Barbara Sherwood Lollar / en Nobel Laureate John Polanyi: 'What can we do to prevent nuclear war?' /news/nobel-laureate-john-polanyi-what-can-we-do-prevent-nuclear-war <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Nobel Laureate John Polanyi: 'What can we do to prevent nuclear war?'</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2019-10-03-John-Polyani-%281%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=zyvdaPsC 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2019-10-03-John-Polyani-%281%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=JIVATIW- 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2019-10-03-John-Polyani-%281%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=JOBkhCrz 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2019-10-03-John-Polyani-%281%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=zyvdaPsC" alt="John Polanyi at the podium during the science for peace event"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2019-11-14T00:00:00-05:00" title="Thursday, November 14, 2019 - 00:00" class="datetime">Thu, 11/14/2019 - 00:00</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">ֱ's John Polanyi remains committed to raising the public’s awareness of the threat of the arms race: “Our task is to keep that process of education going" (photo by Johnny Guatto)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/chris-sasaki" hreflang="en">Chris Sasaki</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/alumni" hreflang="en">ֱ</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/barbara-sherwood-lollar" hreflang="en">Barbara Sherwood Lollar</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/chemistry" hreflang="en">Chemistry</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/earth-sciences" hreflang="en">Earth Sciences</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/john-polanyi" hreflang="en">John Polanyi</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/nobel-prize" hreflang="en">Nobel Prize</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>This past&nbsp;August, six months after the contentious breakdown of talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and mere days after joint U.S.- South Korea military exercises ended, North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan.</p> <p>The missiles prompted an international response, including a call from South Korea for the restart of talks between the U.S. and its neighbour to the north.</p> <p>The incident was yet another tense confrontation between nuclear powers – a litany that began in the mid-20<sup>th</sup>&nbsp;century with the atomic bomb, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban missile crisis, the Korean War and other global events.</p> <p>The chilling history of the Cold War, the arms race and nuclear proliferation was recently recounted by&nbsp;<strong>John Polanyi</strong>, Nobel laureate and a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards-funding/university-professors/#section_2">University Professor</a>&nbsp;at the University of Toronto’s department of chemistry in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science, in a talk titled “What can we do to prevent nuclear war?”&nbsp;</p> <p>Polanyi, a Fellow of the Royal Society – the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences – as well as a Companion of the Order of Canada, was speaking at an event organized by the ֱ&nbsp;chapter of Science for Peace. It took place on&nbsp;Oct.&nbsp;2 at the George Ignatieff Theatre and was&nbsp;livestreamed.</p> <p>In his opening remarks,&nbsp;<strong>Adnan Zuberi</strong>, a ֱ alumnus and a member of the chapter’s board of directors, explained that&nbsp;Science for Peace&nbsp;“seeks to understand and act on matters of militarism, social injustice and environmental destruction.”</p> <p>He added that Science for Peace was founded in 1981 when “many notable academic scientists at ֱ saw the Cold War and the number of nuclear weapons getting out of control and realized they had to step in and bring scientific reasoning and sensibility to de-escalate matters.”</p> <p><strong>Barbara Sherwood Lollar</strong>, a University Professor in the&nbsp;department of Earth sciences, introduced Polanyi, pointing out that the winner of&nbsp;the Nobel Prize in Chemistry&nbsp;could rightly claim a share in the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize as well. It was awarded to the Pugwash Conferences – a global movement of scholars dedicated to reducing the threat of armed conflict – and Polanyi was the founding chair of the Canadian Pugwash.</p> <p>Sherwood Lollar described Polanyi as “a conscience for the idea of how scientists and engineers can act with and in support of society to move us forward on the kinds of goals and enormous challenges that are facing us.”</p> <p>Polanyi began by paying his respects to Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old climate change activist who was in Canada at the time of the talk.&nbsp;</p> <p>“What she said to the UN General Assembly could just as well be said about the arms race and nuclear weapons. She said, ‘You pretend that this can be solved by business as usual. Change is coming whether you like it or not.’ I see this as being true of the grievous danger we face in a nuclear war.”</p> <p>As Polanyi continued, it became clear that his life and the history of the arms race have been woven together since the Cold War began.</p> <p>In 1950, U.S. President Harry Truman was still deciding whether to greenlight the development of the hydrogen bomb – a device that would dwarf the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – when Polanyi’s friend, German-American theoretical physicist Hans Bethe, had an article published in&nbsp;<em>Scientific American</em>&nbsp;magazine that made a passionate case against the new weapon.</p> <p>Polanyi quoted Bethe’s article, saying, “‘Can we [the U.S.], who insist on morality and humanity, introduce this weapon of total annihilation into the world? Shall we convince the Russians of the value of the individual by killing millions?’&nbsp;</p> <p>“We’re still trying to absorb the truth of what Bethe said. That we shouldn’t have anything to do with such a weapon.”</p> <p>The H-bomb was developed by both the U.S. and the Soviet Union and it was in the shadow of this growing threat that Polanyi attended the Pugwash Conference in Moscow in 1960.</p> <p>In Moscow, Polanyi’s “hero,” Hungarian-American physicist Leo Szilard, addressed the problem of nuclear proliferation by suggesting that the U.S. and Soviets should be limited to one weapon each – “one buried under Moscow and one under Washington.”</p> <p>Despite attempts to limit global nuclear arsenals, Polanyi explained, the number of weapons grew into the tens of thousands and eventually abated, not because of the effectiveness of mutual deterrence, but through a thawing of the Cold War under Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.</p> <p>Polanyi observed that the threat of nuclear conflict is as real today as when U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev inched the world to the brink of nuclear war when the Soviets deployed ballistic missiles in Cuba.</p> <p>He reminded the audience that the latest chapter is being written by&nbsp;Trump and Kim, “one of whom is becoming unhinged”&nbsp;– without specifying which of the two leaders he was referring to.</p> <p>Despite the gravity of the subject and the dramas being played out on today’s geopolitical stage, Polanyi remains inspiring, optimistic and – as his talks and public appearances attest – committed to the importance of raising the public’s awareness of the threat of the arms race.</p> <p>“Our task is to keep that process of education going,” he said, answering the question in the talk’s title. “We should rejoice that we were born at this time and have that noble task ahead of us.”</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 14 Nov 2019 05:00:00 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 160569 at Renowned ֱ geoscientist presented with the Geological Association of Canada’s highest honour /news/renowned-u-t-geoscientist-presented-geological-association-canada-s-highest-honour <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Renowned ֱ geoscientist presented with the Geological Association of Canada’s highest honour</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2018-07-24-logan-medal-winner-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=A-2hSf97 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2018-07-24-logan-medal-winner-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=H-9T2gWs 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2018-07-24-logan-medal-winner-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ECL9N4w- 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2018-07-24-logan-medal-winner-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=A-2hSf97" alt="Photo of University Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar "> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>noreen.rasbach</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2018-07-30T00:00:00-04:00" title="Monday, July 30, 2018 - 00:00" class="datetime">Mon, 07/30/2018 - 00:00</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">University Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar has been awarded the Geological Association of Canada’s Logan Medal for her sustained distinguished achievement in Canadian earth science (photo by Diana Tyszko)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/awards" hreflang="en">Awards</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/barbara-sherwood-lollar" hreflang="en">Barbara Sherwood Lollar</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/earth-sciences" hreflang="en">Earth Sciences</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a href="http://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards/uprofessors.htm">University Professor</a><strong><a href="http://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards/uprofessors.htm"> </a>Barbara Sherwood Lollar</strong> of the<a href="https://www.es.utoronto.ca/"> department of earth sciences</a> has been awarded the Geological Association of Canada’s highest honour – the Logan Medal.</p> <p>Presented to an individual who has displayed sustained distinguished achievement in Canadian earth science, the Logan Medal celebrates Sherwood Lollar’s exceptional career of geological contributions.</p> <p>A Canada Research Chair in Isotopes of the Earth and Environment and the director of the Stable Isotope Laboratory at ֱ, Sherwood Lollar has spent her career researching earth and environmental geoscience and isotope geochemistry in Canada and abroad.</p> <p>“It’s a very special honour to be awarded a medal that reflects the long and distinguished history of Canadian achievement in geosciences,” said Sherwood Lollar.</p> <p>Her research is wide-ranging and impactful, from projects that inform public policy and improve remediation of groundwater resources globally, to spearheading international research collaborations to uncover the most ancient water on earth, a discovery with potential implications for life on other planets.</p> <p>“Geosciences occupy such a central role in science and society – from sustainable energy and mineral resources to climate change, water resource protection and environmental restoration – literally the intersection of humankind with the planet on multiple levels,” said Sherwood Lollar.</p> <h3><a href="/news/tags/barbara-sherwood-lollar">Read more about Barbara Sherwood Lollar</a></h3> <p>While Sherwood Lollar is humbled to receive this recognition, she’s quick to acknowledge the impact others have had on her career.</p> <p>“This award reflects the contributions of the outstanding students and colleagues who have contributed to my research and teaching career,” she said. “The students who choose this discipline are not only talented but highly motivated and engaged.”</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__8886 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" src="/sites/default/files/2018-07-24-logan-medal-resized.jpg" style="width: 350px; height: 410px; margin: 10px; float: left;" typeof="foaf:Image">The Logan Medal (pictured left)&nbsp;is just the latest of the prestigious awards Sherwood Lollar has been presented with over her career. She is one of only 165 Companions of the Order of Canada – the highest level of the Order of Canada – and has been honoured with the Royal Society of Canada’s Bancroft Medal, the NSERC John C. Polanyi Award, the Helmholtz International Fellow Award for research excellence, and the Eni Award for Protection of the Environment.</p> <p>Sherwood Lollar’s billion-year-old water research also made multiple top 10 science stories lists in 2013 and landed her on <em>Canadian Geographic’</em>s 2013 list of “Top Canadians Changing the World.”</p> <p>The Geological Association of Canada is a national multidisciplinary geoscience organization that significantly contributes to the promotion and development of the geological sciences in Canada through publications, awards, conferences, meetings and exhibitions. Every year, the GAC provides recognition for prominent Canadian geological contributions through a series of national awards, division, section and service awards and GAC student awards.</p> <p><em>With files from Kim Luke</em></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h2>&nbsp;</h2> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 30 Jul 2018 04:00:00 +0000 noreen.rasbach 139345 at Team led by ֱ researchers discovers energy source sustaining microbial life deep beneath Earth’s surface /news/team-led-u-t-researchers-discovers-energy-source-sustaining-microbial-life-deep-beneath-earth-s <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Team led by ֱ researchers discovers energy source sustaining microbial life deep beneath Earth’s surface</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-10-27-rock-microbial-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=LVYBNBQJ 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2016-10-27-rock-microbial-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=5mzqCSd1 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2016-10-27-rock-microbial-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ZcJG09Zw 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-10-27-rock-microbial-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=LVYBNBQJ" alt="Photo of rock containing sulfur"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-10-27T11:49:09-04:00" title="Thursday, October 27, 2016 - 11:49" class="datetime">Thu, 10/27/2016 - 11:49</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Sulfide minerals in the host rock, including pyrite, are oxidized by products of radiolysis to produce the source of sulfate found in the fracture waters (photos by K. Gorra)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/patchen-barss" hreflang="en">Patchen Barss</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Patchen Barss</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/earth-sciences" hreflang="en">Earth Sciences</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/barbara-sherwood-lollar" hreflang="en">Barbara Sherwood Lollar</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/collaboration" hreflang="en">Collaboration</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>In Northern Ontario, a team led by ֱ researchers has&nbsp;found the “geochemical fingerprints&nbsp;of life” and the energy sustaining this&nbsp;life&nbsp;in waters more than two kilometres below the surface of the Earth. The discovery demonstrates how life can be sustained even in the seemingly inhospitable environments of the deep Earth crust. &nbsp;</p> <p>Most life on Earth gets its energy – directly or indirectly – from the sun. But there are other options.</p> <p>“Microbial subsurface communities are often chemosynthetic, not photosynthetic,” says <a href="http://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards/uprofessors.htm">University Professor</a> <strong>Barbara Sherwood Lollar</strong> in the department of earth sciences at the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science. &nbsp;“In chemosynthesis, a molecule like hydrogen ‘donates’ electrons, and sulfate ‘accepts’ them. Basically, all metabolism works through this kind of exchange of electrons. That’s how energy works. That’s how life works.”&nbsp;</p> <p>The chemical reactions producing the electron donor in these deep waters had been identified several years ago, but the source of sulfate –&nbsp;the electron acceptor –&nbsp;had been elusive.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__2340 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" height="500" src="/sites/default/files/2016-10-27-microbial-embed.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="750" loading="lazy"><br> <em>Co-authors Barbara Sherwood Lollar and <strong>Georges Lacrampe-Couloume</strong>, holding pyrite rich rocks from the field site ( photo by&nbsp;K. Gorra)</em></p> <p>In a paper published this week in <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13252"><em>Nature Communications</em></a>, Sherwood Lollar and her colleagues report that sulfate dissolved in these waters 2.4 km below the surface comes from oxidation of the sulfide minerals in the ancient rocks via chemicals produced when radiation breaks the water down into its constituent parts.</p> <p>First author <strong>Long Li</strong>, now the Canada Research Chair in stable isotope geochemistry at the University of Alberta, worked with Sherwood Lollar at ֱ as a postdoctoral fellow. Along with researchers from McGill University, they studied the distribution pattern of multiple sulfur isotopes – that is, sulfur atoms that differ by the number of neutrons – in the dissolved sulfate in ancient subterranean waters near Timmins, Ont.</p> <h3><a href="https://deepcarbon.net/feature/active-sulfur-recycling-billion-year-old-water-canadian-shield-rocks#.WBIvFk1TGUl">Read about the latest findings in&nbsp;<em>Deep Carbon Observatory</em></a></h3> <p>Their earlier work had revealed that these waters contain&nbsp;hydrogen and sulfate – key components that make life possible without sunlight. The multiple sulfur isotope compositions in the sulfate show a unique pattern, only seen in rocks formed before oxygen appeared in Earth’s atmosphere about 2.4 billion years ago.</p> <p>By matching this isotopic feature in the dissolved sulfate with that of pyrite in the 2.7-billion-year-old rocks hosting the waters, the researchers demonstrated that the same pyrite and other sulfide ores that make these rocks ideal for economic mining of metals, produce the “fuel” for microbial metabolisms.</p> <p>But there were other surprises in store.</p> <p>“When we looked at the sulfate dissolved in these waters, we found it was more enriched in an isotope called sulphur 34 than expected,” Sherwood Lollar says.</p> <h3><a href="/news/ancient-hydrogen-rich-waters-discovered-deep-underground-locations-around-world">Read more about Barbara Sherwood Lollar's research</a></h3> <p>Living creatures and non-organic chemical reactions both affect these isotopic patterns, often in distinctive ways.</p> <p>“People often think we study ancient life through fossils,” says Sherwood Lollar. “But the evidence that life arose on our planet 3.8 to 4 billion years ago comes not from fossils, which came much later in Earth’s history, but from geochemical fingerprints.”</p> <p>Microbes leave behind geochemical isotopic signatures that allow researchers to detect their existence, even in the absence of fossil or biological data.</p> <p>The authors tested models of both chemical and biological processes to try to explain the enrichments in sulphur 34. The results pointed to a biological process&nbsp;and suggested that microbial communities must have colonized these rocks long ago.</p> <p>“We looked carefully at chemical processes that might account for this pattern, but they just didn’t fit. That forces us to look at the other kind of process – a biological one, which fits&nbsp;very well,” Sherwood Lollar&nbsp;says. “There must have been microbes in these waters on a geologically long timescale.”</p> <h3><a href="/news/two-u-t-s-university-professors-honoured-royal-society-exceptional-contributions">Read about Barbara Sherwood Lollar being honoured by the Royal Society of Canada</a></h3> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 27 Oct 2016 15:49:09 +0000 ullahnor 101569 at Two of ֱ's University Professors honoured by Royal Society for exceptional contributions /news/two-u-t-s-university-professors-honoured-royal-society-exceptional-contributions <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Two of ֱ's University Professors honoured by Royal Society for exceptional contributions</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-09-29-royal-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=o90CMoUd 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2016-09-29-royal-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=0PTBlGhn 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2016-09-29-royal-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=pJtpoJFJ 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-09-29-royal-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=o90CMoUd" alt="Photo of Linda Hutcheon and Barbara Sherwood Lollar"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-09-29T12:01:48-04:00" title="Thursday, September 29, 2016 - 12:01" class="datetime">Thu, 09/29/2016 - 12:01</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Barbara Sherwood Lollar, left, and Linda Hutcheon, right, have been awarded medals by the Royal Society of Canada (photo composite by Diana Tyszko)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/kim-luke" hreflang="en">Kim Luke</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Kim Luke</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty" hreflang="en">Faculty</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/royal-canada" hreflang="en">Royal Canada</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/linda-hutcheon" hreflang="en">Linda Hutcheon</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/barbara-sherwood-lollar" hreflang="en">Barbara Sherwood Lollar</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The Royal Society of Canada is honouring two ֱ scholars,&nbsp;<strong>Linda Hutcheon</strong> and <strong>Barbara Sherwood Lollar</strong>, both holders of the prestigious distinction of <a href="http://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards/uprofessors.htm">University Professor</a>, a title&nbsp;held by only two per cent of the tenured faculty.</p> <p>Hutcheon, University Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature, will receive the 2016 Lorne Pierce Medal for achievements in critical literature which have transformed understanding of “Canadian identity.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Sherwood Lollar, University Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, has been selected to receive the Bancroft Medal, a prize for work that contributes enormously to public understanding and appreciation of the earth sciences. &nbsp;</p> <p>“Both Linda Hutcheon and Barbara Sherwood Lollar are enormously respected in the international community as influential leaders in their fields,” said <strong>David Cameron</strong>, dean of the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science. “This latest accolade reminds us how highly they are both valued by their home country as well.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Hutcheon became a scholar of Canadian literature following her training in comparative European literature, a step she describes as “natural for a Canadian watching the exhilarating post-Massey Report flowering of our literary culture. &nbsp;In the '70s, the excitement was palpable, and continues to be so.” &nbsp;</p> <p>The 1951 Massey Report had warned that Canadian culture was becoming invisible in the shadow of the American invasion of film, radio and periodicals, leading the government to require Canada’s mass media to encourage Canadian content.</p> <p>"Being awarded the Lorne Pierce Medal, with its emphasis on the study of the literature of Canada, is an immense honour for me, and not only because of the many brilliant Canadianists who have won it before,” said Hutcheon. Previous medallists include Alice Munro, Rudy Wiebe and Rosemary Sullivan.</p> <p>Hutcheon has achieved broad international recognition as a literary theorist, a major critical voice on Canadian writing and culture, and as an interdisciplinary collaborative scholar. The author of nine books and co-author of four in collaboration with physician Michael Hutcheon, she has also edited 16 books or special issues of journals and published 300 articles and book chapters.&nbsp;</p> <p>A translator of Québec writers, Hutcheon also co-edited a book of interviews and fiction on what was for her a defining part of Canadian culture: its multicultural as well as bicultural/bilingual identity. Her <em>Other Solitudes </em>(1990) grew out of what she calls her “crypto-ethnic” experience: her married name conceals her cultural identity as an Italian Canadian.&nbsp;</p> <p>“I was driven by a desire to understand why culture matters, how Canadian culture helps shape individual, regional and national senses of self, and how cultural and linguistic diversity can and should be seen and practiced as forms of enrichment and invigoration rather than abrasion and instability,” she said. &nbsp;</p> <p>For Sherwood Lollar, being selected as the recipient of the Bancroft Award marks an important tribute to the depth and breadth of the earth sciences.</p> <p>Sherwood Lollar’s research ranges from projects that inform public policy and improve remediation of groundwater resources globally,&nbsp;to spearheading international research collaborations to&nbsp;uncover&nbsp;the most ancient water on earth, a discovery with potential implications for life on other planets.&nbsp;</p> <p>These deep waters, found three kilometres beneath the Canadian Shield, were reported in the prestigious journal <em>Nature</em> and has captured both the scientific community’s attention and the public’s imagination with several news outlets noting the discovery as one of the top 10 science stories of 2013.&nbsp;</p> <p>A second paper, also published in <strong>Nature</strong>&nbsp;on the hydrogen and methane-rich waters of the deep crust sparked similar attention for its implications not only for expanding our understanding of Earth’s subsurface life and habitability but for insights to the origin of methane –&nbsp;and possibly life –&nbsp;on Mars.&nbsp;</p> <p>Sherwood Lollar’s research in groundwater quality and remediation –&nbsp;investigations of bioremediation of toxic organic compounds using compound specific stable isotope analysis (CSIA)&nbsp;–&nbsp;revolutionized approaches to remedy environmental contamination.&nbsp;</p> <p>While the scientific community was aware that certain organic contaminants –&nbsp;particularly petroleum and chlorinated hydrocarbons –&nbsp;could be remediated by naturally occurring microbial communities, there was no solid “in situ” evidence of the effectiveness of the process and this, understandably stood in the way of regulatory approval and support. &nbsp;</p> <p>Sherwood Lollar provided the necessary proof. &nbsp;In the words of research microbiologist <strong>John Wilson</strong> of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, CSIA was like “turning the lights on” by providing one of the few convincing means of demonstrating the effectiveness of natural microbial alternatives. &nbsp;The scientific approaches and research field Sherwood Lollar pioneered are now in widespread use throughout the world.&nbsp;</p> <p>In 2000, Sherwood Lollar was selected by <em>Time</em> as one of 25 “Leaders for the 21st Century,”&nbsp;and in 2013 Canadian Geographic named her one of the “Top Canadians Changing the World.” In 2012, she received the Eni Award in Protection of the Environment, a prestigious international prize for outstanding research in fields of energy and the environment.</p> <p>Most recently, she entered the Order of Canada at its highest level: Companion of the Order of Canada, was elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union&nbsp;and won the NSERC John C. Polanyi Award, one of Canada’s highest honours in science and engineering.&nbsp;</p> <p>Hutcheon and Sherwood Lollar will receive their awards at a ceremony at the Royal Society of Canada’s Annual General Meeting on Nov.&nbsp;18, 2016.&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 29 Sep 2016 16:01:48 +0000 ullahnor 101231 at