UBC This Week

The Prime Minister’s office announced 167 Vanier Scholarships to be awarded to graduate students in Canada. Of this year’s honourees, 25 are from UBC.  Each scholar will receive $50,000 per year for three years to pursue and complete doctoral studies in social sciences and humanities, natural sciences and engineering, and health.

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

• Rodrigo Goya—Bioinformatics
• Andree Gacoin—Educational Studies
• Celeste Bickford—Health Care & Epidemiology
• Devon Greyson—Interdisciplinary Studies
• Laura Lee—Interdisciplinary Studies
• Michael Copley—MD,PhD
• Long Nguyen—MD,PHD
• Clara Westwell-Roper—MD,PhD
• Larissa Pikor—Oncology
• Yuanyuan Jiang—Psychology
• Krista Best—Occupational Sciences and Occupational Therapy

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)

• Ashley Sanders—Cell & Developmental Biology
• Toufiqul Islam—Electrical & Computer Engineering
• Iain Moyles—Mathematics
• Farzad Khademolhosseini—Mechanical Engineering 
• Nurit Gazit Gurel—Neuroscience
• Simon Viel—Physics
• Christopher Kenneth Willie—Interdisciplinary Studies (UBC Okanagan)

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)

• Ma Ledda Docot—Anthropology
• Denise Green—Anthropology
• Chelsey Hauge—Cross Faculty Inquiry in Education
• Shayna Plaut—Educational Studies
• Julian Yates—Geography
• Jessica Rosinski—Political Science
• Natalie Miller—Psychology

The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (Vanier CGS) was created to attract and retain world-class doctoral students and to establish Canada as a global centre of excellence in research and higher learning. It is available to both Canadian and international PhD students studying at Canadian universities.

For more information, visit http://www.grad.ubc.ca/about-us/news/congratulations-ubcs-25-new-vanier-scholars.

to top

Dr. Arun Garg, Dr. M. Christo Wiggins, and Dr. Maureen Piercey were presented with Awards of Excellence from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia.

The College’s Award of Excellence Program honours exceptional contributions to the practice of medicine in teaching, research, clinical practice, administration or health advocacy.

For more, visit http://www.med.ubc.ca/about_us/Awards_and_Honours.htm#Awards of Excellence.

to top

The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences announces the appointment of Kishor Wasan to the position of Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies effective Sept. 1, 2011.   Wasan will be taking over for Helen Burt, who will be assuming the role of UBC Associate Vice President, Research and International.

Wasan has been an Investigator with the Centre for Drug  Research and Development since 2006 and was named the CIHR University-Industry Research Chair from December 1, 2003 to November 30, 2008, and again from April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2013. Since September 2005, he has held the title of Affiliated Investigator, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute and has been an affiliated faculty member with the Centre for Higher Order Structure Elucidation since 2006.

Wasan was also a strong, visionary leader in his former role as Chair of the Faculty’s Division of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics from January 2001 to December 2009.

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

to top

The Faculty of Graduate Studies announces the appointment of Wendy Hall to the position of Associate Dean for Faculty and Program Development, effective Aug. 1, 2011.   Hall will be stepping into the post vacated by Cindy Prescott, who has filled the position since 2006.

A professor within the UBC School of Nursing, Hall has taught in the undergraduate and graduate programs at UBC for over 20 years and served as the coordinator for the PhD program for four years.

She is a member of the Steering Committee for the Collaboration for Maternal and Newborn Health, an interdisciplinary group fostering inter-professional education and capacity building of care providers.

Her research focuses on the transition to parenting, with her primary research focusing on infant and child sleep, and its effects on child growth and development and psychological outcomes for parents.

For more information, visit http://www.grad.ubc.ca/about-us/news/new-associate-dean-faculty-program-development.

to top

UBC physical therapy student Sarah Stroh has received the Helen Saarinen Rahikka Student Leadership Award.  This award recognizes student professional leadership and outstanding contributions to the promotion of the profession through innovative endeavors.

Stroh is known for her commitment and dedication among peers, educators and the Physiotherapy Association of British Columbia (PABC). She transformed the student lounge into an environment that facilitates flow of information between students and the national and provincial physiotherapy associations. She organized “pizza and practice” a free informal event where she and PABC bring in guest speakers.   She also developed the Student Rep Alliance, a group that ensures the PABC student director, the National Student Assembly representatives and the UBC student president are working together to increase awareness.

PABC president Scott Brolin has said, “even before she emerges into practice, I see her as one of the future leaders of physiotherapy.”

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

to top

Parisa Bastani (BASc’09, MECH) has been awarded the Commonwealth Doctoral Scholarship from the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (CSFP), an international program in which member governments offer scholarships and fellowships to citizens of other Commonwealth countries.

Bastani is currently studying engineering and public policy jointly at Cambridge University and MIT.  She is one of two recipients of the scholarship this year.  Candidates are selected from seventeen Commonwealth countries.

For more information, visit http://mech.ubc.ca/2011/08/03/ubc-mechanical-engineering-alumna-parisa-bastani-receives-commonwealth-doctoral-scholarship/.

to top

The UBC Certificate in Business Analysis has been recognized with a Program Award of Excellence from the Canadian Association for University Continuing Education. The national award recognizes innovation and excellence in program development.

This program is offered in partnership by UBC Continuing Studies and the Sauder School of Business.

For more information, visit www.tech.ubc.ca/ba.

to top

Researchers from UBC’s W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics and the Animal Welfare Program in the UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems are conducting a research project to find out how people feel about the use of animals in research.

To participate, visit www.yourviews.ubc.ca/labviews.

to top