Feb 28, 2013
Four UBC faculty members were among 75 British Columbians honoured by Premier Christy Clark with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.
The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal was created to mark the 2012 celebrations of the 60th anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the throne and serves to honour significant contributions and achievements by Canadians. For more information, click here.
• James Tansey, professor, Sauder School of Business (Environment)
• Eric Frederick Broom, professor emeritus, School of Kinesiology (Athletics)
• David Kuhl, associate professor, Family Practice, Faculty of Medicine (Health Care)
• Anthony Sheppard, professor, Faculty of Law (Education)
A made-in-Canada treatment for Alzheimer’s disease could be closer to patients thanks to a new technology developed by Faculty of Medicine neuroscientist Neil Cashman. Cashman, professor in the Division of Neurology at UBC, has developed an immune-based treatment that targets the toxic form of amyloid-beta, a protein that forms tiny fibers called plaques in the brains of Alzheimer’s sufferers. For more information, click here.
Three professors in the Dept. of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine—Sam Aparicio, David Huntsman and Torsten Nielsen—have received Canadian Cancer Society Impact Grants ($1.25 million each), which are the largest single grants ever offered by the organization.
Aparicio will receive his grant over five years to investigate how breast cancer arises, grows and mutates. Huntsman’s grant will enable him to use advanced genomic approaches, including whole genome sequencing, to identify driver mutations—mutations that cause normal cells to become cancerous—in two of the deadliest forms of ovarian cancer. Nielson has made major progress in the understanding of a rare soft tissue cancer—synovial sarcoma—which mainly affects children and young adults and for which standard anticancer therapies offer little benefit.
For more information, click here.
Computer Science Associate Professor Michael Friedlander is the recipient of the 2012 Canadian Association of Computer Science Outstanding Young Computer Science Researcher Prize. The prize recognizes young Canadian computer science faculty members who have made significant contributions in research. Of all eligible computer scientists in Canadian universities, Friedlander was one of only three who were selected. For more information, click here.
UBC Nursing undergraduate students Jodi Meacher and Maryam Ranjbaran received the only two inaugural 2012/2013 Position Statement Awards at the annual Canadian Nursing Student Association (CNSA) national conference at Halifax in January. Meacher’s position statement on “Nursing Students Supporting Supervised Injection Sites” was accepted by the National Assembly of the CNSA and will be featured on their website. Ranjbaran and Paulo Balatbat will collaborate with another author on a nurse bullying and horizontal violence position statement to be completed in the upcoming year. For more information, click here.
Amin Taheri and Amin Aziznia, Ph.D. students in Professor Elod Gyenge’s group in the Dept. of Chemical and Biological Engineering, have had their work featured internationally.
Taheri developed a proposal titled Multi-function Photocatalytic Desalination, which was voted among the top ten most popular in the Create the Future Design Contest 2012 organized by NASA Tech Briefs. As a result, he was invited to present and discuss his idea with officials from NASA Magazine, Tech Briefs Media Group as well as with industry and academia. For more information, click here.
Aziznia’s Ph.D. research is focused on the development of a new type of mixed reactant gas-liquid fuel cell design referred to as the Swiss-roll design. His publication in Journal of Power Sources 212, 154-160 (2012) has been selected by the Renewable Energy Global Innovations as a key scientific article. For more information, click here.
UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences will host a Celebrate Research event titled “Sex & Drugs & Reproductive Health”. Co-organized by Professor Mary Ensom and Assistant Professor Judith Soon, this public event will feature presentations from three experts in the area of women’s reproductive health. The seminar will begin with the official premiere of a public service announcement video titled Know Your Birth Control Rights.
Date: March 4, 2013
Time: 9 a.m. – noon
Place: Room 1201, Pharmaceutical Sciences Building, 2405 Wesbrook Mall
Info: Click here.
The Robson Reading Series presents Al Hunter, an Anishinaabe writer whose much-awaited third book of poems Beautiful Razor: Love Poems & Other Lies was published in 2012.
A member and former chief of Rainy River First Nations in Ontario, Hunter has expertise in land claims negotiations and is a longstanding activist on behalf of indigenous rights and wellness, and environmental responsibility.
The Robson Reading Series is hosted by UBC Bookstore and UBC Library. For more info, click here.
Date: March 6
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Place: First Nations Longhouse, 1985 West Mall
Info: Free and open to the public. Register here.
UBC Library presents Ladies’ Night, an event highlighting music by female composers in celebration of International Women’s Day. This concert is part of the Dodson Music Series. Students from UBC’s School of Music will perform works by Beach, Clarke, Boulanger and Eckhardt-Gramatte. The event is free and open to the public.
Date: March 8
Time: Noon to 1 p.m.
Place: Dodson Room (302), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall