process
continues unabated !
Thirty
four years after arriving at
Waterloo, I am working mainly in the area of applications of information technology to
environmental problems and in bioremediation studies in groundwater systems. If you have
the patience to look at my list of publications,
you will see that my research has changed over the years starting with soil microbiology
(actinomycetes and streptomycete ecology [marked with an *])
and then moved to soil nitrogen studies**. I then became interested in
aquatic microbiology and toxicology*** and that interest came to
include another aquatic microbiology environment - bioremediation and groundwater
microbiology#. Finally, in the past few years, I have been working in
the fields of information technology, environmental software development and cooperative
projects in data management, sharing and application##.
Environmental Information Systems
The last change is, for most people, the most
surprising. It happened because I became convinced that a major stumbling block in
progress in the environmental area was not only the lack of information or research
results in environmental issues, but a very disturbing lack of mechanisms to find and use
data and information that already existed. Many people in government, industry and
academia were simply not able to find, share and use existing data on environmental
issues. With the rise of the Internet from a purely academic network for exchanging e-mail
and files to a global network linking many different people and organizations, the
opportunity was there to improve this data discovery, sharing and application.
United Nations University
At the moment, I am on secondment
from the University of Waterloo to the United Nations University (headquartered in Tokyo,
Japan) as the Assistant Director of the United Nations University - International Network for Water, Health and
the Environment. This unit of the United Nations University is based in Ontario and
its headquarters is at Macmaster University and at the Canada Centre for Inland Waters in
Burlington, Ontario. I look after the Freshwater Ecosystems group and the information technology and communications for UNUINWEH (as it is known - the full name is far too long). I am working there mainly on
distance learning, freshwater ecosystems, provision of
safe water and sanitation and environmental information systems (EIS).
The Water Virtual Learning Centre
(WVLC) is a
project for the United Nations and is a series of 10
courses on Integrated Water Resources Management being given
by distance education from a number of regional centres in developing countries
in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Central America.
A personal note
When I have any spare time, which is infrequent, I restore older sports cars (I
am working now on a 1981 Mercedes-Benz 380 SL after
finishing a 1964 Chevrolet Corvette
convertible).
I also like more modern cars - my latest ones are a
2004 Mazaspeed Miata turbo (I wanted a sports car I
didn't have to restore and that was reliable - unlike
early British sports cars!) and a 2000 Lexus GS400,
Earlier ones included another GS400, a Lexus
LS400, a Mercedes 300E, a Mercedes 300 Turbodiesel, two Nissan Pathfinders, two BMW 2002s
(a normal one and a Tii), three Volvos, a Jeep CJ-7, a Jeep Cherokee Sport, a VW Beetle, a
Honda Prelude, a Subaru station wagon, a Rambler Ambassador (don't even ask !),
a 1935 Morris 8, a Sunbeam sports sedan, a Mini (a real one,
not the latest incarnation by BMW), and some motorcycles
- an Ariel Square Four, a Norton 500 single ES2,
some Triumphs, BSA A10, a BMW R90, a Honda CB500-4, a
Kawasaki Z900, various Yamaha dirt bikes and a few others.
My latest bike is a
2005
Suzuki 1000 cc VStrom.
Some previous bikes:
 |
 |
|
NSU 50 cc moped 1952 |
Norton ES2 1956 |
 |
 |
| BMW
R90 |
BSA
A10 1963 |
.jpg) |
 |
| Honda CB 500 1972 |
Kawasaki Z900 1976 |
 |
 |
|
Triumph TR60 |
Triumph 160 Bonneville 1960 |
 |
 |
| Yamaha 250 Enduro |
Ariel Square Four
(picture from Wikipedia) |
My taste in cars and motorcycles
is catholic - to say the least - but I seem to have a definite bias against most North
American manufacturers. This was probably due to my experiences with the Cherokee Chief
and the Rambler Ambassador - both did about 7 miles per gallon and each performed more like a
dangerously overloaded boat than a car. The 1964 Corvette convertible was a different
story...........
I enjoy music of all types except
country and western. Since I was in Liverpool during the Beatles rise to wealth and fame
(1961 to 1969) in the
early 60s, I have a particular affinity for that period in popular music. I do try to
control it and listen to all other types including classical, opera, modern jazz,
traditional jazz and popular music but have yet to find the "key" to liking
1940's "Big Band" music, 1950s popular music, any and all country and western, rap music and heavy metal.
The
Passage of Time - A Short Horror Movie in Windows
format (needs Windows Media Player). If you have a
sensitive disposition you should view this with discretion
!
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