Thursday, January 5, 2012
Civil engineering professor Eric Hall has been appointed dean pro tem of the UBC Faculty of Applied Science. Hall follows Dean Tyseer Aboulnasr, who stepped down as of Dec. 31, 2011.
Hall received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biochemistry at McMaster University and pursued studies in McMaster’s Water Research Group, earning a PhD in chemical engineering. In 1979, he joined Environment Canada’s Wastewater Technology Centre, working as a senior process engineer while also serving as a part-time associate professor of civil engineering at McMaster. In 1992, Hall came to the UBC Dept. of Civil Engineering as Senior NSERC/COFI Industrial Research Chair in Forest Products Waste Management. From 2003 to 2008, Hall served as Civil Engineering department head, and he most recently served as associate dean, faculty matters.
Hall was awarded the Willem Rudolfs Medal from the Water Environment Federation in 1994 and received the I.H. Weldon Award by Pulp and Paper Technical Association of Canada in 2000. He was elected Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2010.
For more, visit: http://bit.ly/s2eXbK
Michael Bennett, an expert in Number Theory and Diophantine problems, has been appointed head of the Dept. of Mathematics effective Jan. 1, 2012.
Bennett received his PhD in mathematics from UBC in 1993, and after appointments at the University of Michigan, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, rejoined UBC as an associate professor in 2001.
Bennett is internationally recognized for his research, which focuses on using modern techniques to tackle classical Diophantine problems. He takes over leadership of the department from Rachel Kuske, who served as head for four and a half years and was recently appointed Senior Advisor to the Provost on Women Faculty.
For more information, visit: http://science.ubc.ca/news/586
Catherine Backman has been appointed as head of Dept. of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, effective Jan. 1, 2012 to June 30, 2017.
Backman earned her Bachelor of Science in Rehabilitation degree at UBC, Master of Science at the University of Washington, and PhD in Health Care and Epidemiology at UBC.
First appointed as an instructor at UBC in 1986, Backman has taught a variety of courses, with particular interest in occupational therapy theory and professional practice in chronic illness and primary health care. She received a UBC Killam Teaching Prize in 2002 and led the development of the new Master of Occupational Therapy program when it was introduced in 2004.
She served on the executive committees of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT) and the Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals (ARHP), and currently serves as Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy.
Backman is Research Scientist at the Arthritis Research Centre of Canada and Affiliate Investigator at Vancouver Coastal Research Institute.
For more information, visit http://med.ubc.ca/__shared/assets/Dr23244.pdf
Geoffrey Hammond has been appointed as head of the Dept. of Cellular and Physiological Sciences, effective March 1, 2012.
From 1984 to 2002, Hammond was a member of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario, where he held appointments as professor in the departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pharmacology and Toxicology, and Oncology.
In the 1990s he also served as the first director of the Cancer Research Laboratories at the London Regional Cancer Centre, and was appointed as the first Ivey Chair in Molecular Toxicology at the University of Western Ontario in 2000.
Hammond is presently a professor in the UBC Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. He also holds a Tier I Canada Research Chair in reproductive health.
He is recognized internationally as an expert in the area of steroid hormone action.
For more information, visit: http://med.ubc.ca/__shared/assets/Dr23306.pdf
UBC physiology student Matthew Piva is the recipient of the Governor General’s History Award. The honour includes a cash prize of $1,600 and a medal.
Piva wrote a 1,500-word paper in July using Batman and Superman to explain Canada’s attitude toward national heroes. He had recently read the novel Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. “I basically argued that most Canadians don’t make it to be a national hero because Canadians just aren’t like what a hero should be. I argued that we may be more heroic if we changed the definition of what a hero is,” said Piva.
Piva’s parents accompanied him to Ottawa for the Dec. 12 award ceremony at Rideau Hall. For more information, visit: http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/article/20111207/KAMLOOPS0101/111209837/-1/kamloops/batman-comic-leads-student-to-governor-general-8217-s-award.
Electrical and computer engineering student Derrick Wing Kwan Ng received the best paper award at the Wireless Communication Symposium at IEEE Globecom 2011 in Houston, Texas. His paper entitled “Resource Allocation for Secure OFDMA Networks with Imperfect CSIT” focuses on his research in communication systems.
For more information, visit: http://www.ece.ubc.ca/news/201112/derrick-wing-kwan-ng-wins-best-paper-ieee-conference
Since their establishment in 1936, the Governor General’s Literary Awards have served as Canada’s premier literary honour. Over the years, the awards have often been noted as much for their controversy as for the writing they’ve sought to recognize. From Jan. 4-31, 2012, UBC Library will host a display highlighting some of the more contentious episodes that have taken place.
75 Years of Controversy is held in the Rare Books and Special Collections division (inside the Chung Collection room), located on level one of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre on UBC’s Vancouver campus. The exhibition is free and open to all.
Andrew Irvine, a professor in UBC’s Dept. of Philosophy, will give two talks related to the exhibition.
• Jan. 10, 5 p.m., Coach House, Green College
• Jan. 12, 2 p.m., Lillooet Room (Room 301), level three of the Ike Barber Learning Centre