Nobel laureates join in celebration

Nobel laureates will share their discoveries with high school students, scientific
colleagues and the public in a Celebration of Science, one of a series of special
events marking the Faculty of Medicine’s golden jubilee year.

The public symposium takes place Oct. 18 at the Chan Centre for the Performing
Arts from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The event is hosted by: UBC Nobel laureate Michael Smith; director of the
B.C. Cancer Research Centre and Medicine’s assistant dean, Research, Victor
Ling; and Dr. Judith Hall, professor of Medical Genetics and head of Pediatrics
at UBC and B.C.’s Children’s Hospital.

The day aims to highlight medical research accomplishments and to engage students,
faculty and the public in thinking about where medical research will take us
in the new millennium.

All the speakers and hosts Smith and Ling are winners of the Gairdner Award.
The symposium is part of a Canada-wide week-long celebration of the 40th anniversary
of the Gairdner Foundation International Awards, one of the most prestigious
honours for scientific discovery.

“This gathering of some of the most notable medical scientists of our time
fits in well with our celebration of the faculty’s anniversary,” says Dean of
Medicine John Cairns. “Their knowledge is exciting and relates to our own contributions
to biomedical science here at UBC.”

Six biomedical scientists will make presentations at the symposium including
Nobel laureate Donnall Thomas, credited with inventing the technique of bone
marrow transplantation. Thomas is from the University of Washington’s Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Research Center.

Other speakers are: Nobel laureate Michael Bishop of the University of California
at San Francisco; Tony Hunter, Salk Institute; Donald Metcalf of the Royal Melbourne
Hospital in Australia; University of Chicago Prof. Janet Rowley; and Randy Schekman
of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in California.

More than 600 high school students will attend the lectures. During the lunch
break groups of the students will join UBC researchers in their labs to get
a first-hand look at discovery in action.

Started by Canadian businessman James A. Gairdner in 1959, the Gairdner Foundation
has made awards of $30,000 each to 251 international scientists from a diversity
of fields for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science.

Fifty-one of those recipients have won the Nobel Prize.

Nominations come from universities, hospitals and research institutions around
the world.

For more information on the Celebration of Science symposium, call (604) 732-6071.

For more 50th anniversary events, visit the Web sit at www.ubcmedicalschool.com.

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