A departmental reorganization in the Faculty of Dentistry was recently approved by Senate.

The three former departments of Clinical Dental Sciences, Oral Biology, and Oral Medical and Surgical Sciences were disestablished and replaced with the departments of Oral Biological and Medical Sciences, and Oral Health Sciences.

The reorganization reflects a Senate decision made in 1994 that the minimum size for departments, schools and divisions be 15 full-time faculty members.

The new departments will facilitate many of the faculty's research collaborations. The changes will also result in savings in administrative costs and will create greater efficiency in some faculty committee and administration infrastructure.

The new departments came into being April 1.

The Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is hosting the Michael Smith Symposium on April 25-27 to celebrate Smith's long and distinguished career at UBC and salute his 65th birthday.

Smith's past and present colleagues at UBC, including students and post doctoral fellows, have been invited to attend.

Speakers at the symposium will include Dr. Richard Roberts, who won a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1993 for his work on the discovery of splicing of mRNA in eukaryotic cells. Smith and Roberts were on sabbatical at the same time in Dr. Fred Sanger's lab at MRC Cambridge in the late 1970s.

The full schedule of speakers is on the Biochemistry Web site http://www.biochem.ca under "Notices." Two reunion dinners are also being held.

Colleagues wishing to attend the symposium should pre-register. Contact Diana Crookall, Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at 822-2656.