News
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Mining Community Invests in New UBC Mining and Mineral Exploration Centre
January 16, 2008
Major minerals companies announced today that they will collectively invest more than $20 million in the new University of British Columbia Earth Systems Science Building. The new $75 million facility, set to begin construction in 2009, will house UBC’s earth and ocean sciences department-… read more
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Unlocking Tree Genetics Gives New Hope for Pine Beetle Defense
January 11, 2008
Researchers with UBC Science have unlocked some of the genetic secrets that enable pine and spruce trees to maintain a battery of chemical defenses against insects—including British Columbia’s notorious pine beetles. "Figuring out how these naturally occurring defenses work has… read more
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UBC Astronomer Produces First Detailed Map of Dark Matter
January 8, 2008
Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, UBC researcher Catherine Heymans has produced the highest resolution map of dark matter ever captured. It’s the first time astronomers have been able to see indirect evidence of the invisible web that houses galaxies and causes them to collide and swirl… read more
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UBC Science Student Named 2008 Rhodes Scholar for British Columbia
December 21, 2007
Fourth-year Microbiology and Immunology major Emma Preston has been named to the distinguished Rhodes scholarship for her outstanding academic achievements and her remarkable commitment to global citizenship. The scholarship of nearly $150,000 will allow her to pursue a masters degree in global… read more
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UBC Astronomers Discover How White Dwarf Stars Get Their 'Kicks'
December 15, 2007
University of British Columbia astronomer Harvey Richer and UBC graduate student Saul Davis have discovered that white dwarf stars are born with a natal kick, explaining why these smoldering embers of Sun-like stars are found on the edge rather than at the centre of globular star clusters. White… read more
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George Sawatzky Honoured by Royal Society of Canada
November 27, 2007
The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada has awarded the Henry Marshall Tory Medal to George Sawatzky, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Physics and Chemistry of Nanostructured Materials at UBC. From RSC’s laudation: "George Sawatzky is a world-leading expert on the… read more
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Computer Science Students Sweep ACM Software Competition
November 15, 2007
UBC student teams finished first, second and tenth in the Pacific Northwest regional competition of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest on November 13. Challenged with eleven real-world computer programming problems, students Anton Likhtarov … read more
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Jozsef Solymosi Receives 2008 CRM Andre-Aisenstadt Prize
November 6, 2007
Le Centre de recherches mathématiques (CRM) has awarded the 2008 Andre-Aisenstadt Prize to mathematician Jozsef Solymosi. The Prize recognizes outstanding research achievements by a young Canadian mathematician in pure or applied mathematics. According to CRM’s announcement, each… read more
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Opening of the Abdul Ladha Science Student Centre
November 5, 2007
UBC President Stephen J. Toope officially opened the Abdul Ladha Science Student Centre on October 4th, 2007. Funded through a generous donation from Abdul and Hanifa Ladha and by contributions from all Science undergraduate students and the university, the centre provides a welcoming space for… read more
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Winds of Classroom Change
October 28, 2007
When Prof. Roland Stull designed his first-year course in Earth and Ocean Sciences, The Catastrophic Earth: Natural Disasters, he assembled a team of experts so that students could learn the science behind storms, volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunami and landslides -- and their social ramifications --… read more