The Dean's Office Dispatch is the Faculty of Science's weekly e-newsletter for students, faculty and staff. 

Alum Kathryn Sullivan (PhD'78) among Aurum Award winners

Last weekend during Dal Alumni Days, the winners of Dal's signature alumni awards were announced, with Dr. Kathryn Sullivan (PhD'78, Earth Sciences) among those recognized.

A geologist, oceanographer and former NASA astronaut, Dr. Sullivan is the first American woman to perform a spacewalk and the first woman to reach the deepest known part of the ocean (and the first human being to ever do both). Meet Dr. Sullivan and the rest of Dal's 2025 signature award winners in this Dal News roundup, and visit the Alumni website for individual stories and videos for each award receipient.

Last Friday ahead of the Aurum Awards, Dr. Sullivan gave a public lecture on the increasingly congested, contested, and commercialized landscape of the “New Space Age.” She also took part in a panel discussion with fellow alum and Aurum Award winner Arad Gharagozli (BEng'20) and Maritime Launch Services founder, CEO, and director Stephen Matier. Dal oceanography professor Dr. David Barclay moderated the panel. Read a recap of the lecture in Dal News.   

2025 Faculty of Science Summer Institute Series

This summer, the Faculty of Science is once again offering a series of sessions focused on teaching and learning open to all faculty, staff, and graduate students. No registration is needed. Please drop-in either online or in-person, depending on the format of the session.

Learn more and see the full list of upcoming sessions on our myDal site (login required). Any questions about the Summer Institute can be directed to Dr. Leanne Stevens, associate dean academic (ADAScience@dal.ca). The first session is next Friday:

Session name: Accessibility in Course Design Policy: Faculty of Science Consult
Date: Friday, June 6
Time: 10:00 to 11:30 a.m.
Format: Online via Teams. Join the session at this link.

Description: Dalhousie is aiming to create an Accessibility in Course Design policy and one of the most essential pieces of the process is consultation. Hosted by the policy taskforce co-Chairs, Binod Sundararajan and Tereigh Ewert, and Quenta Adams (Assistant Vice Provost, Student Engagement and Success), this session is intended to hear feedback about proposed course instructor resources. They’re looking to hear about what could be helpful and what would provide the greatest benefit, as well as concerns, challenges, and opportunities, from course instructors.

Promotional materials wanted for Canada-Wide Science Fair Booth Expo

The Faculty of Science will be hosting a booth at the Canada-Wide Science Fair Booth Expo from June 5-6 at the University of New Brunswick. Over 5,000 elementary and secondary school students are expected to attend, as well as fair participants and the general public.

If your department has any interactive games, quizzes, activities, swag, or promotional materials that would be helpful for the booth, please drop them off to LSC room 827 by Tuesday, June 3. They will be returned by June 10 if necessary. If you have any questions or need more information, please contact ScienceOutreach@dal.ca

Would you like to make a submission to the Dean's Office Dispatch? Email communications.science@dal.ca with a brief summary of your notice, a supporting link or email address, and a photo/image if you have one.