UBC Feature Web Site
UBC Student Exchange: Go Global:
UBC This Week is a weekly summary of UBC people in the news, recent media releases and upcoming event hightlights. UBC This Week past issues are also available on-line.
Sign up for UBC This Week and other UBC Public Affairs e-mail services at www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/eservices.
Recent UBC Media Releases
- Sep. 28: UBC fisheries experts named two of three recipients of Volvo Environment Prize
- Sep. 25: UBC Law Faculty kicks off building campaign with $1 million gift from Farris
Upcoming Event Highlights
- Sep. 29: President’s Installation and Academic Symposium
- Sep. 30: One Answer to the Doctor Shortage – from Downtown to Small Town at UBC
- Oct. 2: Global English, Culture, and Western Modernity
- Oct. 4: Wednesday Noon Hour Concert Series
- Oct. 4: Talk of the Town: Katy Hutchison
Find out what else is happening at UBC
this week. For sports events, visit the UBC Athletics site
at www.gothunderbirds.ca/schedule.asp.
UBC People
- Ceremony Installs Stephen J. Toope as UBC President
- 2006 BC Innovation Council Awards: Five of Seven Winners from UBC
- Prof. Michael Bliss to Speak at UBC Library’s Inaugural Health Sciences Lectureship Series
- Grad Student Earns Award for Improving Women’s Lives
- Education Alum Wins At National Animation Awards
UBC People
Ceremony Installs Stephen J. Toope as UBC President
Prof. Stephen J. Toope will be installed as UBC’s 12th president at a special ceremony on Friday, Sept. 29, in the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.
At the 10 a.m. ceremony, Chancellor Allan McEachern will administer the oath of office and Board of Governors Chair Brad Bennett will perform the official robing, followed by an installation address by Toope.
Immediately following the ceremony, members of the university community can meet the new president at an outdoor reception from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. at the Flagpole Plaza, outside the Chan Centre.
The day’s events will conclude with an academic symposium from 3-5 p.m. that will feature Toope and a panel of UBC academics in a discussion of the role of universities in building sustainable, successful and just communities.
Both the ceremony and the symposium will be webcast live at www.ubc.ca/webcast. Those who wish to attend the academic symposium can RSVP at www.president.ubc.ca/installation_symposium.html.
For more information on Prof. Toope’s installation, visit www.president.ubc.ca/installation.html.
2006 BC Innovation Council Awards: Five of Seven Winners from UBC
Former UBC president Martha Piper is one of five UBC recipients of the 2006 BC Innovation Council awards. Piper was awarded the BC Science & Technology Champion of the Year Award for her efforts on behalf of the B.C. research community. Others honoured include:
Chairman’s Award for Career Achievement
Dr. Michael Hayden, Director and Senior Scientist, Centre For Molecular
Medicine and Therapeutics, UBC. Hayden receives the award for his innovative long-term contributions to scientific knowledge spanning human genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, neurobiology and medicine.
Frontiers in Research Award
Dr. Luciana Duranti, Professor, School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, UBC. Duranti receives the award for her leadership in opening up new innovative approaches to the field of archival studies.
Lieutenant Governor’s Technology Innovation Award
Dr. Bruce McManus, Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory
Medicine, UBC; Director, the James Hogg iCAPTURE Centre and Scientific; Director, the Heart Centre, St. Paul’s Hospital – Providence Health Care. McManus receives the award for pioneering efforts that have catalyzed significant changes in life sciences strategies and in clinical practice
Young Innovator Award
Dr. Mu Chiao, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, UBC (www.apsc.ubc.ca/news/releases/2006/sep28.html).Chiao receives the award for breaking new ground in the design and fabrication of microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS) that will offer new hope to the chronically ill.
Biographies of all the winners can be found at www.bcinnovationcouncil.com/awards. The winners will be formally recognized at the 2006 BC Innovation Council Awards Dinner on Monday, Nov. 6, at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. Tickets to the Awards Dinner may be purchased online at the above web site or by calling (604) 438-2752.
Prof. Michael Bliss to Speak at UBC Library’s Inaugural Health Sciences Lectureship Series
Attention, medical history enthusiasts: UBC Library presents Prof. Michael Bliss at the inaugural lecture of the Distinguished Scholar in the History of Health Sciences Lectureship Series on Oct. 5.
Dr. Bliss, one of Canada’s most distinguished historians, will present “From Osler to Cushing: the North American Tradition of Medical Excellence and Medical Humanism.” A University of Toronto faculty member for 34 years, Dr. Bliss is regarded as the pre-eminent medical historian of his generation. His definitive account of the discovery of insulin introduced a mainstream audience to the world of biomedical research.
This series was generously initiated by an anonymous benefactor who wishes to honour Dr. William C. Gibson. Dr. Gibson is a Professor Emeritus of the History of Medicine and Science at UBC, an esteemed author, the recipient of numerous awards – including the Order of Canada – and a long-time supporter of UBC Library.
You can view the event via webcast from www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 5. This webcast will also be archived on the site.
For more information, please contact library.development@ubc.ca.
Grad Student Earns Award for Improving Women’s Lives
UBC graduate student Catherine Wilcox has received an award of $7,500 from the Soroptimist Foundation of Canada. Each year, the Foundation provides grants to assist Canadian female graduate students whose studies and career focus on improving the quality of women’s lives.
One of four award recipients, Wilcox will apply the grant to her MEd studies in counselling psychology and career plans. After graduation, Wilcox aims to work at the Women’s Information and Safe House (WISH) to develop free counselling services for sex-trade workers in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Wilcox says she wants to facilitate trust and safety in the lives of an extremely at-risk population.
Education Alum Wins At National Animation Awards
Animation filmmaker and UBC alumnus Jeff Chiba Stearns took home the award
for Best Animated Short Subject for his film “What Are You Anyways” at the
first annual Canadian Awards for Electronic and Animated Arts (CAEAA).
The awards show, described as the Oscars of the Canadian video game and
animation industry, was hosted by actor William Shatner of Star Trek fame on
Thursday night, September 14th, at the River Rock Show Theatre in Richmond, B.C.
Chiba Stearns attended the event with faculty from the Centre for Arts and
Technology Kelowna where he instructs classical hand drawn animation
courses. His film is an autobiographical recollection of Chiba Stearns’ life experiences growing up in Kelowna being a Hapa — a world-wide term used to describe someone of mixed Asian decent. The film, released in 2005, has won more than seven awards and been screened at more than 35 international film festivals to date.
