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.

Nov. 21, 2002

• Seahorses shake up the international wildlife trade
• Professor of medicine receives honour
• IntelliMap3 wins Synergy Award
• McCreary Prize Awarded
• Neuroscience Student Earns Alberta Research Scholarship
• Variety Club Donation Allows Children's Dental Program to Continue

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Seahorses shake up the international wildlife trade

Thanks to the efforts of Professor Amanda Vincent, of UBC’s Fisheries Centre, and other members of Project Seahorse, 160 countries around the world will start controlling the trade in seahorses to ensure their continued survival in the wild, beginning in mid-2004.

Seahorses are the first fully marine fish species of commercial importance to be listed on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The countries voted November 13 in Santiago, Chile to list all 32 species of seahorses on Appendix II of the Convention which addresses species whose trade must be controlled in order to ensure their survival of their population.

“Seahorses often set precedent. After all, only the male seahorse gets pregnant,” said Vincent, Director of Project Seahorse. “This listing is a call to action. The challenge now is for countries to regulate the vast international trade so well that seahorse populations begin to recover. Such an ambitious endeavour will require all possible collaborations. The CITES decision certainly marks a good beginning for the future of the world’s seahorses.”

The CITES listing is the result of ten years work by Project Seahorse and Vincent, its co-founder and director.

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Professor of medicine receives honour

UBC assoc. professor of medicine Dr. Stephan van Eeden has been awarded the William Thurlbeck Distinguished Researcher Award.

A three-year award with an annual value of $40,000, it recognizes an individual in mid-career who has made significant contributions to understanding basic mechanisms of pulmonary disease.

An alumnus, Van Eeden works at the UBC campus and at the McDonald Research Laboratory and the iCAPTURE Centre, St Paul's Hospital. The focus of his research is the mechanisms of lung inflammation, particularly, lung inflammation caused by infection, cigarette smoking and air pollution.

Previous recognition includes the Dept. of Medicine Faculty Research Award and a Canadian Institutes of Health Research esearch fellowship. He is also a Career Investigator of the American Lung Association.

The award is presented by the Wolfe and Gita Churg Foundation.

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IntelliMap3 wins Synergy Award

The UBC Pulp and Paper Centre’s R&D partnership with Vancouver company Honeywell Industry Solutions has won a 2002 Synergy Award from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and The Conference Board of Canada.

The award recognizes the partners’ creation of IntelliMap3, an automated manufacturing control system that allows paper producers to reduce inconsistencies in quality and cut down on processing time. The system could save the paper industry $24 million annually and the earth about one-quarter million trees. It can also be applied to other industries.

The project to improve quality control in the paper production process began several years ago when Honeywell Industry Solutions approached Electrical and Computer Engineering Prof. Guy Dumont. He identified PhD student Greg Stewart, who now works at Honeywell, to tackle the problem. The result was IntelliMap 3, which now represents the industry standard for tuning CD control systems.

The prize includes a $25,000 research grant for Prof. Dumont.

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McCreary Prize Awarded

The Quick Response Team of the Victoria Health Unit has been awarded the John F. McCreary Prize for 2002.

The team provides crisis intervention to people in their homes with services available from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. 365 days a year. Participants are from a variety of disciplines including nursing, physiotherapy, social work, medicine and pharmacy.

The prize, given by UBC's College of Health Disciplines, recognizes interprofessional teamwork in the health professions.

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Neuroscience Student Earns Alberta Research Scholarship

UBC Neuroscience doctoral student Brett Abrahams has been awarded a $7,600 research scholarship from the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research.

Abrahams studies the molecular mechanisms underlying brain development and behaviour at the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics.

Called the Lionel E. McLeod Health Research Scholarship, the award recognizes an outstanding student from the Universities of Alberta, Calgary, or British Columbia who shows great promise in human health research.

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Variety Club Donation Allows Children's Dental Program to Continue

UBC's Special Children's Dental Program will continue for serving financially disadvantaged children, thanks to a one-year $80,000 donation from the Variety Club of B.C.

"We're very grateful for this support. It allows us to maintain an important service that was facing closure due to lack of funding," says Ed Yen, dean of the Faculty of Dentistry.

The program, begun in 1974, offers free basic dental and preventive services to low-income school-aged children from the Lower Mainland who do not qualify for any of current government-funded programs. The program is offered throughout the academic year at UBC Dental Clinic and at a clinic at Douglas College in New Westminster.

Dental students and dental assisting students who participate in the program gain skills needed to deliver quality dental services to children.

For more information on the program, contact Dr. Rosamund Harrison, Chair & Associate Professor, Division Pediatric Dentistry at (604) 822-9214.

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