UBC This Week

Dr. Carolyn Gotay, professor and Canadian Cancer Society Chair in Cancer Primary Prevention at UBC, is the newest recipient (and the first woman) of the President’s Award, presented by the International Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQOL).

Gotay was presented with the award at ISOQOL’s 18th annual conference in Denver for her outstanding contribution and promotion of quality of life through her research in cancer survivorship and cancer prevention.

Her career highlights include serving as co-chair of the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Outcomes Measurement Working Group, and as chair of the Southwest Oncology Group’s Behavioral and Health Outcomes Subcommittee.

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A new UBC facility that gives back more to the environment than it takes, students who help homeowners cut back on energy use, and bold efforts to turn carbon dioxide into fuel are some of the compelling stories in this month’s UBC Reports issue on sustainability.

Stories delve into UBC’s living lab, UBC’s road map to zero emissions and Aboriginal activities at UBC Farm to sustain both community and food systems.

For more information, visit: http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/ubc-reports/

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Five UBC teams participated in the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) 2011 Regional Competition on Nov. 5 at Simon Fraser University. The team of Xing Chen (Computer Science), Aram Ebteker (Math/Computer Science) and Martin Lau (Computer Science) placed second at the competition, outranking universities such as UC Berkeley, University of Washington and SFU. Their strong performance may advance them to the 2012 World Finals in Warsaw, Poland.

UBC has qualified for the ACM World finals seven out of the past eight years.

For more information, visit https://www.cs.ubc.ca/news/2011/11/ubc-ranks-second-acm-regional-competition

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UBC’s Okanagan campus will receive funding of US $100,000 through Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative created by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that enables researchers worldwide to test unorthodox ideas that address persistent health and development challenges.

Deanna Gibson and Sanjoy Ghosh, assistant professors in biology with the Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences, will pursue an innovative global health research project titled “Maternal dietary intake alters offspring’s disease risk: Mom’s dietary lipid intake can increase their offspring’s susceptibility to enteric infectious disease.”

Gibson and Ghosh’s project is one of 110 Grand Challenges Explorations grants awarded.

For more information, visit https://news.ok.ubc.ca/2011/11/07/ubcs-okanagan-campus-receives-grand-challenges-explorations-funding/

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From the Middle East protests to the Occupy movement to the Vancouver riots, people are sharing their impressions, photos and video through social media. UBC Continuing Studies and the UBC Graduate School of Journalism are hosting a discussion about the role of social media in politics.

Speakers include:
• Frances Bula is a journalist specializing in urban issues and city politics in the Vancouver region.
• Candis Callison is an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Journalism at UBC who studies media change, public engagement on complex science and environment issues, and how new media is shaping the efforts and practices of science journalists, scientists, and social movements.
• Tony Roy recently chaired Premier Christy Clark’s online campaign during her successful bid for the leadership of the BC Liberal Party. He is the owner of Virtual Fellow Consulting, specializing in online fundraising and engagement.
• Alexandra Samuel is the director of the Social + Interactive Media Centre at Emily Carr University, and a principal at Social Signal, a Vancouver-based social media agency.

Date:  Nov. 14
Time: 7 p.m.
Place: UBC Robson Square, 800 Robson Street
Info: Register at http://socialmediapolitics-eorg.eventbrite.com/

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The UBC Centre for Sport and Sustainability is hosting its second think tank on the topic of “Sport Mega-Event Impacts, Leveraging, and Legacies.”  The event brings together 20 leading researchers from across the globe for an intensive two-day session on Nov. 11-12, 2011 at UBC. The think tank will explore how sport mega-events have taken on an increasingly visible and prominent role in cities and countries around the world. For more information, visit: http://css.ubc.ca/events/think-tank-2/

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UBC Institute for Computing Information and Cognitive Systems (ICICS) will host “Foundations for the Future” featuring micro and nano-structure and devices for sensing, energy storage and tissue engineering; imaging and robotic surgery; localized drug delivery systems and biomedical modeling and simulation. This workshop may appeal to engineers, clinicians, industry personnel, students and those interested in healthcare technology.

Date: Nov. 17
Time: 8:45 a.m. – 3:50 p.m.
Place: Kaiser Building: 2020-2332 Main Mall
 Info: Register at www.icics.ubc.ca/workshops/bme2011/

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The G20 took place from Nov. 3 to 4, 2011 in Cannes, France. In a series of four memos, Asia Pacific Memo examined the role and impact of the five Asian members (China, India, Japan, Korea, and India). The two most recent Memos focused on post-summit topics:

• Nov 8 – “A New Japanese Voice at the G20”, by UBC Prof. Yves Tiberghien
• Nov 4 – “The G20 Impact on Leaders’ Approval Ratings”, by University of Sheffield Prof. Hugo Dobson

For more information, visit http://www.asiapacificmemo.ca/

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