Numerous faculty, students, alumni and staff attended the November 3rd YORKwrites reception at Steacie Science & Engineering Library to congratulate each other on their recent accomplishments.

YORKwrites celebrates, promotes and documents all recent scholarly, research and creative works produced by the York community.

Images of recent York research, publication and creative work were displayed on the big screen throughout the evening, and the Bookstore provided a range of York- authored books for sale. As a special treat, David Clink from the Bronfman Business Library read from his book of poetry.  Also this year, over 40 Science and Engineering faculty members and graduate students displayed poster presentations.

President Mamdouh Shoukri, Science & Engineering Dean Walter Tholen and AVP Research Michael Siu were present to congratulate the many authors, researchers and creators whose output raises the profile of York University.  “We owe York authors a great debt, said Shoukri. “It is through their work, scholarly, scientific professional or creative that the wider world learns about…the research, the creative thinking, the pursuit of academic excellence that defines us as a university.” He added, “This is an important initiative and a cause worth celebrating.”

There’s much new and notable research output in 2008 and 2009 from the Faculty of Science & Engineering, including the development of a prototype Space Elevator and the discovery of snow on Mars, not to mention the award-winning MARS rover project.  Students from the York University Rover Project made a splash as they and their championship robot rolled through the Library gates, accompanied by their advisor, Dr. Regina Lee.  The team talked about the new rover they will develop for the 2010 University Rover Challenge as fascinated guests peppered the team with questions.  And that’s just the tip of the iceberg for research output from just one Faculty.

Documentation of York’s output is one of the goals of the YORKwrites initiative.  The YORKwrites database contains over 3900 citations of works submitted by faculty, staff, students and alumni.  This is just the barest sampling of every manner of York production since 2001 . The database, acknowledged by the Division of the Vice President (Research & Innovation) as an important indicator of York’s research impact, has been consulted for reporting on York scholarly activity.

Dean Tholen commented on how much the Steacie Science & Engineering Library has been part of his life as a scholar and teacher at York.  He commended John Dupuis (Head of Steacie Library), Steacie staff and librarians for their leadership in making the Steacie Library an inviting space for faculty and students “and more importantly, for keeping close contact with every Science department and apprising us of the changes that are taking place [in scholarly publishing].”

As Professor Paul Delaney so aptly put it in his Toast to the Authors: “Despite our various learning endeavours, one common theme defines us -- our love of learning and our urge to communicate our findings with others.”

Please visit www.yorku.ca/yorkwrites to explore our database, read our faculty profiles and submit your own publication, research or creative work.