UBC This Week | Jul. 27, 2006

UBC This Week is a weekly summary of UBC people in the news, recent media releases and upcoming event hightlights. UBC This Week past issues are also available on-line.

Sign up for UBC This Week and other UBC Public Affairs e-mail services at www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/eservices.

Recent UBC Media Releases

• Jul. 25: UBC discoveries may yield new therapies for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in down syndrome

Upcoming Event Highlights

• Aug. 2: Scholars in residence series
• Aug. 3: Music for a summer evening
• Aug. 3: Robson reading series - pride reading

Find out what else is happening at UBC this week. For sports events, visit the UBC Athletics site at www.gothunderbirds.ca/schedule.asp.

UBC People

• Director of Sustainability Office announces retirement
• UBC researcher wins Health Services Research Advancement Award

UBC People

Director of Sustainability Office announces retirement

The founder of Canada's first campus Sustainability Office, Freda Pagani, has announced her retirement starting July 28. A registered architect and Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, Pagani was responsible for initiating UBC's award-winning C. K. Choi Building that set new green building benchmarks worldwide.

Under her leadership she established UBC as Canada's leader in campus sustainability, named by University Business as one of 10 “sustainability stars.” The recently completed Ecotrek was Canada's largest university ter retrofit, saving more than $3.8 million in energy costs and enabling UBC to achieve Kyoto targets five years ahead of the 2012 deadline.

Pagani also launched SEEDS (Social, Ecological, Economic Development Studies), Western Canada's only academic program bringing together students, faculty and staff to address sustainability issues, as well as the award-winning Sustainability Coordinator program. She is a director of the US Green Building Council's Cascadia chapter and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.

Energy Manager Jorge Marques has been named Acting Director effective July 1st.

to top

UBC researcher wins Health Services Research Advancement Award

Morris Barer, a faculty member with UBC’s Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, received the 2006 Canadian Health Services Research Foundation Health Services Research Advancement Award, worth $10,000.

Recognized for his work with the Ontario Economic Council, the BC Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the mentoring role he maintains with students, Barer also helped launch the Canadian Association for Health Services and Policy Research and the new Canadian health services research journal, Healthcare Policy.

The award recognizes any individual, team or organization that has contributed significantly to the advancement of the health services research community in Canada.

to top