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Array REPORTS
VOLUME   SIXTEEN,   NUMBER   THIRTEEN
I   MAY  27, 1970, VANCOUVER 8, B.C.
Historic Voyage Noted
When the Canadian oceanographic vessel
HUDSON docks in Vancouver June 12 the ship
will be more than half-way through a historic
41,000-mile voyage of scientific discovery in
the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans.
The majority of the scientists supervising
various aspects of research during the voyage
are either members of the UBC faculty or
graduates of the Institute of Oceanography.
To mark the visit of the HUDSON to
Vancouver, this issue of UBC Reports includes
a four-page insert (Pages Three to Six) which
details the voyage of the ship and describes
various aspects of research underway in the
Institute of Oceanography. The insert was
written by UBC's Assistant Information
Officer, Peter Thompson.
UBC will honor the officers and scientists of
the HUDSON at a June 12 reception in the
UBC Faculty Club to be attended by the Hon.
J.J. Greene, federal minister of energy, mines
and resources, who heads the government
department which operates the ship.
Photo Courtesy The Sun HON. JOHN NICHOLSON
Bfc/' '^WaW$r&**'
PROF. RAYMOND FIRTH
PROF. JACOB BIELY
MR. JOHN M. BUCHANAN
FOUR HONORARY DEGREES AWARDED
UBC Graduates Another Record Class
A record spring graduating class of more than
3,000 students will receive their academic degrees at
the University of B.C.'s 1970 Congregation
ceremonies in the War Memorial Gymnasium May
27-29.
Also taking part in the annual ceremonies will be
500 of the 1,047-member graduating class whose
degrees were approved by the UBC Senate in the fall
of 1969.
Taken together, the fall and spring graduating
classes total more than 4,000 students, a record
number for UBC.
Presiding over the three-day Congregation for
the first time will be Mr. Allan M. McGavin, who was
installed as UBC's Chancellor at the conclusion of the
1969 ceremony. The ceremony begins each day at
2:15 p.m.
The Hon. John R. Nicholson, B.C.'s
Lieutenant-Governor, will be one of four persons who
will receive honorary degrees at Congregation. The
honorary degree of doctor of laws (LL.D.) will be
conferred on Mr. Nicholson on May 27.
On the second day of Congregation UBC will
confer honorary doctor of science (D.Sc.) degrees on
Prof. Raymond Firth, one of the world's foremost
anthropologists, and Prof. Jacob Biely, a former UBC
department head and one of Canada's leading
agriculturalists.
On May 29 the honorary degree of doctor of
laws will be conferred on Mr. John M. Buchanan, a
UBC graduate who retired as Chancellor in 1969.
Mr. Nicholson had a noted career as a lawyer
and in government before being appointed
Lieutenant-Governor of B.C. in 1968.
Born in the Maritimes and educated at Dalhousie
University in Halifax, Mr. Nicholson was called to the
bar in B.C. in 1924. He practised law in Vancouver
until the Second World War, when he entered
government service in the department of munitions
and supply. Assigned to organize Canada's synthetic
rubber production program, he played a major role in
the establishment of the Polymer Corporation and
held the positions of general manager, managing
director and executive vice-president.
Mr. Nicholson was elected to the federal
Parliament in 1962 and held the posts of minister of
forestry, postmaster-general, minister of citizenship
and immigration, and minister of labor.
Prof. Raymond Firth, who teaches at the
London School of Economics in England, was a
pioneer in the development of field research
techniques in anthropology.
His best-known book, "We, the Tikopia: A
Sociological Study of Kinship in Primitive Polynesia,"
was the result of a two-year stay on the island of
Tikopia, where he learned the language of the native
people and observed their social habits and customs
before writing his book.
Such on-the-spot fieldwork was rare when Dr.
Firth used it in the early 1930s. His example was an
important influence in the development of
anthropology as a social science.
Dr. Firth also assisted in the development of
anthropological research and the growth of new
universities in almost every part of the
Commonwealth, including former British colonies in
Africa and Asia.
2/UBC Reports/May 27, 1970
He has been a visiting professor at many of the
world's major universities and has also worked
extensively with UNESCO and other United Nations
organizations. Dr. Firth spent four months at UBC in
1969 as a Canada Council fellow.
Prof. Jacob Biely has continued to carry out
teaching and research duties at UBC since his
retirement in 1968 as head of the Department of
Poultry Science in the Faculty of Agricultural
Sciences.
Prof. Biely has been associated with UBC since
1922 when he entered the Faculty of Agriculture as a
student. He was head of the graduating class for the
degree of bachelor of science in agriculture in 1926.
Prof. Biely joined the UBC faculty in 1935 and
was named head of poultry science in 1952. He has
earned an international reputation for his research in
such fields as poultry disease, vitamin utilization, the
action of antibiotics and the improvement of the
nutritional value of grains.
Dr. Biely is a fellow of the Royal Society of
Canada, the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, the Agricultural Institute of
Canada and the Poultry Science Association of
America.
Mr. John M. Buchanan is one of UBC's earliest
graduates (B.A., 1917) and was Chancellor of UBC
from 1966 to 1969. UBC's Senate conferred on him
the title of Chancellor Emeritus in June, 1969.
For more than 35 years Mr. Buchanan was
associated with British Columbia Packers Ltd., one of
the major fish packing companies in the province. He
joined the company as an internal auditor in 1928
and rose to be vice-president and general manager,
president and chairman of the board. He retired in
1964 but remained a director and chairman of the
company's policy committee.
Mr. Buchanan has been active in University
affairs as a former president of the UBC Alumni
Association and a member of the Senate and Board of
Governors. He was active in the University's capital
gifts campaign in 1957 and 1958 and was the second
recipient of the Great Trekker Award from the Alma
Mater Society in 1951.
Following are the heads of the 1970 graduating
class:
The Governor-General's Gold Medal (head of the
graduating classes in Arts and Science, B.A. and B.Sc.
degrees): Paul Garth Harrison.
The Wilfrid Sadler Memorial Gold Medal (head of
the graduating class in Agriculture, B.Sc. degree):
Timothy Garland.
The Association of Professional Engineers Gold
Medal (head of the graduating class in Engineering,
B.A.Sc. degree): John Bourne.
The  Kiwanis Club Gold  Medal and  Prize, $100
UBC
REPORTS
Volume 16, No. 13-May 27,
1970. Published by the University of British Columbia and
distributed free. J.A. Banham,
Editor; Barbara Claghorn, Production Supervisor. Letters to the Editor
should be addressed to the Information Office,
UBC, Vancouver 8, B.C.
(head of the graduating class in Commerce, B.Com.
degree): Peter Robinson.
The University Medal for Arts and Science (head
of the graduating class in Arts, B.A. degree): Gary J.
Paterson.
The University Medal for Arts and Science
(outstanding record in four-year course, B.Sc.
degree): Thomas Stevens.
The Law Society Gold Medal and Prize, Call a
Admission Fee (head of the graduating class in La
LL.B. degree): Robert Diebolt.
The Hamber Gold Medal and Prize, $250 (head of
the graduating class in Medicine, degree of M.D.):
Donald W. Cockcroft.
The Horner Gold Medal for Pharmacy (head of the
graduating class in Pharmacy, B.Sc. degree): Merridy
A. Hastings.
The Helen L. Balfour Prize, $250 (head of the
graduating class in Nursing, B.S.N, degree): Roswitha
Herke.
The Canadian Institute of Forestry Medal (best
all-round record in Forestry in all years of course,
B.S.F. degree): A. Leslie Brown.
The H.R. MacMillan Prize in Forestry, $100 (head
of the graduating class in Forestry, B.S.F. degree): A
Leslie Brown.
Dr. Maxwell A. Cameron Medal and Prize (head
the   graduating   class   in   Education,   B.Ed,   degree,
secondary teaching field): Stephen Douglas Bailey.
Dr. Maxwell A. Cameron Medal and Prize (head of
the graduating class in Education, B.Ed, degree,
elementary teaching field): E. Diane Martens.
The College of Dental Surgeons of British
Columbia Gold Medal (head of the graduating class in
Dentistry, D.M.D. degree): Gerald D. Richards.
The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Medal
(outstanding student in Architecture, degree of
B.Arch.): Allan R. Price.
The Ruth Cameron Medal for Librarianship (head
of the graduating class in Librarianship, degree of
B.L.S.): Judith O. Lowe.
The Canadian Association of Health, Physical
Education and Recreation Medal (head of the
graduating class in Physical Education, B.P.E.
degree): David G. Russell.
British Columbia Professional Recreation Society
Prize, $50 (head of the graduating class for degree of
Bachelor of Recreation Education): Margaret E.
Inkster.
Special University Prize, $100 (head of the
graduating class in Home Economics, B.H.E. degree):
Judith L. Pettit.
The College of Dental Surgeons of British
Columbia Gold Medal (head of the graduating class in
Dental Hygiene): Diane P. McBeth.
Special University Prize, $100 (outstanding in the
graduating class in Social Work, M.S.W. degree):
Novia Carter.
Special University Prize, $100 (outstanding
student in master's degree program, Community and
Regional Planning): Sheung Ling Chan.
Special University Prize, $100 (head of the
graduating class in Music, B.Mus. degree): Gary
Spilsted.
Special University Prize, $100 (head of the
graduating class in Rehabilitation Medicine, degree of
B.S.R.): Barbara J. Eden.
m
9* The Canadian oceanographic vessel HUDSON is due to arrive in Vancouver
on June 12 during a historic circumnavigation of North and South America.
Of the seven scientists originally assigned to supervise various legs of the
voyage, no less than five are from UBC or have been connected with the
University. In the article beginning below, UBC's Assistant Information
Officer, Peter Thompson, describes the voyage of the HUDSON and the
various scientific studies being carried out aboard the ship during its
41,000-mile journey.
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THE Canadian scientific ship HUDSON
left Halifax in November last year on a
one-year circumnavigation of the two
Americas. The voyage is the first in
history to loop North and South America and
the first to carry out an oceanographic
sampling of the Pacific Ocean from the
Antarctic to Alaska. (See map on Page Six).
The expedition, known as HUDSON 70, is
Canada's first oceanographic program on a
world scale and Canada's largest contribution
to the International Oceanographic Decade
which begins this year.
Of the seven scientists originally assigned to
supervise various legs of the 41,000-nautical-
mile voyage, no less than five are from UBC
or have been connected to the University.
The HUDSON, operated by the Atlantic
Oceanographic Laboratory of the federal
Department of Energy, Mines and Resources
at the Bedford Institute in Dartmouth, N.S.,
has journeyed south through the North and
South Atlantic, rounded the Cape Horn and is
due in Vancouver June 12.
THE last leg of the expedition will be
through the Northwest Passage and
down to Halifax again. Most of the
scientists aboard are from Canadian
government laboratories or Canadian
universities,   though   scientists   from   Chile,
Argentina and the United States participated
on some segments of the trip.
IT was originally intended that the
HUDSON be under the scientific command
of UBC men from the time she left Halifax
until she leaves Victoria on the last two legs
of her voyage through the Arctic Archipelago
to the east coast.
The first and longest section of the voyage
was from Halifax to Punta Arenas, Chile, with
calls at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Buenos Aires,
Argentina; and Puerto Williams, Chile.
Scientist-in-charge of this section was D.
Please turn to Page Six
See HISTORIC VOYAGE
UBC Reports/May 27       • /C '_" DR. G.L. PICKARD, director of UBC's Institute of
Oceanography, is one of five scientists-in-charge of
various legs of the scientific voyage of the Canadian
vessel HUDSON, which visits Vancouver June 12. His
research is concerned with the physical oceanography of
coastal and fiord waters.
Dinoflagellates, microscopic sea plants like the one
shown here magnified more than 1,000 times by a
scanning electron microscope, are being studied in the
Institute of Oceanography by Dr. F.J.R. Taylor. A
member of the same group of plants is responsible for
shellfish poisoning on B.C.'s coast.
OCEANS GIVE UP SEN
By PETER THOMPSON
Assistant Information Officer, UBC
Minutes before the Canadian scientific ship HUDSON
slipped out of Halifax on her historic voyage last November, federal Energy, Mines & Resources Minister Joe
Greene said the expedition could play a direct role "in
Canada's future social and economic development."
Since Canadians "obviously can't go to the moon"
and since Canada has the longest coastline of any
country — 59,670 miles, some of it still uncharted — it
makes sense to concentrate our scientific investigations
on oceanography, the minister said.
And that is exactly what Canada is doing. Canada is
considered a major power in oceanography. The federal
Bedford Institute at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, is second
in size in the world to the Scripps Institution in Califor-
MAJOR EMPLOYERS
The HUDSON, used in the 12-month oceanographic
voyage described in the article beginning on Page Three,
is the largest vessel of its kind outside of the Soviet
Union.
So far oceanography in Canada has been dominated
by the federal government and the four universities —
UBC, Dalhousie, the University of Toronto and McGill —
which teach the subject. Any reputation Canada enjoys
is the result of the co-operative effort of these organizations. Representatives of federal departments and the
universities form the influential Canadian Committee on
Oceanography.
Up until now universities and government have been
the major employers of graduates from UBC's Institute
of Oceanography. Interest in oceanography heightened
during the Second World War because of its military
applications. Then the subject remained almost dormant
until the mid-1950s when commercial ventures turned to
the sea. The prediction now is that oil exploration in the
Arctic and off Canadian coasts, especially the east coast,
will result in an increasing demand by industry for
oceanographers. Oceanographic techniques will also be
heavily used in meteorology and pollution control.
Canadian industry is just beginning to show
investment interest in the sea and lags behind the pattern
in the United States where more than 300 of the 500
largest companies are reported to have their own ocean
science programs.
Not long ago any mention of man gaining substantially from the riches of the oceans was dismissed as
romantic foolishness. Today it does seem possible and
the sea's wealth is generally accepted as so enormous
that any fraction would be bountiful.
Oceanography, long a Cinderella of science, promises
to become the glamor science of the '70s. It has been
selected as one of the five emerging industries — along
with medical technology, pollution control, learning aids
and nuclear energy — by Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner
& Smith, largest brokerage firm in the world.
ESTABLISHED IN 1948
UBC's Institute of Oceanography was the first established in Canada. The Defense Research Board in 1948
suggested that oceanography be taught at a Canadian
university. A year later, as the result of a recommendation of the National Conference of Canadian
Universities (now the Association of Universities and
Colleges of Canada), the Institute was formed at UBC as
part of the Faculty of Graduate Studies.
The Institute is one of the most interdisciplinary
organizations   at   the   University.   It   includes   various
branches of physics, chemistry, geology, botany and
zoology. Both staff and students are associated with the
department of their basic science. Only graduate students are accepted.
More than 40 students were enrolled in the 1969—70
session.Fifteen faculty members are associated with the
Institute.
The Institute's major interest has been physical
oceanography. Since the early '60s Institute research in
this area has been dominated by the problems of air-sea
interaction involving, among other things, the transfer of
energy from wind to water, wave generation and the
transfer of thermal energy from the water to the atmosphere.
Research into these little-understood phenomena is
necessary before man will ever be able to control the
weather or forecast it with any accuracy beyond a day
or two. The Institute is considered the world authority
on air-sea interaction research. Investigations have beeo
carried out since 1962 from an experimental station
built on stilts half a mile off Spanish Banks. Recently,
research on air-sea interaction has been done from locations at sea, including weather station Papa 500 miles
west of B.C. ^m.
Institute oceanographers led by Prof. Robert S^^Rt
took part in the Barbados Oceanographic and Meteorological Experiment (BOMEX) last summer. Prof.
Stewart, a recently-elected member of the prestigious.
Royal Society of Great Britain was chief scientist on the
Scripps vessel FLIP. His group was primarily concerned
with studying the transfer of heat from the ocean to the
air as latent heat in the form of water vapor.
Most of the heat the earth receives from the sun is
stored in the oceans between 30 degrees north and 30
degrees south latitudes. But the earth loses heat by
radiation almost uniformly from all latitudes. This
means heat concentrated around the centre of the earth
is transferred north and south. The heat isn't moved by
displacement of water but by the atmosphere which
receives the heat from the sea mostly in the form of
water vapor.
TRANSFER OF HEAT
The amount of water vapor in the atmosphere
determines to a large degree the type of weather. Since
the transfer of latent heat in the form of water vapor is a
long-term process, an understanding of its mechanism
could lead to long-range weather forecasting. Forecasts
are now done on a short-term atmospheric drift method
in which the wind moves weather systems from one location to another.
Prof. Stewart and students working with him are now
analysing data recorded during BOMEX. Prof. Stewart is
vice-chairman of the Global Atmospheric Research
Program's executive committee and is chairman of the
Physical Oceanography Commission of the International-
Association for the Physical Sciences of the Ocean.
Another Institute group participating in BOMEX was
led by Dr. Mikio Miyake who specializes in micro-
meteorology, which could be considered a sub-division
of the air-sea interaction problem.
Dr. Miyake has been conducting research into winds,
waves and ocean currents from the Spanish Banks experimental station since 1962 to find out how much
energy is transferred from the wind to the water and the
effect of this energy on wave and current formation.
Similar experiments in other parts of the world showed
great discrepancies. An International Intercomparison
Experiment was held in 1968 at UBC to compare techniques to measure air turbulence used by oceanographers
at the University of Washington, the Academy of
Science of the Soviet Union and UBC. Intercomparisons-
PROF. ROBERT STEWART, recently elected a member
of the prestigious Royal Society of Great Britain, heads
a research group in the Institute of Oceanography which
studying air-sea interaction. The group's work is basic
.. an understanding of weather formation and could
°ad to more reliable forecasting.
4/UBC Reports/May 27, 1970 1ETS FOR UBC OCEANOGRAPHERS
are being continued this summer in the USSR with UBC
participation.
The Institute has been concerned with the oceanography of inlets or fiords since its formation. Almost all
the inlets of B.C. have been investigated by Prof. G.L.
Pickard, director of the Institute, and his associates, and
recently studies have been made of the large fiords in
southern Alaska.
Fiords occur in only four other areas of the world.
Many of the Norwegian fiords were investigated by
Norwegian scientists at the beginning of the century.
Oceanographers from McGill have been active in the
fiords of Baffin Island and Newfoundland. Fiords of
southern New Zealand are being researched by scientists
there. Little oceanographic investigation has been made
of only one area — the extensive fiord system of
southern Chile. The voyage of the HUDSON gave Prof.
Pickard an opportunity to compare the inlets of Chile
•• and B.C.
ANALYSE DATA
He will spend the summer analysing data collected
from the HUDSON'S investigations off Chile. The fiords
of B.C. and southern Alaska open on to the relatively
^Lwfn north Pacific waters with low salinity. Chilean
nords open on to the cold, more saline Antarctic waters
of the Humboldt Current, and many of the inlets have
icebergs from glaciers in them, a feature B.C. fiords
lack.
Prof. Pickard has established that inlet water off Chile
has a high silt content indicating glacial erosion of the
mainland. He said the amount of fresh water in the
Chilean fiords was much less than found in B.C. inlets.
Little information was available on the amount of river
run-off into Chilean inlets befors the HUDSON expedition and the character of the flora and fauna and
bottom deposits were unknown.
Prof.  Pickard is a member of the Science Council's
Committee on Marine Science and Technology and was
on the Fisheries Research Board's Task Force to study
g—^Board's future.
^^^hough traditionally oriented towards physical
oceanography, the UBC Institute has also been active in
geology, chemistry and biology. In the summer of 1966
a team headed by Prof. James Murray found manganese
dioxide nodules running as high as 38 per cent man-
. ganese, one per cent nickel and .5 per cent copper at the
bottom of Jervis Inlet 130 miles north of Vancouver
under 1,200 feet of water.
The nodules were discovered on a submarine ridge
which rises about 400 feet above two adjacent flat
basins. Prof. Murray said the ridge was formed as the
result of glacial action about 10,000 years ago, a short
period in geological time. The nodules themselves were
too soft to have withstood glacial movement. This
seemed to indicate that the nodules were deposited very
rapidly, probably as a chemical precipitate from either
sea water or from water in the sediment.
MINERAL DEPOSITS
Prof. Murray has completed an investigation of
manganese deposits in Jervis Inlet with Dr. E.V. Grill.
Prof. Murray has also recently completed a continuous
seismic profiling study of the Strait of Georgia, investi-
' gations of sedimentary processes on tidal flats at
Boundary Bay and a study of the topography, petrology
and tectonic evolution of Bowie Seamount.
Besides chemical studies of manganese nodules from
Jervis Inlet, Dr. Grill has startec a general survey of
manganese nodules in B.C. waters.
Dr. F.J.R. Taylor's main concern is with phyto-
plankton,  the first  link of  the food chain of the sea.
Phytoplankton are single-cell plants which drift near the
surface and absorb light energy and use it to produce
carbohydrates from chemicals in the water. He is particularly interested in the phytoplankton of the Indian
and north Pacific Oceans.
Dr. Taylor has also been working for nine years on
"red water" — a phenomenon which occurs when
billions of certain types of phytoplankton gather for
unknown reasons near the surface of the water, giving it
a reddish tint. Red water has been recorded frequently
off the B.C. coast. Last local incident was in English Bay
in the summer of 1968.
H e    is   studying   the   phytoplankton   called    dino-
Zooplankton specimens are obtained from the Strait
of Georgia. Their water environment is tested for
temperature, salinity, trace metals and biological
activity. By varying chemical properties of the water in
the laboratory, Dr. Lewis hopes to determine minimum
and optimum conditions for the type of zooplankton he
is working with.
ECHO SOUNDERS
Extensive use of echo sounders in commercial fishing
is the result of experimentation by scientists in underwater acoustics in the past. Prof. Brian M. Bary is taking
advantage of a peculiar oceanographic feature of Saanich
Research team of geologists in UBC's Institute
of Oceanography headed by Prof. James Murray,
right, found nudities containing 3c' per cent
manganese under 1,200 feet of water in Jervis
flagellates sometimes responsible for shellfish poisoning
and the killing of sea fauna. Part of his investigation
involves use of a scanning electron microscope to obtain
a three-dimensional picture of the organism.
Dr. Taylor is also investigating the effects of the herbicide 2,4-D on phytoplankton and will carry out similar
experiments with 2,4,5-T.
Dr. Alan G. Lewis is studying the requirements of
zooplankton, tiny drifting animals which feed on
phytoplankton and form a link in the sea's food chain.
Like phytoplankton, zooplankton are influenced by the
properties of the water and Dr. Lewis wants to find out
what properties inhibit or stimulate their presence.
Inlet on the B.C. coast in 19h(t. Members of
Prof. Murray's group which discovered the
nodules are graduate student Bob Macdonald.
left and Dr.   Edward   V.   Grill.
Inlet for further study of the biological effects of
underwater acoustics.
Plankton and fish populations usually occur together.
But in Saanich Inlet the layers are separated with the
plankton layer at the top, allowing Dr. Bary to study the
effects of both layers simultaneously. Four or five
cruises a year are made on the project. The Institute uses
oceanographic ships maintained by the Department of
Energy, Mines and Resources.
Part of the Institute will move into the west wing of
the new addition to the Biological Sciences Building this
summer. The Institute is currently housed in tar paper
shacks brought to the campus at the end of the Second
World War.
UBC Reports/May 27, 1970/5 Map at right shows the various legs of the historic
voyage of the HUDSON, the Canadian scientific
vessel currently circumnavigating the Americas while
carrying out various scientific studies. Several of the
scientists-in-charge of the research studies are members of the UBC faculty or graduates of UBC's
Institute of Oceanography. When the ship leaves
Vancouver June 15 it will sail north through Canadian Arctic waters and return to Halifax. Map
courtesy the Department of Energy, Mines and
Resources.
170*       160"      150"     140*    130'    120*    HO*    100*   90*    30"     70*    60*    SO*    40°     30*      ?0'       (0* 0*        i0*
HISTORIC VOYAGE
Continued from Page Three
C.R. Mann who entered UBC in 1949 and
received his Ph.D. from the University in
1953. He heads a group at the Atlantic
Oceanographic Laboratory studying fundamental physical processes in the ocean.
Main interest of this section of the trip was
research into the biological and chemical
features of the oceans and the way they are
influenced by movements of large masses of
water and ocean currents.
ECHO soundings have indicated to science
that organic material and fish
populations at about the 1,000 metre
level of the ocean are more dense than at
any other level. Yet little is known of the size
of species of life at this level.
Science has only an incomplete understanding of the primary circulation iin the
South Atlantic. The frigid waters of the
Weddell Sea on the coast of the Antarctic
Continent south of South America sink to the
bottom of the sea and travel north along the
bottom of both the Pacific and Atlantic
Oceans well into the northern hemisphere.
As the cold water sinks it is replaced by
warmer water from the surface, causing a
complicated circulatory system.
After studying these biological and circulation mysteries the HUDSON took up a
position in Drake Passage, the body of water
between the Horn and the Antarctic
Continent, to record the flow of the huge
circumpolar current as it ran beneath the ship
from east to west.
Prof. G.L. Pickard, director of UBC's Institute of Oceanography, was scientist-in-charge
of the HUDSON from Punta Arenas to
Valparaiso, Chile. Prof. Pickard is a member
of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada
and the Canadian Committee on Oceanography and represents Canada on Unesco's
International Co-ordination Group for the
Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific.
His interest is the physical oceanography of
coastal and fiord waters, equatorial circulation and tsunamis, enormous waves caused by
earthquakes on the ocean floor which travel
through the deep seas at speeds of 300 miles
per hour.
His section of the expedition was mainly
concerned with studying the oceanography of
6/UBC Reports/May 27, 1970
i70° i6C* i50° '<10*        '1'
Chilean fiords in collaboration with the
Chilean government and Chilean scientists.
UBC's Institute of Oceanography has
already carried out extensive research of the
fiords of B.C. Comparison of these results
with measurements taken along the Chilean
coast could lead to development of fundamental principles of oceanography applying
to all fiord systems in the world.
The HUDSON travelled southwest out of
Valparaiso on the third leg of her voyage into
the April icepacks of the Antarctic Ocean
before swinging north to Papeete, the capital
of Tahiti.
Scientist-in-charge was to be Dr. W.L. Ford,
director of the Atlantic Oceanographic
Laboratory. Dr. Ford was raised in Victoria
and Vancouver and attended UBC. He was
superintendent of the Canadian Pacific Naval
Laboratory at Esquimalt from 1955 to 1959.
In February Dr. Ford was seconded to the
Arrow oil spill on the coast of Nova Scotia as
scientific co-ordinator and was replaced on
the HUDSON by Mr. R.C. Melanson, regional
hydrographer at the Atlantic Oceanographic
Laboratory.
INVESTIGATION of magnetics, acoustics,
gravity, biology, chemistry and physical
oceanographic properties of the seas was
done on this leg.
It is fitting that the Papeete to Vancouver
segment is under the scientific direction of
Dr. William M. Cameron, first member of
UBC's Institute of Oceanography. He will be
coming back to the Institute of Oceanography
he helped establish in 1949.
Dr. Cameron took his master's degree in
zoology from UBC in 1940 and later became
a professor of oceanography. He was Director
of Plans of Canada's Defense Research Board
before assuming his present position as
director of the Marine Sciences Branch of the
Department of Energy, Mines and Resources.
HE is well known for his Arctic studies.
Dr. Cameron was the senior Canadian
scientist on the famed joint Canada-U.S.
Beaufort Sea Expeditions. The United
States n u c I ea r-p o wered submarine
NAUTILUS used results of his research on its
historic voyage under the polar icepack.
The HUDSON will leave Vancouver June
15 for geophysical studies off the coast of
B.C. On August 1 she will put into Victoria,
hometown of Dr. CD. Maunsell, scientific
leader of this leg.
Dr. Maunsell took his B.A. at UBC in 1945,
winning the Governor-General's Gold Medal,
and his M.A. in 1947. After taking his Ph.D.
at the University cf California he came back
to UBC as a teaching assistant in physics. Like
Dr. Ford, he was attached to the Esquimalt
Pacific Naval Laboratory.
He is now head of the Oceanographic
Research Section of the Atlantic Oceanographic Laboratory.
The last two sections of HUDSON 70 will
be from Victoria to Resolute on Cornwallis
Island and from there back to Halifax. Research in the Arctic will be done on the
geological history of submergence of the
Arctic Islands.
Channels between the Islands are thought
to be submerged ancient river systems. By
taking samples of sediment from the channel
bottoms, scientists hope to determine the
history of glaciers in the area, and the depth,
temperature and size of the ancient Arctic
Ocean. THOSE who take part in a university
congregation ceremony participate in a
tradition that has been handed down with
unbroken continuity for some 700 years.
The ceremony had its origins, like universities
themselves, during the middle ages and like many
things ancient cannot be ascribed to any particular
founder or date of origin.
It has been suggested that the ceremony originated
in a time when literacy was not common and a public
demonstration that a scholar had met the
requirements for a degree was necessary so that the
record might be kept in human memory.
From its beginnings the ceremony has been the
occasion for the granting of degrees. The earliest
academic degrees meant that a student was "licensed
to teach" and today's advanced degrees still preserve
this tradition in the use of the words "master" and
"doctor" (originally synonymous) and both of which
meant "teacher."
The earliest universities were founded between
1100—1200. Great teachers resided at Paris and
Bologna and students who, like Chaucer's clerk of a
later era, "would gladly learn and gladly teach",
flocked to these centers from far and wide for
instruction.
As these gatherings of students and teachers into
"communities of scholars" occurred, the first two
universities took shape at Paris and Bologna. Later,
the third great university of the middle ages was
established at Oxford, England.
Historically the word university has no connection
with the universe or the universality of learning but
denoted only the totality of a group.
The earliest universities were established either by
secular or ecclesiastical authorities. The University of
Bologna was under the protection of Emperor
Frederick Barbarossa while the University of Paris
was an outgrowth of the cathedral school of Notre
Dame, whose chancellor controlled the granting of
university degrees.
The increasing secularization of universities has
divested most university chancellors of their
degree-granting power but many chancellors,
including UBC's, still play a prominent part in the
Congregation ceremony by ceremonially conferring
' the degree on individual students.
At UBC, the power to grant degrees — both
academic and honorary — is vested by law in the
University Senate, a 101-member elected and
appointed body made up of faculty members,
students, graduates and a miscellaneous group
appointed by various bodies.
Each year, a week before the first day of UBC's
public graduating ceremony, the deans of UBC's
eleven faculties present to Senate the names of
candidates who have completed the requirements for
the degree. Approval by Senate allows the graduating
student to take part in the Congregation ceremony
when the degree is bestowed on the student
individually by the Chancellor, the supreme
University dignitary elected every three years by the
whole body of graduates and faculty members, which
is collectively called Convocation.
UBC's Chancellor, Mr. Allan McGavin, presides
over Congregation. The name of each graduating
student is announced individually by the dean of his
faculty. The student then kneels before the
Chancellor and is tapped on the shoulder by the
Chancellor with his cap to signify that the student has
been admitted to his degree.
In this way, the original degree-granting function
of the Chancellor is called to mind.
The details of congregation ceremonies and even
the name varies from university to university. The
ceremony is called "convocation" in many other
universities, but UBC has always used the term
Congregation, which means "calling together of the
flock."
ONCE a format for the ceremony has been
adopted changes are made only after great
deliberation. To Dr. Malcolm McGregor, head
of the Classics Department and UBC's present
Director of Ceremonies, the Congregation ceremony
is "almost holy." Although ritual and ceremony have
tended to lose some of their esteem in modern
society, Dr. McGregor says the UBC ceremony "has
T he ceremony surrounding the conferring of a university degree has a long
tradition stretching back some 700 years
to the middle ages. In the article on this
page, UBC's Assistant Information Officer, Doris Hopper, describes how some
vestiges of that ancient ceremony are
still visible in the 1970 UBC event.
DEGREE
CEREMONY
COLORFUL
SPECTACLE
the   sanction   of   centuries"   and   he  doesn't  think
"anyone should make a mockery of it."
As UBC has grown in size the numbers of
candidates presented for degrees has increased each
year so that the ceremony is now held over a
three-day period with degrees in the arts and
humanities being presented on the first day, degrees
from the Faculties of Education, Law, Commerce and
Agricultural Sciences on the second, and degrees from
the pure, applied and health sciences and all doctoral
degrees being presented on the third.
AS the Congregation ceremony has become
more time-consuming, there has been
considerable pressure to reduce it. One
method of abbreviating the ceremony,
adopted at some universities, is to have all candidates
for a particular degree rise together and be admitted
as a group.
This form of ceremony has been strongly resisted
UBC. Dr. McGregor explained that it is felt the
individual awarding of degrees provides each student
with a share of well-earned recognition and gives
parents, wives, children and friends the opportunity
to share that moment.
He explained that other aspects of the ceremony
have been altered to retain recognition of individual
achievement as an integral part of UBC's ceremony.
This year's ceremony has been simplified, however,
by shortening the remarks of the Chancellor and the
President and eliminating addresses by an honorary
degree recipient and the graduating class
Valedictorian.
Although UBC's Congregation ceremony has
undergone numerous alterations it has retained the
essentials that give the ceremony its distinctive
quality and connection with the past.
The office of mace bearer, for example, derives
from medieval times in England when an official took
office or opened his court and needed a bodyguard.
In those days the mace, a formidable weapon, was
held ready to protect the dignitary. Today, at UBC, it
is the symbol of the authority of the Chancellor.
UBC's unique mace is carved from a block of yew
in the shape of an Indian club and inscribed with
symbols used by the Indians to represent real or
mythical events in history. The mace is five feet,
four-and-a-half inches long and weighs approximately
50 pounds. It is carried by Prof. Benjamin Moyls,
acting dean of Graduate Studies.
The mace bearer plays an important role in the
Congregation procession which begins at UBC's
Student Union Building and makes its way across the
campus to the War Memorial Gymnasium where the
ceremony is held.
The procession is led by the deans of each of the
11 faculties, followed by the students who are
candidates for the various degrees. Next comes the
faculty, followed by the Chancellor's procession,
which includes the Board cf Governors, members of
Senate, and representatives of the church, the
services, government, the bench, other institutions,
and all previous recipients of honorary degrees who
choose to attend.
THE Chancellor's procession is followed by the
Chancellor's party, which is led by the mace
bearer and consists of the Chancellor, the
President, the Registrar, the clergyman who
reads the invocation, recipients of honorar ' degrees,
ministers of the Crown and the Lieutenant-Governor.
The Congregation procession is a drr natic and
colorful spectacle, enhanced by the profusion of
colors that distinguish the academic dress which
dignitaries, faculty and students don for the occasion.
Academic dress, with its flowing gowns, hoods,
and assorted styles of cap is yet another part of the
regalia of the Congregation ceremony inherited, albeit
with modifications, from the middle ages. Legends
have arisen regarding the origins of the costume and
its uses. One story has it, for instance, that the hoods
were once used by scholars to carry bread and books.
More mundane but more likely is the simple
explanation that the hoods were used for warmth and
protection against the elements. They remain an
important part of academic dress because the colors
used in the hoods indicate which degree has been
earned and from which university it has been granted.
Degree holders always wear the distinctive
academic dress of the university from which they
graduated and during Congregation UBC faculty will
be wearing academic dress representing most of the
leading universities of the world.
UBC's colors are blue and gold. All undergraduate
gowns are black, of ankle length with long sleeves and
the yoke edged with khaki cord. The trim on the
unlined hood of bachelor's gowns indicates the degree
being conferred.
Master's gowns are of the same style as
undergraduate gowns but without the cord around
the yoke. The hoods are lined with the appropriate
color for each degree.
The Ph.D. regalia consists of a gown of maroon
silk material and sleeves of UBC blue with gold
piping. The hood is blue silk lined with gold and the
cap is called a Decanal bonnet, which looks like a
Beefeater's hat and is of maroon silk with gold cord
and tassle.
Among the most colorful costumes are the gowns
worn by recipients of honorary degrees from UBC.
The gowns and hoods are of scarlet, lined with dark
blue velvet for the doctor of laws degree, dark purple
lining for the doctor of science degree and with cream
for the doctor of literature degree.
The granting of honorary degrees honoris causa
(because of honor) is an important part of the
Congregation ceremony. Most important of all,
however, is the granting of degrees to the some 3,000
UBC students who are candidates this year. As each
individual student makes his or her way across the
platform, kneels before the Chancellor and is
accepted into that "ancient and universal company of
scholars," they become a bridge linking
contemporary society with the middle ages.
LINKED with the past, it is fitting that the
closing remarks of the Chancellor should
admonish them to look to the future: "Many
generations and peoples have contributed to the
sum of your understanding and have obtained for you
the freedom of enquiry that you have enjoyed in the
pursuit of knowledge and values, which your degree
represents. As graduates, you will bear a continuing
responsibility to maintain these liberties and to use
your knowledge and skills for the good, not only of
yourselves, but of your community, of humanity at
large, and of future generations of students. This is
the tradition of our University."
UBC Reports/May 27, 1970/7 A^m^ UBC ALUMNI    ■ ■
Contact
President Walter Gage chats with T. Barrie Lindsay, Alumni Association first vice-president, and
Mrs. Lindsay (left) and Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Turner, co-ordinators of the Seattle alumni dinner. See
slorv below.
NEW BRANCHES PROGRAM
Meet The President
A sell-out crowd greeted President Walter Gage and
representatives of the Alumni board of management
at the reception and dinner held April 24 by UBC
alumni in the Seattle area.
The theme of the meeting was Meet the President
and everyone did. They renewed old acquaintances
and heard from President Gage about the many
changes on the campus..
Additional meetings in this program are planned
for June 3 in Kelowna and Penticton, and June 4 in
Trail. Branches in Kamloops and Prince George will
get their chance to meet the president on June 14 and
15 respectively. Alumni in these areas will receive
additional information in the near future (the post
office willing).
Invitation to New Grads
The Mini-week and the Maxi-weekend is the theme
of the Young Alumni Club summer program. Cecil
Green Park will be open from 7 — 11 p.m. on
Thursdays from June 11 to August 20 (with the
exception of June 25). The grads of '70 are invited to
come down and drink in the view, play a little
croquet and maybe fly a kite. All these extraordinary
privileges are included with your $1 summer
membership.
Barbecued chicken and suds is a great way to top
off your graduating day. So bring your family and
friends down to the Alumni-sponsored barbecue at
Cecil Green Park on May 27, 28 and 29. Tickets are
$2 per person and reservations are suggested at
228-3313. Dinner will be served between 5:30 and 7
p.m. and Green Park will be open until 11 p.m.
EARLY UBC GRAD DIES
Dr. Roy L. Vollum, one of the University of
B.C.'s earliest graduates and a noted bacteriologist
at Oxford University in England, died suddenly of
a heart attack at his home in England on March
30.
Born in Vancouver, Dr. Vollum stood second in
UBC's 1919 graduating class for the bachelor of
arts degree. He obtained his master of arts degree
at UBC in bacteriology in 1921 and was named
B.C.'s Rhodes Scholar the same year.
After obtaining his doctor of philosophy degree
at Oxford, he stayed on at Lincoln College there
and was associated with some of the world's most
famous   bacteriologists,    including   Sir   Howard
Florey, who shared the 1945 Nobel Prize for work
on penicillin.
Dr. Vollum was most recently the director of
the Public Health Laboratory at Oxford and
bacteriologist at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford
University's teaching hospital.
Dr. Vollum was for many years UBC's
representative on the Associaton of Universities of
the British Commonwealth and was known as a
good friend of UBC graduates who went to Oxford
University for graduate training.
Dr. Vollum was married to the former Ella
Crozier, a 1921 graduate of UBC, who survives
him in England.
'It's as simple
as that'
The term alumni occurs throughout the
graduation ceremony. If you are a graduate you
are an alumnus. It's as simple as that. Or is it?
Do you think that the education you have
just received was good enough? Maybe you
think it could have been better. Is UBC meeting
the needs of the society it serves? You have
some ideas on that too, no doubt.
Are you interested in making sure that UBC
moves forward with the times, that students of
the future have at least as good an opportunity
as you have had? We think you are.
BIG INVESTMENT
You have put a lot of yourself in UBC. Bjt,
once you are gone, will you still have a chance
to voice your opinions?
Yes. This is the purpose of the UBC Alumni
Association. Through it you can have a
continuing voice in the affairs of the University.
You become a member of the Alumni
Association automatically, upon graduation.
You can make of it what you wish.
In September you will receive the UBC
Alumni Chronicle, the Association's magazine
and, when you are established, a request for a
donation to help students and student-initiatod
projects. During your undergraduate years, it is
possible that you were one of the many
students who benefitted from this alumni giving
program.
A continuing interest in University affairs is
something 'lu can always give. It's a gift highly
valued by the University. To keep you in touch
with the latest happenings on the campus and
in University affairs, the Alumni Association
holds branch meetings in major centers across
Canada, in the U.S.A. and occasionally abroad.
You will receive invitations to these functions
and perhaps be surprised at the pleasure in
seeing old friends and in hearing about the UBC
you now may be quite eager to leave.
KEEP IN TOUCH
Will you keep in touch with us, your fellow
graduates, and when the time is right, lend your
support to the students of the future and the
institution that, in many respects, has served
you well?
Welcome,  congratulations and  best wishes!
Sholto Hebenton, BA'57, BA, BCL (Oxon),
LLM (Harvard),
President, UBC A luinni A ssociation.
Jack Stathers, BA'55, MA'58,
Executive Director.
Don't Get Lost
The supersleuths in the alumni records
department have the endless task of keeping
track of the addresses of UBC's 50,000
graduates. They do this so that you will
receive ballots for elections for Chancellor
and the Senate and interesting mailing pieces
such as UBC Reports and the Alumni
Chronicle. So when you move, let us know.
Name	
Degree Year	
New Address