UBC law professor Benjamin Perrin has been appointed as special advisor in legal affairs and policy in the Prime Minister’s Office. The position involves providing in-house legal counsel, as well as policy advice related to justice, public safety, citizenship and immigration. Perrin has taken a leave of absence from UBC to take up this position in Ottawa.
For more information, visit http://www.law.ubc.ca/news/2012/may/05_01_12_perrin.html
UBC Faculty of Law professor and former dean, Joost Blom, QC, was recently appointed a Life Bencher by the Law Society of British Columbia. Blom received this designation after serving for four (two-year) terms from 2004 to 2011.
Other UBC Law faculty members who have served as benchers are Raymond G. Herbert, QC, who served from 1974 to 1981, James M. MacIntyre, QC who served from 1985 to1995 and Robert D. Debolt, QC who served from 1996 to 2003.
For more information, visit http://www.law.ubc.ca/news/2012/apr/04_02_11_blom.html
Prof. David Duff is this year’s recipient for both the George Curtis Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence and the Killam Teaching Excellence Award. His nominators praised his inspirational enthusiasm, his dedication, and the challenging and exciting environment he creates for students in his tax law class.
The George Curtis Memorial Award is an opportunity for UBC law students to recognize their professors for achievements in teaching. The winner of this award is also eligible for the Killam Teaching Excellence Award where professors are selected by their faculty and recognized university-wide.
For more information, visit http://www.law.ubc.ca/news/2012/apr/04_27_11_duff.html
UBC researchers have signed on in the #SciFund challenge to crowdfund—raise funds through the internet—and to build public interaction and outreach for their research.
Prof. Simon Donner, Dept. of Geography, is conducting research on Kiribati’s Gilbert Islands coral reefs to determine how they will respond to frequent heat stress, and to develop guidelines for marine conservation in the face of climate change. To read more on his project, visit http://www.rockethub.com/projects/7483-coping-with-stress-coral-reefs-in-kiribati.
Lindsay Aylesworth is a PhD student with Project Seahorse at UBC. Her research interests lie in community and population ecology, specifically to address seahorse conservation, threats and management. To read more on her project, visit http://www.rockethub.com/profiles/39961-lindsay-aylesworth
Wendy Davidson and Kris Fox from UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture received a Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund Award for 2012/13 to continue to develop their Building Material Sample Collection in Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Their project is titled “Architecture & Landscape Building Material Sample Collection: a Visual Resource.”
Land and Food Sytems grad student Ilana Labow received the first prize of $50,000 for Fresh Roots Urban Farm Society through the Vancity Venture Challenge. The competition was launched to help post-secondary students and recent post-secondary graduates grow businesses that are creating positive social and environmental impact in B.C.
For more on Fresh Roots Urban Farm Society, visit http://freshrootsurbancsa.wordpress.com/
UBC student Jen Neale has received the $5,000 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers for her short story “Elk-Headed Man.” The prize recognizes writers under the age of 35 who are unpublished in book form. Neale is working toward a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in creative writing at UBC and is the executive editor of the literary magazine PRISM international.
UBC MFA graduate Dina Del Bucchia was a finalist for her story “Under the ‘I’.” Her work has been in literary publications across Canada, and she has written and performed a one-woman show in the 2005 Vancouver Fringe Festival. She writes a monthly column for Canada Arts Connect magazine.
For more information, visit http://wire.arts.ubc.ca/arts-in-the-news/ubc-mfa-student-wins-bronwen-wallace-award-for-emerging-writers/
Shirin Rizzardo, a graduate student from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC, is the recipient of 2012 Merck Canada Inc. Postgraduate Pharmacy Fellowship Award. To read more, visit http://www.pharmacy.ubc.ca/aboutus/faculty-news/2012-05-03
UBC Faculty of Law has announced a commitment of $45,000 from Slater Vecchio LLP to establish the Slater Vecchio LLP Trial Advocacy Entrance Award, the first full-tuition award supported by a personal injury firm.
The award rewards academic excellence, leadership and community service and to recognize students who have previous experience in advocating for others, an important part of trial advocacy and personal injury practice. The first Award will be granted to a student entering first year of the JD program in fall 2012.
For more information, visit http://www.law.ubc.ca/news/2012/apr/04_16_11_award.html
Wilson Fung, an electrical and computer engineering PhD student working under the supervision of Asst. Prof. Tor Aamodt, has become the first Canadian student to win the NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship.
Wilson was selected as one of 12 PhD students from hundreds of applicants around the world. For more information, visit http://www.ece.ubc.ca/news/201203/first-canadian-student-win-nvidia-graduate-fellowship-wilson-fung-0
Two Civil Engineering graduate students received the Philip H. Jones Award from the Canadian Association on Water Quality at the British Columbia Water and Waste Association (BCWWA) Annual General Meeting. Parssa Hassan received first prize for her presentation on “Nutrient Management in Wastewater Treatment Plants Combining Anamox and Struvite Precipitation”, and Hui Zhang received second prize for his presentation on “Microwave Irradiation Enhanced Advanced Oxidation and Its Applications in Phosphorus Recovery from Dairy Manure Slurry.”
Deepak S. Gautam, a PhD student in power electronics from electrical and computer engineering, received an Outstanding Presentation Award at this year’s Applied Power Electronics Conference.For more information, visit http://www.ece.ubc.ca/news/201203/deepak-gautam-wins-apec-outstanding-presentation-award
C.E. Gatchalian will read from his new book Falling in Time – a play that stunned Vancouver theatre audiences when it premiered last November. He will also read from his previous book, Crossing & Other Plays, and excerpts from “Notes Towards an Essay About Maria Callas,” which has been included in Best Canadian Essays 2011.
Date: May 10
Time: 2 – 3 p.m.
Place: Lillooet Room (301) in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.
Info: Q&A to follow reading. To register, visit http://gatchalian.eventbrite.com/
Last fall, UBC Library launched the Great Reads program at Koerner Library to provide campus residents, community members, faculty, staff and students easy access to leisure-reading materials ranging from Canadiana to popular fiction.
Great Reads is now featured in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, where the collection focuses on topics such as popular art and architecture, non-fiction science best-sellers and more. Visit the newly updated Great Reads website at: http://greatreads.library.ubc.ca/
Live for the Moment is an exhibition featuring photos taken by research participants to answer questions about grief, loss and dealing with it as a man. The study was conducted by researchers from the UBC School of Nursing and UBC Dept. of Education, including post-doctoral researcher Genevieve Creighton, Prof. Elizabeth Saewyc, Prof. John Oliffe, Assoc. Prof. Shauna Butterwick and project coordinator Jennifer Matthews.
Date: April 27 – May 4, 2012
Place: The Fall Tattooing & Artists Gallery, 644 Seymour Street, Vancouver
Info: http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/2012/04/19/live-for-the-moment-a-research-based-art-show-examines-how-young-men-grieve/
Short text memos or video interviews on current issues in Asia and across the Pacific are published twice-weekly in the Asia Pacific Memo series at http://www.asiapacificmemo.ca/
• Japan’s Culture Industries: Cool or Cruel? By Philip Seaton, Hokkaido University
