UBC This Week

UBC Professor Emeritus Phil Hill has been named the 2011 recipient of the $100,000 Encana Principal Award by the Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation. Hill was chosen for his discovery of a technology that enables diesel engines to run on clean-burning natural gas.

The Manning Innovation Awards honour Canadian innovators in any sector. Hill’s high-pressure direct injection (HPDI) technology allows diesel engines to operate on natural gas with the same power and efficiency they are known for, but reduces emissions of smog-forming nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. 

For more information, visit http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/?p=29556

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Prof. Weihong Song, Canada Research Chair in Alzheimer’s Disease with the Department of Psychiatry, has received China’s highest honour for foreign experts – the Friendship Award. 

Song, who holds the Jack Brown and Family Professorship, was raised in Sichuan in southwest China and entered medical school at age 14. He helped forge crucial Chinese-Canadian research collaborations since emigrating from China two decades ago. 

For more information, visit http://www.med.ubc.ca/media/Weihong_Song_receives_China_s_top_honour_for_foreign_experts.htm

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The Faculty of Medicine has appointed Dr. William Honer as Head, Department of Psychiatry and Director, UBC Institute of Mental Health effective Oct. 1, 2011 to June 30, 2016. 

Honer is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Jack Bell Chair in Schizophrenia. He is also the Scientific Director of the BC Mental Health & Addictions Research Institute. 

Honer will provide leadership in teaching and research, and in promoting and improving patient care and clinical service delivery, working in partnership with affiliated Health Authorities across BC. 

For more information visit http://www.med.ubc.ca/__shared/assets/dr_william_honer_201122361.pdf

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UBC Creative Writing Program graduates Lynn Coady and Zsuzsi Gartner are two of the six finalists of the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize. Coady was shortlisted for her novel The Antagonist and Gartner for her short story collection Better Living Through Plastic Explosives.

Annabel Lyon, adjunct instructor in the Creative Writing Program and a 2009 Giller Prize finalist, will be on the jury panel.

The Giller prize awards $50,000 annually to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English and $5,000 to each of the finalists.

For more, visit http://www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca/news/details/?id=85

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UBC graduate students have won four out of 10 gold awards at the CIHR National Student Research Poster Competition held at the Canadian Student Health Research Forum. The students are William C. Guest, Emma-Kate Loveday, Adam K. White and Anousheh Zardan.

“I think these results clearly underline the excellence and competitiveness of our graduate students,” comments Assoc. Prof. François Jean, Loveday’s research supervisor.

The Canadian Student Health Research Forum, now in its 24^th year, provides a venue for health research trainees from across Canada to present their work.

Visit http://www.microbiology.ubc.ca/jean/members and http://umanitoba.ca/medicine/research_days for more information.

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The Asia Pacific Memo series has three new entries pertaining to current issues in Asia and across the Pacific.

• Why No Anti-Mining Party in Mongolia? Why no Pro-Mining Movement? by UBC Prof. Julian Dierkes
• U.S. Arms Sales to Taiwan a Sore Point in U.S.-China Relations, by University of Alberta Prof. Wenran Jiang
• Theme Issue: 100 Years after the Xinhai Revolution

The series comes out twice weekly. To read the memos and to subscribe, visit http://www.asiapacificmemo.ca

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UBC is participating in ShakeOut BC – the largest earthquake drill in Canadian history. On Oct. 20 at 10:20 a.m., everyone on campus is asked to practice “Drop, Cover and Hold” and learn what to do in the event of an earthquake. The Old Admin Building and Lasserre will demonstrate the evacuation drill.

Even though there haven’t been large earthquakes along the coast in recent years, small earthquakes happen often. More than 1,200 are recorded each year across the province.

The first ShakeOut BC was held earlier this year and drew more than 470,000 participants. The drill will be held annually on the third Thursday of October.

View the instructional video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GASXkqw-sw0&feature=youtu.be 

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