UBC Reports | Vol. 50 | No. 1 | Jan. 8, 2004

Kudos

Biely, McDowell, and Killam Research Awards Announced

Robert Molday, a professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Ophthalmology, has been awarded the Professor Jacob Biely Faculty Research Prize, and Zoology professor Sarah Otto has received the UBC Charles A. McDowell Award for Excellence in Research.

Molday, Canada Research Chair in Vision and Macular Degeneration, studies the molecular, cellular and genetic
interplay that leads to disease affecting vision. He is an expert on macular degeneration -- the leading cause of blindness in the developed world.

Otto is an expert in population genetics and evolutionary biology. She develops and analyses mathematical models to study how populations change over time to identify when and whether particular evolutionary transitions are possible.

Winners of the 2003 Killam Research Prizes of $5,000 have also been announced (in alphabetical order):

• David Dreisinger, Metals and Materials Engineering
• Thomas Grigliatti, Zoology
• Sneja Gunew, English
• Darrin Lehman, Psychology
• Maurice Levi, Finance Division, Sauder School of Business
• Bruce McManus, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and iCAPTURE Centre
• Tim Salcudean, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Canada Research Chair in Intelligent Computer Interface Design
• John Willinsky, Language and Literacy Education
• Michael Wolf, Chemistry
• Sheila Woody, Psychology

The Biely and McDowell awards are named for former UBC researchers. Prof. Emeritus Charles McDowell headed UBC's Chemistry department for 26 years. Biely, an international poultry scientist, was a UBC faculty member from 1935-68. He died in 1981.