UBC This Week

UBC creative writing professor Steven Galloway has been long-listed for the €100,000 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Galloway is nominated for his international bestselling novel, The Cellist of Sarajevo, a story of three people in a city devastated by war and a cellist who plays for 22 days at the site of a mortar attack. 

Nominations in the list are made by libraries from around the globe and are open to books written in any language. Eight libraries in Canada, Belgium, Finland, and England nominated Galloway’s novel.

The shortlist will be revealed on April 14, 2010, and the winner will be announced on June 17, 2010.

For more information, visit http://www.creativewriting.ubc.ca/.

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A team of UBC undergrads has won a gold medal at the International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) competition held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Their biosensor technology E.coli Traffic Light, a signals mechanism operating in E.coli, was produced after 7,000 hours of research work.

This is the first time a team from UBC has participated in the contest that draws more than 100 teams internationally.

For more information, visit www.engineering.ubc.ca/news/2009/nov9.html

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UBC, the National Research Council Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation (NRC-IFCI), and Powertech Labs (a clean energy subsidiary of BC Hydro), have signed a Letter of Intent to work together in a BC Clean Energy Technology Cooperative. The Cooperative plans to act as a unified source of talent, knowledge and expertise for the clean energy sector.

For more information, visit www.apsc.ubc.ca/news/2009/nov6.html

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Nicole Miller, a graduate of the Master’s of Advanced Studies in Architecture program and current PhD student in Resource Management and Environmental Studies, has won a 2009 Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Housing Studies Achievement Award for her research project, Scenarios for Carbon Neutrality in North American Suburbs.

Her research finds that suburban residential development—the predominant residential pattern in North America—has both critical and underused potential to mitigate greenhouse-gas emissions—yet suburban neighbourhood retrofits typically fail to extend beyond renovating individual homes.

For more information, visit http://www.apsc.ubc.ca/news/2009/nov4.html

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UBC computer science students have won the 2009 ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest Pacific Northwest Regionals, beating teams from Stanford and Berkeley to compete at the world finals in February.

Teams of UBC Computer Science students took first, 10th and 15th places at the five-hour programming contest hosted at UBC.

For more information, visit http://science.ubc.ca/news/328

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Computer science senior instructor Donald Acton has received the BCNET Faculty Recognition Award at the BCNET AGM 2009 for his contribution to the BCNET Broadband Innovation Challenge.  President Stephen Toope was a keynote speaker at the event.

BCNET is a not-for-profit organization providing high-speed optical network capabilities to B.C.‘s higher education and research institutions.

For more information, visit http://www.cs.ubc.ca/news/awards.shtml.

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The UBC Centre for Japanese Research will hold a research conference on Japanese studies entitled Japanese and Canadian Research into Immigration and Foreign Workers.  The conference themes include:  recent changes to migration law and policy; the position of foreign workers; the condition of zainichi Koreans in Japan and the Nikkei community in Canada; approaches to multiculturalism and integration programs.

Date: Nov. 19 – 20
Place: Conference Room #120, C.K. Choi Building, 1855 West Mall
Info: RSVP to David.Edgington@ubc.ca
         www.iar.ubc.ca

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The Materials Engineering Dept. will host a snowsports sample sale featuring highly discounted merchandise from Ride Snowboards, Westbeach, Endeavor Snowboards, Spy Optics, Obey and others.  The event is a fundraiser for student field trips.

 Date: Nov. 12, 10 – 12 a.m.
            Nov. 13, 10 – 6 a.m.
 Place: Student Union Building

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