Three UBC outreach initiatives will get a boost from NSERC’s PromoScience Program this year, with the Michael Smith Laboratories, Life Science Institute and Pacific Museum of the Earth receiving a total of $90,000 in funding from the national competition.

For more information, visit: http://science.ubc.ca/news/619.

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A UBC research project focused on a bone marrow failure disease recently received funding from the Aplastic Anemia and Myelodysplasia Association of Canada (AAMAC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
 
Dr. Fang Wang at the B.C. Cancer Research Centre and UBC will study the biological mechanisms leading to bone marrow failure and responsible for the development of myelodysplastic syndromes. 

For more information,visit http://webapps.cihr irsc.gc.ca/cfdd/db_search?p_language=E&p_competition=201110FBM

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Jehannine Austin, a professor in the UBC Department of Medical Genetics and a member of the Brain Research Centre, has received an inaugural Pfizer Psychiatry Research Award. The $100,000 award will support her research into the effect of genetic counseling on adherence to psychotropic medication in serious mental illness.

For more info: http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/975505/pfizer-announces-first-ever-recipients-of-its-psychiatry-research-awards or http://www.brain.ubc.ca.

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The UBC Division of Health Care Communication is being awarded one of four national Community-Service Learning awards for their “Community as Teacher” program.

For more information and a short video about the program, visit http://www.mcconnellfoundation.ca/en/programs/community-service-learning/csl-awards.

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Motion Metrics International recently created a graduate scholarship at the Institute for Computing, Information, and Cognitive Systems (ICICS) at UBC. The $5,000 annual award will be granted to a students who has demonstrated excellence in multi-disciplinary, application-oriented research.

President and CEO of Motion Metrics, Shahram Tafazoli (Electrical and Computer Engineering alum and adjunct professor), completed his PhD under Electrical and Computer Engineering professor emeritus Peter Lawrence and Mechanical Engineering professor Clarence de Silva. His work there was the germination of Motion Metrics’ first product, LoadMetrics, a dynamic payload measurement system for hydraulic mining shovels.

For more information, visit http://bit.ly/LTCU67.

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Electrical and computer engineering PhD student Zahra Ahmadian is the winner of the 2012 IEEE Canada Women in Engineering Prize. The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Canada annually awards the prize to the nominee who has demonstrated success in her undergraduate program and volunteer service to the IEEE.

Ahmadian’s commitment as an IEEE volunteer has given her the opportunity to organize seminars and professional workshops for women in engineering. Working with her supervisor Dr. Lutz Lampe, Ahmadian is currently designing ultra-wideband systems for short range, high capacity links. For more about Ahmadian’s research, visit Design of Pre-Rake DS-UWB Downlink with Pre-Equalization.

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UBC Student Health Services won two awards for innovative e-solutions in patient care from Canada Health Infoway. UBC was awarded a first-place Trailblazer Award for its e-scheduling system, which allows students to book, change and cancel appointments online.

UBC was also awarded a second-place Trailblazer Award for facilitating patient access to health information. Students can access test results, support, and emails from their physicians online.

Student Health Services will receive $50,000 with the awards, which will be used to create a mobile application that fully integrates with the current software and allows instant use of the system from virtually anywhere.

To watch a video about the e-scheduling system, visit http://youtu.be/JEw6nQ-Kg8Q
To watch a video about patient Access to Health Information, visit http://youtu.be/WnBeE-HXNao.

For more information about the awards or Canada Health Infoway, visit http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/975783/innovative-health-care-e-solutions-recognized.

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Golder Associates has donated $30,000 to create a scholarship at UBC’s Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering.The scholarship will support graduate student research on issues such as mine closure financial assurance policies and practices in Canada and also international jurisdictions.

Golder Associates raised funds for the scholarship at the sixth International Mine Closure Conference, a not-for-profit event that the global, employee-owned company organized in 2011 for leaders in the mining industry.

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Nominate outstanding colleagues at the Vancouver campus with three years or more UBC service for the President’s Staff Award for Excellence. The UBC Vancouver President’s Staff Awards recognizes the personal achievements and contributions of staff to UBC and to the vision and goals of the University. The nomination deadline is May 31, 2011.

For more information, visit http://www.focusonpeople.ubc.ca/making-it-happen/awards/ubc-vancouver-presidents-staff-awards/

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On May 12, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, and UBC Continuing Studies hosted 40 candidates for Canadian citizenship at a special community ceremony at UBC Robson Square.

UBC Continuing Studies plans to launch a new series of courses this fall designed specifically for those who are new to Canada. Topics range from preparing for the Canadian citizenship exam to enhancing English communication and presentation skills, and understanding Canadian workplace culture. The courses will take place at UBC Robson Square.

For more information, visit http://cstudies.ubc.ca/.

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What goes on behind the scenes at UBC Library? A typical day in the Library and some of its most popular collections, places to study and things to learn are available on the Library’s website, Storify, Flickr and as a PDF.

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The 18th annual conference of the Academic Libraries Advancement and Development Network (ALADN) runs from May 20-23 at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. The conference, co-organized by the UBC Library Development Office, welcomes library fundraising professionals from across North America. Guest speakers include Rebecca Smith (University of Kansas), Dr. John Helliwell (UBC) and Tom Hadzor (Duke University).

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Global Engineering Leadership is designed to introduce senior engineering students to concepts, theory and practice of engineering leadership in an international service learning context. Distinguished speakers discuss issues surrounding engineering, appropriate technology, knowledge, communication and understanding, and leadership in various contexts, on the following dates:

May 17, 2012: Leading From Behind: Service as a Leadership Practice
Panel: Sheldon Green, Chandran Thiruchittampalam and Peter Ladner

May 22, 2012: The Four Worlds of Engineering
Speaker: Ralph Sultan, Ph.D., P.Eng. (MLA, West Vancouver – Capilano)
Time: 3 p.m.
Place: Hugh Dempster Pavilion, Room 110 6245 Agronomy Road
 Info: http://mech.ubc.ca/2012/05/10/mech-410e-global-engineering-leadership-distinguished-lecture-series/

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Short text memos or video interviews on current issues in Asia and across the Pacific are published twice-weekly on the Asia Pacific Memo series at http://www.asiapacificmemo.ca/

• Asia in the Governance of Outer Space, by U. Washington Prof. Saadia M. Pekkanen
• China – Global Shipping, Coal Usage, High Speed Train Corridors (Video Interview with Dr. Claude Comtois)

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