UBC This Week

The Province has announced funding of $1.7 million to support public engagement related to the upcoming HST referendum. As part of that announcement, the Province has appointed Stephen Owen a former B.C. Ombudsman and current UBC Vice President External, Legal and Community Relations, acting in a personal capacity, to be an independent funding decision maker for a Public Dialogues Fund of $500,000.
 
The Province will “create a Public Dialogues Fund of $500,000 to be independently managed by the province’s public universities, colleges and institutes to hold informative public dialogues in advance of the referendum.”
 
“In order to ensure a fair process for allocating public funding and mediate any disputes over the format and locations for the public dialogues, the Honourable Stephen Owen, QC, PC has been appointed as an independent funding decision-maker,” says the April 14 news release.  “Owen, a former B.C. Ombudsman, is acting in a personal capacity utilizing his extensive background in public engagement and mediation. He will make public funding allocation decisions for both sides as well as finalizing an appropriate format and locations for the public dialogues.”
 
To see the announcement: http://www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2011/04/17-million-announced-for-hst-referendum-public-engagement.html  

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Dr. Graydon Meneilly, professor and head of UBC Dept. of Medicine, has been elected Governor of the British Columbia Chapter of the American College of Physicians (ACP), the nation’s largest medical  specialty organization. His term began during Internal Medicine 2011, ACP’s annual scientific meeting in San Diego on April 7-9.

Meneilly has been a member of the ACP since 1982 and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP) since 2005.  The FACP is an honorary designation that recognizes ongoing individual service and contributions to the practice of medicine. Governors are elected by local ACP members and serve four-year terms. Working with a local council, they supervise ACP chapter activities, appoint members to local committees, and preside at regional meetings. They also represent members by serving on the ACP Board of Governors.

Board-certified in internal medicine and geriatrics, Meneilly earned his medical degree from the University of Saskatchewan.  He then completed his residency at the University of Toronto.  He subsequently underwent a fellowship in geriatric medicine and gerontology in the Division of Aging at Harvard Medical School. 

 Meneilly’s primary area of professional interest and expertise is diabetes in the elderly.  Other professional appointments include member of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the Canadian Association of Professors of Medicine.   

The  American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization and the second-largest physician group in the United States.

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

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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently announced that ReFleX Wireless, comprising UBC engineering students Andy Tsai, Jinting Zhu, Carol Lee and Peter Guan, won the undergraduate track at the NYC Next Idea business plan competition. The team will receive $15,000 and six months of free office space in New York City in which to launch their business.

ReFleX Wireless is a multi-patient wireless monitoring solution for hospitals, which facilitates more effective patient monitoring and reduces excess wires currently cluttering hospitals. The team’s prototype uses wireless technology to monitor the torso-orientation and body temperature of multiple patients simultaneously in real–time.

For more information, visit www.engineering.ubc.ca/news/2011/apr8.html

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Five recipients of The Martha Piper Research Fund were announced April 15, 2011.  The program provides UBC faculty members with seed funding for collaborative research projects with an emphasis on interdisciplinary and international activities.  A $5 million portion of the Trek Endowment was dedicated for this purpose for five years until 2011, providing $250,000 per year to be awarded in semi-annual competitions (October and March).  

Winners for March 2011 competition:

• Calum MacAulay, Dept. of Pathology and Labratory Medicine
• Roger François, Dept. of Earth and Ocean Sciences
• Brenda Poon, Dept. of Human Early Learning Partnership
• Milind Kandlikar, Liu Institute for Global Issues and Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability
• Naznin Virji-Babul, Dept. of Physical Therapy

For more information, visit http://research.ubc.ca/vpri/piper-fund-award-winners

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Dr. Judith Soon from UBC’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences was recently recognized as a 2011 Distinguished Service award recipient for her volunteer contributions as a judge for Youth Science Canada, a not-for-profit science advocacy organization that marks its 50th anniversary this year.

To read more, visit http://www.pharmacy.ubc.ca/aboutus/faculty-news.

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Twenty-one projects from around the province have been named as successful recipients of the 2011 B.C. History Digitization Program (BCHDP) funding awards.

The digitization program, an initiative of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, was launched in 2006. It provides matching funds that help libraries, archives, museums and other organizations digitize unique historical items, including images, print and sound materials.

Learning Centre funding totaled nearly $180,000 for the 2011 round. Altogether, BCHDP funding has totaled more than $820,000 for 98 projects throughout British Columbia.

This year’s wide range of projects includes the digitization of First Nations materials, historical photographs and oral histories of B.C. communities, pressed plants specimens and entomological collections, items chronicling Vancouver’s punk rock scene, material highlighting the feminist movement in the West Kootenays, archival maps and newspapers, and more.

View a complete list of grant recipients and project descriptions at http://www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca/ps/2011Projects.

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Dr. Fawziah Marra from UBC’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences was awarded the Dr. Lindsay E. Nicolle Award for her recent paper “The relationship among antibiotic consumption socioeconomic factors and climatic conditions” published in Volume 21, No 3 of The Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases and  Medical Microbiology.

To read more, visit http://www.pharmacy.ubc.ca/aboutus/faculty-news.

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Community outreach is the theme of the second Chinese Canadian Stories: Uncommon Histories from a Common Past e-newsletter, an initiative of UBC Library and Simon Fraser Library.

Stories include updates on a community workshop at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, interviews with the Vancouver Sun and Fairchild Radio, and a Toishan letters workshop. Video clips of UBC Library’s Digital Initiatives Unit are also featured.

View the e-newsletter at http://chinesecanadian.ubc.ca/featured/newsletter-issue-02-april-2011.

The initiative is funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Community Historical Recognition Program. For more information, visit http://chinesecanadian.ubc.ca/

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Alia Dharamsi, a first-year student in the MD Undergraduate Program, was one of 36 people to receive a B.C. Community Achievement Award from the British Columbia Achievement Foundation.

Dharamsi has spent more than 500 hours of service at the Canuck Place children’s hospice, has tutored and mentored high school students, and has developed a wellness conference for inner-city youth. She also led UBC’s Meal Exchange program that sources contributions to local food banks.  

The foundation is an independent organization established and endowed by the provincial government to celebrate excellence in the arts, humanities, enterprise and community service.

The  award recipients will be recognized in a formal presentation at Government House in Victoria this month.

For more, visit http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/2010/05/05/an-appetite-for-service/

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Asia Pacific Memo update –  Japan One Month after Earthquake / Chinese Artist and Activist Ai Weiwei Detained

Those interested in current issues in Asia and across the Pacific are invited to subscribe to the Asia Pacific Memo (APM) series. Twice-weekly, APM publishes short text memos or video interviews at http://www.asiapacificmemo.ca/Current headlines:

• Japan One Month after the Earthquake (Video Interview with David Edgington, UBC)
• Chinese Artist/Activist Ai Weiwei Detained, by Alison Bailey, UBC
• Literature in 21st Century China – Harvard professor David Der-wei Wang (Video Interview)
• Japanese Buddhism after the Earthquake: Memorials, Spiritual Comfort, and Emergency Response by Jessica Main, UBC
• Capital-islam: Spiritual Economies in Southeast Asia, by Daromir Rudnyckyj, University of Victoria

To read the memos, visit http://www.asiapacificmemo.ca/

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The Faculty of Medicine announced the winners of its annual awards for faculty and staff members. Among the recipients was Pieter R. Cullis, a professor in the Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, who won the Bill and Marilyn Webber Lifetime Achievement Award.

UBC Killam Teaching Prize recipients:  
Catherine Pang, Dept. of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Gurdeep Parhar, Dept. of Family Practice and Associate Dean Equity/Professionalism
Ken Baimbridge, Dept. of Cellular and Physiological Sciences
Beth Gordon, Dept. of Radiology

Applegarth Staff Service Award recipients:
Ciaran Connolly, Manager, Gross Anatomy Lab, CPS
Andrew Fisher, Program Assistant, MD Undergraduate Program, Dean’s Office

Clinical Faculty Award in Teaching Excellence recipients:
Andrew Ignaszweski, Dept. of Medicine
Cindy-Ann Lucky, Dept. of Family Practice
Mary Clarke, Dept. of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy

Clinical Faculty Award for Excellence in Community Practice Teaching:
James Spence, Dept. of Medicine

Clinical Faculty Awards for Career Excellence in Clinical Teaching:
Trevor Hurwitz, Dept. of Psychiatry
Nazmudin Bhanji, Dept. of Pediatrics

2010/2011 Innovation in CME/CPD Award
Jeff Plant, Dept. of Emergency Medicine
 
2010-2011 Distinguished Prize in CME/CPD Award
Rona Cheifetz, Dept. of Surgery

Awards for Initiatives in Promoting Healthy Faculty, Staff and Learners
Nicci Bartley, School of Population and Public Health 
Gilbert Lam and Sally Ke, on behalf of the UBC Wellness Initiative Network

Awards for Excellence in Mentoring Early Career Faculty
William G. Honer, Dept. of Psychiatry
Stephen G. Withers, Dept. of Chemistry, Faculty of Science
Sylvia Stockler-Ipsiroglu, Dept. of Pediatrics

For more: http://www.med.ubc.ca/about_us/Awards_and_Honours/2011_Faculty_of_Medicine_awards.htm

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