Climbing, climate and co-creating knowledge in the world’s high places
Dr. McDowell reflects on his time at UBC, how his love of cold places shaped his international career on climate change in mountain and polar places. read more
Alumni
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For this data driven alum, success is about people
From UBC labs to biomedical boardrooms, Dr. Barb Kinnaird learned valuable lessons on what it takes to be a successful leader and innovator. Now she's tackling a new role as a leadership and business coach, passing on knowledge gained over 25 years of developing products and guiding businesses in… read more
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Co-opportunity: Alumni’s industry experience inspires an applied CS course
When Ian McLean was in high school his favorite class was biology, followed closely by computer science. He earned two biology degrees before realizing what he enjoyed most was using technology within biology. By then McLean (BCS 2017) realized he needed more experience on the tech side.“I found… read more
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Running a career marathon
When alum Reza Shafii graduated from UBC in 1998 and immediately landed a job with Nortel, he thought it was always going to be this way. Dot com was booming, the company was growing exponentially, and there was a high demand for computer scientists. “We got raise after raise and I was like,… read more
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Shining a light on sustainable fabrics
Dr. Taylor Wright was working on his PhD at UBC Chemistry, experimenting with liquid silicone and clothing, along with plastics and other hard materials. The connecting thread? All the materials interacted with light to become functional in some way.One day he shone light on a treated fabric—in… read more
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Alum’s app helps UBC students find affordable food on campus
It’s September and more than 10,000 first-year students are joining the UBC Vancouver community. And they’re all looking for a place to eat at a reasonable price—between 30 to 40 per cent of students are food insecure according to UBC’s Food Hub. Thanks to an app called Campus Nutrition… read more
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Building kids’ STEM confidence starts at home, alum says
“There’s this perception that kids that are good at maths and science are nerdy or uncool,” says alum Ramita Anand. “But I try to help kids understand that all life is science and that failure is part of learning. Hypotheses may have gone wrong—so you thought this friendship was a good one, but… read more
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Alum pushing for truly global fisheries science
When Dr. Myriam Khalfallah arrived in Vancouver from Tunisia in 2013, she had just earned a bachelor’s degree as an agronomic engineer specializing in fisheries and environment at the National Agronomic Institute of Tunisia (INAT), the University of Carthage. She visited UBC in hopes of… read more
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Alum Nishal Kumar wastes no days
Nishal Kumar ran into a problem in the summer of 2017. He was tackling North Vancouver’s three-kilometre, leg-burning Grouse Grind mountain trail a few times a week—but noticed if he’d had just a couple of drinks containing alcohol the night before, he didn’t feel in top… read more
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Biophysics alum welcomes the volunteer chain reaction
For alum Aminollah (Amin) Sabzevari, science has led to a career in law—which eventually wound its way back to the Point Grey campus. As an undergraduate, Sabzevari (BSc Honours, 2008) studied biophysics. But as he drew closer to graduation, a general interest in health became more… read more