Campaign promotes value of UBC research

UBC President Martha Piper conferred her first "honorary degrees" on eight diapered infants last week at the launch of the UBC Research Awareness Campaign.

The one- to two-year-olds received honorary "infant scientist" degrees in the First Nations Longhouse from Chancellor Bill Sauder and President Piper.
(more...)

Nobel laureate Smith heads genome centre

UBC's Nobel prize winner Michael Smith has been named director of the first research centre in Canada devoted to decoding human genes.

The $25-million Genome Sequence Centre, a project of the B.C. Cancer Agency, will be focused on cancer research. Headquartered in Vancouver, it will collaborate with laboratories worldwide on the International Human Genome Project whose goal is to decode all of the human genes by 2005.
(more...)

Engineer wins B.C. award

Metals, medicine and mobility.

These are the fields of expertise of three members of UBC's community who will receive Science Council of B.C. awards at the B.C. Science and Technology Awards Dinner Oct. 20.
(more...)

Werker becomes associate vice-president, Research

Janet Werker has been named associate vice-president, Research, effective Nov. 1, 1997.

Her duties will include all aspects of the research portfolio, with specific responsibilities for initiatives in the social sciences and humanities.
(more...)

Campus pitches in to help cause

Even before the United Way's campus campaign kick-off Oct. 7, first-year Forestry students had raised $800 by selling apples.
(more...)

Dirty laundry displays compelling message

A tumble of multi-coloured T-shirts, paint brushes and felt pens litter the floor of the Women Students' Office (WSO) as small groups of women huddle over their work.

They are preparing exhibits to be shown Nov. 6-10 in the gallery of the Student Union Building (SUB) for the Clothesline Project, an international effort aimed at raising awareness about violence against women.
(more...)

Researchers unlock secrets of baby talk

Baby talk. Is it idle infant banter or part of an innate process of language development?

That's what UBC psychologists Prof. Janet Werker and graduate student Christine Stager are trying to find out.
(more...)

Diplomat captures Great Trekker honour

Maurice Copithorne, this year's winner of the Great Trekker Award, joined the Canadian Foreign Service after graduating with a UBC law degree to see a little of the world, never intending to make a career of being a diplomat.

"At the time," he says, "working for the government didn't seem like a very prestigious activity."

Today, much of his spare time is dedicated to conducting regular assessments of human rights in Iran and reporting back to the International Law Commission and the United Nations General Assembly.
(more...)

Botanist, chemists win top prizes for work in their fields

Botany Prof. Anthony Griffiths received the Genetics Society of Canada Award of Excellence.
(more...)

UBC's own to play key innovation role

Prof. Keith Brimacombe, director of UBC's Centre for Metallurgical Process Engineering, has been appointed president and chief executive officer of the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
(more...)

Whiplash education effort to hit the road

Whiplash is a pain in the neck.

It's responsible for more than 50,000 soft-tissue injury claims costing close to $500 million in B.C. every year.

And it hurts.
(more...)

Diamond researchers first to publish findings

UBC researchers are about to make diamond exploration history with the publication of evidence supporting claims that the Slave region in Canada's Northwest Territories may hold the biggest diamond find of the century.

What is most intriguing, however, is that the research results -- critical to the diamond exploration industry -- are being published, said Prof. Kelly Russell, head of UBC's Igneous Petrology Lab.
(more...)

Forests earn passing grade, says report

A panel of experts led by Forestry Prof. Gordon Baskerville gave Canada's National Forest Strategy Coalition a passing grade after its first five years of operation.
(more...)

Genetic Centre of Excellence gets federal funding guaranteed to 2005

The Canadian Genetic Diseases Network (CGDN), a national Centre of Excellence based at UBC, has been awarded $18 million in research funding by the federal government.
(more...)

Experts warn Fraser Basin on edge of ecological ruin

A little more than a century ago the area extending from Vancouver to the town of Hope was a forest of giant trees with extensive swamps and wetlands along the river courses.

That area is now being swallowed by the growing metropolis of Greater Vancouver, and the newly released $2.4 million Fraser Basin Ecosystem Study warns that present trends are leading us directly away from environmental sustainability.
(more...)

UBC's first resident ensemble goes for baroque this fall

The Pacific Baroque Orchestra, a professional Vancouver group recently named UBC's first ensemble in residence, will play a series of concerts on campus beginning Oct. 19.
(more...)