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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
- May 27: Legal loophole exposes Canadians to drug advertising banned in US: UBC research
- May 25: Homework is the best medicine: Patients benefit from stroke research
Upcoming Event Highlights
Visit UBCevents, UBC’s new campus-wide calendar: www.events.ubc.ca
- May 29: 3rd Canadian IBRO School of Neuroscience: A Lifetime of Neurodegenerative Disease
- May 30: TAG Institute 2009: Zen Meditation
- May 31: Statistical Society of Canada Annual Meeting
- Jun. 1: 2009 Commuter Challenge
- Jun. 3: Course Design Community of Practice Meeting
- Jun. 4: Is Coaching for Me?
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 professors lead research initiative
- UBC holds Sustainability Education Intensive event
- Team led by UBC Professor wins international award
- UBC team wins Intelligent Systems Challenge
- Sauder professor and MIS division recognized
- English professor wins Killam teaching prize
- UBC conference honours author Jane Rule
- UBC Farm fundraiser with celebrated author Michael Pollan
- Botanical Gardesn unveils prehistoric pine tree
UBC People
UBC professors lead research initiative
The second phase has been launched for Biomarkers in Transplantation, a research initiative that will eventually allow doctors to identify which patients are rejecting a transplanted organ with a simple blood test, aimed at eliminating the need for expensive, painful post-surgery biopsies and reducing the burden of transplantation costs on the health care system.
The project leaders are UBC’s Prof. Dr. Bruce McManus , Dept. of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Prof. Paul Keown , Director of Immunology and Head of Nephrology, and Prof. Robert McMaster , Head of the Dept. of Medical Genetics and Assoc. Dean of Research, Faculty of Medicine.
For more information, visit: www.genomebc.ca
UBC launches Sustainability Education Intensive event
The UBC Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth (TAG) and the Sustainability Office will be launching a new Sustainability Education Intensive (SEI) event.
For two and half days (May 31 – June 2), members of the UBC teaching community will develop sustainability education plans for their course, program or initiative and will showcase their work in January 2010.
For more information, visit: http://blogs.ubc.ca/tagsustainability/
Team led by UBC Professor wins international award
Providence Health Care’s Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) team led by UBC Clinical Asst. Prof. Marc Romney , Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, has won the Oxoid Judges’ Special Award for excellence in hospital infection prevention. The team will receive the award in Birmingham, UK on June 2.
The Oxoid Infection Control Team of the Year Awards recognizes those who are improving standards of infection control within hospitals worldwide. This will be the first award received by an infection control team in North America.
For more information, visit: http://www.providencehealthcare.org/Infection-Prevention-Control-Award.htm
UBC team wins Intelligent Systems Challenge
UBC students Adam Williams and David Fagnan won the grand prize at the 2009 Canadian Artificial Intelligence Association (CAIAC) Precarn Intelligence Systems Challenge. The team received $6,000 for writing the best software algorithms to solve a selected industrial challenge.
For more information, visit: CAIAC Precarn Intelligent Systems Challenge (PDF)
Sauder professor and MIS division recognized
A recent article in the Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 24, 2009) ranks Prof. Izak Benbasat and the Management Information Systems (MIS) division at the Sauder School of Business among the top in the world.
From 2003-2007, Benbasat published more papers in the top three MIS journals (MISQ, ISR, JMIS) than any other researcher in the world. The UBC MIS division also has the third highest publication record in these three journals, with the highest average publication rate per faculty member.
For more information, visit: http://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol24/iss1/14/
English professor wins Killam teaching prize
Prof. Michael Zeitlin , English Dept., has been awarded one of 24 Killam Teaching Prizes for 2009. Zeitlin’s area of expertise is American studies, with a special emphasis on William Faulkner and the Vietnam War.
The Killam teaching prize winners are selected by their faculties based on recommendations from students and colleagues. Each winner receives $5000 from university endowment sources. Recipients are distinguished by their creativity, commitment and dynamic approach to learning.
For more information, visit: http://www.english.ubc.ca/whatsnew/mzeiltin_2009Killam.htm
UBC conference honours author Jane Rule
A conference entitled Queerly Canadian: Changing Narratives will be held at UBC to recognize pioneering lesbian author and former UBC professor Jane Rule , who passed away in November 2007.
Rule was one of the first female authors of her generation to publicly acknowledge homosexuality and same sex culture in her writing. An outspoken advocate of free speech and gay rights, Rule was inducted into the Order of British Columbia in 1998, and into the Order of Canada in 2007.
Rule was the first assistant director of the UBC International House. She later taught in the English and creative writing departments at UBC.
Rule was best known for Desert of the Heart , published in 1964 and later adapted to film. In 1989 she donated a collection of her writings to UBC. The Queerly Canadian conference marks the expansion of the Rule archives.
Date: June 5- 6
Place: Ike Barber Learning Centre, Room 380
Info: Queerly Canadian: Changing Narratives
UBC Farm fundraiser with celebrated author Michael Pollan
In partnership with Barbara-Jo’s Books to Cooks, the UBC Farm will host a book signing and talk with Michael Pollan , who will share his manifesto: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.”
Pollan is a Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley and bestselling author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals , named one of the ten best books of 2006 by the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Vancouver is Pollan’s only Canadian stop on his tour. The afternoon includes guided tours of UBC Farm and live music and entertainment.
Date: June 6
Time: 1 p.m.
Place: UBC Farm, 6182 South Campus Road – rain or shine
Info: Purchase tickets $45 at Barbara-Jo’s Books to Cooks, 604-688-6755
(includes paperback version of In Defense of Food)
Bring a picnic lunch and blanket to sit on.
Botanical Garden unveils prehistoric pine tree
The UBC Botanical Gardens has planted a large Wollemi prine tree that will be the feature plant of their new self-guided Prehistoric Plant Tour.
The tree stands over 11.5 feet tall and is a first generation cutting from the “King Billy” tree, which is estimated to be over 1000 years old.
For more information, visit: http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/community/002773.php
