A leader in HIV prevention, a specialist in business cycles
and economic growth and a history educator are among the five
University of British Columbia faculty recently elected to
the Royal Society of Canada.
“This recognition highlights the value of these investigators’
contribution not only to the university but also to the country,”
says Indira Samarasekera, UBC vice-president, Research. “UBC
was recently ranked as the 35th leading university in the
world based on the outstanding achievements of researchers
like these new members of the Royal Society.”
Health-care researcher and epidemiologist Martin
Schechter conducted early work that led to efforts
to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. He is currently involved in
a project in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside that will
help heroin addicts who have not responded to available therapies.
Paul Beaudry is a macroeconomist whose areas
of specialty include labour markets, monetary policy and economic
growth. He also holds a Canada Research Chair (CRC), a prestigious
research position funded by the federal government.
Peter Seixas examines how history is taught
in schools. The founder of the Centre for the Study of Historical
Consciousness at UBC, Seixas has contributed greatly to an
interdisciplinary approach to history education. He also holds
a CRC.
Derek Gregory is an expert in human geography
who looks at the relationship between space, culture and power.
His current book, The Colonial Present, examines the contemporary
geopolitics of the Middle East.
Biochemist Pieter Cullis studies liposomes,
or fat bubbles, as a way to deliver drugs to target sites
in the body – a technnique that could greatly improve
cancer chemotherapy. Cullis is also chief scientific officer
and senior vice-president, Research, at Inex Pharmaceuticals
Corp., a UBC spin-off company that he co-founded in 1992.
Established in 1882, the Royal Society of Canada is regarded
as the country’s most prominent academy of scholars and scientists.
More than 150 UBC faculty are members.
For more information on the Royal Society of Canada, visit
www.rsc.ca.
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