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.

Dec. 10, 2004

• UBC Students Lead Canada in International Forestry Competition
• Rheumatologist Earns National Young Innovator Award
• Alumnus Named Trudeau Mentor

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UBC Students Lead Canada in International Forestry Competition

UBC forestry students were the top placing Canadians in the first international forestry quiz bowl held in Edmonton recently in conjunction with the joint 2004 annual general meeting of the Canadian Institute of Forestry and the Society of American Foresters.

Sixteen teams from across Canada and United States competed in the event that challenged students to answer questions on forestry topics such as climate change, silviculture and management practices. UBC’s team placed fourth overall, while the winning team came from Humbolt State University.

As the top placing Canadian team, UBC students received a hand carved trophy of a woodworker carved by Dub Juby, a well known Ottawa Valley wood carver. The trophy will remain at the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Forestry, until next year’s competition in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

Winning team members were Dylan Rush, 4th year Forest Operations student; Craig Nitschke, graduate student in Forest Resources Management; Amanda Schoonmaker, 3rd year Forest Sciences, and; Andrew Atherton, 4th year Wood Products Processing student and the Canadian Institute of Forestry student representative on the Forestry Undergraduate Society.

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Rheumatologist Earns National Young Innovator Award

UBC post-doctoral fellow Jolanda Cibere, a rheumatologist and research scientist at the Arthritis Research Centre of Canada in Vancouver has received one of three of the first-ever Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) Young Innovators Award that recognizes outstanding achievements in research, knowledge transfer and commercialization among young Canadians.

Cibere’s research on the early diagnosis and prevention of osteoarthritis led to the development of a standardized knee exam that has since become part of a clinical standard for early detection. She has also pioneered a study on the current use of glucosamine sulfate by osteoarthritis sufferers that showed no evidence of benefit, the results of which have been widely disseminated to consumers across North America.

The federally funded NCE are designed to nurture innovative ideas that can be developed into spin-off products, services or processes to enrich the lives of Canadians. Over the past 15 years, 111 companies have been spun off as a result of NCE research.

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Alumnus Named Trudeau Mentor

Television personality and best-selling author of The Trouble with Islam, UBC alumnus Irshad Manji has been named a 2005 Trudeau Foundation Mentor. The Mentors play a key role in the Foundation’s mandate to establish dialogue between scholars and leaders at work in the public policy, business, arts or voluntary sectors. They are assigned to work with the Trudeau Foundation’s Scholars, who are outstanding doctoral candidates in the social sciences and humanities.

“I’m a Canadian because of Pierre Elliott Trudeau," said Ms. Manji. "Under his leadership, Canada opened its doors to my family and thousands of other refugees from Idi Amin’s Uganda. Prime Minister Trudeau invested in my future. Now, I have the opportunity to invest in the scholars at his Foundation. I hope to make an interactive contribution, learning from Canada’s brightest young talents while teaching them at the same time.”

Also named a Mentor was the Globe and Mail’s National Affairs Columnist Jeffrey Simpson, who has received an honorary degree from UBC and was the special guest speaker at this year’s UBC annual general meeting.

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