UBC News Digest

Oct 3, 2002

The UBC News Digest is a weekly summary of news stories about UBC
people, research, learning, community, and internationalization
initiatives. News Digest past
issues are also available on-line.

Oct. 3, 2002

UBC grad Ike Barber to donate $20 million for
new Learning Centre

UBC alumnus Irving K. (Ike) Barber, founding chairman of Slocan
Forest Products Ltd., has announced a $20 million donation to transform
UBC’s Main Library.

The B.C. Government will contribute $10 million, and UBC will match
the sum of these donations for a total of $60 million to build the
Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre will be constructed around
the core of the Main Library, which opened in 1925, to add more
than 200,000 new square feet of inside floor space and 46,000 square
feet of renovated floor space, fully equipped to support wireless
technology both inside and out.

"Mr. Barber’s donation is an investment in the future of British
Columbia," said UBC President Martha Piper. "And it reflects
his dedication to the intellectual, social, cultural, and economic
development of the people of this province, by supporting and enhancing
the environment for learning here."

For more details on the announcement, see the related
media release on the UBC Public Affairs Web site.

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UBC Zoologist named Distinguished Visiting Teaching
Professor at University of Guelph

UBC Zoologist, Lee Gass, has been named the first Distinguished
Visiting Teaching Professor at the University of Guelph.

The Guelph program was created to recognize and highlight the theory,
practice and scholarship of teaching by bringing a notable and respected
teacher to Guelph’s campus each year to spend several days interacting
with faculty, students and staff.

Gass, who is also this year’s CASE/CCAE Canadian Professor of the
Year, will travel to Guelph this month to meet with faculty and
students there. He will lecture on "Reflections on a Decade
of Innovation in Science Education: Integration, Interaction and
Interdisciplinarity."

Gass is a graduate of Chico State College and the University of
Oregon. He joined UBC in 1974. His research focuses on hummingbirds
and energetics but in recent years has become more devoted to developing
theory for understanding phenomena commonly encountered in the classroom
and especially how undergraduate science education engages both
students and educators, particularly in building communities of
scholars.

Gass, an eminent member of UBC’s Zoology Department, is a recipient
of both the Killam Teaching Award and a 3M Teaching Fellowship in
1999.

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$12.7 Million grant awarded for prostate cancer
research consortium

UBC is one of five partners that will participate in a multi-centre,
five-year investigation into the genetic mechanisms of prostate
cancer progression.

The project is being funded by a $12.7 million grant from the U.S.-based
National Cancer Institute to support joint projects at Seattle’s
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, University of Washington,
the Institute for Systems Biology, as well as UBC and The Prostate
Centre at Vancouver Hospital.

The Vancouver-based researchers will focus on developing new treatments
for men with advanced prostate cancer who no longer respond to androgen-deprivation.
The idea is to harness antisense technology, which inhibits gene
expression, to coax hormone-insensitive prostate-cancer cells to
commit suicide. This process is called apoptosis, or "programmed
cell death." Such antisense drugs, when combined with chemotherapy
or other drugs, also may block the cellular processes that allow
cancer to grow.

The project is being led by faculty members Prof. Martin Gleave
and Asst. Prof. Colleen Nelson.

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UBC’s Golden Key chapter wins award again

The prestigious Key Chapter Award has been presented to members
of UBC’s Golden Key Society at the international organization’s
recent convention in Atlanta, Georgia.

The UBC Chapter won for a variety of activities which included:
conducting blood donor clinics, participating in the annual Terry
Fox Run and partnering with the Queen Alexandra Elementary School,
where members donate their time by tutoring, coaching and mentoring
youngsters. This marks the UBC Chapter’s third time at winning the
award.

The Golden Key International Honour Society was founded in 1977
in Atlanta. The global non-profit society provides leadership opportunities
to members in its 320 chapters around the world.

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Kudos

Frieda Granot, Dean of Graduate Studies, has been awarded the Golden
Jubilee Medal by the Government of Canada.

The medal commemorates the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II’s
ascension to the throne, and is awarded to Canadians who have shown
"a dedication to excellence in their chosen fields and who
are recognized for their contribution to the building of a Canadian
society as an example of fairness, justice, and tolerance to the
world community."