Cay Holbrook, an associate professor of Educational and Counselling Psychology and Special Education, has been named the first recipient of the Holbrook-Humphries Literacy Award.

Sponsored by a grassroots group of teachers of the blind and visually impaired, the award is given for outstanding contributions to the advancement of literacy for individuals who are blind or have low vision.

Her research focuses on literacy for students with visual impairments, specifically those who read braille.

Holbrook is the first winner of the award, which is named in her honour.

Civil Engineering Prof. Eric Hall and PhD candidate Pierre Bérubé of UBC's Pulp and Paper Centre have won the Pulp and Paper Technical Association of Canada's (PAPTAC) I.H. Weldon Award for 1999.

The award recognizes the best paper presented by a member at a PAPTAC meeting during the past year. The pair won for their paper on a novel technique to help pulp mills reduce fresh water consumption and wastewater discharge in their operations.

Hall is a faculty associate of the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada at the UBC Pulp and Paper Centre and the senior NSERC/COFI Industrial Research Chair in Forest Products Waste Management in the Dept. of Civil Engineering.

Bérubé is working on his doctorate under Hall's supervision.

Ahlay Chin, a receptionist in the University-Industry Liaison Office, has been appointed an adviser to B.C.'s Minister of Health.

Chin will represent the Richmond area on a 15-member provincial mental health advisory council which will report on the progress of mental health reform. Chin, who speaks five languages, founded the first Richmond Chinese Mental Health Support Group in 1995 to serve the Chinese population.