New faculty

When Stephen Evans, right, joined the biochemistry and microbiology department in 2003 he brought with him some impressive hardware. A structural biologist, Evans uses x-ray crystallography to understand the function of proteins involved in cancer development and therapies. The centrepiece of his research program at UVic is a $550,000, state-of-the-art X-ray diffraction area detector, which he's using to study the enzymes that make the A, B and O human blood types. The detector was acquired with funds from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and UVic. Evans earned his BSc and PhD at UBC. In 2002, he was named by the Thompson Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) as one of the world's most-cited researchers in the field of computer science and medicine.

Daler Rakhmatov's specialty is system-on-chip engineering, reputed to be one of today's most exciting technologies behind mobile phones, personal digital assistants, and other portable devices. Rakhmatov joined UVic's electrical and computer engineering department in 2003 after completing his doctorate at the University of Arizona. "The key design challenge today," he says, "is to strike the right balance between system cost, performance and energy consumption, which will lead to cheaper, faster and longer-lived portable devices tomorrow."

Helen Raptis describes herself as a social historian and historical sociologist in education. She researches historical and contemporary developments in education and society including cultural diversity, race, gender, policy development and learners at risk of dropping out of school. Raptis earned her PhD from UVic in 2001. "I love my work because of the freedom it affords me to research critical questions, not only about our schools but about society at large,"she says. Raptis recently co-authored the C.D. Howe Institute study Reframing Education: How To Create Effective Schools.

After a 10-year hiatus in eastern Canada and the U.S., Anthony Goerzen has joined UVic's faculty of business. Goerzen spent 15 years in various sales, marketing, and general management positions in industry. His last position before returning to graduate study was as vice-president of a multinational firm in Florida. Goerzen's University of Western Ontario PhD thesis on multinational corporation strategy won several dissertation and best paper awards. "I think international strategies are interesting," he says, "and my goal is to show UVic students why they should be interested too."

Oliver Schmidtke, associate professor of the departments of history and political science, is busy co-directing the European studies program and developing new courses. The focus of his research and teaching is comparative European politics and the transformation of citizenship and national identity under the impact of migration and globalization. "It's fascinating to see how European societies start to struggle with issues that have become part of Canada's reality as a multicultural society," says Schmidtke, who earned a PhD in social and political science from the European University Institute.