UBC This Week

Recent UBC Media Releases

Upcoming Event Highlights


Find out what else is happening at UBC this week. For sports events, visit the UBC Athletics site at http://www.gothunderbirds.ca/calendar.aspx.

UBC People


UBC People

UBC engineer receives honorary doctorate

Mechanical engineering professor Clarence de Silva received an honorary Doctor of Science degree at the annual convocation of the Open University of Sri Lanka on Dec. 23, 2010. His convocation address, given at the Bandaranayake Memorial International Conference Hall, was published in the Sri Lanka national newspaper Island in two parts on Dec. 29 and 30, 2010.

To link to the convocation address, visit: www.sites.mech.ubc.ca/~ial/ial/news.php.

to top

UBC professors honoured by the Engineering Institute of Canada

UBC engineering professors Liam Finn and André Ivanov will be honoured for their excellence in professional service by the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) at its annual awards gala in Ottawa on March 5, 2011.

Civil engineering Prof. Emeritus Liam Finn will be awarded the K.Y. Lo Medal in recognition of his outstanding engineering contributions internationally. Finn is an expert in geotechnical earthquake engineering with particular interest in liquefaction, seismic response of sites and earth structures, seismic safety evaluation of dams, seismic response of pile foundations and seismic risk. He pioneered the use of dynamic effective stress analysis in practice and the use of large strain deformation analysis for the analysis of post liquefaction deformation of dams.

Electrical and computer engineering department head André Ivanov will be inducted a Fellow of the institute for his exceptional contributions to engineering in Canada. Ivanov is an expert and innovator in the field of the design and testing of very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits. His achievements have led to numerous new and advanced technologies that have greatly impacted the shape of VLSI test technology processes worldwide affecting the entire semiconductor industry.

For more, visit: www.engineering.ubc.ca/news/2011/jan19.html

to top

Engineering student wins UBC leadership award

Engineering student Sean Heisler received the UBC Nestor Korchinsky Student Leadership Award on Jan. 8 at UBC’s largest student-run conference.

Heisler, a third-year student in the Integrated Engineering (IGEN) program, currently serves on UBC’s Board of Governors, UBC’s Land Use Plan Public Hearing Committee and is Co-Chair of the Canadian Engineering Conference 2012. A transfer student from Queen’s University, he served on the BC Ministry of Advanced Education BC Transfer Guide Business Process Review and as a mentor for UBC engineering transfer students. He has also served on UBC Senate, the Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS), IGEN Student Council and as Co-Director of GEERing UP!, a non-profit organization that promotes science, engineering and technology to youth across the Greater Vancouver Area.

The award was initiated in honour of the leadership of Dr. Nestor Korchinsky, a professor at UBC and the Director of Intramural Programming for 38 years. Korchinsky’s leadership and initiative created one of the most renowned intramural programs in the country, as he saw a need in the university community and filled it by creating what is now UBC Rec. The award, presented annually at the UBC Student Leadership Conference, is meant to recognize a student who embodies Korchinsky’s spirit of leadership and initiative at UBC and the wider community.

For more, visit: www.engineering.ubc.ca/news/2011/jan10.html

to top

UBC Press wins top military history award in Canada

Kevin Spooner’s Canada, the Congo Crisis, and UN Peacekeeping, 1960-64, published by UBC Press, is the winner of this year’s C.P. Stacey Prize for the best book in military history awarded by the Canadian Historical Committee for the History of the Second World War and for Military History.

Spooner reveals how Canadian decision-makers crafted and implemented policy while weighing the competing demands of Canada’s ongoing commitment to UN peacekeeping, a multilateral approach to foreign affairs, their perceptions of Canadian public opinion, and relations with the prominent members of NATO.   

For more information, visit http://www.ubcpress.ca/search/title_book.asp?BookID=299172602

to top

2010 Year in Headlines

UBC’s Public Affairs office has completed the 2010 UBC Year in Headlines publication. This year’s re-designed edition provides highlights of UBC stories in the world’s top media outlets including the BBC, Economist, New York Times, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and many more. Stories include coverage of the 2010 Games experts and research, as well as UBC teaching and learning, students, alumni and our campuses.

For more information visit: www.ubc.ca/yih.

to top

McLean Lecture Series

The International Canadian Studies Centre (ICSC) will be hosting the triennial Brenda and David McLean Lectures this term, followed by a related symposium co-sponsored with the Belkin Art Gallery.

McLean Chair and professor of art history John O’Brian will present “The Bomb in the Wilderness: Nuclear Photography, the Atomic Age, and Canada” at the Liu Institute.  This series of three lectures will examine the role that photography has played in constructing nuclear narratives since World War II, and places it in context of Canada’s participation as a nuclear nation.  

Dates: Jan. 25, Feb. 1, Feb. 8
Time: 7 p.m.
Place: Liu Institute for Global Issues, 6486 NW Marine Drive
Info: http://calendar.events.ubc.ca:80/s/c6

to top

Green College ticket Offer to UBC Students: Global Civic Policy Society Public Salon

As part of a continuing collaboration between Green College, UBC, and The Global Civic Policy Society directed by former mayor of Vancouver Sam Sullivan, the College is offering UBC students a limited number of complimentary tickets (reg. $12) to the next Public Salon on Feb. 1, 2011.

The program features founder of the Cheaper Show for Artists Graeme Berglund, distinguished classical pianist Jane Coop, founder of Stand Up for Mental Health David Granirer, music and yoga entrepreneur Terry McBride, ICBC Chair and Minerva Foundation for BC Women founder Nancy McKinstry, president of Simon Fraser University Andrew Petter, and director of the UBC School of Architecture Leslie Van Duzer.

Date:  Feb. 1
Time:  7:30 – 9 p.m.
Place:  Vancouver Playhouse Theatre, corner of Hamilton and Dunsmuir
Info:  Complimentary tickets first-come, first-serve (max. two per request). Contact gc.events@ubc.ca.
Tickets can also be purchased for $12/$20: www.globalcivic.org

to top

CiTR Radio Prof Talk interviews civil engineering professor

On UBC CiTR Radio’s Prof Talk, with host Farha Khan, Perry Adebar from the Dept. of Civil Engineering will discuss structural engineering as a field of study as well as his current research on concrete structures and seismic design. 

Every second Tuesday, Prof Talk on 101.9FM features interviews with professors from a variety of disciplines.

Date:  January 25
Time:  3 p.m.
Info: Live programming:  http://citr.ca
Podcasts:  http://feeds.feedburner.com/Citr–ProfTalk
Show schedule: http://ubcproftalk.blogspot.com

to top

Series on Islamophobia held at Liu Institute

The Liu Institute for Global Issues presents a series that will approach the underlying issues of Islamophobia through short talks that address art as resistance, gender and race as they affect the lives of Muslims, and a dialogue session to explore the implications of Islamophobia on global health. Faculty and students are invited to attend and contribute to the dialogues. 

Date:    Jan. 20 and 21
Place:   Liu Institute, 6476 NW Marine Drive
Info:     http://www.ligi.ubc.ca/?p2=/modules/liu/events/list.jsp
Register at http://www.ligi.ubc.ca/events/register.htm                        http://www.theislamophobiaproject.blogspot.com/

to top