There was no easy winner this year when it came to the Award for Excellence in Research on UBC’s Okanagan campus—the honour is being shared by Joan Bottorff and Stephen Porter.
As a nursing professor and director of the Institute for Healthy Living and Chronic Disease Prevention, Bottorff has led research programs in nurse-patient relationships, cancer control, and health promotion. As a mentor and researcher, Bottorff is a co-application and faculty supervisor on seven research grants that total more than $12-million including the $928,000 2012 Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute award. She has supervised nine post doctoral fellows, seven doctoral students, and seven masters students.
Bottorff was recently inducted into the American Academy of Nursing as a fellow, an extremely rare honour for a Canadian nurse academic to receive, says associate professor of Nursing Carole Robinson, her nominator.
“She is a generous colleague who has made a significant contribution to the culture, inclusiveness and sustainability of research scholarship on the Okanagan campus,” says Robinson.
Porter has also earned accolades for his research and classroom work. Along with that he has established the highly popular specialization in forensic psychology within the psychology honours program.
“He seems to be everywhere, in a good way,” says Irving K Barber School of Arts and Sciences Dean Cynthia Mathieson. “In the classroom, he is a dynamic well-respected teacher. His graduate students rave about his supervision and in terms of his research profile he may very well be the Canadian expert on psychology and the law. And at the risk of being colloquial, I have to add that he is a nice guy.”
The forensic psychologist has spent decades delving into the truth about people who tell lies, how we perceive sincerity, and the psychology of professional liars. He has helped to establish the Centre for Advancement of Psychological Science and Law. He specializes in investigative psychology and has become a sought-after psychological expert for the police and courts.
His nominator, Prof. Paul Davies, notes that Porter has a distinguished research record with more than 100 publications, and he has also won research grants that add up to close to a million dollars.
Porter and Bottorff will receive their Award for Excellence in Research on Friday, March 8 at the Celebrate Research Gala. The event takes place at University Theatre, Administration building with a reception to follow in the Richard S. Hallisey Atrium, Engineering, Management and Education building, UBC’s Okanagan campus.
Related topics: award for excellence in research, Celebrate research, Joan Bottorff, research, Stephen Porter
