UBC Feature Web Site
2008 Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games:
UBC This Week is a weekly summary of UBC people in the news, recent media releases and upcoming event highlights. UBC This Week past issues are also available on-line.
Sign up for UBC This Week and other UBC Public Affairs e-mail services at www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/eservices.
Recent UBC Media Releases
- Aug. 7: UBC leads country with two Fulbright student awards for U.S. academic exchange
- Aug. 5: Spiders who eat together, stay together: UBC research
- July 31: UBC researchers supercharge brain cells to attack plaques that cause Alzheimer’s Disease
Upcoming Event Highlights
- Aug.9: Carissimi’s “Jephthe”
- Aug. 13: Introducing Nia: dance away your noon hour
Find out what else is happening at UBC this week. For sports events, visit the UBC Athletics site at www.gothunderbirds.ca/schedule.asp.
UBC People
- Prof. Julio Montaner appointed President of the International AIDS Society
- Geothermal Energy Systems project receives clean energy funding
- UBC Community Service Learning wins innovation award
- Leave for Change Program offers international volunteer experience for staff
- Digital collection of Emma Crosby letters online
UBC People
Prof. Julio Montaner appointed President of the International AIDS Society
Prof. Julio Montaner, Chair in AIDS Research, Professor of Medicine and Head of the Division of AIDS at UBC has received an appointment as President of the International AIDS Society, the world’s leading independent association of HIV/AIDS professionals.
Montaner, who is also Director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, commences his two-year term on August 8, 2008, and will focus on expanding antiretroviral therapy programs globally.
In 1981, Dr. Montaner joined the UBC Pulmonary Research Laboratory and completed residency training in internal medicine and respiratory medicine. He is also currently Co-Director of the Canadian HIV Trials Network and Director of the AIDS Research Program and the Immunodeficiency Clinic at St. Paul’s Hospital.
Geothermal Energy Systems project receives clean energy funding
UBC’s Centre for Environmental Research in Minerals, Metals and Materials (CERM3) has been selected as one of 15 innovative clean energy projects in B.C. to receive funding from the Province’s Innovative Clean Energy (ICE) Fund.
CERM3 researchers, led by Adjunct Prof. Mory Ghomshei of Mining Engineering, will partner with Fairfield Propagators Limited in Chilliwack, the largest lily and chrysanthemum grower in B.C. Together they will create a demonstration low-temperature geothermal energy system to heat and cool a 12-acre greenhouse facility.
The project is expected to save the company over $300,000 per year and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 2,500 tonnes annually and demonstrate geothermal energy systems to potential users.
In addition to this project, CERM3 has successfully installed a geothermal system at the Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver and is working on additional geothermal system projects in B.C. and Canada.
For more information, visit http://www.engineering.ubc.ca/news/2008/aug5.html.
UBC Community Service Learning Program wins innovation award
A partnership between the UBC Learning Exchange, Human Resources, Student Development, inner city schools, and Business Objects, a community organization (now SAP), received an innovation award from the Canadian Association of College and University Services earlier this summer.
The program provided an opportunity for Business Objects employees to work alongside UBC students to coordinate community service learning projects in schools during Reading Week 2008. Margot Bell, Associate Director of Student Development at UBC, received the award on behalf of the planning team at the CACUS annual conference.
Leave for Change Program offers international volunteer experience for staff
A new partnership between UBC and Uniterra offers staff the opportunity to volunteer overseas during their annual vacation with an international cooperation program, Leave for Change.
Volunteer positions range from computer and technology training to business management and youth leadership. Placements are currently being offered in Bolivia, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Malawi, Nepal, and more. Other post-secondary institutions who have participated in Leave for Change include the University of Guelph and Humber College.
UBC is committed to sending up to six volunteers each year. Applications are now open for the 2008/09 year and available at http://www.hr.ubc.ca/leaveforchange/. Deadline for applications is September 12, 2008. HR will announce the selected applicants during the first week of October during Celebrate Learning Week.
Digital collection of Emma Crosby letters online
A set of letters from Emma Crosby (1849-1926), the wife of a prominent Methodist missionary in B.C., is freely available online.
Due to her gender, Emma was not able to become a missionary, although her husband Thomas served as one on the north coast of B.C. The letters describe how women such as Emma sustained their husbands and served as missionaries in all but name.
UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections division (RBSC) holds 87 letters written by Emma Crosby as part of the Thomas and Emma Crosby fonds. The digitization of the Crosby letters was a collaboration between RBSC and University Archives.
Assist. Prof. Jan Hare, of the Department of Language and Literacy Education, and Prof. Emerita Jean Barman, of the Department of Educational Studies, provided the inspiration for developing this digital collection.
To view the collection online, visit http://angel.library.ubc.ca/crosby.html. RBSC is located on the first level of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.
