An engineer who has done research and taught about
concrete and materials engineering in Canada, the United
States, Britain and Denmark will come to UW January 1, 1996,
as the first vice-president (university research).
     She is Dr. Carolyn Hansson, who has been head of the
department of materials and metallurgical engineering at
Queen's University since 1990.
     UW's research administration has previously been headed
by a "dean of research". Since Dr. Arthur Carty left that
post last year to become president of the National Research
Council, the interim dean of research has been Dr. Gary
Waller of the psychology department. He will continue as
acting dean for he rest of 1995.
     By a change in UW's policy last fall, the new vice-
presidency was created to recognize the importance of
research at UW and give the university's research activity
greater visibility for industry and government.
     Hansson will be the first woman vice-president in
Waterloo's history.
     Her appointment was approved by the university senate
June 5 and the board of governors June 6. Hansson was
selected by a nominating committee that included faculty,
staff and students at the university, and was chaired by Dr.
Jim Kalbfleisch, vice-president (academic) and provost.
     A biographical sketch calls Hansson "a world-class
researcher", well recognized for her work on concrete and
related materials. She has been responsible for obtaining
funding, conducting or supervising the research, and report
ing the results of more than 30 research projects funded
through grants or contracts, and has published more than 90
papers and made more than 100 technical presentations.
     She is a council member for the Natural Sciences and
Engineering Research Council and a member of - among many
other agencies - the National Materials Advisory Board in
the United States.
     She is a "principal investigator", or research leader,
for centres of excellence funded by both the government of
Canada and the government of Ontario: the federal Concrete
Canada centre and the Ontario Centre for Materials Research.
The research work she is now doing at Queen's will move to
Waterloo with her.
     Before she went to Quieen's, Hansson had been a
research scientist and department head at the Danish
Corrosion Centre; a technical staff member at Bell
Laboratories in New Jersey; an "overseas fellow" at
Cambridge University; chair of the department of materials
science at the State University of New York, Stony Brook;
and a research scientist at Martin Marietta Research
Laboratories in Baltimore.
     Says her biographical statement, presented to the
senate and board by Kalbfleisch last week: "Dr.Hansson has a
proven record of developing and maintaining a wide network
of contacts in industry and academia - a forte which will
serve the University of Waterloo well.
     "She supports the concept of research linkages but
believes that, in pursuing industrial interactions,
universities must not lose sight of the value of long-term,
curiosity-driven research which has no immediate sign of
payback.
     "Dr. Hanson is very effective at communicating between
technical disciplines as well as communicating technical
information to non-technical people.É
     "Dr. Hansson is refreshingly direct and positive. Her
vision, dedication, enthusiasm, energy, and her proven
management, communication and organizational skills will
make her an outstanding Vice-President."
     In addition to her appointment as vice-president,
Hansson becomes a tenured professor in UW's department of
mechanical engineering.