UBC This Week | Aug. 3, 2006

UBC This Week is a weekly summary of UBC people in the news, recent media releases and upcoming event hightlights. UBC This Week past issues are also available on-line.

Sign up for UBC This Week and other UBC Public Affairs e-mail services at www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/eservices.

Upcoming Event Highlights

• Aug. 4: Web-based analytics for decision making
• Aug. 8: Distinguished visitors series - Charles Montgomery
• Aug. 9: Scholars in residence series - Kris Gutierrez
• Aug. 10: Modeling longitudinal dynamic systems with applications

Find out what else is happening at UBC this week. For sports events, visit the UBC Athletics site at www.gothunderbirds.ca/schedule.asp.

UBC People

• Two UBC professors appointed to the Order of Canada
• PhD student’s software tool wins Pacific Rim competition
• Engineering thesis wins first place award
• UBC Food Services ‘going green’ with UBC Waste Management

UBC People

Two UBC professors appointed to the Order of Canada

Two members of UBC’s research community were appointed to the Order of Canada by Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, on July 24, 2006. Established in 1967, the Order of Canada is the highest honour awarded to Canadian citizens for a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation honouring people in all sectors of Canadian society.

Appointed to Officer of the Order of Canada, UBC Prof. Brett Finlay is an international leader in bacterial disease research and is also the UBC Peter Wall Institute Distinguished Professor and winner of the national 2006 Killam Research Prize in the Health Sciences. Finlay recently received US $8.7 million over five years as part of a US $450 million pledge toward world health issues made by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the US Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.

UBC Chemistry Prof. Emeritus David Dolphin adds the title Officer of the Order of Canada to his 2005 Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering, widely recognized as the country’s most prestigious science award. His groundbreaking achievement is the research that led to the creation of Visudyne™ - the world’s first treatment for age-related mascular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness. Dolphin holds the NSERC-QLT Inc. Industrial Research Chair in Photodynamic Technologies at UBC and works with QLT Inc., the UBC spinoff company that manufactures Visudyne™.

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PhD student’s software tool wins Pacific Rim competition

UBC Computer Science PhD candidate Mik Kersten has received a nod of approval from venture capitalists and business leaders, along with the US $10,000 top prize from The Extra Chapter Challenge, an enterprise business plan competition. Held in Singapore July 21, the competition was sponsored by the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU).

His research will work with open source software, Mylar, to allow users to instantly recall files and internet searches, saving time in accessing and sharing information. Kersten won a university-wide competition, organized by the University Industry Liaison Office, between 15 other UBC students for the chance to compete at the international APRU level.

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Engineering thesis wins first place award

Fourth-year Environmental Engineering student Erin Bobicki won first-place in the Canadian Geotechnical Society’s 2006 student competition in the category for individual undergraduate report award. Her thesis, entitled "Landslide Risk Assessment in Steep Forested Terrain,” builds on an earlier model that guides professionals in assessing landslide risk based on parameters of location, data collection, data reliability and the certainty of output results.

The Environmental Engineering Program is jointly offered by UBC and the University of Northern British Columbia and incorporates complementary elements and expertise from each institution. The Canadian Geotechnical Society provides professional development opportunities for engineers and geoscientists working in industry, government, construction and academia. For more information: www.cgs.ca and www.enve.ubc.ca.

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UBC Food Services ‘going green’ with UBC Waste Management

In support of Trek 2010’s sustainability mandate, waste reduction will be even easier with the addition of 17 new sorting stations around campus, in addition to composting and recycling options at most Food Services locations. Since 2004, UBC Waste Management’s Organics Collection program has composted more than 600 tonnes of waste, reducing the material sent to landfills and associated problems with toxic leachate and methane production. For more information: www.recycle.ubc.ca and www.foodserv.ubc.ca.

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