UBC Reports | Vol.
50 | No. 1 | Jan.
8, 2004
Biely, McDowell, and Killam Research Awards Announced
Robert Molday, a professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology
and Ophthalmology, has been awarded the Professor Jacob Biely
Faculty Research Prize, and Zoology professor Sarah Otto has
received the UBC Charles A. McDowell Award for Excellence
in Research.
Molday, Canada Research Chair in Vision and Macular Degeneration,
studies the molecular, cellular and genetic
interplay that leads to disease affecting vision. He is an
expert on macular degeneration — the leading cause of blindness
in the developed world.
Otto is an expert in population genetics and evolutionary
biology. She develops and analyses mathematical models to
study how populations change over time to identify when and
whether particular evolutionary transitions are possible.
Winners of the 2003 Killam Research Prizes of $5,000 have
also been announced (in alphabetical order):
- David Dreisinger, Metals and Materials Engineering
- Thomas Grigliatti, Zoology
- Sneja Gunew, English
- Darrin Lehman, Psychology
- Maurice Levi, Finance Division, Sauder School of Business
- Bruce McManus, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and iCAPTURE
Centre - Tim Salcudean, Electrical and Computer Engineering and
Canada Research Chair in Intelligent Computer Interface
Design - John Willinsky, Language and Literacy Education
- Michael Wolf, Chemistry
- Sheila Woody, Psychology
The Biely and McDowell awards are named for former UBC researchers.
Prof. Emeritus Charles McDowell headed UBC’s Chemistry
department for 26 years. Biely, an international poultry scientist,
was a UBC faculty member from 1935-68. He died in 1981.
