Concordia Senate approves nanoscience program

The reception of millions of dollars in donations also announced

Concordia’s Senate approved a new master’s program in nanoscience and nanotechnology (NSNT) on Friday, March 16. The new graduate program is the result of almost a decade of collaboration between the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science and the Faculty of Arts and Science.

“We’re bringing science and technology together in a very interesting way,” André Roy, the Faculty of Arts and Science dean, told the Senate.

According to documents submitted to the Senate, the NSNT program was designed as a graduate program to give students the skills and knowledge needed to work in the nanoscience and nanotechnology fields.

The documents describe NSNT as the ability to study and manipulate materials at the nanometre scale. A few examples of NSNT include quantum materials, nanoconstructs for medical applications and nanoengineering of chemistry.

Although McGill University offers a minor in nanotechnology at the undergraduate level through their chemical engineering department, the new Concordia program is the first master’s degree in nanoscience or nanotechnology available in Quebec. The University of Waterloo in Ontario is the only other Canadian university to offer a master’s program in nanotechnology.

$10 million for a real estate centre

It was also announced at the meeting that Concordia received two major donations from Concordia alumni. Jonathan and Susan Wener contributed $10 million to the establishment of a new centre for real estate studies. Jonathan Wener is a Concordia graduate and the chairman and CEO of Canderel, a Montreal-based property development firm.

Miriam Roland, another Concordia alumna, donated $3 million to establish a graduate fellowship in her name.

New courses, new names

On Friday, the Senate received documents to be approved by the Academic Programs Committee (APC) concerning two new physics courses. If approved, experimental physics I and II will be offered starting in the Fall 2018 semester. They will be mandatory courses for Concordia students hoping to obtain a major in physics. According to the documents, the courses will better prepare physics students for work in a laboratory throughout their academic or professional careers.

Documents were also submitted to the Senate for approval by the APC to officially change the name of the Concordia Canadian Irish Studies program to Irish Studies in 2018. The documents suggested that the current name is misleading because the program does not focus exclusively on the Irish in Canada, but rather on Irish people in Ireland, Canada and all over the world.

Photo by Alex Hutchins

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