UBC News Digest

The UBC News Digest is a weekly summary of news stories about UBC people, research, learning, community, and internationalization initiatives. News Digest past issues are also available on-line.

July 11, 2002

• UBC Five Get Order of Canada honours
• Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre receives funding boost
• UBC gains 10 spots in Royal Society of Canada elections
• UBC film to air at Edinburgh Film Festival
• Kudos

UBC Five Get Order of Canada honours

UBC President Dr. Martha Piper said that the five members of the UBC community who recently received Order of Canada honours reflect the diversity of talent at the university.

"We are delighted that these Order of Canada recipients have been recognized and rewarded," Dr. Piper said. "Their achievements are a source of enormous pride for our community and our province, and we congratulate them on their success."

UBC's Vice President Research Dr. Indira Samarasekera and Professor Emeritus H. Peter Oberlander were named officers of the Order of Canada. Zoology Department head Dr. Geoffrey Scudder, Department of the History of Medicine founder Dr. William Gibson and former UBC Board of Governors member Dr. Roslyn Kunin were named Order of Canada members.

For more go to http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/mr/mr02/mr-02-64.html

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Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre receives funding boost

The Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, of which UBC is a member university, recently received a funding boost with a donation of $900,000 from Dr. Don Rix, Chairman of Burnaby-based MDS Metro Laboratory Services.

The funding will jump start construction of the Rix Centre for Ocean Discoveries, a new lecture theatre, more laboratories and a student lounge.

Construction is also under way for a new laboratory intended for studying how animals behave in moving water, with funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation. It will include the largest marine flow chamber in the world, allowing researchers to study things like how salmon hunt and what habitat features need to be considered when restoring streams.

The CFI funds will also buy a remotely operated submarine to explore the seafloor and a new all-weather dive tender. A new confocal microscope will enable researchers to build three-dimensional pictures of specimens.

Many UBC researchers and students utilize the BMSC for research and teaching, including Zoology Prof. Raymond Anderson, who isolated a chemical from starfish that helps patients fight leukemia.

Other UBC researchers who use the BMSC include: Paul Harrison (Earth & Ocean Sciences/Botany), David Randall (Zoology), John Gosline (Zoology), Michael Healey (Zoology), Robert Blake (Zoology), and Robert DeWreede (Botany).

Currently in the midst of a $8 million fundraising campaign, the Centre has provided research facilities, offered university-level courses in marine and coastal sciences and run hands-on educational programs for school groups and a wide variety of visitors since 1972. Other member universities of the Centre include the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, Simon Fraser University and the University of Victoria.

For more information and an interactive Ask a Scientist section, visit the Centre's OceanLink Web site at http://ww.oceanlink.island.net.

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UBC gains 10 spots in Royal Society of Canada elections

An ocean scientist, an expert in aboriginal land claims and a husband-and-wife Alzheimer's research team are among the 10 UBC faculty recently elected to the Royal Society of Canada.

For more go to http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/mr/mr02/mr-02-63.html

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UBC film to air at Edinburgh Film Festival

A film made by three UBC Fine Arts graduates has been selected for screening at the 2002 Edinburgh Film Festival.
The film, Still Life With Scissors, is the work of Creative Writing graduate Geoff Inverarity, Film graduate and director Byron LaMarque, and Theatre graduate and producer Kelly-Ruth Mercier. The three began collaborating on it after Creative Writing Assoc. Prof. Peggy Thompson and Film Asst. Prof. Sharon McGowan teamed them up to work on a film project.
The trio's screenplay for the film won the 2001 Fill This Space Odyssey film competition co-sponsored by CBC and BC Film. It allowed them to produce the film which was first broadcast on CBC in March 2002.
The Edinburgh Film Festival runs Aug. 14-25, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Inverarity's hometown.

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Kudos

Maureen Barfoot has received the Faculty of Medicine's Distinguished Staff Service Award for 2002 to recognize her outstanding contribution to the faculty. A UBC staff member since 1982, Barfoot is the Administrative Officer of the new Life Sciences Centre. Previously she was director of adminstration at UBC's Biomedical Research Centre.

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