UBC This Week

Prof. Catherine Dauvergne’s term as Senior Advisor to the President will be completed on June 30, 2011.  Effective Aug. 1, Prof. Richard Price will be the new Senior Advisor to the President.   Price (Ph.D., Cornell) is a professor of political science, specializing in international relations and was director of the Political Science Graduate program for five years. 

His research interests focus on the role of norms in world politics, particularly norms limiting warfare; constructivist international relations theory; normative international relations theory and the politics of international law.   Through that work he was invited to participate in and speak at the Ottawa Convention on Landmines Treaty Signing Conference (1997), and invited to deliver a keynote speech along with two Nobel Peace Prize Winners at the 10th Anniversary of the Landmines Convention Diplomatic Meeting by the Government of Norway (2007) that launched efforts to negotiate a treaty banning cluster munitions.

Price has a background in Canadian university sport as an athlete and is currently the Faculty of Arts Representative for the UBC Peer Review of Teaching Initiative.   He is thought to be the first UBC instructor to incorporate online eDiscussions into his class syllabus.

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UBC computer science professor Anne Condon, a University of Washington PhD alumna, has won the University of Washington Computer Science and Engineering Alumni Achievement Award.

In 2010, Condon was elected an Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Fellow and also received the Computing Research Association A. Nico Habermann Award for her “long-standing and impactful service toward the goal of increasing the participation of women in computer science research”. 

She will become Head of the UBC Dept. of Computer Science on July 1, 2011.

For more information, visit http://www.cs.ubc.ca/news/2011/06/anne-condon-wins-university-washington-cse-alumni-achievement-award.

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Joy Kirchner, UBC Library’s Scholarly Communications Coordinator, has been appointed as a Visiting Program Officer to the Association of Research Libraries (ACRL). The 12-month appointment was made to support the ACRL’s scholarly communications initiatives.

“We are very pleased that Joy has been asked to work closely with ACRL to support evolving approaches to scholarly communication,” said Allan Bell, Director of Library Digital Initiatives at UBC.  “Joy’s work with ACRL will have a direct connection to our institutional and Library strategic plans. Her work with ACRL will dovetail with UBC’s goals to increase the impact of UBC research by making it widely available in open access digital repositories and promote open access and open source methods and tools.”

More information is available at http://ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pr.cfm?id=7398.

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Prof. Ezra Kwok from the Dept. of Chemical and Biological Engineering is the recipient of the Outstanding Canadian Biomedical Engineer Award for 2011-12 from the Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society.

Kwok holds double doctorate degrees in engineering and medicine and served as the inaugural Director of the Biomedical Engineering Program at UBC’s Faculty of Applied Science from 2006-2010. He conducts clinically oriented research and aims to improve collaboration between engineers and physicians to lead to better clinical understanding and medical technology to improve the standard of patient care.

The Outstanding Canadian Biomedical Engineer Award is presented to a Canadian biomedical engineer who has made outstanding contributions in the field of biomedical engineering. The Awards Ceremony took place on June 6 during the Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society’s annual conference in Toronto.

For more info, visit http://blogs.apsc.ubc.ca/chbenews/2011/06/08/dr-ezra-kwok-outstanding-canadian-biomedical-engineer-award-for-2011-12/.

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The UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences honoured the research and teaching accomplishments of its graduate students, faculty and staff at the annual Graduate and Faculty Awards Reception on June 1, 2011.

The event featured a keynote address by Dr. Susan Porter, Dean pro tem of the Faculty of Graduate Studies. Graduate students and faculty were honoured for research, teaching, leadership and service, and staff were recognized for service to the research community.

For more info, visit http://www.pharmacy.ubc.ca/aboutus/faculty-news#GradRecep.

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UBC engineering students Michael Peters and Jeremy Witmer have been recognized as Bright Minds of BC by the BC Technology Industry Association (BCTIA). Each will receive $5,000 from the BC Technology Scholarship program designed to support hard-working and accomplished young people in their pursuit of technology-related education.

Peters, a patent-holding inventor and winner of several national and international awards for his innovative work in rehabilitative wheelchair technologies, will study bio-medical engineering at UBC. He plans to attend medical school and pursue a career in medical technology and patient care.

Recently finishing his second-year in engineering physics, Witmer’s co-op experience includes rebuilding a plasma injector and assisting in designing a new electron spectrometer. The winner of the Governor General’s Academic Medal, he plans to pursue graduate studies and attain a PhD in nuclear physics, quantum computing or superconductivity.

For more info, visit http://bit.ly/jsXjxi

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Third-year civil engineering student Derek Rempel returned recently from a project trip to Niamey, Niger.  Rempel was part of a team of architects and engineers from across North America who volunteered their time with Engineering Ministries International Canada.

The team spent a week in Niger preparing the design for the expansion of Sahel Academy, a school for children of international families serving in Niger.

For more, visit http://blogs.apsc.ubc.ca/civilnews/2011/06/10/civil-engineering-student-helps-design-a-world-of-hope-in-niger/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ubc-civl-news+%28UBC+Civil+Engineering+News%29.

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UBC engineering students won two awards at the AUTO21 Scientific Conference held in Ottawa May 25- 27, 2011. Two posters were submitted and competed against over 50 others being judged on six different themes.

The prized poster, headed by Ph.D. electrical engineering student Nima Ziraknejad and assisted by electrical engineering undergraduate Mathew Lai and mechanical engineering undergraduates Conner Schellenberg-Beaver and Thanet Ying-Udomrat, won “Best in Theme” and overall fourth place with a $1,000 cash prize.  Mechanical engineering graduate Daniel Ko, also assisted with the research.

For more information, visit http://www.ece.ubc.ca/

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UBC Food Services invites the campus to their Portable Feast – Fast, Fresh and Local event and take advantage of the local harvest of seasonal produce.  The event will include a UBC Farm Table at the Bookstore Plaza (weather permitting), The UBC Farm Story with Amy Fry (11:30-12), and Chef’s Demo and Samples with residence dining chef Steve Golob (12-1:30).

Date:    June 22
Time:    11:30 a.m. – 1:30 pm.
Place:   UBC Bookstore Plaza
Info:     http://www.food.ubc.ca/

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