In the past couple of years, the Society has expressed an interest in increasing the student membership and has been taking steps to reach this goal. In 2001 Tina Mann was appointed as the first student representative on the National Executive Committee to bring input from a student perspective and help create ways to increase student involvement. Recently, a proposal was made and accepted at the annual general meeting to start a bursary award program for 2003. This will be awarded on the basis of academic standing, quality of research, and contributions to the SSC. Students must be members of the SSC to be eligible for this award. More information will be available about this award soon.

The photo at the right was taken at the 48th ICASS/ EnviroAnalysis meeting in Toronto. The picture shows students Nardos Tassew (left) and Tina Mann (right) receiving their Karasek Awards from Dr. Karasek (centre). The Karasek Awards were financially supported by Wellington Laboratories.

The 48th ICASS held jointly with EnviroAnalysis 2002, presented several opportunities for students to develop new skills, network, and share their research with colleagues. Technical workshops were offered to students at a fraction of the regular prices. The career workshop offered on the day before the conference officially started was definitely a success. Supported by MDS Sciex, a variety of topics including career prospects and the current environmental job market, networking skills, financial planning, and interview tips were presented to an audience of approximately 30 students, post doctoral fellows, and other interested parties. Attendees were also given the opportunity to have their resumes evaluated and to speak to representatives from a variety of environmental and analytical instrumentation fields. Along with the opportunity to participate in these workshops, students were also able to present their research to colleagues and gain valuable experience both in terms of networking and constructive criticism. The following students received awards at the ICASS/EnviroAnalysis meeting:
SSC Poster Award: Alison Holliday
CAEAL* Scholarship: Hamid Badiei
Karasek Award: Nardos Tassew and Tina Mann
Runners-Up for the Karasek Award: Gurusankar Saravanabhavan and Agnes Kolkiewicz
*Canadian Association for Environmental Analytical Laboratories

Student Member Profile - Alison Holliday
This is a new addition to the Newsletter in an effort to recognize student members of the SSC and their contributions to research and the Society as well as familiarize everyone with some of the SSC's newest members. Please join us in congratulating Alison on her recent award at the 48th ICASS meeting.

Alison Holliday is currently an M.Sc student with Dr. Diane Beauchemin at Queen's University. She is hoping to progress soon into a Ph.D. program after completion of her comprehensive exam. She studies mixed-gas plasmas in ICP-MS, with a particular interest in methods of reducing matrix effects. Alison is a recent winner of an SSC award at ICASS for her poster on the mechanism of ionization in a cold plasma and a plasma with nitrogen introduced into the nebulizer flow. She has also won travel awards from the CSC and the American Microchemical Society. Alison hopes to continue in academia and eventually become a professor of analytical chemistry. As an active member of the SSC since 2000, she maintains the Society's webpage. Outside of the lab and SSC activities, she likes to go on hiking and canoeing trips, as well as playing hockey and laughing with friends.