UBC This Week 13-Dec-2012

UBC University Counsel Hubert Lai has been appointed the honorary title of Queen’s counsel, an honour conferred annually on members of the legal profession to recognize exceptional merit and contribution.

As UBC’s chief legal officer, Lai has provided strategic legal advice and a full range of legal services to the university. He has served since 1994 as director and officer of UBC Research Enterprises, as a volunteer faculty member for the Continuing Legal Education Society of B.C. and as a member of the Legal Information Systems and Technologies Foundation. For more information, click here.

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Marvin Westwood, a professor in the Department of Education has received a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. Westwood is one of the founders of the Veterans Transition Program, a UBC program that helps former members of the Canadian military make the transition back to civilian life.

Nassif Ghoussoub, a professor of mathematics and the founding director of the Pacific Institute for Mathematical Sciences (PIMS), received a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. Ghoussoub served as PIMS’ director from 1996 to 2003 and was a co-founder of the MITACS Network of Centres of Excellence and founded the Banff International Research Station in 2003, of which he is scientific director. For more information, click here.

Lynn Beattie, professor emerita in the Department of Medicine, has been awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for her contribution to Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) through the Alzheimer Society of B.C. Beattie is the director of the Clinic for AD and Related Disorders at UBC Hospital and was the founding Head of the UBC Division of Geriatric Medicine. For more information, click here.

The medals mark the 2012 celebration of the 60th anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the Throne and serves to honour significant contributions and achievements by Canadians.

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UBC Master of Fine Arts alumna Bahar Noorizadeh’s film Lingo made Canada’s Top Ten list of Canadian short films for 2012. Noorizadeh wrote and directed Lingo as part of a UBC Film Production class project. The 12th annual Canada’s Top Ten list was unveiled at a gala organized by the Toronto International Film Festival Group. For more information, click here.

UBC Bachelor of Fine Arts alumna Lauren Grant has won Best Canadian Feature and $15,000 for her first feature Picture Day at the Whistler International Film Festival. This film, along with her short film Frost also screened at Toronto International Film Festival this past summer. Grant and her co-producers are featured in the “meet the artist” video here. View a trailer of Picture Day here.

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Clinician-scientists in the Faculty of Medicine are leading a new study that seeks to determine whether two or three doses of the vaccine Gardasil provide similar protection against human papillomavirus (HPV). The study is designed to assess risk for HPV disease, HPV prevalence, and the levels of protection provided by two doses compared to three doses of the vaccine.

The study’s co-principal investigators are Gina Ogilvie, associate professor of Family Practice and medical director of Clinical Prevention Services at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), and professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Mel Krajden, the medical director of Hepatitis Services at BCCDC.

To participate in the study, visit www.questhpvstudy.ca or call 604-875-2000 ext. 6501, or toll free 1-866-502-2424. For more information, click here.

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Diane Loomer, a national and international figure in the music world and an alumnus of UBC School of Music, has passed away. Loomer was a UBC faculty member and received an honorary degree from UBC in May 2011. She has also received the Order of Canada and the Queen’s Jubilee Medal.

Here is an excerpt of her speech from the 2011 honorary degree ceremony:

“When I was enrolled and when I taught at UBC, I was always impressed with the school’s implicit message that arts and the people who participate in them are important, that they’re good for us. Arts aren’t just a nice thing to do if one has a little time or can afford it. Arts can’t become an ‘extra part’ of our life and culture – arts have the power to challenge our thoughts and assumptions, to inspire, to connect us to each other, to make us better people.

To watch Loomer’s full citation during the 2011 ceremony, click here (start at 6:11).

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Association for Computer Machinery (ACM) has named UBC’S Gregor Kiczales ACM Fellow for his contributions to aspect-oriented programming language design and implementation. For more info, click here.

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Mehdi Moradi, a specialist in imaging technologies, is working with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Department of Urologic Sciences, and Vancouver Prostate Centre to develop a method to allow more targeted prostate cancer treatment. He has already published a journal article on creating cancer “probability maps” for better detection and grading of prostate tumours. For information, click here.

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UBC Engineering student Armin Rezaiean-Asel was one of 60 students selected from over 4,400 applicants worldwide who attended the Global Youth Summit in London on November 25 – December 1.

The summit was organised by Global Changemakers, an initiative by the British Council and the World Economic Forum. The summit promotes the exchange of ideas regarding pressing global issues such as human rights, climate change, poverty reduction, education and HIV/AIDS. For more information, click here.

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First-year students from the School of Engineering at UBC’s Okanagan campus spent the past semester creating fundraising ideas and project proposals for local not-for-profit organizations to support their engineering and science-related endeavours.

Last year, Inn from the Cold took one group’s idea for a ‘Push to End Homelessness’ initiative and raised over $18,000. Recently, in a friendly competition, 38 groups of student engineers presented their final fundraising ideas to eight not-for-profit organizations, with each organization selecting a “winning” idea. For more information, click here.

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The University of British Columbia is now an official test centre for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). The Centre is conveniently located at the Continuing Studies Building on 2121 West Mall, UBC Point Grey campus.

The IELTS test is used as an assessment of the English language competence of students who need to study or work in an English-speaking country. In Canada, IELTS test scores may be considered in applications for immigration, employment, university admissions, and other areas. IELTS is jointly managed by Cambridge ESOL, British Council, and IDP: IELTS Australia. It is a largely popular test, with over 1.7 million IELTS tests having been administered in the last year.

Application forms are available at the Test Centre and online at IELTS.org. For more information, including a list of upcoming test dates and fees can be found online at ielts.ubc.ca

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UBC is now an official test centre for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).

The IELTS test is used as an assessment of the English language competence of students who need to study or work in an English-speaking country. In Canada, IELTS test scores may be considered in applications for immigration, employment, university admissions, and other areas. IELTS is jointly managed by Cambridge ESOL, British Council, and IDP: IELTS Australia. More than 1.7 million IELTS tests have been administered in the last year.

The test centre is conveniently located at the Continuing Studies Building on 2121 West Mall. For more information, visit  ielts.ubc.ca.

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