Dean's Message
Welcome,
I am very happy that you are visiting the Science at
Western website. We are proud of the leading edge research from our
faculty who continually set new directions for the global research
community. In this setting, the high-profile investigators within our
eight departments share a dynamic spirit of research which shapes the
future. It comes as no surprise that our students flourish in this
environment of excitement and creativity. Here, students get first-hand
research experience, making the enterprise far more real, as well as
providing a vehicle for trying out their own ideas. At Western, faculty
and students follow their passions and strive to expand the global
knowledge base. At the same time they are receptive to emerging areas
so they may responsibly participate in solving the problems of today and
tomorrow.
I want to share with you briefly the benefits of
Science in the current global context while pointing to the areas
essential for the world’s progress.
The first area surrounds the
topic of managing resources: becoming wise in how we can remain within
the planet’s carrying capacity while dealing with the emerging matters
concerning exploration along with economic and social issues. We have
students in programs ranging from geosciences and exploration techniques
to materials sciences to environment & sustainability who can bring
their perspectives to these real world problems.
The second area
is life sciences: medicine and related health care areas are
experiencing rapid changes in development. Research in these areas has
become increasingly broader beyond such traditional areas as
pharmacology and physiology and now includes tele-robotics for medicine
as well as all of the capacities of genetics, bioinformatics, and
biostatistics, for example.
The third area is information
science: becoming knowledgeable about how to explore and utilize the
massive data that is generated daily. Careful mining from currently
available sources ranging from health records to data from satellite
imagery may be used for many applications. Analytical techniques can be
used in identification of forest fire smoke exposure, for security or
for estimating soil moisture in agriculture. Information science covers
methods for information storage and retrieval, including both hardware
and software issues, data analytics, search algorithm development,
human-computer interfaces, and developing ever smaller and more stable
components. It is made up of such branches as programming, statistics,
analysis, mathematics, material studies, chemistry, and physics.
Further,
there are linkages across these areas. For example, disease
surveillance on a global scale links the life and information sciences.
Indeed, there is a strong focus on interdisciplinary work to solve
major challenges in health and societal issues and to realize advances
in research.
Alumni, faculty, graduate students and
undergraduate students have opportunities to become links in the growing
community here. After experiencing Science at Western, the lifelong
friendships you develop here can go beyond enriching your career path,
they can enhance your life.
Charmaine Dean
Dean of Science
