UBC This Week

Prof. Stephen Toope addressed a one hundred-year anniversary membership meeting of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) on Wednesday, Oct. 26, in Montreal.
 
Prof. Toope’s speech, titled “Opening Us to Larger Worlds,” highlighted shared contributions and values of the 95 members, and identified five future commitments of the AUCC: broadening the view of education; innovation in learning; commitment to excellence; finding solutions to the world’s biggest challenges, and cultivating engagement and partnerships.
 
“Our story is not about competition,” said Toope. “We are, first and foremost, Canadians whose vocation – our calling, if you will – is to contribute to the creation and advancement of knowledge in order to make a positive difference in the world.”
 
On Tuesday, Oct. 25, Toope began a two-year term as chair of the AUCC board of directors. AUCC’s membership is made up of university presidents, rectors and principals representing the interests of their 95 institutions across the country. Twelve members serve on the board of directors, along with the Association’s president Paul Davidson. AUCC is the voice of Canada’s universities both at home and abroad.

To see the President’s speech: http://president.ubc.ca/speeches/

To see the AUCC announcement of Prof. Toope’s appointment: http://www.aucc.ca/media-room/news-and-commentary

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Chemical and biological engineering professor Mark Martinez has been named the new director of UBC’s Advanced Papermaking Initiative (API).

With its mission to enhance the competitiveness of the provincial industry through leading edge research, technology development and advanced training, the API was formed in 1998 to address B.C.’s lack of expertise in its post-secondary system in the field of papermaking engineering and paper. The API is funded by an $8.5-million endowment from the provincial government through Forest Renewal B.C.

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

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Dr. Harvey Lui, professor and head of the Dept. of Dermatology and Skin Science, was recognized for his contributions to the Canadian Skin Patient Alliance and to skin patients across Canada. 

For more information, visit http://www.med.ubc.ca/about_us/Awards_and_Honours.htm?PageMode=Edit#Dr. Harvey Lui

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Dr. Anne Junker, associate professor in the Dept. of Pediatrics, was elected co-chair of the Canadian Child and Youth Health Coalition, which comprises 11 national organizations with a common vision to advance the cause of child and youth health and health care in Canada. 

For more information, visit http://www.med.ubc.ca/about_us/Awards_and_Honours.htm?PageMode=Edit#Dr. Anne Junker

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Mahsa Talebpourazad of the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering was one of 12 finalists for the Innovation Challenge Award. She received honourable mention and a prize of $1,200 for her development of software which converts 2D television content into a 3D format. Talebpourazad’s entrepreneurial disposition is one of the key elements NSERC looks for in this competition.

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

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UBC research into the impact of climate change on British Columbia’s forests and finding more sustainable forest management practices received funding today from the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS). UBC researchers will be working on four of the five projects that PICS announced funding for today. 

The UBC projects include:

• Striking the right bioenergy balance: promoting healthier carbon stores in our forests and forest product streams
• Estimating carbon storage and emissions from harvested wood products from B.C.
• Developing environmental-response function of growth and mortality to forecast forest carbon stocks in B.C. under environmental change scenarios

For more information, visit: http://www.pics.uvic.ca/assets/pdf/news/MR_Carbon_Management_27Oct2011.pdf 

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Walter Karlen, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering Postdoctoral Fellow working with Dr. Mark Ansermino, has advanced to the second round of the Canadian Rising Stars in Global Health Program. 

Public engagement, as measured by votes and comments to competitors’ videos, is part of the selection process of this grant. 

The video viewing and voting period is from Sept. 27 – Nov. 11. View Karlen’s work at “The Camera Oximeter – Pulse Oximetry Embedded On a Mobile Phone for the Diagnosis of Pneumonia” (registration to vote required).

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UBC will be hosting “Allies in Health: 3^rd Annual Community and Patient Fair for Health Professional Education.” Students, faculty, staff and the community are invited to meet with 38 community and patient organizations representing a range of services and health conditions. 

Students can learn about their future patients and potential resources for referral. Attendees can gain understanding of the patient experience from expert panelists, including health professionals, organization representatives, and individuals living with chronic health conditions.

Date:    Nov. 2
Time:    10:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Place:   Life Sciences Centre West Atrium, 2350 Health Sciences Mall
Info:     Free pre-registration required for Patient Panels    
www.meetingofexperts.org

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UBC will be offering a  new program in Indigenous Community Planning, supported by a grant of $316,723 from the Real Estate Foundation of B.C. The program will be a specialization in the masters degree in planning in the School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP) and has been jointly designed with the Musqueam Nation. 

This initiative will offer students cross-cultural skills, community participation techniques, strategic planning for sustainable community economic development, and a solid grounding in ethics as well as Aboriginal law and governance. It seeks to empower Indigenous communities and community planners with the skills, capacity and knowledge to meet growing demands for consultation and planning. Applications for the program — which will start in the fall of 2012 — close on Dec. 2, 2011. For more information, visit: http://www.scarp.ubc.ca/

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The Indigenous Community Planning Teach-In@UBC “Revitalizing Planning – The Indigenous Challenge” is a one-day event that explores issues such as an indigenous planning paradigm challenge, the need to achieve recognition and justice for indigenous peoples and what has been lost in the western planning perspective.

Hosted by the School of Community and Regional Planning at UBC and the Musqueam First Nation, the event will feature morning and afternoon keynote presentations, a panel discussions and talking circles facilitated by guest speakers and panelists.

Date:    Nov. 4
Time:    8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Place:   Sty Wet Tan (Great Hall), First Nations House of Learning, 1985 West Mall
Info:     http://www.scarp.ubc.ca/Indigenous-community-planning-teach-In

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The Laurier Institution, Yahoo!, UBC Continuing Studies and CBC Radio One present the 2011 Vancouver Human Rights Lecture “Cute Cats and the Arab Spring: When Social Media Meet Social Change”.

Ethan Zuckerman will look at “the cute cat theory” of internet activism, as it helps explain the Arab Spring protests, aggressive internet censorship in countries like China and Vietnam, and the challenges for the corporate owners of social media platforms in an era of online speech. 

Zuckerman is director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT, and a principal research scientist at MIT’s Media Lab. His research focuses on the distribution of attention in mainstream and new media, the use of technology for international development, and the use of new media technologies by activists. 

The lecture will be hosted by Paul Kennedy and will be recorded for future broadcast on the CBC Radio One program “Ideas”.

Date:    Nov. 20
Time:    7 p.m.
Place:   Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
Info:     Free admission. Reserve a seat: http://www.vancouverhumanrightslecture.eventbrite.com/

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Applications are being accepted for the next round of funding from the British Columbia History Digitization Program (BCHDP).

This initiative, launched by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre in 2006, provides matching funds to help libraries, archives, museums and other organizations around the province digitize materials that tell the tale of B.C.’s history. Past projects have involved the digitization of newspapers, city directories, oral histories, plant and animal specimens, photographs, maps and more.

For the 2011/12 fiscal year, the B.C. History Digitization Program is providing about $180,000 in total, in amounts up to $15,000. Altogether, BCHDP funding has totalled more than $820,000 for 98 projects throughout British Columbia.

Find out more about the BCHDP and the application process.

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If you are a member of the UBC community, “Killam” may mean a great deal more to your teaching, learning or research experience than you realize. Since the establishment of the trusts in 1965 from the fortune of Izaak Walton Killam and Dorothy J. Killam, nearly 2,000 UBC faculty, postdocs and graduate students have directly benefited from Killam prizes, fellowships and scholarships.

By supporting doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows, the Killam awards help create vibrant communities of scholars and researchers who increase our capacity for real and enduring contributions to society, ensuring that we are equipped to respond to foreseeable social, technological and educational trends and challenges, and generate economic opportunities at home and abroad.

The UBC Killam community gathers in Vancouver next week: Tuesday, Nov. 1 will see UBC Killam scholars past and present come together, by invitation, for the 44th annual awards celebration in honour of the university’s newest Killam recipients. On Thursday, Nov. 3, the Annual Killam Lecture will be presented at 5:15 p.m. at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel. The lecture is a national event and is free and open to the public. Canadian Medical Hall of Fame inductee Dr. Cal Stiller will present, “Can we “Own the Podium” in Science and Technology? Do we have the Vision, Courage and Leadership to take Advantage of the Global Chaos?”

To discover more about the many critical ways that the Killam Trusts support research and teaching at UBC please review the full article on the Faculty of Graduate Studies website: http://www.grad.ubc.ca/killam-landscape-ubc

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Prof. Larry Leifer, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, will present “Dancing with Ambiguity: Embracing the Tension between Innovation and Decision-making in the Design Process.” 

Over the past thirty years, a powerful methodology for innovation has emerged: design thinking. It integrates human, business and technical factors in problem forming, solving and design.

Date:    Nov. 1
Time:    4 p.m.
Place:   Woodward Instructional Resources Centre: Wood 6, 2194 Health Sciences Mall
Info:     http://www.apsc.ubc.ca/news-events/calendar.php

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UBC Applied Science presents “What Did Galileo Know of Arabic/Islamic Science and How Did He Know It?”

Prof. George Saliba from the Dept. of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University, will be addressing the Vancouver Institute.

Date:    Oct. 29
Time:    8:15 p.m.
Place:   Lecture Hall No. 2, Woodward Instructional Resources Centre, 2194 Health Sciences Mall
Info:     http://vaninst.ca/VbSaliba.html

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Theatre at UBC and the UBC Faculty of Arts present Thunderbird by Cao Yu which will include staged readings and an accompanying international touring exhibition (from Leeds University). Created by Yu’s step-daughter Ruru Li about Cao Yu’s life, they are part of a worldwide celebration of the centennial of Cao Yu’s birth. Known as the “Shakespeare of the Orient,” Cao Yu (1910-1996) is one of China’s most honoured dramatists. Director Siyuan Liu is an associate professor with Theatre at UBC.

Date:    Staged Reading: Nov. 4 and 5 (7:30 p.m.)
International Touring Exhibition Nov. 4 – 10 (10 a.m. – 4 p.m. except Sun.)
Place:   Frederic Wood Theatre, 6354 Crescent Road
Info:     Free admission. Call 604.822.2678 http://www.theatre.ubc.ca/season.shtml#thunderstorm

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Current issues in Asia and across the Pacific are published through short text memos or video interviews twice-weekly in the Asia Pacific Memo series. 

• Oct 25 – Water Conservation on the Tibetan Plateau
• Oct 20 – Foreign Workers and the Wildfires of Democracy in East Asia

To read and subscribe to the memos, visit http://www.asiapacificmemo.ca/

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UBC hosted “Food for All: A Conference on Poverty and Global Food Security” on Oct. 15. The conference addressed issues of global food shortages and the volatile upswings in food prices and discussed possible solutions for these issues. Speakers included Marc Lee, senior economist for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and Mark Fried, policy coordinator for Oxfam Canada, as well as UBC faculty members and community representatives. More than 375 people attended the event, including high school students, UBC students, community organizations and groups. The Department of Economics and the UBC Community Learning Initiative (UBC-CLI) supported the event. 

The UBC-CLI is also providing Food for All project grant funds that UBC students can apply for. The funds are intended to give students an opportunity to design and implement a project in partnership with a local community-based organizations. 

Deadline for application is November. For more information, contact the UBC-CLI at http://www.students.ubc.ca/communitylearning/index.cfm

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