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Wesley Pue is new Provost of UBC's Okanagan campus

Wesley Pue has been appointed Provost and Vice Principal of UBC’s Okanagan campus. The UBC Board of Governors approved Pue’s appointment for a five-year term effective July 1, 2011.

Pue brings a diverse background and a broad range of international academic and administrative experiences to this role. He joined UBC’s Faculty of Law in 1993 and has held several positions at UBC including Vice Provost and Associate Vice President Academic Resources and Vice Provost and Associate Vice President Academic Facilities and Enrolment at UBC’s Vancouver campus. For more information, visit: https://news.ok.ubc.ca/2011/06/07/wesley-pue-appointed-provost-of-ubcs-okanagan-campus/

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UBC takes part in World IPv6 Day with trial run

UBC took part in a trial to adopt Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) on June 8, 2011, World IPv6 Day. UBC was one of a number of universities in British Columbia that enabled their main websites to be IPv6 reachable for the day – trying out the next generation Internet services.

Experts predict that the world is running out of IP address space and that the standard IPv4 address space will run out very soon. World IPv6 Day aimed to encourage organizations around the world, including Google, Facebook and Yahoo!, to prepare their services for IPv6 so they can ensure a successful transition as IPv4 addresses run out.

UBC IT spearheaded the successful trial at UBC, ensuring that UBC websites and network services would not be impacted during the trial.  The trial was a success in that the additional IPv6 services were in place and people accessing the main UBC website did not experience any service interruptions or difficulties.

BCNET helped organize the event in British Columbia and enabled the universities for IPv6 connectivity.  BCNET is an early adopter of IPv6 and strives to increase the adoption, knowledge, and awareness of the latest standards in internet technologies.

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UBC earns five CCAE Prix d’Excellence awards

UBC was awarded five awards from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE) through the Prix d’Excellence program. UBC’s Public Affairs Office won gold in three categories and the Development and Alumni Engagement Office was awarded silver in one category and bronze in another.

CCAE is a professional association aimed at fostering excellence in education. The annual Prix d’Excellence awards recognize outstanding achievements in alumni affairs, public affairs, communications, marketing, development, student recruitment and overall institutional Advancement.

UBC was presented awards in five categories:

  • Best Institutional Branding Campaign for Place of Mind (Gold)
  • Best Brand Campaign Social Media Strategy (Gold)
  • Best Media Outreach Campaign for 2010 Olympics (Gold)
  • Best Brochure ‘UBC might seem different’ (Silver)
  • Best Annual Fund Initiative for ‘Together we can do more’ Annual Alumni Appeal (Bronze)

For more information, visit: http://www.ccaecanada.org/index.php/publisher/articleview/frmArticleID/289/

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Helen M. Burt newly appointed UBC Associate Vice President, Research & International

UBC Pharmaceutical Sciences’ Helen M. Burt has recently been appointed to the position of UBC Associate Vice President, Research & International, effective September 1, 2011. She will be assuming this role from Don Brooks, who served in the position for the past ten years. Brooks will continue on with UBC as the new Director of SPARC (Support Programs to Advance Research Capacity).

Burt has served with the Faculty as Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies since 2004. Her esteemed career includes a number of distinguished research and teaching awards, the publication of more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, and several patents. For more information, visit: http://www.pharmacy.ubc.ca/aboutus/faculty-news#HBurt

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MOA’s Haida House Project receives Award of Honour from Heritage BC

The rehabilitation of the Haida House at the Museum of Anthropology has received an Award of Honour from the Heritage BC Award Program. The award recognizes the Museum of Anthropology, Ian Ronalds Architect, JM Engineering and Macdonald and Lawrence Timber Framing.

The Heritage BC Annual Awards Program recognizes achievement by individuals, associations, businesses, and governments in the field of heritage conservation. The award will be presented at the Heritage BC Annual Awards Ceremony on September 30.

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Patti Janssen wins Distinguished Alumni Award

Patti Janssen, an associate professor at UBC’s School of Population and Public Health, won the 2011 Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Washington’s School of Public Health.

The Award recognizes an alum who has demonstrated a record of distinguished service and achievement in public health.

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UBC’s University Librarian honoured by University of Ottawa

Ingrid Parent, UBC’s University Librarian, will receive an honorary doctorate on June 11, 2011 from the University of Ottawa as part of its 190th convocation.

Parent, who came to UBC two years ago from Library and Archives Canada, will be honoured as part of the Faculty of Arts ceremony, which includes the first graduating class of the Masters in Information Studies Program. She is one of 10 people to receive a 2011 honorary doctorate from the University of Ottawa.

“Ingrid is a leader in her forward-thinking vision of libraries and in her profession,” says David Farrar, Provost and Vice-President, Academic for UBC. “On behalf of the University, we congratulate her on receiving this honor.”

Parent is also the President-elect of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). She takes on the Presidency of IFLA this August, marking the first time that a Canadian will head the organization. Parent has held various positions with the federal government, and has worked with international bodies such as UNESCO.

For more information on the University of Ottawa Convocation, visit http://www.media.uottawa.ca/mediaroom/news-details_2340.html

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UBC engineers inducted as Canadian Academy of Engineering Fellows

UBC professors Thomas Oxland (Mechanical Engineering) and Robert Schober (Electrical & Computer 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. The induction ceremony took place June 2 in Vancouver in conjunction with the Academy’s 2011 Annual General Meeting and Symposium.

Thomas Oxland’s principal areas of research and development contribution include the biomechanics of the normal and pathological spine, spinal column and spinal cord injury, orthopaedic implants and surgical techniques. He and his colleagues have documented novel surgical and medicinal approaches to treating these potentially devastating conditions. The scope of the work includes bioengineering research studies, optimizations of treatments for spinal cord injury and medical product development. Overall, his 141 journal publications have been cited over 3,100 times (Web of Science). Furthermore, he was the main research and development engineer for novel spinal implants (BAK) that remain in clinical use today, more than ten years after the initial surgeries.

Robert Schober has made outstanding contributions to the field of wireless communication. His single-antenna interference cancellation (SAlC) algorithm for the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) has been licensed to several companies and implemented in hundreds of millions of mobile phones. Over the last decade he has made several pioneering contributions to the theory, design and application of signal detection in fast fading channels, space-time coding, widely-linear processing, and ultra-wideband signaling.

For more information, visit: http://bit.ly/klZ48z

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Sony licenses television technology developed at UBC

Sony Corporation has licensed High Dynamic Range image technology, a technology developed by a team of UBC researchers led by physicist Lorne Whitehead, for select Sony LCD televisions with LED backlight technology.  The picture quality on televisions using HDR technology will surpass the quality of fluorescent tube backlit LCDs. The technology produces vibrant, crisp images with enhanced contrast that approach what the human eye can see.

First developed a decade ago, Whitehead’s invention led to a UBC spinoff called Brightside Technologies, which was purchased by Dolby Laboratries Inc. in 2007. Now Dolby has announced that this technology has been licensed to Sony for LED-LCD televisions. For more information, visit: http://investor.dolby.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=582957

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UBC Pharmacy grad Charles Au wins Silver Governor General’s Academic Medal

Recent UBC graduate Charles Au, BSc(Pharm)’11, was presented with the Silver Governor General’s Academic Medal at Spring Congregation on May 31, 2011. Governor General’s Academic Medals have been awarded to Canadian students for more than 125 years in recognition of exceptional scholastic accomplishments. Medals are given to students graduating with the highest average in high school and college or university programs. For more information, visit: http://www.pharmacy.ubc.ca/aboutus/faculty-news#CAu

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Alumnus wins the Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Pearl Award

Journalist and photographer Hugo Passarello Luna, a graduate of UBC, was awarded the Daniel Pearl Award from the Wall Street Journal and Sciences Po Paris for his article “In a Buenos Aires slum, dreaming of Paris.”

The prize rewards the best article dealing with social and humanitarian issues. Luna’s article tells the story of a teenage soccer team in a slum of Buenos Aires, getting ready and dreaming to participate in the homeless World Cup in Paris.

Luna holds a double major in International Relations and Film from UBC, where he received the Global Citizen Award. He then moved to Argentina where he founded the site Argentina Elections with the support of UBC professor Maxwell Cameron. In 2010, he won the Eiffel Scholarship for academic excellence to study a master in journalism in Paris. For more information, visit: http://www.danielpearl.org/news_and_press/articles/Sciences_Po.html

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Best and brightest of UBC Pharmaceutical Sciences recognized at annual Dean's Reception

The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC celebrated the achievements of both students and Faculty members at the annual Dean’s Reception on May 31, 2011. Held after Spring Graduation ceremonies, the event featured an awards presentation and program of speakers including Randy Konrad, Chair of the College of Pharmacists of BC, and Parkash Ragsdale, Deputy CEO and Professional Services Director of the BC Pharmacy Association.

Student award highlights include the Merck Frosst Pharmacy Doctoral Prize (Head of Graduating Class, Pharm. D.), presented to Dr. Emily Kathleen Black, and the Pfizer Canada Leadership Award in Pharmaceutical Sciences, presented to Herbert Wong. For more information, visit: http://www.pharmacy.ubc.ca/aboutus/faculty-news#DeansReception2011

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