UBC News Digest

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.

Dec. 10, 2004

Receive UBC News Digest via
e-mail
.


UBC Students Lead Canada in International Forestry
Competition

UBC forestry students were the top placing Canadians in the first
international forestry quiz bowl held in Edmonton recently in conjunction
with the joint 2004 annual general meeting of the Canadian Institute
of Forestry and the Society of American Foresters.

Sixteen teams from across Canada and United States competed in
the event that challenged students to answer questions on forestry
topics such as climate change, silviculture and management practices.
UBC’s team placed fourth overall, while the winning team came
from Humbolt State University.

As the top placing Canadian team, UBC students received a hand
carved trophy of a woodworker carved by Dub Juby, a well known Ottawa
Valley wood carver. The trophy will remain at the University of
British Columbia, Faculty of Forestry, until next year’s competition
in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

Winning team members were Dylan Rush, 4th year Forest Operations
student; Craig Nitschke, graduate student in Forest Resources Management;
Amanda Schoonmaker, 3rd year Forest Sciences, and; Andrew Atherton,
4th year Wood Products Processing student and the Canadian Institute
of Forestry student representative on the Forestry Undergraduate
Society.

to top


Rheumatologist Earns National Young Innovator
Award

UBC post-doctoral fellow Jolanda Cibere, a rheumatologist and research
scientist at the Arthritis Research Centre of Canada in Vancouver
has received one of three of the first-ever Networks of Centres
of Excellence (NCE) Young Innovators Award that recognizes outstanding
achievements in research, knowledge transfer and commercialization
among young Canadians.

Cibere’s research on the early diagnosis and prevention of
osteoarthritis led to the development of a standardized knee exam
that has since become part of a clinical standard for early detection.
She has also pioneered a study on the current use of glucosamine
sulfate by osteoarthritis sufferers that showed no evidence of benefit,
the results of which have been widely disseminated to consumers
across North America.

The federally funded NCE are designed to nurture innovative ideas
that can be developed into spin-off products, services or processes
to enrich the lives of Canadians. Over the past 15 years, 111 companies
have been spun off as a result of NCE research.

to top


Alumnus Named Trudeau Mentor

Television personality and best-selling author of The Trouble with
Islam, UBC alumnus Irshad Manji has been named a 2005 Trudeau Foundation
Mentor. The Mentors play a key role in the Foundation’s mandate
to establish dialogue between scholars and leaders at work in the
public policy, business, arts or voluntary sectors. They are assigned
to work with the Trudeau Foundation’s Scholars, who are outstanding
doctoral candidates in the social sciences and humanities.

“I’m a Canadian because of Pierre Elliott Trudeau,"
said Ms. Manji. "Under his leadership, Canada opened its doors
to my family and thousands of other refugees from Idi Amin’s
Uganda. Prime Minister Trudeau invested in my future. Now, I have
the opportunity to invest in the scholars at his Foundation. I hope
to make an interactive contribution, learning from Canada’s
brightest young talents while teaching them at the same time.”

Also named a Mentor was the Globe and Mail’s National Affairs
Columnist Jeffrey Simpson, who has received an honorary degree from
UBC and was the special guest speaker at this year’s UBC annual
general meeting.