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UBC prof receives honour from ALS Society of Canada

Andrew Eisen, professor emeritus in the Division of Neurology, received the ALS Society of Canada’s Marcel Bertrand Exceptional Support Services Program Award in the individual category for his efforts to help people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

The award recognizes an exceptional effort to enhance the quality of life for people with ALS and their families.

“He is always available and understands that to a person living with ALS, 24 hours is a long time,” said Wendy Toyer, executive director of the ALS Society of BC, of which Eisen is a “life director.” “His compassion and care provides great comfort to many people affected by ALS, even on holidays and weekends. We are so lucky to have him as part of our organization to share with others his expertise.”

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

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UBC prof wins Courage to Come Back award

Graham Bryce, clinical associate professor in the Dept. of Surgery, has won the Courage to Come Back Award in the medical category from Coast Mental Health.

Bryce, a former ear, nose and throat surgeon at St. Paul’s Hospital, suffered a stroke in 2000 caused by an infection that cut off the blood supply to part of his brain. He needed surgery to have most of the right side of his brain removed, which limited his mobility on the left side of his body and ended his career as a surgeon.

Despite left-side paralysis and loss of vision in his left eye, Bryce continued work he had begun before his stroke chairing the fundraising committee for the B.C. Family Hearing Resource Society, and became involved in the Balance and Dizziness Society and joined the Faculty of Medicine, teaching ethics in the community. He is also on the board of directors for the Greater Vancouver Community Services Society.

Bryce spends his time advocating for hearing health, mostly on a volunteer basis. He helped launch the early hearing program in B.C. that ensures that every baby’s hearing be screened at birth and another program designed to prevent the epidemic of noise-induced hearing loss. Bryce also became a board member for the Western Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing where he worked to help the hard of hearing improve their communication and access to society.

“I’ve had to build a whole new life,” he told The Province. “It was a change in my identity. My life is very different from what I anticipated. People don’t anticipate this happening and until you’re there and you face whatever challenges, you don’t know how you’re going to respond.”

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

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UBC launches inaugural Community Report

New spaces for students and researchers. An ambitious digital agenda. Engaging communities throughout British Columbia. Supporting the evolving roles of Library staff.  These topics are covered in UBC Library’s new Community Report, which highlights some milestones related to the Library’s five strategic directions: Enhance Student Learning, Accelerate Research, Manage Collections in a Digital Context, Engage with Community and Create an Exceptional Work Environment.

The report – available online and in hard-copy format – has been distributed to the campus community and external audiences.

UBC Library released its Strategic Plan in 2010 after engaging staff and stakeholders in a process that resulted in a five-year blueprint for action. The document was also developed to align with the initiatives of Place and Promise (http://strategicplan.ubc.ca/), UBC’s overarching plan.

To view UBC Library’s Community Report, visit http://bit.ly/UBCLibrary-Community. For more information on the Library’s Strategic Plan please visit http://strategicplan.library.ubc.ca/.

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UBC Library’s Okanagan leader wins Miles Blackwell award

Melody Burton, the Chief Librarian of UBC’s Okanagan Library, has been recognized for her invaluable contributions throughout her career.

The Canadian Library Association (CLA) and the Canadian Association of College and University Libraries (CACUL) announced Burton as the recipient of the 2011 Miles Blackwell Outstanding Academic Librarian Award. The award, established in 1987, recognizes “leaders, mentors, thinkers and champions of academic librarianship.”

Burton has worked at Concordia College in Edmonton, the University of Alberta, York University, the University of Windsor, Queen’s University and UBC’s Okanagan campus, where she has been Chief Librarian since 2005.

“At UBCO, Burton is known as an inspiring leader with an imaginative approach to problem solving,” states the announcement. “Through her vision and determination, the Library has grown from one serving 2,400 undergraduate students to one that serves more than 6,000 students as well as faculty.”

View the full announcement: http://www.cla.ca/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=11290

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UBC engineer receives B.C. career achievement award

UBC electrical and computer engineering professor Rabab Ward is this year’s recipient of the Paz Buttedahl Career Achievement Award from Confederation of University Faculty Associations of British Columbia (CUFA BC) in recognition of sustained outstanding contributions over her career in the field of signal, image and video processing.

Ward has made contributions in the areas of signal detection, image encoding, compression, recognition, restoration and enhancement, and their applications to cable TV, HDTV, medical images, infant cry signals and brain-computer interfaces.

She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Canadian Academy of Engineers and the Engineering Institute of Canada. She has also received The R.A. McLachlan Memorial Award—British Columbia’s top engineering award; The Society Award—the top award of the IEEE Signal Processing Society; the UBC Killam Research Prize; and the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award.

For more information, visit www.engineering.ubc.ca/news/2011/may2.html

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Faculty of Medicine graduate students shine in "Three-Minute Thesis" competition

Andrew Ming-Lum, a fourth-year graduate student in Experimental Medicine, won UBC’s inaugural “Three Minute Thesis” competition May 10.  Ming-Lum, a student in the Dept. of Surgery, won the $1,500 prize and spoke on “Drugs from the Sea: For Treatment of Inflammatory Disease.”

The second-place winner, who also won the “People’s Choice” award, was Guang Yang, a PhD candidate in the neuroscience program of the College for Interdisciplinary Studies. Guang spoke about new therapeutics for stroke victims.

Third place went to Leah Lim, a student in the Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology, who described her research on drug combinations to treat tuberculosis.

The “3MT” is intended to help graduate students develop effective presentation and communication skills. Participants have three minutes to explain their research project to a non-specialist audience. They can use only one slide, and no electronic media or props. The idea originated at the University of Queensland in Australia, and has grown to include over 50,000 PhD and Master of Philosophy students from 33 universities in Australia and New Zealand.

UBC is the first university in North America to host an official 3MT competition, and is hoping to expand it to B.C., Canada and North America.

This year’s competition, organized by the Faculty of Graduate Studies, drew 97 students from various faculties at UBC. 

For more information, visit http://www.med.ubc.ca/about_us/Awards_and_Honours.htm#3MT

 

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UBC Supermileage team places fourth in international competition

The UBC Supermileage Team has recently returned from their second year of competing with their Urban Concept Vehicle, The Argo, at the Shell Eco Marathon Americas.  They placed fourth in the urban concept class with 214 mpg, improving their fuel mileage from last year by over 30 per cent.  The team will continue their work with their urban concept car; a more practical “every day” design than their competition winning prototype vehicle.  

For more information about the UBC Supermileage Team visit http://www.supermileage.ca/.

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Winner of the 2011 Richard W. Pollay Prize speaks at UBC’s Sauder School of Business

Prof. Joel B. Cohen, distinguished service professor emeritus and adjunct professor at the University of Florida, has won Sauder’s 2011 Richard W. Pollay Prize, honouring intellectual excellence in research on marketing in the public interest. Cohen will give a public lecture and receive the award on May 20.

Titled “Get Out of Jail Free Cards: the Dark Side of Remedy Marketing,” the talk will focus on Cohen’s most recent research examining aggressive techniques used to market products and services, such as debt consolidation loans, which position remedies as “get out of jail free cards.”

Cohen is an expert in the areas of marketing and society, including public policy and regulation. He has served as a consultant and expert witness for the United States Federal Trade Commission and has been invited to appear as a witness before congressional committees to explain cigarette advertising and proposed warning information. He was also selected by the National Cancer Institute to conduct a national survey investigating consumer understanding of cigarette health risks, reporting the results to the President’s Cancer Panel and in an American Journal of Public Health lead article.

Awarded annually by the Sauder School of Business, the Pollay Prize is named for Prof. Richard Pollay in honour of his contributions as a scholar, teacher and advocate in the areas of marketing and advertising in the public interest.

Date: May 20
Time: 3:30 – 5 p.m.
Place: David Lam Theatre 142, 2033 Main Mall

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Early Child Development Research Exposition

The Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) is holding an exposition on May 18 to highlight its research and work to the UBC campus. HELP is a nationally and internationally recognized interdisciplinary research program with a focus on ensuring that early child development research knowledge is translated to community and policy action.

The exposition will feature a keynote address by HELP’s director Dr. Clyde Hertzman, a poster session and seminars. HELP researchers and faculty will share their research on the biological, psychological and societal factors influencing children’s health and development.

Date:  May 18, 2011
Time:   9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Info: http://www.earlylearning.ubc.ca/events/early-child-development-research-exposition/

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Faculty Pension Plan Open House: May 25

Faculty Pension Plan members are invited to attend the Plan’s Open House.  There will be presentations on the Plan’s performance in 2010, and a discussion of initiatives for 2011 as well as an opportunity to meet the trustees and staff of the Faculty Pension Plan.

Date:  May 25
Time:  10:30 am to 12:30 pm (10:45 am presentation start)
Place:  Ponderosa Centre – Arbutus Room, 2071 West Mall (at University Boulevard)
Info: RSVP by May 18.  Contact pensions@hr.ubc.ca  or 604.822.8100
 http://www.pensions.ubc.ca/faculty/publications/annualreport/2010/oh_invitation.html

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Applied Science Rising Stars featured

The Applied Science Rising Stars highlights and celebrates the accomplishments of a few graduating students. New features added this week showcases some of Class of 2011’s remarkable work.  Visit www.apsc.ubc.ca/stars/congregation11

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Dr. Amartya Sen’s honorary degree ceremony (video recording)

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

  • May 12: Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen Receiving UBC Honorary Degree (video recording) – Special Edition
  • May 10: Thai-Cambodian Border Clashes – What is Fuelling them?
  • May 5: Dr. Amartya Sen on Tagore’s Significance (video interview)

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