‘There’s so much going on here’

On December 4, Concordia is recognizing 194 recent retirees and employees who have reached milestones in their careers — from 20 up to 55 years of service.

Leading up to the annual Long Service and Retirement Luncheon, we are profiling some of this year’s honourees to both celebrate their important achievements and acknowledge their service, loyalty and dedication to the university community.
 

Sabine Bergler: ‘So many areas of excellence’

Professor of computer science and software engineering
25 years at Concordia

Sabine Bergler came to Concordia 25 years ago for two reasons: love and money.

She took a chance on the Montreal man who she would later marry. She also accepted a job as Concordia’s first full-time, female computer science professor. Even then, she knew that the university was offering her more than just a paycheque.

“When I started here, my work in computational linguistics was considered pretty esoteric,” says the German- and American-educated Bergler.

“Now, natural language processing has gone mainstream and is becoming more and more interdisciplinary. I’m working with colleagues in the fields of geography and history.”

In 2001, Bergler co-founded Concordia's CLaC Lab, which seeks to make information from texts written in English or French into useful data for different automated tasks like summarization, question answering, or classification.

"People use so many different ways to express their message. But with a mixture of knowledge about language and some statistical techniques from machine learning, we can decipher the sentiment of a tweet or the location where something happened."

Bergler has authored close to 100 published works on everything from computational linguistics, to bioinformatics technology, to machine intelligence.

She has also mentored undergraduate and graduate students who have gone on to win programming challenges in areas like negation detection, speculative language identification or the sentiment of tweets with figurative language.

The theory and the practice

Despite Bergler’s passion for more abstract and theoretical realms, she is just as committed to the concrete aspects of the classroom.

“I find it fascinating the way the student body reflects geopolitics. And as computer science becomes increasingly diverse, there is a really interesting shift in the motivations of students,” she says.

“It’s no longer just geeks who relish algorithms and data structures. A lot of people enter the field because of good job prospects, and they bring a different perspective.”

Bergler’s expertise would make her a great catch for top tech companies or Ivy League institutions. So, why did she stay at the first university that offered her a job?

“I’ve seen Concordia grow a lot, and I see the good in that. Our big pond provides very fertile conditions to create and experiment. There are many areas of excellence in which to choose collaborators and find opportunities. There’s so much going on here.”  

Michel Gendron: ‘I’m working for the future’

Distribution staff
20 years at Concordia

One man with a very literal perspective of the size of Concordia’s pond is Michel Gendron. For more than 20 years, he’s moved stuff in, around and out of nearly every corner of the university.

His work for Facilities Management’s Distribution Services has allowed him to get to know a lot of people across every imaginable sector. “I can walk into any department in the university and hear someone say, ‘Hi, Michel!’ It’s like a big family here.”

People appreciate his help so much that he was honoured with the Outstanding Staff Member Award by the Concordia University Alumni Association last April. “I guess people like the way I bring change into their lives,” he jokes.

He’s known for his good humour and ready smile.

Keep calm and move on

“I’m happy to come to work every day. Even when people start telling me how to do my job, I find it really helps to stay calm.”

Most of the time, Gendron manages the tensions that can emerge during a move. He’s used to the physical demands of arranging spaces and delivering items to all of Concordia’s 61 buildings. However, nobody’s perfect.

“When I got the call about being named a top employee, I was having a bad day. I thought it was someone who knew that and was joking around. So, I hung up the phone. Luckily, they called back later.”

Gendron says he doesn’t mind moving the book-laden offices of professors. He also appreciates that furniture has gotten lighter than when he started at Concordia. What he doesn’t like to transport are air conditioners.

“They can look small and weigh a ton. They’re also awkward to get in and out of windows. And there are so many across the university.”

Gendron may be focused on manual work, but he appreciates that it supports the educational community. “I’m working for the future. It’s great being around all these young people who are getting degrees and studying.”

When asked if he has any advice for them, he doesn’t hesitate for a moment.

“Stay in school as long as possible.”

Learn more about Concordia’s Long Service Awards.