UBC In The News

More roads, fewer tigers, study suggests

A study co-authored by Adam Ford, a professor at UBCO’s Institute for Biodiversity, Resilience, and Ecosystem Services, assessed the range-wide risks to tigers. “This research opens the door to build partnerships at the regional scale to better mitigate existing roads and to develop greener road designs for the next century of infrastructure development,” he said.
Cosmos

Research finds new possible cause of bee colony collapse

Global News featured new research from the Michael Smith Labs at UBC on how heat impacts honey bee fertility and interviewed lead author and biochemist Alison McAfee.
Global

In Milan, tall buildings covered in trees offer a glimpse of what urban living could look like in the future

CNBC quoted UBC forestry professor Cecil Konijnendijk about giving enough space and soil volume for trees to grow and provide the benefits that we want to get from them.
CNBC

Sandeep Pai on ensuring a 'just transition' for fossil fuel workers

Sandeep Pai, a PhD candidate at UBC’s Institute of Resources, Environment and Sustainability, says the government needs to do more to help transition fossil fuel employees into the green economy, especially during COVID-19.
NowThis NewsYahooMSN

Calgary gas prices jump as much as 20 cents overnight

Werner Antweiler, a professor at the UBC Sauder School of Business, commented on gas prices in Calgary and said uncertainties in international oil markets are playing a big role.
CTV

New book explores the relationships between Indigenous people and new Canadians

UBC political science professor Michael Byers was quoted about global citizenship which empowers individual human beings to participate in decisions concerning their lives, including the political, economic, social, cultural and environmental conditions in which they live.
Regina Leader-Post,  Star Phoenix

Gas prices likely to see more ups, downs before pandemic is over

Postmedia spoke to Werner Antweiler, an energy economist at the UBC Sauder School of Business, about gas price decline due to significantly lower economic activity combined with the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Postmedia via Vancouver SunThe Province

Preparing for the next spill

Rashid Sumaila, a fisheries expert at UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, was quoted about Canada’s preparedness to deal with an oil spill. “Government and industry always say they are prepared, but spills always come with surprises that no one anticipated,” he said.
Hakai Magazine

Time to check your pandemic-abandoned car for rats

The New York Times quoted Kaylee Byers, a PhD student of zoology at UBC, about rat movement distances and patterns.
New York Times (subscription)

Prof urges B.C. to collect data on race, ethnicity to better understand COVID-19 impacts

John Paul Catungal, a UBC professor at the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, is calling the B.C. government to collect race-based pandemic data. Farah Shroff, a professor at UBC’s school of population and public health, and Andy Yan, an adjunct professor at the school of community and regional planning, were also interviewed.
GlobalGlobal News MorningThe Tyee

Trump is pushing theory that coronavirus came from Wuhan lab. Experts say it’s ‘foolish’

Jeffrey Joy, a professor at UBC’s faculty of medicine, commented on the idea that coronavirus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and said “if we start finding someone to blame, we could see countries trying to cover things up even more, in order to avoid responsibility. And what good would that do if this happens again?”
Global

How artificial intelligence, Amazon and UBC are working together to chart coronavirus treatment

UBC researchers have partnered with Amazon Web Services to build an open-source, artificial intelligence model to improve future COVID-19 diagnostics based on CT-scans and chest X-ray images. They are working with UBC students in engineering, computer science and medicine. The project leads Savvas Nicolaou, a professor of radiology, and William Parker, a radiology resident at UBC, were mentioned.
CTVThe Loop

Some parents are ditching their child's homeschool lessons, and experts say that's OK

UBC education professor Guofang Li suggests parents give the assigned curriculum a try before deciding how it might need to be adjusted. “Parents know their children the best in many ways, especially in terms of social and emotional aspects at home,” she said.
CTVThe Loop

Is digital contact tracing a real hope or a dangerous distraction?

Mark Warren, a professor in UBC’s department of political science, says people tolerate measures that they wouldn’t normally tolerate upon a trust basis. So governments need to use that power very carefully so they don’t damage the public trust that they hold.
National Observer

COVID-19 vaccine: Will Canadians take one when it's available?

Yahoo interviewed Horacio Bach, an adjunct professor in UBC’s division of infectious diseases, and Jeffrey Joy, a professor of evolutionary genetics, about the effectiveness of a vaccine to stop the spread and making it mandatory in Canada.
Yahoo

Canada can borrow its way out of $250-billion deficit: economist

Kevin Milligan, a UBC professor at the Vancouver School of Economics, says Canada can borrow its way out of the $250 billion deficit created by COVID-19 support spending, and Canada’s low debt-to-GDP ratio means the country is in a strong fiscal position to handle the deficit.
News 1130

More equitable housing post-COVID-19 needed

Penny Gurstein, a professor at UBC’s school of community planning and regional planning, spoke about her call for policy changes to housing after the pandemic.
CFAX 1070 Adam Stirling

Whether it's Ebola or COVID-19, Vancouver street nurse Meaghan Thumath feels at home helping the less fortunate

Georgia Straight featured Meaghan Thumath, a clinical professor at UBC’s school of nursing, for her work as a street nurse assisting vulnerable populations that face the COVID-19 pandemic based on her experiences helping people confront Ebola.
Georgia Straight

Research universities recognize unique responsibility to fight spread of pandemic

Santa Ono, UBC president and vice chancellor and chair of the Research Universities’ Council of B.C, co-wrote about research universities’ work on defeating the pandemic and shared the gratitude to everyone who is sacrificing to keep the most important functions of society working in very difficult circumstances working daily in an effort to defeat COVID-19.
Vancouver SunThe Province