Six members of the University of British Columbia community, including the former chair of the Board of Governors, Brad Bennett, and five professors will be awarded the Order of British Columbia.
They are among 15 British Columbians who will receive the Order of British Columbia in 2010 for their contributions to the province and their extraordinary accomplishments. The investiture ceremony will be held for recipients on Oct. 21, 2010, in Victoria.
Brad Bennett, the former chair of UBC’s Board of Governors, is a Kelowna businessperson and community volunteer. He has been the president of McIntosh Properties Ltd., a real estate investment and holding company since 1990. Bennett is a director of the Premier’s Technology Council, UBC Properties Trust Board, a trustee and member of the Executive Advisory Board of the Fraser Institute and member of the BC Business Laureates Hall of Fame Cabinet.
Dr. Julio Montaner is the director of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, the president of the International AIDS Society, the chair in AIDS Research and head of the Division of AIDS in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC. Montaner helped pioneer the Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) treatment for HIV– an achievement that has saved thousands of lives in Canada and around the world. He also played a pivotal role in establishing and evaluating the effectiveness of Vancouver’s Supervised Injection Site. Montaner’s achievements have benefited thousands of people living with HIV across the globe.
Marco Marra, a professor of medical genetics in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC, is a world leader in the field of genomics. Marra has been the director of the Genome Science Centre (GSC), which was established by Nobel Laureate Dr. Michael Smith. Under his tenure, Marra and his team succeeded in becoming the first in the world to sequence the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus, putting Canada on the world map in the genome era.
Dr. Robert Brunham is the head of the B.C. Centre for Disease Control and the director of UBC’s Centre for Disease Control. A UBC alumnus, and a professor in the Department of Medicine, Brunham is an internationally recognized authority on infectious diseases. His approach of linking active research with public health decision-making was successfully demonstrated during the 2003 SARS crisis and the recent H1N1 influenza pandemic. His research centres on the immunology, genomics and epidemiology of sexually transmitted diseases and the origins of emerging infectious diseases.
Robert (Bob) Hindmarch is a UBC professor emeritus in human kinetics and former athletics director. Hindmarch’s career as an athlete, teacher, coach, mentor and leader has made a profound difference in the lives of thousands of students, athletes, coaches and citizens. He was assistant coach and general manager of Canada’s first national hockey team which competed at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Austria. Hindmarch continued to be associated with the Olympics movement in Canada as a hockey coach, board member, chef de mission and volunteer. He also helped establish the Man In Motion World Tour and was an advisor to Rick Hansen. Hindmarch has filled many other roles including president of the B.C. Sports Federation, director of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, chairman of the sports committee for EXPO 86, and a trustee of the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame.
The Honourable Jacob “Jack” Austin, a lawyer, Senator emeritus and honorary professor at the Institute of Asian Research at UBC, is recognized for leading British Columbia in the field of public policy for more than 45 years. Austin has been a lawyer, businessperson, federal deputy minister, chief of staff to a Prime Minister, cabinet minister and Senator representing B.C. In 1984 he facilitated the establishment of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
Other individuals named to the Order of British Columbia and with a connection to UBC include Dan Doyle, John Furlong and Milan Ilich.
For more information, please visit: http://www.orderofbc.gov.bc.ca/ .
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