UBC This Week – 28-May-2015

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Please be advised that this will be the last edition of the UBC This Week newsletter.  If you work at UBC, visit the Working at UBC page on ubc.ca for the following information about the Vancouver and Okanagan campuses:

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For all the latest UBC news, including media releases by beat area, features, Q and As, opinions and more, visit http://news.ubc.ca/.

UBC Public Affairs

Recent UBC Media Releases

May 26  How racial stereotypes impact the way we communicate
May 26  Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation boosts ultra-fast quantum materials research at UBC
May 27  New data on reported and unreported marine catches now available online
May 28  Fish farm project helps Cambodian women care for families, learn business skills
May 28  Mobile mood-tracking website helps patients across Canada

Upcoming Event Highlights

May 29  In Conversation: Frances Wood and Tim Brook
May 29  David Suzuki: Letters to My Grandchildren
May 31  Whitecaps FC2 vs. Arizona United SC
Jun 2  Leveraging LinkedIn in Your Job Search
Jun 3  Centre for Blood Research Seminar
Jun 3  IndigenEYEZ A Participatory Youth Leadership Program on The Land
Jun 4  edX Studio
Find out what else is happening at UBC this week. For sports events, visit the UBC Athletics site at http://www.gothunderbirds.ca/calendar.aspx.

UBC People


UBC People

Psychology professor receives YWCA Women of Distinction award

Psychology professor Liisa Galea has received a YWCA Metro Vancouver’s Women of Distinction award in the technology, science and research category. She was honoured at YWCA’s annual gathering that recognized inspiring women and their achievements. Galea’s research centres on understanding how hormones influence the female brain across the lifespan and was an early pioneer in the field of postpartum depression research. More information here.

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Engineering researcher recognized by Medicine Maker magazine

Vikram Yadav, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, was recognized by Medicine Maker Magazine as one of the top 100 most influential people in drug development and manufacturing.

Yadav was recognized for his multidisciplinary work that combines biology, chemistry and engineering to develop new methods to discover and synthesize better drugs. His work on ‘biosynthonics’ – a process for drug discovery and development based on metabolic and enzyme engineering – was highlighted by Medicine Maker Magazine.  He is also working with colleagues from the biopharmaceutical industry and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences to develop a more accurate and rapid pre-clinical screening platform for identifying drugs targeting neurodegeneration. More information here.

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School of Population and Health members recognized

Associate Professor Jane Buxton has won the Canadian Public Health Association’s Ron Draper Health Promotion Award. Buxton is a physician epidemiologist and Harm Reduction lead at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. Her work has influenced national and regional policy initiatives and helped reduce the burden of overdose morbidity and mortality. More information here.

Interdisciplinary PhD candidate Brittany Barker has won a CIHR Doctoral Research Award for her project titled “Street-Involved Youth and the Child Welfare System: Evidence to Improve Outcomes.” More information here.

PhD candidate Andrea Jones received a two-year Doctoral Research Training Award from WorkSafeBC for her project, “Injured workers and mental health: exploring how depression and mental health services impact return to work following workplace musculoskeletal injury.” More information here.

Interdisciplinary PhD candidate Kim Taylor won the Student Abstract Award for the Canadian Bioethics Society. Her abstract “Patients’ experiences negotiating healthcare decision-making as “a two-way street, working relationship” is based on a CIHR project on supportive decision-making. More information here.

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Applied Science unveils strategic plan: ENGAGE 2020

The Faculty of Applied Science has unveiled ENGAGE 2020, the faculty’s five-year strategic plan.  The plan outlines their mission to “create positive change in the world through innovative application of new knowledge.” ENGAGE 2020 also shares the faculty’s vision of “providing unparalleled research and learning environment in which creative minds work together to address today’s challenges.” Read ENGAGE 2020 at http://strategicplan.apsc.ubc.ca/.

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Nursing elder honoured by United Global Chinese Women’s Association of Canada

School of Nursing community partner Roberta Price has received the Community Special Contribution Award from the United Global Chinese Women’s Association of Canada. Price is the first award recipient from a First Nations background. The association cited her efforts and achievements in introducing  aboriginal culture to the other communities and promoting intercultural understanding. More information here.

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School of Nursing holds fourth annual Alumni and Partnership Awards gala

The School of Nursing honoured five individuals for their contributions to the school at their fourth annual Alumni and Partnership Awards Gala.

  • Alumna Gillian McKay (BSN ’09) received the Young Alumni Award for her work in public health in Sierra Leone, and Haiti.
  • Alumna Joanne Konnert received the Award of Recognition for her service to nurses in professional practice, health leadership, and commitment to advocating for services for patients such as hospice care.
  • Alumna Lucy Barney received the Award of Distinction for her achievements in public health and Aboriginal health initiatives which have been modelled internationally.
  • Glennis Zilm, a member of the UBC nursing community, received the Community Partnership Award for her dedication and commitment to educating, mentoring, and supporting future generations of students.
  • David Currey received the Donor Partnership Award for his long-standing support of UBC Nursing, in particular his creation of the Birgit and Ingrid Currey Award in Nursing.

More information here.

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Computer science student wins 2015 ICSE Student Research Competition

Computer Science undergraduate student Caroline Lemieux is the winner of the 2015 ACM International Conference on Software Engineering Student Research Competition. Lemieux presented a poster and a talk on “Mining Temporal Properties of Data Invariants.” She will move on to compete in the “Student Research Competition Grand Finals” against winners from other ACM conferences.  More information here.

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Twelve UBC papers accepted to SIGGRAPH 2015

Twelve papers written by UBC-affiliated authors have been accepted at the Association for Computing Machinery SIGGRAPH 2015, the 42nd International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques to be held in Los Angeles in August. The number of UBC papers represents 10 per cent of the 118 conditionally accepted at the conference. More information here.

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Concrete Canoe receives Spirit of the Competition award

The UBC Concrete Canoe team returned from the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers National Competition at the University of Toronto bearing the Spirit of the Competition Award. They were the only team to attend from Western Canada and they won eighth place for design, eighth for oral presentation, ninth for final product, and eleventh overall for races including men’s, women’s and co-ed sprints and men’s and women’s endurance. The team’s overall standing was 10th in the competition. More information here.

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Webinar: Work 2 Give – Enlisting Positive Masculinities

Nursing professor Helen Brown will be presenting a webinar on her research titled “Enlisting Positive Masculinities to Transform Offender Labour Approaches for Incarcerated Aboriginal Men in British Columbia.”  Brown is working with Aboriginal men in incarceration who are creating items for children in impoverished areas by woodworking, designing, and carving. The project is studying the impact of providing inmates with a chance to use idle prison time to give back to impoverished children and families.

Date:    June 1
Time:    11 a.m.
Place:   More information here.

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Apps4Kids Hackathon

The Apps4Kids Hackathon is a free event that brings together students, developers, physicians to create and refine apps that aim to solve medical care challenges for children and youth with chronic care needs.  Students can apply their technical skills to real-life, innovative app development, receive mentoring from healthcare professionals and potentially continue as summer students in app evaluation projects. Cash prizes will be given to individual participants and teams based on their input in existing apps/program/hardware or new app-development.

Date:    June 12 – 19
Place:   Room 2020/2030, Fred Kaiser Building, 2332 Main Mall
Info:     Register before May 31. More information here.

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Staff Pension Plan Fair – June 3

The Staff Pension Plan Pension Fair is an opportunity for staff members to learn more about their pension plan and other retirement information.

The following groups will be attending the fair:

Date:          June 3
Time:          11:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.
Place:         Great Hall at the UBC First Nations Longhouse
Info:           No RSVP required. More information here.

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