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.

Oct. 3, 2002

• UBC grad Ike Barber to donate $20 million for new Learning Centre
• UBC Zoologist named Distinguished Visiting Teaching Professor at University of Guelph
• $12.7 Million grant awarded for prostate cancer research consortium
• UBC's Golden Key chapter wins award again
• Kudos

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UBC grad Ike Barber to donate $20 million for new Learning Centre

UBC alumnus Irving K. (Ike) Barber, founding chairman of Slocan Forest Products Ltd., has announced a $20 million donation to transform UBC's Main Library.

The B.C. Government will contribute $10 million, and UBC will match the sum of these donations for a total of $60 million to build the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre will be constructed around the core of the Main Library, which opened in 1925, to add more than 200,000 new square feet of inside floor space and 46,000 square feet of renovated floor space, fully equipped to support wireless technology both inside and out.

"Mr. Barber's donation is an investment in the future of British Columbia," said UBC President Martha Piper. "And it reflects his dedication to the intellectual, social, cultural, and economic development of the people of this province, by supporting and enhancing the environment for learning here."

For more details on the announcement, see the related media release on the UBC Public Affairs Web site.

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UBC Zoologist named Distinguished Visiting Teaching Professor at University of Guelph

UBC Zoologist, Lee Gass, has been named the first Distinguished Visiting Teaching Professor at the University of Guelph.

The Guelph program was created to recognize and highlight the theory, practice and scholarship of teaching by bringing a notable and respected teacher to Guelph's campus each year to spend several days interacting with faculty, students and staff.

Gass, who is also this year's CASE/CCAE Canadian Professor of the Year, will travel to Guelph this month to meet with faculty and students there. He will lecture on "Reflections on a Decade of Innovation in Science Education: Integration, Interaction and Interdisciplinarity."

Gass is a graduate of Chico State College and the University of Oregon. He joined UBC in 1974. His research focuses on hummingbirds and energetics but in recent years has become more devoted to developing theory for understanding phenomena commonly encountered in the classroom and especially how undergraduate science education engages both students and educators, particularly in building communities of scholars.

Gass, an eminent member of UBC's Zoology Department, is a recipient of both the Killam Teaching Award and a 3M Teaching Fellowship in 1999.

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$12.7 Million grant awarded for prostate cancer research consortium

UBC is one of five partners that will participate in a multi-centre, five-year investigation into the genetic mechanisms of prostate cancer progression.

The project is being funded by a $12.7 million grant from the U.S.-based National Cancer Institute to support joint projects at Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, University of Washington, the Institute for Systems Biology, as well as UBC and The Prostate Centre at Vancouver Hospital.

The Vancouver-based researchers will focus on developing new treatments for men with advanced prostate cancer who no longer respond to androgen-deprivation. The idea is to harness antisense technology, which inhibits gene expression, to coax hormone-insensitive prostate-cancer cells to commit suicide. This process is called apoptosis, or "programmed cell death." Such antisense drugs, when combined with chemotherapy or other drugs, also may block the cellular processes that allow cancer to grow.

The project is being led by faculty members Prof. Martin Gleave and Asst. Prof. Colleen Nelson.

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UBC's Golden Key chapter wins award again

The prestigious Key Chapter Award has been presented to members of UBC's Golden Key Society at the international organization's recent convention in Atlanta, Georgia.

The UBC Chapter won for a variety of activities which included: conducting blood donor clinics, participating in the annual Terry Fox Run and partnering with the Queen Alexandra Elementary School, where members donate their time by tutoring, coaching and mentoring youngsters. This marks the UBC Chapter's third time at winning the award.

The Golden Key International Honour Society was founded in 1977 in Atlanta. The global non-profit society provides leadership opportunities to members in its 320 chapters around the world.

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Kudos

Frieda Granot, Dean of Graduate Studies, has been awarded the Golden Jubilee Medal by the Government of Canada.

The medal commemorates the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II's ascension to the throne, and is awarded to Canadians who have shown "a dedication to excellence in their chosen fields and who are recognized for their contribution to the building of a Canadian society as an example of fairness, justice, and tolerance to the world community."

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