UBC This Week | Oct. 23, 2008

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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.

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Recent UBC Media Releases

Upcoming Event Highlights

Visit UBCevents, UBC’s new campus-wide calendar: www.events.ubc.ca

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


UBC People

Balance and Blowup: An analysis of the current financial crisis

UBC experts from the Faculty of Arts and Sauder School of Business will gather to discuss factors leading up to the global financial crisis. What went wrong? What do we need to fix?

Panelists are:

Prof. Paul Beaudry, Dept. of Economics, Canada Research Chair in Macroeconomics and Bank of Canada Research Fellow
Prof. Michael Devereux, Dept. of Economics and Bank of Canada Research Fellow
Prof. Glen Donaldson, Chair, Finance and Professor at the Sauder School of Business
Prof. Ron Giammarino, Corporate Finance Professor and Director of the Phillips, Hager and North Centre for Financial Research at the Sauder School of Business

A live webcast will be available at www.ubc.ca.

Date: Oct. 28
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Place: UBC Robson Square, 800 Robson St.

Also on this day, the Institute for European Studies will host a forum The Financial Market Crisis: The European Dimension where panelists Thomas Ferenczi, Editor and Brussels Bureau Chief of Le Monde, Prof. Yves Tiberghien, Political Science and Prof. Kurt Huebner, Institute for European Studies will discuss the global financial crisis from a European perspective.

Date: Oct. 28
Time: 12 – 2 p.m.
Place: Rm 120, CK Choi Building, 1855 West Mall
Info: http://www.ies.ubc.ca/

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Green College and Institute for European Studies host lecture on global warming

UBC Green College and Institute for European Studies will host a lecture entitled
Fighting Global Warming: The European Approach towards Creating a Global Public Good
presented by Thomas Ferenczi, Editor and Brussels-based Bureau Chief for Le Monde, who
will discuss the pros and cons of the European strategy for global warming.

Date: Oct. 29
Time: 5 – 7 p.m.
Place: Green College Coach House
Info: Purchase dinner tickets by Oct. 28 noon
Contact 604-822-8660 or visit www.gcdining.ca

For more information, visit http://www.calendar.events.ubc.ca.

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School of Nursing—2008 Marion Woodward Lecture

UBC School of Nursing will host the 2008 Marion Woodward Lecture featuring guest speaker Prof. Patricia Benner, University of California, whose 25 years of research on nursing practice, clinical development, skill acquisition and healthcare ethics is directed to helping nurses understand and develop their practice.

Date: Oct. 30,
Time: 7 p.m.
Place: LSC1 – Life Sciences Institute_2350 Health Sciences Mall
Info: http://www.nursing.ubc.ca/Research/Marion_Woodward_Lecture.htm

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Engineering professors recognized

The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of B.C. (APEGBC) has recognized three UBC engineering professors for excellence in professional, technical and community service.

Mechanical Engineering’s Prof. Emeritus Philip Hill received the APEGBC R.A. McLachlan Memorial Award for outstanding professional and community service for his work on the use of natural gas in diesel engines.

Civil Engineering’s Prof. Jonathan Fannin received the Award for Teaching Excellence in Engineering and Geoscience Education for his work in redesigning courses, creating custom course notes, and developing unique assessment methods.

Mechanical Engineering’s Prof. Robert Evans received the Editorial Board Award for his article Can We Make Our Energy Future More Sustainable and as former Director of UBC’s Clean Energy Research Centre and author of Fueling Our Future: An Introduction to Sustainable Energy, his role in the research and development of energy conversion systems, particularly those used to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

For more information, visit http://www.engineering.ubc.ca/news/2008/oct17.html.

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Students hold teach-in on climate change

Common Energy, a student group working towards bringing UBC beyond carbon-neutral, is holding a teach-in to discuss and create links between students, their specific disciplines and climate change.

The teach-in, part of the Go-Beyond Project for students in BC to support and encourage action around the issues of climate change, will also be held at the University of Victoria and Thompson River University.

Professors in every discipline are being asked to donate 15 minutes of one class between Oct. 27 to Oct. 31 to discuss:

• What are the connections between our class and climate change?
• How can our discipline be used to develop solutions for climate change in our community or region?
• Imagine that you have just been hired by your local city or town council to create a public campaign to get local residents to reduce their carbon footprint. What skills can you use from our discipline to help develop the campaign? Describe other disciplines that you would want to collaborate with and why.
• What can our school do to reduce its climate impacts and help develop climate solutions for our community or region?

For more information, contact: commonenergyubc@gmail.com.

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UBC Library wins at Word on the Street

UBC Library was an award winner for Best Tent Booth at the Word on the Street festival held at the Vancouver Public Library Square in September. The booth also issued around 250 new UBC community library cards.

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Engineers Without Borders serves Fair Trade breakfast

UBC Engineers Without Borders will be serving Fair Trade banana and chocolate chip pancakes as well as Fair Trade ethical bean coffee on campus to start off the day.

Date: Oct. 30
Time: 7:30 – 10 a.m.
Place: The Kaiser Building Foyer, 2332 Main Mall
Info: Bring your own mug/plate/cutlery
http://ubc.ewb.ca/2008/09/29/fair-trade-breakfast/

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UBC Thunderbird Arena holds open houseUBC Thunderbird Arena holds open house

The UBC Thunderbird Arena is hosting an open house with a free public skate followed by an inaugural Canada West hockey game between UBC Thunderbirds and the Manitoba Bisons.

Free venue tours will run every 30 minutes from 5 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. at the entrance to the Thunderbird Arena.

Date: Oct. 25
Time: Free skate 5:15 – 6:15 p.m. Hockey game begins 7:30 p.m.
Place: 6066 Thunderbird Boulevard
Info: Limited skate and helmet rentals available
http://www.calendar.events.ubc.ca/

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ICICS hosts lecture series

As part of the 2008/2009 Distinguished Lecture Series, UBC’s Institute for Computing, Information, and Cognitive Systems (ICICS) will host a lecture entitled Brain on a Chip: If We Build One, What Will It Say? presented by Prof. Bruce C. Wheeler of the University of Florida, who will discuss the idea that nerve cells grown in culture could have reliable computational function and he will also highlight the technologies that make possible designable "brains on chips”.

Date: Oct. 23
Time: 3.30 – 5 p.m.
Place: Room 2020/30, Kaiser Building, 2332 Main Mall
Info: http://www.icics.ubc.ca/news/index.html#upcoming_events