News & Media

January/February 2009
Director's Corner - A Perfect Landing

From time to time I have written about how different lines of investigation and experience may converge upon one spectacular event that captures the public imagination. A recent case in point was the miraculous "landing" on January 15th of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River. The airplane was a model piece of "evolved" engineered equipment in the hands of a masterful pilot, whose lengthy experience and quick judgment saved the lives of all 155 passengers and crew after the aircraft engines were disabled by a collision with a flock of birds.

A week after this event, but in a completely unrelated context, I found myself in the Montreal General Hospital, recuperating from surgery along with my assigned roommate, a retired engine designer for a large northeastern manufacturer. He had worked on aircraft engine design for more than 50 years, and we struck up a conversation about the landing and rescue. He told me that as he watched the Airbus A320 descend into the Hudson, he was amazed that the pilot, Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III, had such perfect control as to smoothly set the plane down on water after the bird impact, and make a controlled landing. I asked him about how often birds get sucked into the jet intakes. He said thousands of times each year, but for the most part the engines kept running and the planes did not need to attempt a return to the airport, which surprised me, and he then proceeded to tell me an interesting story.

It turns out that when jet flight was first becoming a commercial reality, manufacturers were highly competitive, and the one he was working for staged a demonstration of their airplane engine's operational performance. The sales people organized the demonstration, and invited potential buyers from all over the world to attend. The engine was firmly anchored to the factory hangar floor and running smoothly, and the audience was invited to toss things into the engine to assess which items might compromise engine efficiency. And so someone tossed in a sailors' hat, another a small screwdriver, a pen, some ice cubes to mimic hail. Now these last were certainly important, because hail was a common local weather disturbance of airports, and a hail deflector of sorts was therefore a necessity. No problem! The engine chewed up all those foreign items, and kept purring along.

And then someone suggested a bird. After all, birds were always nesting around airports, and small birds were frequently sucked into the jet intakes. But there were no birds on hand for the demonstration. So the sales manager dispatched an employee to the local supermarket to purchase a sacrificial avian to fulfill the request. A short while later he returned holding a paper bag in which the animal was sequestered. The sales manager directed him to toss the bag into the intake, and so he did. According to my roommate, there was in an instant an incredible grinding noise, and the engine immediately shut down. The sudden silence was apparently quite eloquent, and everybody winced.

It turns out that the employee had purchased a rock-hard frozen duck for the spontaneously devised test. After the initial shock of the catastrophic engine failure wore off, the design team was instructed to see if they might improve upon how a running engine reacted to large chunks of material, much larger than hail, but somewhat smaller than frozen duck projectiles. So that day, decades ago, progress was made in improving engine design, and in 2009, an airplane was piloted to safety following the impact of a few rather large (but at least not frozen) waterfowl, Canadian geese being the current prime suspects.

Please send any comments about the Director's Corner to David Colman

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Recent News & Events

Mirko Diksic passes the baton to Ralf Schirrmacher
Thanks to Mirko Diksic who after nearly 25 years as Director of the PET Unit Medical Cyclotron Facility in the McConnell Brain Imaging Centre turns over the reigns to Ralf Schirrmacher. Mirko helped build the international reputation of the BIC, and will continue his radiochemistry research and foster links with his network of collaborators around the world. Radiochemist Ralf Schirrmacher joined the McGill faculty in 2006 and works with the Montreal Consortium for Brain Imaging Research. Ralf synthesizes radio-isotope labelled compounds for use in PET studies.

Esther Schirrmacher joins the Neuro
Esther Schirrmacher, a distinguished radiochemist trained at the University of Tübingen, Germany, joins the Neuro as an Assistant Professor in the McConnell Brain Imaging Centre. Esther, formerly at the Lady Davis Research Institute, does radiopharmaceutical research and studies neuroendocrine tumors.

Goodbye, Carol / Hello, Wendy
Colleagues and friends bid adieu to Carol Wiens who retired as the Neuro’s Head Librarian after eighteen years of service. Carol was appreciated by staff and students for her expertise and dedicated customer service. She was a valuable collaborator with faculty and students in their search for information and a source of wise advice. Wendy Blue, the new Head Librarian, will begin work February 9. Currently working part-time in our Neuro-Patient Resource Centre, Wendy was research librarian and manager for 15 years at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc. She holds a Master of Library and Information Studies from McGill and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Concordia University.

Interdisciplinary Rounds
A new series of Interdisciplinary Rounds was initiated January 16 when Lisa Goulet, MNI ICU nurse manager, and Melissa Perry, MNI ICU nurse, spoke on “Palliative care for Neuro patients: Building the knowledge and the team.” Look for future programs where colleagues across disciplines and MUHC sites will present cases on how clinical teams respond to the challenges of palliative care and end of life needs. To receive notices about future rounds, contact Deborah Rashcovsky

Quebec imaging scientists hear William Feindel Lecture
Scientists from eight universities met for the Quebec Bio-imaging Network Scientific Day on January 19. Former MNI trainee Paul Matthews, Head of the Glaxo Smith Kline Clinical Imaging Centre at Imperial College, London, delivered the William Feindel Lecture entitled “The plastic brain: skill learning and motor recovery after brain injury. More information about this FRSQ-sponsored bio-imaging network is online .

Killam Trustees annual visit
The MNI benefits as only one of 5 Killam Institutions in Canada. On their annual visit, Killam Trustees George Cooper, John Matthews and Ann McCaig met with MNI Killam Scholars: Amit Bar-Or, Barry Bedell, Andrea Bernasconi, Jean Francois Cloutier, Lesley Fellows, Ted Fon, Alyson Fournier, Angela Genge, Tim Kennedy, Chris Pack, Ed Ruthazer, Michael Sinnreich and Robert Zatorre; and with W. Killam Professor George Karpati and Dorothy J. Killam Professor Brenda Milner, who proudly carry these titles. For more information about the Killam Institution designation, see website.

Neurosurgery Day and Theodore Rasmussen Lecture
Neurosurgeons and neurosurgical residents presented their research in functional neurosurgery, neuro-imaging, neuro-oncology and operative neurosurgery. To close the day, Professor M. Gazi Yasargil from the University of Arkansas delivered the Rasmussen Lecture entitled ‘My experiences with selective amygdale-hippocampectomy in patients with intractable limbic temporal seizures.”

McNaughton Lecture
George Karpati hosted Catherine Bushby from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, for the prestigious McNaughton lecture entitled “Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophies: Major Beneficiaries of Molecular Science.”

Anniversary preview
The MNI celebrated Wilder Penfield’s 118th birthday on January 26 with an afternoon tea, harkening back to a tradition from Penfield’s day. Faculty and staff heard about the Neuro’s 75th anniversary plans for the coming year. For information about the anniversary symposium, alumnae events and other activities, see website.

National public awareness campaign
The MNI’s national public awareness campaign is moving into high gear in 2009. More than 800 of our posters, “The latest in wireless technology is all in your head” will be seen across the country and in bus shelters around Montreal. This free ad space, courtesy of Mediacity and Lumbus, was organized for the MNI by CG COM, our Montreal communications agency.

Catherine Rowe was recently among 8 women featured in Premieres en Affaires, thanks to Luc Beauregard, MNI Advisory Board Member and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Res Republica.

Upcoming events

Faculty and Staff Campaign celebration, February 12
Donatella Tampieri and Bruce Pike, 2008 Faculty and Staff Campaign Co-Chairs, will unveil the smashing success of the campaign at a 3 pm reception on February 12 in the Jeanne Timmins Foyer. Everyone is welcome.

Brain Bee, February 13
High school students from the Montreal area will participate in a Brain Bee at the MNI organized by graduate students David Seminowicz, Emma Duerden and others. The winner will go on to the CIHR Canadian Brain Bee at McMaster University.

Thanks to ...

Colleen and Mirko Wicha who invited friends to their home to hear Amit Bar-Or discuss the Neuro’s cutting-edge research and clinical care in Multiple Sclerosis.

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Director - David R. Colman, PhD
Senior Management - Mark Angle, MD; Phil Barker, PhD; Rob Dunn, PhD; Tom Gevas, Marilyn Kaplow, Elizabeth Kofron, PhD; Patricia O'Connor, Catherine Rowe, Donatella Tampieri, MD
Neuro News: Elizabeth Kofron, PhD & Sandra McPherson, PhD

Please send any items for the Neuro News to Sandra McPherson or Beth Kofron.

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