Media releases

• Hon doc for local business leader; Instalment of new President highlight Brock’s Fall Convocation

  Monday, October 16, 2017 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE 13 October 2017 – R00185

  Tom Rankin graduated from university more than 50 years ago, but hardly a day goes by when he doesn’t learn something.

  As the CEO of Niagara’s most high-profile construction company, Rankin still makes a point of attending conferences to learn more about his trade.

  “Let me make it abundantly clear for those entering the workforce, a new phase in your education is about to begin,” he said Friday, Oct. 13 while delivering the afternoon convocation address at Brock University. “You won’t be marked on what you learned, but you’ll be judged on how you apply your knowledge.”

  Rankin, who launched the company that would become Rankin Construction in 1978, was awarded an honorary doctorate during Brock’s Fall Convocation. A former Board of Trustees member for Brock, Rankin’s company and its related businesses now employ about 500 people. Rankin is also known for his philanthropic work, highlighted by his support of the Rankin Cancer Run, which has raised $7.5 million for local cancer care facilities.

  Speaking in front of a large crowd that included his wife and other family members, Rankin told the Brock graduates that their university education would help them learn on the job faster, “but make no mistake that your learning curve will continue to climb.”

  During the morning convocation ceremony earlier Friday, Dr. Gervan Fearon was installed as the University’s sixth President. With former President Jack Lightstone and former Interim President Tom Traves looking on, Fearon agreed to the Oath of Office delivered by Chancellor Shirley Cheechoo and then delivered his first convocation address.

  He said he was taking over the reins of a university known for “outstanding teaching and learning; excellence in research, scholarly and creative activities; and renowned university-community engagement.”

  On a day when nearly every minute was booked with ceremony, speeches and meet and greets, Fearon took a few moments to reflect, saying the day gave him the chance to look back at where he has come from, and where he’s headed.

  “You’re looking out at all the students who are starting their journey and you’re recognizing how your post-secondary education played such an important role in all of your accomplishments,” said Fearon, who started his tenure as Brock’s President on Aug. 1. “It’s a wonderful juncture that’s a culmination of the work you’ve done, but also of work to follow and what’s to come.”

  Over the two ceremonies, more than 1,000 students graduated during Brock’s Fall Convocation Friday.

  For more information, photos and video from Brock’s Fall Convocation, visit The Brock News website at brocku.ca/brocknews

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

  Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.

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  Categories: Media releases

• Brock viticulture institute receives $960,000 for one-of-a-kind wine consumer research lab

  Thursday, October 12, 2017 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 12 October 2017  – R00184

  Imagine being able to shop at a winery or the LCBO while listening to classical music and savouring the aromas of chardonnay and pinot grigio, all without leaving your seat.

  A nearly $1-million funding grant will help Brock University’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute establish the world’s first mediated-reality wine laboratory that will combine sights, smells and sounds to help researchers study the science of consumer choice in the wine industry.

  Brock’s oenology and viticulture researchers are on the forefront of this leading-edge technology thanks to a $960,000 grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) announced Thursday, Oct. 12.

  The Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Sensory Reality Consumer Laboratory, to be known as R³CL, will be able to create a variety of environments in which people purchase and consume wines.

  These environments could include wineries, liquor stores or even dining rooms. Interwoven with the scenes will be music, smells and other sensory information.

  Researchers will study how a range of factors impact the research participants’ choices of where and under what conditions they purchase and drink wines.

  This greater understanding of consumer behaviour will help the industry to best market their wines to potential customers, says CCOVI Director Debbie Inglis.

  “The concept of coupling consumer behaviour with technical tools of augmented and virtual reality is not only going to put Canadian researchers on the forefront of this research, but it’s also an international first,” she says.

  The exercise is not just academic but economic, explains Inglis, noting that the majority of wines sold in Canada come from other countries.

  “We want to flip that, or at least gain a majority of market share that’s Canadian,” she says.

  “This first-of-its-kind wine consumer laboratory will be an influential research platform to support and propel the Canadian grape and wine industry,” says CFI President and CEO Roseann O’Reilly Runte. “It will provide unique insight into wine consumer behaviour and be an asset for developing new, successful wines.”

  Runte believes it will also raise CCOVI’s reputation “as a global centre of wine research excellence.”

  In addition to acquiring the technology for the mediated-reality wine consumer lab, the grant will be used to purchase state-of-the-art equipment for several CCOVI research programs.

  Brock University’s interim Vice-President, Research Joffre Mercier says the award “recognizes the outstanding research performed in our Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute, the only institute of its kind in Canada that links the vineyard to the wine and all the way through to the consumer choice.

  “The award also recognizes the outstanding economic impact of CCOVI’s work on the grape and wine industry in Ontario. I am very proud of the exceptional work of our researchers and of their dedication and commitment to our industrial and community partners,” Mercier says.

  CCOVI, an internationally recognized research institute on cool climate viticulture, oenology, wine business and wine culture, offers an array of programs and services to support the Canadian grape and wine industry.

  An economic impact study last year found CCOVI contributed more than $91 million and the equivalent of 307 jobs to Ontario’s economy in 2014-15.

  For more information, read the story in The Brock News

   

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases