Gazette, 1996-10-03

              Memorial
University of Newfoundland
Publications Mail
Registration No. 551 988
Volume 29 Number 4
A MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY OF NEWFOUNDLAND PUBLICATION
Oct. 3, 1996
Prospectors, famous soprano
to receive honorary degrees
Fall convocation will be held Oct. 26
at the St. John's Arts and Culture
Centre. This year approximately 550
undergraduate and graduate degrees will be
awarded to Memorial University students
— the satisfying culmination of years of
hard work and study.
Three honorary degrees will also be
awarded at convocation. Albert Chislett
and Chris Verbiski will receive honorary
degrees at the 10 a.m. session because of
the contribution they have made to the
provincial economy by discovering minerals in Labrador. At the 3 p.m. session, an
honorary degree will be conferred upon
renowned soprano Rosemarie Landry in
recognition of her contribution to
Canadian culture.
It is not everyday that Memorial honors a great partnership, but Mr. Chislett
and Mr. Verbiski are not ordinary
prospectors and discoverers. Their company, Archean Resources — in association
with Diamond Fields of Vancouver, B.C.
— was responsible for the rich find of
nickel, copper and cobalt at Voisey's Bay,
Labrador, in 1994.
Albert Chislett
Mr. Chislett was bom in Islington, Trinity
Bay in 1949. After studying business
administration at Ryerson Polytechnical
Albert Chislett
Rosemarie Landry
Chris Verbiski
Institute in Toronto, and working in the
accounting department at Swift Premium in
Ontario for five years, he established a successful construction company in St. John's
and operated it for 15 years.
His interest in geology and mineral
exploration began in the late 1980s, stemming in part from his love of the outdoors.
In 1988 he started operating an independent
mineral exploration company and began
prospecting full time. He was soon one of
the most active prospectors in the
province, and was the first to receive a
provincial Prospector's Assistance
Program grant. Today Mr. Chislett is president of Archean Resources.
Chris Verbiski
Mr. Verbiski was bom in 1968 in the mining town of Buchans. At convocation he
will become the youngest person ever to
receive an honorary degree from Memorial.
Mr. Verbiski has spent most of his life
working in the mining industry. During his
summers as a student in Springdale he
worked with numerous contractors, and in
1986 he began carrying out geophysical,
geochemical and sampling work for the
Newfoundland office of Noranda Inc. For
the next three years he combined his work
with studies at Memorial University, then
formed his own independent contracting
company in 1989. One year later he began
teaching the prospector course offered
annually at Westviking College in
Stephenville. Mr. Verbiski is vice-president
of Archean Resources, which was established in 1993. Today the company has 157
employees and manages quarterly budgets
that range between $12-16 million.
Mr. Chislett and Mr. Verbiski have
received several honors for their accomplishments, including being named Mining
Men of the Year by 77ie Northern Miner.
This year they received the Prospector of
the Year Award from the Prospectors and
Developers Association of Canada.
Rosemarie Yvonne Landry
Dr. Landry is one of the world's leading interpreters of French art song. She
is an especially apt recipient of an honorary degree this year, since 1996
marks the 20th anniversary of the
See HONORARY DEGREES, page 2
Program judged best
By Jean Graham
Memorial University's naval architectural
engineering program is not just the only
degree of its kind in Canada, it's the best
in North America.
That's according to Evaluation of Marine
Structures Education in North America, a report
prepared for the Ship Structures Committee (SSC),
a prestigious body with the mandate to further
oceans engineering education in North America.
"The SSC commissioned the study to determine
the state of ship structures education on the continent, as well as its profile in the workforce," said
Dr. Mahmoud Haddara, chair of the discipline of
naval architectural engineering in the Faculty of
Engineering and Applied Science.
Undergraduate and graduate marine structures
education programs at several institutions —
including Memorial, the University of Michigan,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Texas A &
M University, the University of California at
Berkeley, the United States Coast Guard Academy
and the United States Naval Academy — were
evaluated for curriculum content.
The 114-page report contains descriptions of
courses, subject areas studied, and the syllabi at the
institutions.
The entry on Memorial reads in part, "The graduates of this program are thus nearly but not quite
fully equivalent in educational breadth and professional preparation to those receiving master's
degrees at most other schools being described
The Ship Structures Committee report is good news
to (L-R): Dr. Gary Sabin, associate dean (undergraduate) of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied
Science; Dr. Mahmoud Haddara, chair of the discipline of Naval Architectural Engineering; and Term 6
student Clifton Meade.
here...The professional content of what must still
be termed an undergraduate curriculum is perhaps
stronger and more varied than that offered by any
of the schools in the U.S."
Engineering and Applied Science reps are
pleased.
"We didn't expect to be rated, and didn't expect to
be rated so well," said Dr. Gary Sabin, associate dean
See BEST PROGRAM, page 2
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Extra! Extra!
New shows at the
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