UBC Reports
July 11, 1996

Bill Bruneau, a professor of Educational Studies, has been elected president of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) for a one-year term. Bruneau, a graduate of the University of Toronto and the University of Saskatchewan, joined the UBC faculty in 1971. He served as vice-president of CAUT in 1994/95, is a past president of the UBC Faculty Association and a former school trustee for the City of Vancouver.

Bruneau's areas of research include the history of universities and performance indicators in higher education.

Prof. Michael Ames, director of the Museum of Anthropology (MOA), has been named a fellow of the Canadian Museums Association. The lifetime designation recognizes his contribution to the museum profession and to the work of the association.

Ames succeeded founding MOA director Harry Hawthorn in 1974 and is credited with guiding its development into one of the world's most prominent research and educational museums. He recently presided over the 20th anniversary marking the museum's move to its current home.

A professor in the Dept. of Anthropology and Sociology, Ames is renowned for his teaching and publishing on the topics of anthropology, museums, public culture and for his research in Sri Lanka, India and British Columbia.

UBC doctoral candidate Mia Johnson is among the scholars selected by the Getty Center for Education in the Arts to receive a 1996 fellowship in art education. The fellowship was established in 1991 to support research in discipline-based art education. A program of the J. Paul Getty Trust, the California-based centre annually awards eight fellowships worth $12,500 U.S. each.

Johnson, a student in the Faculty of Education, is preparing a dissertation on the conventions of computer artists.

PhD and EdD students in Canada and the United States who are exploring the role of the visual arts in education or related fields of the humanities are eligible to apply for the fellowship. Applicants must demonstrate that their work promises to make a substantial and original contribution to discipline-based art education and their dissertation proposals must be approved by their doctoral committees.

Deadline for the 1997 fellowships is Nov. 1, 1996. For more information, call (310) 395-0388, fax (310) 451-8750 or send e-mail to epaul@getty.edu

Roopchand Seebaran, an assistant professor in the School of Social Work, has won the inaugural Honourable David C. Lam Award, pre- sented by the United Way of the Lower Mainland.

Seebaran was honoured for his dedication to advancing the values of multiculturalism and fostering cultural diversity.

He was presented with the award at the United Way's annual general meeting, held May 30.

Douglas Bonn, assistant professor in the Dept. of Physics, is one of 100 young scientists in the U.S. and Canada to receive a 1996 Sloan Research Fellowship worth $35,000 over two years. The new fellows, who are involved in research at the frontiers of physics, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, neuroscience and economics, are drawn from faculties at 54 colleges and universities.

Bonn plans to use the Sloan grant to support his research which probes the fundamental properties and applications of high-temperature superconductors.

The 40-year-old Sloan Research Fellowship Program, administered by the New York-based Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, was created as a means of encouraging research by young scholars. Former Sloan Fellows include 19 Nobel Prize winners.

Terry Snutch has won the 1996 International Albrecht Fleckenstein Award for his groundbreaking work in neurobiology.

The $45,000 award was presented at a recent ceremony in Germany. Sponsored by Bayer AG, the award is given every two years to promote scientific work in calcium channel antagonism and modulation.

Excessive calcium in cells is responsible for many diseases and conditions like strokes, migraine headaches, epilepsy and various cardiovascular diseases.

Snutch, a biochemist and neurobiologist, has investigated new calcium channels in the central nervous system, describing their molecular basis and how they are regulated--an enormous contribution to understanding the role of calcium in cells.

Snutch is an associate professor in the Biotechnology Laboratory and departments of Neuroscience and Zoology.