UBC This Week 12-Jan-2012

 

Recent UBC Media Releases

Jan. 6 UBC adjunct professor and alumnus appointed to the Order of Canada
   
 

Upcoming Event Highlights

Jan. 13  UBC REC Shopping Week
Jan. 13  Liam Hockley, Clarinet – M.Mus Solo recital
Jan. 13  Letters: Michael Morris and Concrete Poetry
Jan. 14  A New View of Our Universe from a Hole in the Ground
Jan. 14  Intercultural Perspectives on Leadership
Jan. 15  UBC Singles League
Jan. 16  Impromptu Playwriting Contest
Jan. 16  Africa Awareness Initative (AAI) Conference: Keynote Address and Opening Reception
Jan. 17  IBM Employer Information Session
Jan. 18  Examining Persistent Educational Myths
Jan. 19  Inner Tube Water Polo
   
  Find out what else is happening at UBC this week. For sports events, visit the UBC Athletics site at http://www.gothunderbirds.ca/calendar.aspx.

 

UBC People


UBC People

UBC professor receives humanitarian award

Robert H. Taylor, Director, Branch for International Surgery and clinical associate professor of Surgery UBC, has been chosen by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada as the recipient of the 2012 Teasdale-Corti Humanitarian award.

The Teasdale-Corti award was established to acknowledge and celebrate Canadian physicians who, while providing health care or emergency medical services, go beyond the accepted norms of routine practice.

Taylor helped establish UBC’s Branch for International Surgery to address surgical care in international health and has travelled to nearly every continent in the world to provide surgical care and teaching in the developing world, including working for the International Red Cross in conflict regions.

In addition to this Royal College award, Taylor was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2010 for his humanitarian contributions to improving medical services and surgical care in underserved populations of the world.

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Faculty member receives grant from Novo Nordisk to study potential cause of obesity

James Johnson, associate professor in the Dept. of Cellular and Physiological Sciences, has won a $625,000 grant from Novo Nordisk to pursue research that could upend conventional notions about the interplay between insulin, obesity and diabetes.

Johnson and his team will use the award to continue his experiments on the effects of varying levels of insulin and different types of insulin, testing the idea that high levels of circulating insulin might actually be a cause of obesity, rather than an indirect effect.

Headquartered in Denmark, Novo Nordisk is a global healthcare company with 88 years of innovation and leadership in diabetes care.

For more information, visit this page.

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UBC Okanagan campus receives SIDIT grants

UBC’s Okanagan campus has received three grants totaling $275,000 from the Southern Interior Development Initiative Trust (SIDIT).

The awards include $150,000 for a three-year research project led by Susan Murch, Canada Research Chair in Natural Products Chemistry, to develop water efficiencies in Okanagan vineyards; $80,000 in bursaries for undergraduate medical students in the Southern Medical Program; and $45,000 towards bursaries in Engineering, Nursing and Computer Science.

The $80,000 award to the Southern Medical Program will be matched by an anonymous donor. This most recent SIDIT grant represents the second major investment the organization has made to UBC’s Okanagan campus.

For more information, visit https://news.ok.ubc.ca/2012/01/05/grants-to-fund-vineyard-research-bursaries-at-four-ubc-schools/

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Live-in for Literacy camps out at the Learning Centre

Live-in for Literacy begins next week on the second-floor foyer of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

From Jan.17 to 26, students will “camp” at the Learning Centre in order to raise funds to build one or more libraries in a developing country.

The goal this year is to raise up to $3,000 at UBC over the 10-day event through a series of fundraisers. The program is running at 10 Canadian universities and the donations will be combined.

For more information, follow @aRoomtoReadUBC on Twitter and Facebook and visit: blogs.ubc.ca/literacy.

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Dementia 2012: Putting Research Into Practice

Patients, family members, caregivers and members of the public are invited to attend Dementia 2012: Putting Research Into Practice, a forum where UBC researchers will present their research on the progress made on Alzheimer’s disease and related conditions.

 Date: Jan. 28, 2012
 Time: 8:50 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
 Place: Rooms LSC 1 and LSC 2, 2350 Health Sciences Mall
 Info: http://www.ubcneurology.com/

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PuSh Festival and Theatre at UBC present Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot

New World Theatre teams up with Vancouver Moving Theatre to bring Dostoyevsky’s feverish tragicomedy to the stage in a musical adaptation. The Idiot is adapted and directed by James Fagan Tait and the cast of 21 performers will draw from Vancouver’s various theatre communities, community performers from the Downtown Eastside, and Theatre at UBC BFA students.

 Date: Jan. 20-29
 Time: 7:30 p.m.
 Place: Frederic Wood Theatre, 6354 Crescent Road, UBC
 Info: Tickets ($28) available through http://ubctheatre.universitytickets.com or 604.822.2678

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UBC Opera presents Antonín Dvořák’s Rusalka

UBC Opera’s production of Antonín Dvořák’s Rusalka, based on the original airy tale of The Little Mermaid, will take the stage for four performances. When Rusalka was last performed at UBC in March 1977, the cast was led by a young student tenor, Ben Heppner. Heppner went on to record the opera in 1998 in the role of The Prince.

The singers from the UBC Opera Ensemble have come together from all parts of Canada and the world to prepare for the performances. All roles are double cast. Kayleigh Harrison and Rebecca Paulding share the role of Rusalka, the Water Nymph. Jihwan Cho and UBC alumnus Scott Brooks play Vodnik, her father. Brian Lee and Zhang Xiao Dong portray the Prince. Heny Janawti and Francesca Corrado play the Sorceress. The mysterious Foreign Princess is played by Jodanna Rose and Czech exchange student and soprano, Adéle Velová.
 
 Date: Feb. 9-12, 2012
 Place: Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
 Info: Tickets start at $25, http://www.ticketmaster.ca/, or 1.855.985.ARTS
  http://www.music.ubc.ca/student-ensembles/opera.html

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