UBC This Week 27-Jun-2013

The committee charged with the responsibility of identifying a new President for UBC invites internal and external communities to help define the qualities to look for in UBC’s next President.

The search committee will hold town hall meetings on July 2 in Vancouver, and on July 3 at the Okanagan campus.

UBC Vancouver
Date: July 2, 2013
Lunch: 11:30 a.m.
Town Hall: 12 to 1 p.m.
Place: Roy Barnett Recital Hall, School of Music, 6361 Memorial Road

UBC Okanagan
Date: July 3, 2013
Lunch: 11:30 a.m.
Town Hall: 12 noon to 1 p.m.
Place: University Theatre, ADM 026

UBC Chancellor Sarah Morgan-Silvester, Chair of the Presidential Search Committee, welcomes submissions of views and advice on the following:

• opportunities, challenges, issues, and priorities facing the University over the next 5-10 years;
• the key roles and responsibilities of the President in leading UBC through the next 5-10 years;
• the necessary and desirable characteristics, leadership skills, qualifications, values, and experience of candidates for the position of President.

Written comments can be sent to  Reny Kahlon, Board Liaison Manager, Office of the Board of Governors. For more information on the search committee, visit www.bog.ubc.ca.

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Special Olympics Canada is accepting applications for a grant that will support research activities to enhance athlete development, athlete performance, coaching development and/or other areas of focus as identified in the 2012-2017 Special Olympics Canada Strategic Plan. Applicants may request up to $15,000 and the application deadline is July 5.

UBC’s Vancouver campus is the host venue for the 2014 Special Olympics Canada Summer Games. UBC will welcome more than 2,000 athletes, coaches and spectators from across Canada from July 8-13, 2014.   For more information about the grant application, click here.

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Engineering professors Savvas Hatzikiriakos, Panos Nasiopoulos, Tarek Sayed and Dharma Wijewickreme have been inducted as Fellows of the Canadian Academy of Engineering in recognition of their achievements and career-long service to the engineering profession. For more information, click here.

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Researchers at UBC’s Earthquake Engineering Research Facility, including professors Carlos Ventura, William Finn and Armin Bebamzadeh, were part of a group of researchers from industry and academia who received the 2013 Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Engineering Excellence. The group was recognized for their work in developing the “Seismic Retrofit Guidelines for the Performance-based Seismic Risk Assessment and Seismic Retrofit Design of BC Low Rise School Buildings.” For more information, click here.

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Prof. Elizabeth Croft of the Department of Mechanical Engineering has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to study why few women reach senior management in engineering firms. Along with an interdisciplinary team with expertise in women in engineering, organizational policy, social psychology and human resources, she will investigate engendering engineering success with $193,732 of SSHRC funding over three years. For more information, click here.

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The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and AbbVie announce the appointment of Dr. Mary De Vera as assistant professor and recipient of the Professorship in Medication Adherence with the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. The professorship’s objective is to conduct research and share knowledge and best practices on medication adherence and its connection to improved health outcomes and health care sustainability. The professorship will include developing the first ever “living laboratory” where practicing pharmacists will learn new skills in working with patients on adherence issues. To read more, click here.

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Four preceptors from across B.C. have received Pharmacy Practice Educator awards from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Michael Lam and Duncan Mackay received the Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) Community Award, and Marilynn Boyce and Paul Polachek received the APPE Institutional Award. To read more, click here.

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The first pour of concrete using recycled aggregate formed the foundation and walls in architect Hugh Bitz’s residential construction project. The application is based on research done by Asst. Prof. Shahria Alam at the School of Engineering in UBC’s Okanagan campus. Alam researched methods for recycling used concrete, composite scrap, crushed and mixed as aggregate for fresh concrete.

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) is sponsoring the new-generation concrete project along with OK Builders Supplies Ltd. for three years through its Collaborative Research and Development program. For more information, click here.

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The Faculty of Applied Science announces the establishment of the J. Armand Bombardier Sustainable Transportation Fellowship with a gift of $500,000 from the J. Armand Bombardier Foundation.

“Applied Science is honoured to have this new fellowship to support the work of our graduate students in transportation planning,” said Dean pro tem Eric Hall. The fellowship will be available to graduate students from the School of Community and Regional Planning, Civil Engineering and the School of Population and Public Health. For more information, click here.

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As newly elected chair of AUTO21’s HQP Advisory Committee, Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) student Nima Taherinejad hopes to increase student engagement in AUTO21 Network activities. Taherinejad recently won the People’s Choice Award in the 2013 AUTO21 HQP Video Competition for Free Lunch Love, his three-minute animated video that describes his power line research. For more information, click here.

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Weimei Pan, a first-year doctoral student in the Archives Studies PhD Program at UBC, is the 2013 recipient of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Travel Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award will be presented at a ceremony during the Council of State Archivists and SAA Joint Annual Meeting in New Orleans in August. The award enables overseas archivists who are already in the U.S. or Canada for training to augment their experience by traveling to the annual meeting.

UBC students Georgia Barlaoura and Lara Mancuso were the 2012 recipients of this award.

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Eleven competitors presented their research to colleagues and a judging panel at the inaugural 3 Minute Postdoc Slam held on May 23. The top three winners were: Subhashini Vashisth, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Christine Voss, Orthopaedics, and Walter Karlen, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Child and Family Research Institute. For more information, click here.

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Nursing students pledged their support and physical stamina in support of the B.C. Division of the Canadian Mental Health Association on June 23 by taking part in Ride Don’t Hide. The community bike event, sponsored by Shoppers Drug Mart, aims to raise funds to support mental health programs and to break the stigma attached to mental illness in communities. For more information, click here.

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Palliative care has been transformed by new drugs and a collaborative approach, enabling comfortable and meaningful end-of-life experiences for patients and their families. That transformation is the focus of  “Faces of Palliative Care,” a documentary produced by Patricia Boston, a clinical professor and former director of the Division of Palliative Care in the Department of Family Practice, and Doug Nicolle, senior media producer for Providence Health Care at St. Paul’s Hospital, who also directed the film.

The documentary will be broadcast by the CBC on June 29 at 7 p.m. as part of the “Absolutely Vancouver” summer series of documentaries. For more information, click here.

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UBC Library’s Chapman Learning Commons is presenting a three-day summit (June 28-30) that will bring together for the first time, two groups of WWII veterans that faced discrimination: the Tuskegee Airmen and Chinese-Canadians veterans.

The Tuskegee airmen were the first group of African-American aviators to fly in combat for the US armed forces. They were dubbed “the Red Tails” after one fighter group painted their P47s and later P51s with a red tail. In Canada, men and women of Chinese descent were not deemed to be citizens. Despite this discrimination, when WWII broke out, Chinese men and women volunteered in the hundreds to fight for Canada.

While most of their ranks have passed away, a few remaining veterans, now mostly in their late 80s and 90s, will meet to share their stories.

Date: Opening symposium: June 28
Time: 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Place: Victoria Learning Theatre, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall
Open to the public. More info here.

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The UBC Opera Ensemble presents George Bizet’s Carmen this summer under the direction of Nancy Hermiston with Maestro Leslie Dala conducting. The production will also tour Campbellford, Ontario and Teplice, Czech Republic later this summer.

Dates: June 22, 27, 28, 29 (7:30 p.m.) and June 23, 30 (2:00 p.m.)
Place: UBC Old Auditorium
Tickets: UBC Opera box office, 604.822.6725 or online at University Tickets 
In French with English surtitles. For more info click here

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