Four UBC faculty members recently elected to the Royal Society of Canada include an electrical engineer specializing in electronic signal processing, a neuropsychologist who studies the human-canine bond, and two ocean science researchers.
Rabab Ward, a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Psychology Prof. Stanley Coren and Earth and Ocean Sciences adjunct professors Kenneth Denman and Chi Shing Wong will be inducted to the society with 58 other new fellows at a ceremony to take place in Ottawa Nov. 19.
Ward is a leader in the application of digital signal processing. She has developed methods to clarify electronic information received, leading to advances in television and video signal reception, and improvement in early detection of breast cancer using X-ray mammographic images.
Coren is best known to the public for his series of best-selling books on dogs, including The Intelligence of Dogs.
His research focuses on perception, particularly hearing and vision, behavioural medicine, behavioural genetics, and general cognitive processes.
Earth and Ocean Sciences adjunct professor and alumnus Kenneth Denman studies the linkages between physical and biological processes in the upper ocean. He was one of the first oceanographers to recognize the importance of the wind-mixed layer of ocean to plankton productivity.
Earth and Ocean Sciences Adjunct Prof. Chi Shing Wong has been a pioneer in international research on the carbon dioxide cycle between the ocean and the atmosphere.
Fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada is considered Canada's senior academic accolade.
UBC now has 143 Royal Society fellows, second only to the University of Toronto.