UBC This Week 26-Jan-2012

UBC alumnus Fred Wah has been appointed Canada’s new Parliamentary Poet Laureate. Wah graduated from UBC with a Bachelor of Arts in 1962.

He studied music and English at UBC and went on to complete a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Literature at the State University of New York (SUNY) Buffalo in 1967. He has taught at Selkirk College, David Thompson University Centre and the University of Calgary; he retired from teaching in 2003.

Wah began publishing in the 1960s as part of an international avant-garde movement in Vancouver. He is the author of a long list of publications including five limited-edition chapbooks and 18 books. The UBC alumnus has received major literary awards including the Governor General’s award for Waiting for Saskatchewan.

Wah is the fifth poet to hold this office. The two-year post involves composing poetry, sponsoring poetry readings, advising the Parliamentary Librarian on the Library’s collection and acquisitions, and other related duties.

For more information, visit: http://www.parl.gc.ca/About/Parliament/Poet/index.asp?language=E&param=2

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Anthony Tang, professor in the Dept. of Medicine, received a 2011 Top Achievements in Health Research Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) for the impact of his work on the health of Canadians and others worldwide.

Tang, along with George Wells from the University of Ottawa, was recognized for helping reduce cardiac mortality rates with resynchronization therapy and implantable defibrillators in heart failure. Their study showed that combining two therapies could significantly reduce mortality and rates of admission to hospital among patients with mild to moderate heart failure.

Tang joined the Faculty of Medicine’s Island Medical Program in 2009 and is an attending physician at Victoria’s Royal Jubilee Hospital.

For more information, visit: http://www.med.ubc.ca/about_us/Awards_and_Honours.htm?PageMode=Edit#Anthony Tang receives

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Susan Murch, associate professor of chemistry with the Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences at UBC’s Okanagan campus, has been awarded an infrastructure project grant of $309,437 by the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

The grant will be used to acquire two specialized pieces of equipment for scientific analysis: a tissue culture chamber and a mass spectrometer system.

Murch’s plant secondary metabolism analytical research team focuses on the potential of plants to produce components for pharmaceutical drugs for such things as cancer treatment and natural health products.

More information about this can be found at: http://www.innovation.ca/en/news?news_id=290

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The Dept. of Mechanical Engineering congratulates Connor Schellenberg-Beaver for receiving the Wesbrook Scholarship, the Harry Logan Memorial Scholarship and the Harold B & Nellie Boyes Memorial Scholarship. The Wesbrook Scholarship, one of UBC’s most prestigious designations, is given to a maximum of 20 senior students who exhibit outstanding academic performance, leadership, and involvement in student and community activities.

Schellenberg-Beaver was the engine and electronics lead in the UBC Supermileage Team in the first half of his third year and continued his commitment to the team throughout his co-op term. In the second half of his third year, he maintained an exceptionally high average. He is now Team Captain for the UBC Supermileage Team. 

For more information, visit: http://mech.ubc.ca/2012/01/19/congratulations-connor-schellenberg-beaver/

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Two of the eight finalists announced in the 2012 Knigge Piano Competition are UBC students Jocelyn Lai and Yi Qing Tang. The competition is open to pianists aged 16 to 25 who are Canadian citizens or who are studying in Canada. At the final round on March 3, each finalist will present a 45-minute recital which will include imposed work Echoes by Canadian composer and UBC alumnus Richard Covey.

The competition began in 2008 and was funded by a generous gift from Dieter and Hanne-Lore Knigge. The Knigges are longtime supporters of the UBC School of Music.

For more information, visit: http://www.music.ubc.ca/events/knigge-music-competition.html

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On Feb. 9, an evening of song will be held in honour of UBC graduate student Rumana Monzur. Last summer, Monzur was attacked and blinded by her former husband.

The concert will feature performances by the Lungs and Limbs Ensemble, with songs composed especially for the event by the Composers’ Collective. Songs Unsung commemorates all victims of violence against women and honours Monzur’s courage.

Tickets can be purchased by donation (suggested $15). All proceeds will be donated to the Rumana Monzur fund.

 Date: Feb. 9
 Time: 8 p.m. Reception: 6:30 in GSS Ballroom
 Place: Roy Barnett Hall, UBC School of Music Building, 6361 Memorial Road
Info: Tickets: GSS office, 225-6371 Crescent Road or online (PayPal charge $0.79)
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/285781044813579/
We Can BC: http://wecanbc.ca/

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The fourth annual School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP) Student Symposium is themed around the work of professors William Rees and Anthony Dorcey in sustainability planning. Rees and Dorcey, both retiring after many years of teaching at SCARP, will give the morning keynotes and Richard Heinberg, author of The End of Growth, will give a lunch keynote address. The evening portion will feature a keynote talk by Mike Harcourt followed by a reception.

The SCARP Student Symposium is a student organized networking event designed to gather students, professors, alumni, potential employers, and distinguished guests around a current topic in community and regional planning of SCARP students’ choosing.

Date: Feb. 10
Time: 9 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Place: Graduate Student Society Building, 6371 Crescent Road
Info: Register and view schedule of interactive workshops and panels: http://scarpsymposium.ca/

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Goran Carstedt and John Holmberg from Gothenburg, Sweden, and John Robinson from UBC, will have a dialogue on leadership and the development of a sustainable future.

Carstedt will deliver a keynote address — “Creating a Sustainable Future – the leadership challenge of our time” — sharing his perspectives on leadership as a senior executive of IKEA and Volvo; senior leader with the Clinton Climate Initiative C40 Cities, the Society for Organizational Learning and The Natural Step International; and the present Chair of the City of Gothenburg’s 2021 Green City Committee.

Holmberg, Vice President of Chalmers University and Sweden’s first UNESCO Chair in Education for Sustainable Development will present “Partnerships for a Sustainable Future – Chalmers University of Technology and the City of Gothenburg”, on the transformative initiatives underway at his university and in western Sweden.

Robinson, Executive Director of the UBC Sustainability Initiative and co-author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that shared the Nobel Prize with Al Gore in 2007, will reflect on the Swedish perspectives and the critical role universities can play as societal test-beds for sustainability and the steps UBC is taking to accelerate sustainability.

Date: Feb. 21
Time: 7 – 9:30 p.m.
Place: Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS), 2260 West Mall, UBC Modern Green Development Auditorium, Room 1250
Info: RSVP at http://sustainabilityleadership.eventbrite.com/
Registration is required for this free event.

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The Asia Pacific Memo series publishes twice-weekly memos or video interviews on current issues in Asia and across the Pacific.

• Jan 24: East Asia’s Digital Economy (Video Interview with Dr. Ken Coates) (Part 1/2)

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

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The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and UBC present four public talks in the areas of brain health, regenerative building design, child development and quantum computing in Canada Foundation for Innovation, Dialogues at UBC Robson Square.
 
In the second of these talks — “Redefining ‘green’: Buildings that improve the natural and human condition” — Prof. John Robinson will offer his perspective on how the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) at UBC is aiming to accelerate sustainability at UBC and beyond.

Robinson, who leads CIRS and is a pioneer in the field of regenerative sustainability, thinks that much of the green movement misses the point: “We need to move beyond just ‘greening’ our buildings and start designing structures that actually produce net benefits for both the environment and human well-being.”

Prof. Robinson will be joined by Raymond Cole, professor of architecture at UBC who has been teaching sustainable building design for more than 30 years.

Date:     Feb. 1
Time:     6 p.m.
Place:    UBC Robson Square, Room C180, 800 Robson Street. 
Info:      This event is free and open to the public, no registration required. Q&A and refreshments to follow. http://calendar.events.ubc.ca:80/s/3nk

Upcoming public dialogues:
•  Feb. 8: Behavioural development in children with Prof. Adele Diamond and Prof. Clyde Hertzman
•  Feb. 15: The state of quantum computing in Canada with Prof. Ray Laflamme

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