Forester, Buddhist scholar among latest CRC chairs
Program funds work of innovative researchers
by Hilary Thomson, staff writer
A wood scientist whose work promotes sustainable forests
and an expert in medieval Buddhism are among the UBC faculty recently
named as Canada Research Chairs. The announcement brings the total
number of UBC chairs to 43 positions valued at $7.2 million.
UBC alumnus Shawn Mansfield, assistant professor in the Faculty
of Forestry, analyses variations in trees' biosynthetic pathways
or cellular building blocks as well as their chemistry and morphology
to maximize the value of the wood fibre and correlate these properties
to end-use.
"We want to help scientists choose seedlings and industry select
trees that offer the greatest value as a product with the least
impact on our forests," says Mansfield, who holds a master's degree
in Medical Microbiology but turned his attention to forestry to
help contribute to environmental sustainability.
The 32-year-old holds the Canada Research Chair in Wood Fibre Quality
Improvement and worked as a research scientist and lecturer in New
Zealand at Forest Research and the University of Waikato before
joining the faculty last year.
Factors such as genetic makeup and the environment influence how
trees develop and affect the requirements to process them.
By studying genetic strengths and chemical characteristics of
various tree families, Mansfield will help forest managers design
plantings with higher quality and lower environmental impact.
Species with a genetic predisposition to long fibres and lower
content of lignin -- the substance in cell walls of plants that
makes them rigid and woody -- are ideally suited for pulp and paper
manufacturing, he says.
Mansfield has applied for Canada Foundation for Innovation funding
that will allow him to set up a wood fibre biotechnology and chemistry
lab that will be unique in Canada.
"The greatest challenge in this work is educating the public about
forestry," he says. "This is a high-tech industry that is breaking
down barriers of traditional forestry to preserve our natural forests."
Jinhua Chen, the Canada Research Chair in East Asian Religions,
aims to reconstruct a period of Buddhism in China and Japan during
the fifth to seventh centuries.
His research focus is the relationship between the monastic institution
and the state.
"All organized religions remain entangled to some degree in secular
concerns," says Chen, an assistant professor who joined the Faculty
of Arts from the University of Virginia in July this year. "Nowhere
is this entanglement more obvious than in the relationship between
church and state."
Medieval China rulers of different dynasties promoted Buddhism
to unify their multiracial and multicultural country, he says. Also,
rulers used the religion as part of their state ideology and to
justify seizure of power.
Chen hopes to broaden traditional scholarship in this area by
examining the relationship between Buddhist monasteries and the
state using sources such as biographies of monks.
"These biographies were strongly informed by sectarian concerns
of the writers or their sponsors," he says. He has discovered new
material that shows efforts by Buddhist monks and their imperial
patrons to establish a Buddhist kingdom in China at the beginning
of the 7th century.
Although the political program failed, it left far-reaching and
profound legacies in political and religious life in medieval East
Asia, says Chen.
In its 2000 budget, the Government of Canada provided $900 million
to support the establishment of 2,000 research appointments in universities
across the country by 2005.
Other faculty recently named as Canada Research Chairs include:
atmospheric chemist Alan Bertram; brain researcher Max Cynader;
astrophysicist Brett Gladman; aquaculture expert Scott McKinley;
orthopedic engineer Thomas Oxland; mathematician Edwin Perkins;
physicist Steven Plotkin; computer scientist Michiel van de Panne;
and physicist Mark Van Raamsdonk.
|