UBC This Week

Dr. Blye Frank has been appointed as Dean of Faculty of Education at UBC.  Currently professor and head of the Division of Medical Education at Dalhousie University, Frank will begin a five-year term effective April 1, 2011.  He has served as professor and associate chair of Graduate Studies in Education at Mount Saint Vincent University and holds an adjunct professorial appointment at the University of South Australia.  He replaces Dean pro tem Jon Shapiro.

For more information, visit http://educ.ubc.ca/newsandinfo/512/new-dean-appointed

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Materials engineering professor Chad Sinclair took part in “Choose Science. Go Far. Win Big,” a recent contest within BC’s Year of Science. A high-school student posed the question “Can the fairytale of Rapunzel and her hair really be true?”  Sinclair designed an experiment in which it was shown that hair is more than strong enough to support a person’s weight.

For more information, view a video of the experiment: http://blogs.apsc.ubc.ca/mtrlnews/2011/02/11/chad-sinclair-tests-rapunzel-at-science-world/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ubc-mtrl-news+%28UBC+Materials+Engineering+News%29

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UBC Sauder School of Business undergraduate students Andrea Lobo Prabhu, Chris Ho, Catherine Metrycki, and Uvini Lokuge won first prize the second year in a row – the only university to have done so – at the Feb. 9-12 “Champions Trophy Case Competition.” The team was coached by Sauder’s Assoc. Prof. Kin Lo, who teaches accounting. 

Hosted by New Zealand’s University of Auckland, the fourth annual event pitted the best student business minds from 12 universities from around the world. Teams of four students from each university had five hours to read and analyze a 30-page case study, then deliver a presentation and answer questions from a panel of business leaders, including representatives from the case company or organization.

UBC’s competitors included National University of Singapore, the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, University of Southern California and the University of Auckland.

To learn more, visit http://www.business.auckland.ac.nz/Schoolhome/Studentdevelopment/ChampionsTrophy/tabid/1008/Default.aspx

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To support co-op students in starting their own businesses, the UBC Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering Co-op have launched a new Entrepreneurial Co-op Work Term that provides students with entrepreneurial industry mentorship, tuition funding and space on campus during their work term.

Students currently enrolled in the engineering co-op program on the Vancouver or Okanagan campus are eligible and can still apply for the May 2011 start date. 

For more information, visit http://www.coop.apsc.ubc.ca/students/undergraduate/resources/entrepreneurial-co-op-work-term/.

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The Institute of Asian Research (IAR)’s Asia Pacific Memo features accessible scholarly knowledge about contemporary Asia. Each Tuesday and Thursday, short text memos or video interviews are published on their website http://www.asiapacificmemo.ca/

• Karmapa Controversy – Raid on a Tibetan Monastery in India, by Tsering Shakya, Canadian Research Chair on Religion and Contemporary Society of Asia at the Institute of Asian Research (IAR) at UBC.
• Diverging Patterns for Incorporating Immigrants in Korea and Japan, by Erin Aeran Chung, professor at John Hopkins University who also wrote an article for the December 2010 issue of the IAR scholarly journal, Pacific Affairs.

To read and subscribe to these memos, visit http://www.asiapacificmemo.ca/

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The School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture director Leslie Van Duzer will be giving a presentation on her recent research: Architecture, Magic and the Art of Deception.

Date: Feb. 22
Time: 6 p.m.
Place: UBC Robson Square, 800 Robson Street
Info: www.sala.ubc.ca

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The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) and the Neglected Global Diseases Initiative at UBC (NGDI?UBC) has announced that they will collaborate on developing interventions for neglected global diseases and ensuring delivery to those in need. 

“We hope to leverage CDRD’s drug development platform and expertise to accelerate the development of much?needed therapeutics that address neglected global diseases, while at the same time NGDI?UBC will ensure reasonable, fair and affordable access for developing countries,” said Dr. Kishor M. Wasan, Director and Co?Founder, NGDI?UBC and professor, UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

“Any joint project approved by CDRD will be developed within the context of UBC’s Global Access Principles, which was an important criteria for our group,” said Wasan.

“NGDI?UBC brings to CDRD an extensive network of expertise that extends across broad disciplinary boundaries. This partnership will augment our ongoing drug development efforts, including some projects already underway with world leading scientists in the area of neglected global diseases,” said Karimah Es Sabar, Senior Vice President, Business and Strategic Affairs at CDRD.

For example, Drs. Bill Mohn and Lindsay Eltis – both professors from the Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology at UBC – are jointly working on a project that addresses tuberculosis, which has been identified by the World Health Organization as a critical neglected global disease. Their development work on the “identification of small molecule inhibitors of cholesterol degradation as a therapeutic approach to the treatment of tuberculosis” has been enabled by the drug development platform at CDRD. 

For more information, visit www.ngdi.ubc.ca.

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UBC’s CiTR radio station has teamed up with Vancouver’s Mint Records to release the CiTR Pop Alliance Compilation: Vol 2, an 11-song collection of some the city’s best underground music acts.  All money raised from the compilation will go to CiTR. 

The limited-edition record will be released on Feb. 24 at Vancouver’s Interurban Gallery.  Scratch Records will present a concert to celebrate the release, featuring performances by compilation artists Slam Dunk, Fine Mist, Fanshaw (UBC student Olivia Fetherstonhaugh), Shane Turner Overdrive, Role Mach and Spring Break (DJ set).

The compilation also features artists such as No Kids, Apollo Ghosts, and Watermelon.  A limited 200 vinyl copies will be sold at the event. 

For more on the record, visit http://exclaim.ca/News/mints_records_citr_rope_in_no_kids_apollo_ghosts_fine_mist_for_pop_alliance_compilation.

Listen to the event’s Public Service Announcement at http://soundcloud.com/duncanmm/citr-pop-alliance-psa

Date:    Feb. 24
Place:   Interurban Gallery, adjacent to Scratch Records, 1 East Hastings St.
Info:     $10 admission. Purchase advance tickets at Zulu Records or Red Cat Records
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=165265530187914

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