UBC Reports | Vol. 46 | No. 19 | Nov. 30, 2000

Honour Roll

David Rankin has been named the director of UBC's Purchasing Dept.

Rankin will provide overall direction for the department which is responsible for purchasing acquisitions, custom tax freight, travel management, and the Surplus Equipment Recycling Facility (SERF).

Rankin is a professional engineer with more than 21 years of manufacturing and supply chain management experience.

Rankin joins UBC Dec. 4.

Asst. Prof. June McCue has been appointed director of First Nations Legal Studies in the Faculty of Law.

McCue's research interests include treaty-making between indigenous peoples and states, international law, indigenous legal theory and critical race theory. Her teaching subjects include indigenous legal issues, self-governance, and colonialism and the law.

McCue is a hereditary chief within the Ned'u'ten Nation and a band member of the Lake Babine Nation. She was the first aboriginal woman to graduate from the UBC Graduate Law Program.

The UBC Faculty of Law offers up to 10 courses with indigenous-related content, among the most offered by any North American law school.

McCue is currently working on a proposal to establish a Centre for International Indigenous Legal Studies at UBC. ... The UBC chapter of the Golden Key International Honour Society has inducted five new honourary members: Chuck Slonecker, acting vice-president, External Affairs; Rick Hansen, president and CEO of the Rick Hansen Institute; Jo-ann Archibald, director of the First Nations House of Learning; Chancellor William Sauder; and Arts dean Prof. Alan Tully.

They, along with some 660 UBC students, were inducted into the society at a reception ceremony last week.

The society is a non-profit, academic honours organization founded by students for the purpose of recognizing and encouraging scholastic achievement. It facilitates interaction among high-achieving students from diverse faculties and degree programs within universities and reinforces students' contact with academic staff through chapter programs.

Membership is based on academic merit and limited to the top 15 per cent of bachelor's degree students.

Veteran journalist Scott Macrae will be the new director of UBC's Public Affairs Office as of Dec. 4.

An alumnus of UBC, Macrae has an extensive background in journalism, media relations and communications in Vancouver.

He began his career with The Vancouver Sun in 1972 and was city editor from 1986 to 1989 and managing editor from 1989 to 1991. He also served five years as director of communications for the City of Vancouver.

Statistics Prof. James Zidek has been awarded the Distinguished Achievement Medal by the American Statistical Association's section on statistics and the environment.

The awards recognize outstanding contributions made by statistical scientists working on environmental problems. Zidek, head of the Statistics Dept., was honoured for his redesign of monitoring networks for the U.S. Air Quality Trends Network and his approach to estimating ambient air quality.

Founded in Boston in 1839, the American Statistical Association is a scientific and educational society that promotes statistical practice, applications, and research, publishes statistical journals, improves statistical education, and advances the statistics profession worldwide.

Pediatrics Prof. Derek Applegarth has been honoured with the 2000 Founders Award from the Canadian College of Medical Geneticists (CCMG).

The award recognizes his outstanding contributions to Canadian medical genetics.

A faculty member since 1963, Applegarth is the associate director of the Biochemical Diseases Laboratory at Children's and Women's Health Centre of British Columbia. He specializes in the metabolic diseases of children with a particular interest in diseases that arise from inborn errors of metabolism.

Applegarth, who also holds appointments in the departments of Pathology and Medical Genetics, was named a fellow of CCMG in 1983.