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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.
Recent UBC Media Releases
- June 24: UBC Researchers Invent Helmet that Significantly Reduces Forces to Neck During Head-first Impact
- June 23: UBC Physicists Develop “Impossible” Technique to Study and Develop Superconductors
Upcoming Event Highlights
- June 26: International conference on light therapy and circadian rhythms
- July 2: Introducing Nia: dance away your noon hour
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
- Professor appointed as Director of UBC School of Journalism
- UBC department head appointed to interim research roles
- International research symposium on the patient’s voice
- Scientists receive Young Investigator Award
- UBC microbiologist to head Michael Smith Labs
- Professor awarded chemical fellowship
- Microbiology and Immunology graduate student nabs poster award
- Graduate student symposium addresses global capitalism and agrarian society
- Public lecture on SAD and light therapy
- Beaty and the Beast: a blue whale skeleton comes to Vancouver
UBC People
Professor appointed as Director of UBC School of Journalism
Prof. Mary Lynn Young has been appointed Director of the UBC School of Journalism. She succeeds Prof. Stephen Ward, who has taken a position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Young received her PhD and MA from the University of Toronto’s Centre of Criminology. She has been a reporter and editor at daily newspapers including The Globe and Mail (where she was a national business columnist from 2003-2006), The Vancouver Sun, The Hamilton Spectator and The Houston Post.
Young joined the School of Journalism in 2000. Her areas of interest include gender and the media, newsroom sociology, media credibility, representations of crime (including a new project on the media coverage of marijuana in Canada), media economics and content analysis. She was an expert witness in 2007 at the Cornwall Public Inquiry on allegations of youth abuse over a 20-year period in Ontario.
UBC department head appointed to interim research roles
Prof. Rob McMaster, Head of the Department of Medical Genetics, has been appointed interim Executive Director of the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, Associate Dean of Research for the Faculty of Medicine, and VP Research for Vancouver Coastal Health.
With research interests in molecular immunology, parasitology, and immunology, McMaster is also co-lead on a $9.11 million award from Genome Canada involving biomarkers for transplantation, and co-director of a new national Centre of Excellence for the Prevention of Epidemic Organ Failure.
For more information, visit http://www.med.ubc.ca/news/Awards_and_Honours.htm.
International research symposium on the patient’s voice
The UBC College of Health Disciplines and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council will sponsor the 2008 Patient’s Voice International Research Symposium, where international experts in interprofessional health care communication will explore how value can be added by involving patients and the community in all aspects of health care.
Speakers include Assoc. Principal Lesley Bainbridge, College of Health Disciplines, and Prof. John Spencer, professor in Medical Education in Primary Health Care and Sub Dean for Primary and Community Care. The evening will be chaired by Assoc. Dean Angela Towle, Undergraduate Education, Faculty of Medicine.
Date: July 9
Time: 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Place: St. John’s College, 2111 Lower Mall
Info: Reserved seating – contact 604-822-8002 or isdm@interchange.ubc.ca
Scientists receive Young Investigator Award
Four UBC scientists are among 200 early career scientists from 12 countries selected by National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression to receive a 2008 Young Investigator Award to advance their research on psychiatric disorders. Each will receive $60,000 over the next two years.
The recipients and their projects are:
- Christopher Lapich, Post-doc, Department of Psychiatry: the function of prefrontal cortex neurons in facilitation of working memory with an aim to shed light on the pathology of schizophrenia
- Dr. Marcia Sant’Anna, Mood Disorders Centre: how neurobiological mechanisms provide clues toward the association of childhood trauma and psychiatric and health co-morbidities in adulthood
- Assist. Prof. Jun-Feng Wang, Department of Psychiatry: the importance of mitochondrial dysfunction-induced damage in the pathological process of bipolar disorder and possible prevention by mood stabilizers
- Assist. Prof. Todd Woodward, Department of Psychiatry and Riverview Hospital: the use of advanced imaging methods to develop means for monitoring the brain systems at work in schizophrenia, with the goal of forming an early detection system for psychosis
NARSAD is a charity dedicated to supporting scientific research for treatment and prevention of severe mental illnesses. The Young Investigator Award was created to help promising scientists generate pilot data necessary for larger grants.
For more information, visit http://www.narsad.org/research/grantee_lists/young/2008.html
UBC microbiologist to head Michael Smith Labs
Prof. James Kronstad, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, has been appointed director of UBC’s Michael Smith Laboratories (MSL). Kronstad’s research was one of the original faculty recruited to MSL by founding director and Nobel Laureate Michael Smith.
For more information, visit http://www.michaelsmith.ubc.ca/about/news/?a_id=66.
Professor awarded chemical fellowship
Prof. David Wilkinson was awarded a 2008 Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) Fellowship, granted for exceptional contributions to the profession of chemistry, chemical engineering, or chemical technology.
Wilkinson, considered one of the leading fuel cell inventors in the world, is focusing his present research on fuel cells and the use of electrochemistry in clean energy processes.
For more information, http://www.chml.ubc.ca/.
Microbiology and Immunology graduate student nabs poster award
Carly Huitema, a graduate student with the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, has won the Canadian Society of Microbiologists Poster Award at the Society’s Annual Conference this June. Huitema is part of Prof. Lindsay Eltis’ lab, investigating microbial enzymes and pathways involved in the degradation of natural and man-made compounds.
For more information, http://www.microbiology.ubc.ca/318.0.html.
Graduate student symposium addresses global capitalism and agrarian society
A graduate student symposium, entitled Urban Hegemony, Agrarian Societies and Governance in the Global South, will be part of the 2008 Peter Wall Summer Institute. Students will examine the conflicted formation and transformation of institutions, ideologies and practices in rural, urban and peri-urban parts of the world.
Date: June 28
Time: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Place: Peter Wall Institute of Advanced Studies, 6331 Crescent Road
Info: http://www.wsir.pwias.ubc.ca/2008/symposium_schedule.php
Public lecture on SAD and light therapy
The Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms (SLTBR) will host a public education event entitled Update on SAD and hot topics from the 2008 SLTBR meeting as part of their annual meeting. Audience members will hear from experts in light therapy, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and related disorders. Speakers include:
- Prof. Namni Goel, University of Pennsylvania: highlights of the 2008 SLTBR meeting
- Prof. Raymond Lam, UBC: overview of SAD and light therapy
- Dr. Robert Levitan, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health; President, SLTBR: Bodyclocks and ADHD
- Assist. Prof. Erin Michalak, UBC: self-management strategies for depression
Date: June 28
Time: 4 – 6 p.m.
Place: UBC Robson Square, 800 Robson St.
Info: contact Loretta Musselwhite, Mood Disorders Centre, Department of Psychiatry at musselwh@exchange.ubc.ca
Beaty and the Beast: a blue whale skeleton comes to Vancouver
Prof. Andrew Trites, Director of the Marine Mammal Research Unit of the Fisheries Centre, and skeleton articulator Michael deRoos will give an insider’s account of the UBC Blue Whale Project’s recent dig in P.E.I., share facts about blue whales and give a sneak peek into the project’s next steps. The skeleton will be the centerpiece of the Beaty Biodiversity Museum when it opens next year.
Date: June 26
Time: 7 p.m.
Place: Room 100, Wesbrook Building, 6174 University Boulevard
Info: http://www.beatymuseum.ubc.ca/proglect8.html
Notes: Free e-tickets are required, available at the above website.
