UBC This Week

UBC students, alumni, and faculty from the Dept. of Theatre and Film figured prominently at the 2010 Leo Awards held on June 4 and 5. The two-day event celebrated outstanding achievements in the B.C film and television industry.

Leo award recipients from UBC are:

• Best Feature Length Drama: alumnus Bruce Sweeney, producer (1990/96) Excited
• Best Direction in a Feature Length Drama: alumnus Bruce Sweeney (1990/96) – Excited
• Best Lead Performance by a Female in a Feature Length Drama: Theatre student Laara Sadiq – Excited
• Best Screenwriting in a Feature Length Drama: alumnus Dennis Foon – A Shine Of Rainbows
• Best Overall Sound in a Feature Length Drama: Adjunct Prof. David Cyr– Alice
• Best Direction in a Dramatic Series: alumnus and Master of Fine Arts student Brenton Spencer – Sanctuary – Pavor Nocturnus
• Best Screenwriting in a Short Drama: Theatre student Kelly-Ruth Mercier – No Ones Knows You Like Your Mother
• Best Picture Editing in a Short Drama: alumnus Brendan Woollard (1998) – Savage
• Best Cinematography in a Documentary Program or Series: Adjunct Prof. Ian Kerr – Facing Ali
• Best Short Drama: alumnus Samantha Jo Simmonds, producer (2006) –The Gray Matter

For more information, visit http://www.leoawards.com/winners_by_name_2010.html

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UBC professors Guy Dumont (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Eric Hall (Civil Engineering), Sheldon Green (Mechanical Engineering), José Martí (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Anoush Poursartip (Materials Engineeing) and Carlos Ventura (Civil Engineering), have been inducted as Fellows of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE) in recognition of their distinguished achievements and career-long service to the engineering profession.

Nominated and elected by their peers, the Fellows of CAE are committed to ensuring that Canada’s engineering expertise is applied to the benefit of all Canadians.

For more information, visit www.engineering.ubc.ca/news/2010/jun4.html

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UBC will be accepting several awards from Bike to Work Week. As part of the region-wide competition, UBC won top honours for the most kilometres cycled, the highest participation rate for organizations more than 1,000 people, and the top spot for the Higher Education category.

In one rainy week the UBC community logged more than 11,000 km cycled. Approximately 1,700 trips to and from UBC were made by bike per day last fall.

To further encourage cycling on campus, UBC has invested in new bicycle infrastructure across campus, is in the process of building a state-of-the-art secure bike parking facility in Buchanan Tower, has raised the bar on end-of-trip facility requirements, and continues to explore the feasibility of a community bike share program.

For more information, visit http://www.trek.ubc.ca/programs/cycling/B2WW_2010.html

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Six of Canada’s 30 Loran Award winners will be coming to UBC this year – more than any other Canadian institution.  This will also be the first year a Loran Scholar will attend the Okanagan campus.

The Canadian Merit Scholarship Foundation (CMSF) selects 30 outstanding Canadian high school students annually through the Loran Award.  Loran Scholars are students who demonstrate a “firm commitment to character, service and leadership and breadth in academic and extra-curricular interests; and entrepreneurship”. 

For more information, visit http://www.loranaward.ca/sef/page/id/18.html

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Two faculty members from the Dept. of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy (OSOT) have received the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapy (CAOT) Fellowship Award for their outstanding contributions and service.   Assoc. Prof. William Miller and Assoc. Prof. Lyn Jongbloed were honoured at an official ceremony at the CAOT Annual Conference in Halifax. 

Miller’s research program focuses on the interaction and measurement of mobility disability and participation in daily life, in which he recently received a $1.5 million Canadian Institution of Health Research grant to develop and test a collaboratively controlled, powered wheelchair.  Jongbloed’s research focuses on understanding the interrelationships between disability and the social, economic and political environment.   Of the current 40 CAOT Fellows in Canada, five are now in OSOT at UBC.

For more information, visit http://www.med.ubc.ca/about_us/Awards_and_Honours.htm#CAOT

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Computer Science lecturer Kimberly Voll received the Killam Teaching Prize in recognition of her outstanding contributions in teaching in the Faculty of Science.

The prizes are awarded annually from the Killam Endowment Fund to faculty nominated by students, colleagues, and alumni in recognition of excellence in teaching.

For more information, visit http://www.vpacademic.ubc.ca/awards/killam/

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As of July 2, 2010, to increase the participation of external examiners at the Final Doctoral Oral Examinations of UBC PhD candidates, the Faculty of Graduate Studies has established a Doctoral External Examiners Transport Fund to help defray the costs associated with examiners traveling to Vancouver from outside the Lower Mainland.

The fund will provide matching support to offset transport costs to and from UBC by an external examiner. It is expected that the supervisor and/or academic unit of the doctoral candidate will cover the balance of the external examiner’s travel expenses. The Faculty of Graduate Studies will reimburse half of the eligible transportation costs (to a maximum of $500 for travel within North America and $1,000 for travel from outside North America) directly to the supervisor or academic unit that pays the initial expense.

A policy and procedure document is available on the www.grad.ubc.ca website for those wishing to access this fund.

Supervisors wishing to take advantage of this program to allow the external examiner to join in the upcoming defence of one of their students should contact Rebecca.Trainor@ubc.ca, Doctoral Exams Coordinator, Faculty of Graduate Studies.

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UBC is co-sponsoring the Pecha Kucha “Walk the talk, green your city” night on June 23.  UBC’s John Hepburn, Vice-President of Research and International, with Mayor Gregor Robertson will welcome participants.  Also speaking from UBC are Prof. John Robinson and Tegan Adams (UBC Green Scholar).

The Pecha Kucha events, which take place all over the world, offer a fast and entertaining night of notable local thinkers delivering inspiration and insight on stage with just 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds.

This event is part of Vancouver’s Greenest City 2020 Conversation, in partnership with UBC.
Date: June 23
Time: 7 p.m.
Place: Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Info: Event expected to sell out. Buy tickets now at http://pechakuchanightvancouver.eventbrite.com/

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