UBC Reports | Vol. 49 | No. 11 | Nov. 6, 2003

UBC Alumni

The UBC Alumni Association will honour accomplished members of the UBC community at its Ninth Annual Alumni Achievement Dinner on November 20 at the Fairmont Waterfront in downtown Vancouver. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit the website at www.alumni.ubc.ca or call 604-822-3313.

Outstanding Young Alumnus Award

Alice Low-Fung Mui, BSc’86, PhD

Mui is an assistant professor in the department of surgery at UBC, as well as a research scientist for both the Vancouver Hospital Sciences Centre and the B.C. Transplant Society. She has distinguished herself in research that examines how hormones produced by certain cells in the immune system regulate the function of other cells. The research may lead to a better understanding of the proliferation of cells in blood diseases such as leukemia, and to effective approaches for preventing rejection in organ transplants. A paper describing her research was featured in the “Hot Paper” section of the journal The Scientist, a spot reserved for findings that have an unusually high impact on the research community.

She completed post-doctoral studies in California before being recruited by UBC in 1999. In the department of Surgery, she works with clinical researchers to translate her work into improvements in patient care.

Respected for her outstanding science, Mui has been a keynote speaker for three international scientific societies and is sought by several professional journals as a manuscript reviewer. She is assistant editor of Experimental Hematology, an international journal on blood disorders, and a reviewer for the journal Blood. She is a magnet for grants and awards and is a current recipient of a Canadian Institute of Health Research Scholarship.

Mui is supervisor and mentor to masters and doctoral candidates and is a keen teacher with consistently high evaluations; students often seek her out for help. Two of her graduate charges were chosen for podium presentations at international scientific symposia in Montreal and Torino. She sits on five provincial and national scientific grant review panels, is a member of the department of surgery’s division of General Surgery Resident Education Committee, the Advisory Committee of the Vancouver Hospital, the Grant Review Panel for the Canadian Cancer Research Society and many other scholarly committees.