UBC This Week 04-Oct-2012

 

Recent UBC Media Releases

Oct 4 $100,000 prize to fight global corruption
Oct 2 UBC co-sponsors world’s largest consumer behaviour conference in Vancouver
Sep 30 Fish getting smaller as the oceans warm: UBC research
Sep 28 UBC Law receives $2M gift: Second largest donation to UBC Law by an individual
   
 

Upcoming Event Highlights

Oct 4 Lecture: A Philological Bastard Takes Revenge on the Classicists
Oct 4 UBC Symphony Orchestra – Jonathan Girard: conductor
Oct 5-6 Faith and Politics in a Fractured World
Oct 5-Dec 16 Luminescence: The Silver of Peru
Oct 6 UBC Farm Market
Oct 7 Opera Tea in the Gardens
Oct 7 Norm Theatre – “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted”
Oct 9 Seed Saving 101 at UBC Farm
Oct 9 IPA Trivia Questions
Oct 10 Snowfest at the SUB
Oct 10 Progress toward gender equality stalls as Canadians default on our generational debt
Oct 11 The Great Pancake Race IV
Oct 11 Equality and the ‘Unequal Treaties’– Chinese émigré roads to modernity
   
  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

UBC law professor recipient of Trudeau Fellowship

UBC law professor Catherine Dauvergne is one of four Canadian scholars to receive the $225,000 Trudeau fellowship. Dauvergne is one of Canada’s authorities on refugee and immigration law and is committed to transforming how Canada and other countries deal with refugees in a perspective of global justice.

Each year, the foundation names up to five Trudeau fellows, academics and public intellectuals who have set themselves apart through their research achievements, their creativity, and their commitment to social affairs. A Trudeau fellowship gives the university and the fellow access to the Trudeau community of scholars and seasoned policymakers as well as to Trudeau events.

For more information, visit http://www.law.ubc.ca/news/2012/oct/10_02_12_dauvergne.html

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UBC faculty elected to Canadian Academy of Health Sciences

Six faculty members have been elected Fellows by the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS). Fellows are elected to the CAHS based on leadership, creativity, distinctive competencies and a commitment to advance academic health science.

Jan Friedman, professor in the Department of Medical Genetics and Acting Associate Dean, Research, Children & Family Research Institute, has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and eight books.

William Honer, professor and Head of the Department of Psychiatry and Director of the Institute of Mental Health, is the Jack Bell Chair in Schizophrenia. He is the Scienti?c Director of the B.C. Mental Health and Addictions Research Institute.

Andrei Krassioukov, professor in the Division of Rehabilitation Medicine, is an internationally recognized expert in autonomic dysreflexia following spinal cord injury. He is a physician in the Spinal Cord Program at Vancouver Coastal Health’s G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Centre and an associate director of ICORD.

Christian Naus, professor in the Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences and Director of the Life Sciences Institute, is a leading expert on the role that intercellular channels play in the developing brain and in disease processes. Naus is the Canada Research Chair in Gap Junctions and Disease.

Weihong Song, professor in the Department of Psychiatry, focuses his research on the molecular and cellular mechanism of Alzheimer’s disease. Song is the Director of UBC Townsend Family Laboratories, the Jack Brown and Family professor and the Canada Research Chair in Alzheimer’s disease.

Eric Yoshida, professor and Head of the Division of Gastroenterology at UBC and Vancouver General Hospital, is the Head of the B.C. Hepatitis Program.

For more information, visit http://med.ubc.ca/faculty-members-elected-to-canadian-academy-of-health-sciences/.

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UBC prof wins CIHR Knowledge Translation Award

Peter von Dadelszen, a professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and a world authority on diagnosing and treating pre-eclampsia, has received the 2012 Knowledge Translation Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

The award – which includes a $100,000 prize — honours and supports an individual, team or organization that has made an outstanding contribution to increasing the application of research findings, improving the health of Canadians, health services or products, or strengthening the health care system.

For more information, visit http://med.ubc.ca/peter-von-dadelszen-wins-cihr-knowledge-translation-award/.

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UBC Law receives $2M gift from family of alumnus

In memory of the late Franklin Lew, wife and son Joan and Derek Lew have made a $2 million gift to the Faculty of Law at UBC. Lew, who graduated from UBC Law in 1961, was a successful businessman and an active member of the community. He passed away in 2006 after a courageous battle with cancer.

The gift, part of UBC’s start an evolution campaign, will create the Franklin Lew Innovation Fund, which will fund research and programming for students and faculty at the law school. The faculty has honoured Lew’s legacy by naming the school’s forum space after him.

For more information, visit http://www.law.ubc.ca/news/2012/sept/09_28_12_gift.html.

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UBC’s second annual Earthquake Symposium

UBC will hold a second annual Earthquake Symposium, part of UBC’s participation in ShakeOut B.C. Civil engineers, Carlos Ventura and Liam Finn, will give a series of talks on topics ranging from earthquake warnings, to seismic inspection of buildings and earthquake preparedness at UBC. Also demonstrated will be UBC’s Shake Table – a simulator that reproduces the shaking produced by earthquakes and demonstrates how structures may respond to an earthquake.

Date: Oct. 18
Time: 4 – 6 p.m.
Place: Room 1250, 2260 West Mall, Centre for Integrated Research on Sustainability
Info: Register: blossom.sobrinho@ubc.ca. More info.
 Q & A session and refreshments provided.

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UBC Law hosted international conference on environmental taxation

UBC Faculty of Law hosted the 13th Annual Global Conference on Environmental Taxation, which brought in over 50 speakers from nearly 20 countries. These experts presented on the barriers and the opportunities for environmental taxation, with an emphasis on the potential of this type of taxation to prompt technological innovation.

A highlight of this year’s conference was a panel discussion on the B.C. Carbon Tax. Panelists included representatives from the European Environment Agency, UBC Department of Political Science, The British Columbia Climate Action, and the University of Ottawa Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

For more information, visit http://www.law.ubc.ca/news/2012/sept/09_26_12_cget.html.

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CWILA spearheads Critic-in-Residence initiative for equality in Canadian letters

Applications are being accepted for the first Canadian Women In the Literary Arts’ (CWILA) Critic-in-Residence program.

“Women writing in Canada now have access to a $2,000 stipend for critical and community engagement work,” says UBC professor of Canadian Literature Laura Moss. “When asked what kept them from writing more reviews, many women identified a need for more time to engage publicly. So we created the Critic-in-Residence to buy time for a writer,” said Moss.

The Critic-in-Residence program works to support women’s criticism and promote public awareness of women’s literary and critical presence in Canadian letters. The recipient will contribute critical essays or book reviews to Canadian publications. She will also be encouraged to support a climate of critical responsiveness in Canadian letters with a collaborative or community-based project of her choice.

CWILA welcomes applications from genderqueer writers, indigenous writers, and women and/or genderqueer writers of colour. Deadline for applications is November 1, 2012. The Critic-in-Residence will be announced December 1, 202. For more information, visit http://cwila.com/.

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New faculty in Mechanical Engineering

Patrick Kirchen has recently joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering as an assistant professor working on minimizing the environmental impact of power and heat production systems.

Prior to coming to UBC, Kirchen worked as a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For more information, visit http://mech.ubc.ca/2012/09/28/new-appointments-in-the-mechanical-engineering-department/.

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UBC forum focuses on men's health

John Oliffe, associate professor at UBC School of Nursing, is part of an international panel of experts giving a free public talk about men’s health on October 10, at the UBC’s Okanagan campus. The forum will focus on three leading projects being developed in the Okanagan and across the globe to help support healthy lifestyle choices for men:
 
• The ManUp Project: Improving Men’s Physical Activity and Nutrition (Australia)
• The Men’s Health and Wellbeing Programme (Ireland)
• The Dads In Gear Project: Active and Smoke-free Dads (Canada)
 
Date: Oct. 10
Time: 3 – 4:30 p.m.
Place: University Centre Ballroom (UNC200), 3272 University Way, UBC’s Okanagan campus, Kelowna.
Info:  http://www.nursing.ubc.ca/News/NewsItem.aspx?id=190

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Asia Pacific Memo update: How mobile phones swayed an Indian election and how bicycles struck back

The Asia Pacific Memo series publishes short text Memos or video interviews on current issues in Asia and across the Pacific at http://www.asiapacificmemo.ca/

• Political Parties and Islam in Indonesia: A Religious Façade — by University of Denver PhD student Geoffrey Macdonald.
• Why Technology Needs People: Gold, Phones, and Bicycles — by Robin Jeffrey, University of Singapore and Assa Doron, Australian National University.

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UBC Thunderbots update

This year, UBC Thunderbots — the autonomous soccer-playing robot design team – has formed two new teams: Thunderbots@Home and Thunderbots Simulation. Simulation is designing artificial intelligence software to compete in fully software-based soccer games, and @Home aims to build an autonomous domestic assistive robot.

Both teams will compete in their respective RoboCup leagues. For more information, visit http://mech.ubc.ca/2012/09/28/9236/

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