UBC This Week 05-June-2014

Four members of the Faculty of Medicine are among 25 British Columbians who will be appointed to the Order of British Columbia. The Order of British Columbia recognizes accomplishments by British Columbians who have made a difference in their communities and to the province.

John A. Cairns, former dean and a professor in the Division of Cardiology, proved through a clinical trial that aspirin can reduce by more than half the incidence of heart attacks and death among patients with unstable angina.

William Clifford, clinical instructor on informatics for the Prince George Site of the UBC Family Practice Residency Program and Chief Medical Information Officer for Northern Health, is a leader in harnessing the power of information technology to ensure patients receive coordinated, quality care.

James C. Hogg, professor emeritus in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and a principal investigator at the UBC James Hogg Research Centre at St. Paul’s Hospital, greatly increased the understanding of in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma worldwide.

Aubrey Tingle, professor emeritus in the Department of Pediatrics, is a recognized researcher in pediatric immunology and viral infections at B.C. Children’s Hospital.

A presentation ceremony will be held at the Government House in Victoria on Nov. 6, 2014. Click here for more info.

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Four UBC members were honoured with the 2014 YWCA Women of Distinction awards in recognition of their inspiring achievements.

Law professor Janis Sarra received the Education, Training and Development Award. As director of the Peter Wall Institute at UBC, she created new programs of research and education and connected early-career female scholars to world-leading researchers. As founding director of the UBC National Centre for Business Law, she helped educate and place women in business and finance, developing innovative new courses to ensure all law students, particularly women, are well prepared to assume leadership roles.

Clinical professor emeritus Victoria Bernstein received the Health and Wellness Award. In her 40 year career, Bernstein has become an authority in cardiology and medical innovation after establishing an internationally-recognized Centre of Excellence at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH). In the early 1980s she was an early adopter of using beta blockers in heart failure. Bernstein joined VGH in 1974 and was the only female cardiologist there for more than three decades.

School of Population and Public Health assistant professor Jennifer Gardy received the Technology, Science and Research Award. Gardy’s research work has revolutionized how infectious disease is approached and established the field of infectious disease genomic epidemiology. Gardy has also produced and hosted science shows including the Nature of Things and the Daily Planet and has been called “the new Suzuki” by the Globe and Mail.

Third year medical student Isabel Chen received the Young Woman of Distinction Award. In 2011, Chen founded the Keep Safe Initiative, a grassroots organization that develops GPS-based panic alarms for sex-trade workers in the Downtown Eastside. She is also co-founder of the Reading Bear project, an innovative community outreach program to improve health and literacy outcomes of inner-city children.

Click here for more info.

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Last September, it was announced that Professor Anna Kindler would be completing her second and final term as Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President Academic at the end of June 2014 and that a search was initiated for her successor. Due to the presidential transition, a recommendation for a new appointment will now go to the Board of Governors in the fall.

In the interim, Professor Hugh Brock has agreed to step into this leadership role as the Interim Vice-Provost and AVP Academic Affairs, starting July 1, 2014. Brock is currently serving in the role of Associate-Provost Academic Innovation, and brings several years of academic administrative leadership to the Provost’s Office.

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The Canadian Bioethics Society (CBS) presented Nursing faculty member Paddy Rodney with the CBS Distinguished Service Award for 2014 at its 25th annual conference on May 31. The award is in recognition of Rodney’s service to the CBS including her dedicated work on their board, her efforts in organizing the 2014 conference, and her work to advance the mission of CBS. Click here for more info.

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Renowned anthropologist Wade Davis joins the UBC Department of Anthropology this fall to teach the introductory course in anthropology. This course will explore the central revelation of cultural anthropology; the idea that the social world in which we live does not exist in some absolute sense, but rather is just one model of reality. Davis’s research interests have taken him throughout the world, and his direct experience with different cultures will be celebrated and explored in Anthropology 100. Click here for more information.

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Bita Imam, PhD candidate in Rehabilitation Sciences, has received four doctoral research awards: the Vanier scholarship, the CIHR Doctoral Research Award (ranked second), the inaugural Anne Martin Mathews CIHR-IA Doctoral Recognition Prize in Research on Aging, and the UBC Killam Doctoral Scholarship. Supervised by Dr. Bill Miller of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Imam’s research evaluates different Wii gaming programs to improve walking function in older amputee adults. Click here for more information.

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Recognizing the contributions of staff members to the UBC community, eleven President’s Staff Awards (PSA) have been awarded to staff members at the Vancouver campus. The awards recognize their personal achievements and contributions to UBC and to the vision and goals of the university.

The 2014 recipients are:

Leadership
•    Ann Campbell, director, Office of the VP Research & International
•    Lowell McPhail, managing director, International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries

Creativity and Innovation
•    Erick James, lab manager, Botany
•    Doug Polson, technical supervisor, Earth Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences

Enhancing the UBC Experience
•    Sandy Lapsky, administrator, Geography
•    Stacey Simpson, international student coordinator, Dean’s Office, Faculty of Science

Global Citizenship
•    B.C. Injury Research and Prevention Unit Group, Department of Development Neurosciences and Child Health: Kate Turcotte, Fahra Rajabali, Shannon Piedt, Diana Leung, and Aybaniz Ibrahimova
•    Andy Johnson, Flow Cytometry Manager, Biomedical Research Centre

Emerging Leadership
•    Devni De Silva, Assistant Director Finance and Operations, UBC Press
•    Samantha Turner, Research Communication Coordinator, Wine Research Centre

Advancing Diversity and Inclusion
•    Carola Hibsch-Jetter, Manager, Strategic Initiatives, Dean’s Office, Faculty of Science

Full citations for the PSA recipients will be available this fall. Learn more about the staff awards here.

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UBC’s Open Minds Forum has won a silver award in this year’s Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Circle of Excellence competition in the Innovative Use of Technology for Public Relations and Marketing sub-category. UBC Communications and Marketing Department’s submission titled “Building graduates-for-life through continuous listening” was among 27 entries in this sub-category. The CASE competition received over 3,000 entries for 2013. Click here for more info.

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The Development and Alumni Engagement (DAE) Office has won the CASE National (US/Canada/Guam) Gold Award for Best Advertising Campaign (Print/Online) for its recent start an evolution Fall 2013 advertisements. Examples of the winning ads can be found on the CASE website.

DAE has also won Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE) awards: Gold for the revamp of startanevolution.ca  (Best Website), Silver for Report on Giving 2013 (Best Online Communications, Newsletter or Magazine) and Bronze for Trek Magazine (Best Print Magazine). A listing of winners can be found on the CCAE website.

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UBC Bookstore won the Campus Bookseller of the Year award at the 2014 Libris Awards Gala presented by Retail Council Canada. The Bookstore was cited for its forward thinking and innovative approach to campus retailing. The Libris Awards honour work in every sector of the book industry from authors to publishers, sales reps and distributors, and the booksellers who connect their work with readers. Click here for more info.

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School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA) student Heba Maleki received the inaugural Arthur Erickson Travel Study Award established by the Royal Canadian Academy (RCA) of Arts, the Arthur Erickson Foundation and Arthur Erickson’s family at the RCA’s Presidents’ Dinner in Edmonton on May 17, 2014. The $5,000 award will allow Maleki to travel to Kampala, Uganda, New Delhi, India and Frankfurt, Germany, to continue her exploration of Bahá’í Faith architecture. Click here for more info.

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Kelly McNagny, a professor in the UBC Department of Medical Genetics, will join a group of experts who will look at the research, regulatory, advocacy, and media forces that shape our perceptions about stem cell therapies and try to determine why the promise of stem cells has yet to be reached. This event, titled “What’s The Real Deal with Stem Cell Therapies?” is presented by the Canadian Stem Cell Network and Centre for the Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine, in partnership with the International Society for Stem Cell Research.

Date:    June 17, 2014
Time:    7 – 8:30 p.m.
Place:   TELUS World of Science, 1455 Quebec St, Vancouver
Info:     Free and open to the public.  Register here.

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Sixty pieces of works by 24 China Central Academy of Fine Arts graduates from the past two years are presented in this exhibition, including oil painting, Chinese painting, print, installation, sculpture and video. The featured works make for an exemplary showcase of fine arts education in today’s China.

Date:    June 3 – 12
Place:    UBC Asian Centre Auditorium, 1871 West Mall
Info:    Click here.

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The Water and Environment Student Talks (WEST), an interdisciplinary, student-led conference, will be held at UBC June 8 – 10, 2014. The conference will feature talks on water, wastewater, storm water, environmental science and public policy. Graduate students and young professionals working in the areas of water and wastewater are invited to present their original research work. Click here for more info.

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