Let's all give a warm What's Up welcome to Erika Dyck. Erika is a native of our fair town, and first gained fame, if not fortune, completing an MA here under the supervision of our very own Valerie Korinek. After earning her Ph.D. at McMaster University, Erika, a specialist in medical history, joined the University of Alberta on a joint appointment to both the Faculty of Medicine and the History Department. Her ship has now come in, however, and she returns to this department as an Associate Professor.

The fact that Erika has now joined us is reason enough for celebration. But wait! There's more!

Erika's new book is just out. Psychedelic Psychiatry: LSD from From Clinic to Campus (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 2008). The book blows the lid off the spectacular counterculture myths about LSD, which turns out to have been very much a Saskatchewan product. It came about at at time when Saskatchewan's reputation as the North American home of universal health care, and the Tommy Douglas government's willingness to spend money on medical research, attracted skilled scientists from across Canada and beyond to this campus and to facilities around the province. The ultimate anti-establishment drug came about thanks to earnest and highly skilled medical researchers conducting well-funded research at the leading edge of psychopharmacology. Click here to learn more, and be sure to add terrific new book to your personal collection.

And in case you were wondering, you can rest easy (or disappointed, as the case may be): this book was printed on Acid-free paper.