UBC This Week | Feb. 7, 2008

Feb 7, 2008

UBC Feature Web Site

UBC Podcasts:

www.ubc.ca/podcasts

UBC This Week is a weekly summary of UBC people in the news, recent media releases and upcoming event highlights. 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.

Upcoming Event Highlights

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

UBC People

SCARP receives Amacon gift

UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP) has received a gift of $75,000 from Amacon, a Vancouver development company, to create the Amacon-Beasley Education Enhancement Fund. The fund will help urban design students get out of the classroom and get hands-on working experience with city developers and urban designers.

SCARP is Canada’s oldest (established 1952) and largest urban design school, and ranks among the top 10 design schools in North America. Larry Beasley is the recently retired Director of Planning for the City of Vancouver, and now the Distinguished Practice Professor of Planning at SCARP.

For more information, visit www.cfis.ubc.ca/page440.htm.

to top

B.C. artist Althea Thauberger at UBC

Next week, Althea Thauberger will speak about two of her works that appear in the Exponential Future exhibition at UBC’s Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery: the video installation Zivildienst ≠ Kunstprojekt (Social Service ≠ Art Project), and the large scale photo mural The Art of Seeing Without Being Seen, installed at the Walter C. Koerner Library at UBC.

The talk, presented by the Belkin Gallery and UBC Library, takes place at 5 p.m. on Feb. 11 at the Frederic Lasserre Building, Room 102, 6333 Memorial Road. The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, visit www.belkin.ubc.ca and www.library.ubc.ca/koerner/artwork.html.

to top

UBC volcanologist receives award

Prof. Kelly Russell, Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, has been awarded the Peacock Medal, the highest honour from the Mineralogical Association of Canada, in recognition of his contribution to mineralogical sciences in Canada.

to top

UBC – Ktunaxa Nation research partnership launches community learning centres

UBC’s Division of Continuing Professional Development and Knowledge Translation (UBC CPD-KT), in collaboration with B.C.’s Ktunaxa Nation (Akisq’nuk, Aq’am, Tobacco Plains, and Lower Kootenay), launched four Community Learning Centres (CLC) this week. 

The UBC CPD-KT and Ktunaxa Nation partnership is the first time in Canada that a CLC is rigorously evaluated at all stages of design and implementation. UBC CPD-KT is also the first Canadian research organization to receive funding to pilot, implement and evaluate the CLC concept from the Canadian Institute of Health Research.

to top

UBC professor acknowledged for early childhood intervention

Dr. Hillel Goelman, Director of the Consortium for Health, Intervention, Learning and Development (CHILD) and Associate Director of Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) at UBC, received an award for his leadership in professional development in early childhood intervention. The award was presented on behalf of the BC Association of Infant Development Consultants, the Aboriginal Infant Development Program of BC, the Supported Child Development of BC and the Provincial Steering Committee of the Infant Development Program of B.C.

to top

UBC professor named conservation fellow

Assoc. Prof. Ussif Rashid Sumaila, Department of Fisheries, was named a 2008 Pew Marine Conservation fellow. Sumaila will receive $150,000 to conduct a three-year project to create comprehensive databases detailing the global cost and ecological impacts of commercial fishing around the world. 

Each year, 10 ocean champions are supported by the program to undertake pioneering projects that tackle urgent conservation challenges in four areas: sustainability of marine ecosystems; fisheries management; marine contamination; and coastal conservation. Since the program was launched in 1990, fellows have been chosen from more than 20 countries.

UBC Department of Fisheries researchers Prof. Carl Walter and Assoc. Prof. Amanda Vincent were named Pew Marine Conservation fellows for 2001 and 2000, respectively.

The mission of the Pew Institute for Ocean Science is to advance ocean conservation through science.

For more information, visit www.pewoceanscience.org/fellowssite/fellows.php.

to top

MS Society honours UBC director

Clin. Assist. Prof. Virginia Devonshire, Department of Neurology and Director of UBC’s MS Clinic, has received the MS Society of Canada’s National Award of Merit, Member for 2007.

Devonshire completed her neurology training and MS Fellowship at the University of British Columbia and is on the staff at the Vancouver General and UBC Hospitals. In addition to her clinical work on MS, she is also principle investigator in various clinical trials and manages the MS COSTAR database, an extensive MS database.

to top

Centres host lectures on Japanese tourism and singing in Korea

UBC’s Centre for Japanese Research will host a lecture by Prof. David Edgington, Department of Geography, on Japanese tourism in Canada on Feb. 8 from 5-6:30 p.m.

The Centre for Korean Research will host a lecture by Assoc. Prof. Millie Creighton, Department of Anthropology, entitled Is Korean Noraebang, Japan KaraOKe?  Singing Banquets, Singing Doctors, and Singing Rooms in Korea on Feb. 14 from 4-5:30 p.m.

Both lectures will take place in Room 120 of the C.K. Choi Building, 1855 West Mall. For more information, visit www.iar.ubc.ca/bulletin/seminarsFEB2008.htm.

to top

Flowers at the Botanical Garden

Jackie Chambers, horticulturalist at UBC’s Botanical Garden, will give a lecture entitled Black Iris & Red Tulips: Wildflowers of Israel & Jordan on Feb. 11 at 12-1 p.m. The lecture will focus on the species of royal iris endemic to Israel and Jordan. Chambers has studied with the Royal Horticultural Society at Wisley, the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, and at the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens.

Hitomi Gilliam, of the American Institute of Floral Design, will give a seminar at UBC’s Botanical Garden on Advanced Flower Arranging: Nature’s Creative Edge on Feb. 16 from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. Gilliam will review the elements and principles of design and share her design ideas inspired by the winter landscape at the Botanical Garden. Plant material will be provided for participants to create a floral piece; participants are asked to bring a container and tools (secateurs and/or a florist knife).

Cost is $55 for members; $60 for non-members.

To view Gilliam’s work, visit www.hitomi-art.com.

Both events will take place at the Botanical Garden Reception Centre, 6804 South West Marine Dr. For more information or to register, call 604-822-3928 or e-mail botg@interchange.ubc.ca or visit www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org.

to top

Valentine e-cards on UBC Library vault site

The UBC Library Vault offers e-postcards for special occasions, including a variety of Valentine offerings that can be sent via e-mail.

Each card features a beautiful image taken from UBC Library’s collections, along with its unique story. Four different cards are available:

  • Love Conquers All – Amor vincit omnia
  • The Herald
  • Labour of Love
  • Claire de Lune

Valentine and other e-cards are on the UBC Library Vault website at www.ubcvault.ca/ecards.

The UBC Library Vault strives to create an online community and foster interest in UBC Library’s vibrant holdings by sharing stories and images from rare and special collections. For more information, visit www.ubcvault.ca.