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UBC This Week | Sep. 13, 2007
UBC This Week is a weekly summary of UBC people in the news, recent media releases and upcoming event highlights. 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. Recent UBC Media Releases
Upcoming Event Highlights
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
UBC PeopleUBC alumni on campus this weekendAlumni Weekend 2007 will take place Sept. 14 – 16, offering more than 50 events and programs to alumni, family and friends. Events include campus, museum and garden tours, participatory classes with faculty speakers, children’s sports camps, a Thunderbirds football game, wine-tasting, and a pancake breakfast with President Stephen Toope. For more information, visit www.alumni.ubc.ca. Conversazione explores the future of national identityUBC’s Office of the Associate VP International will host the Vancouver Conversazione on Culture and Society at the Chan Centre on Sept. 21 – 22. Over these two days, leaders from academia, business, government, the professions and non-profit organizations from around the world will explore the theme of The Future of National Identity. Free tickets are available at the Chan Centre Ticket Office for pick-up only. Conversazioni are a series of lectures that address major current topics in a cross-disciplinary manner. They originated in England in 1963 at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and have since spread around the world. For more information, visit www.conversazioni.ubc.ca. UBC professors win innovation awardsThree UBC professors have won 2007 BC Innovation Council Awards and will be recognized at the Awards Dinner on Oct. 22, sponsored in part by UBC. Prof. Julio Montaner, professor of Medicine and Chair of AIDS Research, received the BC Science and Technology Champion of the Year Award for his leadership in HIV/AIDS clinical work and research. Prof. Michael Isaacson, professor of Civil Engineering and Dean of Applied Science, received the Chairman’s Award for Career Achievement for his continued contributions to the advancement of B.C.’s scientific and engineering communities. Prof. Martin Gleave, professor of Urulogic Sciences and Director of the Prostrate Centre at Vancouver General Hospital, received the Frontiers in Research Award for his work in the treatment of prostate cancer. The BC Innovation Council is a provincial Crown Agency that works in partnership with government, industry and academia to promote innovation and commercialization in British Columbia. For more information, visit www.bcinnovationcouncil.com. Campus eateries serve up local meals for Eat BCUBC Food Services is participating in Eat BC, a province-wide celebration of local food and beverages, from Sept. 14-30. Eat BC seeks to promote the environmental benefits of eating locally, local agriculture and the B.C. economy, and is presented by the Restaurant and Foodservices Association, the BC Agriculture Council and BCAA. Food Services’ chefs have created a rotating menu of nearly 70 signature local dishes which will be featured daily at three of UBC’s busiest eateries: Place Vanier Residence’s dining room, Caffè Perugia in Life Sciences Centre and Sage Bistro. For more information, visit www.food.ubc.ca or www.eatbc.com. UBC research associate earns Paper of the YearFormer UBC post-doctoral student and current microbiology research associate Pamela Hamill has earned the Paper of the Year Award 2006, which honours the best paper published in Biological Chemistry in 2006. Hamill receives a prize of EUR 1,000 and is featured in the September 2007 issue of the journal. Hamill was part of a multidisciplinary research team led by UBC Assoc. Prof. of Microbiology and Immunology Francois Jean. The team describes a new approach for antiviral drug discovery that uses a fluorescence-based screening method. Using the method, the authors identified a novel class of antiviral agents that target a protease essential for the SARS coronavirus life cycle. The new method will help scientists identify new antiviral agents for illnesses such as Hepatitis C and West Nile virus. She is first author on the paper “Development of a red-shifted fluorescence based assay for SARS-coronavirus 3CL protease: identification of a novel class of anti-SARS agents from the tropical marine sponge Axinello corrugate” (Biol. Chem. 387, pp. 1063–1074, 2006). The work was supported by operating grants to Jean from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Protein Engineering Network of Centres of Excellence. The team includes collaborators from the University of Hong Kong; Biosearch Technologies Inc. in the U.S.; and GL Biochem Ltd. in Shanghai. IRSA investigates international legal issuesUBC’s International Relations Students Association (IRSA) will host two lectures next week from visiting speakers. On Sept. 17 from 4:30 – 6 p.m. in the Meekison Arts Students Space, Lt. Cmdr. Bill Kuebler from the Office of Military Commissions, US Department of Defense, will speak about international law and the case of Omar Khadr, the only Canadian currently detained by the US Government as an enemy combatant. On Sept. 18 from 12:30 – 2 p.m. at the Liu Centre, Iain Reid, a Canadian working at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, will explore questions of innocence, jurisprudence, and presentation of evidence in international criminal cases. For more information, visit www.irsa.ca. Technology series continues with access to knowledgeUBC’s Office of Learning Technology (OLT) will host a two-hour professional development session entitled Teaching for a World of Increasing Access to Knowledge. This will take place on Sept. 18 at the Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth (TAG) as part of their Teaching and Learning with Technology Series. Prof. John Willinsky, professor of Language and Literacy Education, and Brian Lamb, Manager of Emerging Technologies and Digital Content at OLT, will review the opportunities resulting from the emergence of open source, free culture, open access and open educational resources in the world of technology. For more information, visit www.tag.ubc.ca/programs/series-detail.php?series_id=167. UBC hosts Manga FestivalUBC will host a Manga Festival with a book launch and public lectures on the significance of cartoons in Japanese society, given by visiting artist and professor Keiko Takamiya from Kyoto, Japan. Manga, or Japanese comic books, is an art form and a form of popular literature. Takamiya’s cartoons specialize in Shojo manga, a term used in English to refer to cartoons and animated films of girls of all ages. The Manga Festival, sponsored by the UBC’s Centre for Japanese Research, Department of Asian Studies and the President’s Advisory Committee on Lectures, will take place Sept. 19 – 21 at UBC Point Grey and Robson Square. All events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.mikaspace.net/takemiya/takemiya.html. Professors lecture on more inconvenient truthsUBC Fisheries Prof. Daniel Pauly and Dr. Allan Carroll, a Canadian Forest Service research scientist and federal spokesperson on the mountain pine beetle crisis, will give a lecture Sept. 21 entitled More inconvenient truths: changes in our forests and oceans. The lecture is part of the Keyway Lecture Series, presented by the Rotary Club of White Rock at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 21 at Earl Marriott Secondary in Surrey. For more information or tickets, call 604-541-4194 or 604-531-7145. Tickets are $15; $8 for students. Nomination calls for Canada Council for the Arts awardsNominations for the 2008 Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prizes in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities are now open. Two Molson Prizes of $50,000 each are awarded annually, one in the arts and the other in the humanities or social sciences. Nominations for the 2008 Canada Council for the Arts John G. Diefenbaker Award are also open. This award of $75,000 enables a distinguished German scholar to spend time in Canada for research and teaching opportunities, which may include brief periods in the United States. For eligibility criteria and nomination procedures, visit www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/molson/sg127237757005156250.htm and www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/john_g_diefenbaker/bj127223040193593750.htm. School of Journalism members receive nominations for Jack Webster AwardsThe School of Journalism has five nominees from its ranks for the 2007 Jack Webster Awards, which recognize the best news and feature stories from B.C.’s print and broadcast media. Finalists will be named at the awards dinner Oct. 22. The nominations are:
UBC faculty member to screen at the Vancouver International Film FestivalThe Tracey Fragments, scripted by Creative Writing Program Assist. Prof. Maureen Medved and based on her first novel, will be screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival this month. It is the newest feature film from Canadian director Bruce McDonald. For more information, visit www.thetraceyfragments.com or www.viff.org/home.html. |
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