UBC Reports | Vol. 54 | No. 5 | May 1, 2008
Highlights of UBC media coverage in April 2008
Compiled by Basil Waugh
UBC Fisheries Researcher Daniel Pauly Appears in Vanity Fair’s 2008 Green Issue
Daniel Pauly, UBC’s internationally renowned fisheries researcher, got the glam treatment in Vanity Fair’s Green Issue last month.
Pauly, director of UBC’s Fisheries Centre, was photographed standing in the Atlantic Ocean alongside celebrity environmental champions such as actors Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen.
The popular U.S. magazine calls Pauly one of “the activists, agitators, scientists and superstars who are fighting for us all.”
Slowing Deforestation May be Worth Billions: Study
Carbon credits could fight climate change and generate billions of dollars for tropical forest conservation, a UBC study has found.
Mai Yasue, a post-doctoral fellow at UBC Fisheries Centre, proposes that polluters – seeking to offset emissions and improve their environmental reputations – buy credits generated by preserving trees in a carbon trading system.
Reducing the loss of forests by as little as 10 per cent could generate as much as $13.5 billion a year for conservation, Yasue co-wrote in the U.K. journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.
Media around the world, including Reuters, Agence France Press, Times of India, Irish Independent, Bloomberg, Forbes and Canada.com, reported her research.
Testosterone Spray Improves Sexual Satisfaction in Women
Washington Post and Forbes reported a UBC sexologist’s criticism of an Australian study that says testosterone can improve sexual satisfaction in women.
Dr. Rosemary Basson, director of Sexual Medicine at UBC, argued that women’s testosterone levels and libidos may decline as they age, but that doesn’t mean the lack of testosterone is linked with sexual dissatisfaction.
Instead of prescribing testosterone for women with sexual dissatisfaction, Basson recommended that doctors examine health and relationship issues, sexual dysfunction in the partner, and treat problems using conventional methods such as sex therapy and psychotherapy.
Corporate Director and Community Volunteer Elected UBC Chancellor; New Board Members Named
Sarah Morgan-Silvester, chair of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority and B.C. Women’s Hospital and Health Centre Foundation, has been elected as UBC’s 17th chancellor, the Vancouver Sun reported.
Morgan-Silvester is a member of David Suzuki Foundation’s National Business Advisory Council and was HSBC Bank Canada’s Executive Vice President for nine years. In 2007, she chaired a blue ribbon council on Vancouver’s business climate. In 1998, she was named one of Canada’s “Top 40 Under 40.” The UBC alumna begins a three-year term on July 1, 2008.
UBC also recently welcomed eight new Board of Governors members: provincial appointees Theresa Arsenault, Robert Fung and Janet Pau; staff and faculty appointees Anne-Marie Fenger and Nassif Ghoussoub, and students Bijan Ahmadian, Tim Blair and Alexandra Caldwell.
For more information, visit www.bog.ubc.ca.
