Ringers

The Centre for Addictions Research of B.C. will have a new director as of Aug. 1. Australia's Dr. Tim Stockwell is currently the director of the National Drug Research Institute in Australia and team leader for its alcohol research team. His research has covered a wide range of aspects of alcohol policy, liquor licensing issues, taxation and the measurement of drinking patterns and their consequences. Along with his duties at CAR-BC, Stockwell will be a professor in the psychology department. The centre was established at UVic in 2003 to facilitate population health research on the understanding, prevention, and treatment of addictions. It operates in partnership with other B.C. universities, as well as practitioners and policy-makers.

Public administration adjunct professor David Good has won the 2004 Donald Smiley Prize from the Canadian Political Science Association for the best book in the field of government and politics in Canada. Good's book, The Politics of Public Management: The HRDC Audit of Grants and Contributions, examines the scandal surrounding the grants and contributions audit at Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC), which dominated media, parliamentary, and public attention for many months. Good's book reveals limitations about how new public management is actually implemented by government and offers suggestions for improvement.

Law professor Glenn Gallins, director of UVic's law centre clinical education program, is this year's recipient of the law faculty's Terry Wooster Master Teaching Award. A previous award-winner, Gallins has been director of the law centre for 12 years. The clinical program has been offered to law students since 1977, and provides legal services to about 4,000 clients a year. In announcing Gallins' award at the spring convocation ceremony for law students, associate vice-president legal affairs Mary Anne Waldron spoke of the "high and unwavering quality" of Gallins' teaching and how the law students viewed the centre as the "crowning achievement of the law program."

John Newcomb, a senior lab instructor in geography, has won the individual citizen award in the Saanich 2004 Environmental Awards for his UVic Speakers Bureau presentations on water conservation. Since 1998, Newcomb has given more than 30 presentations on water conservation to community groups, service clubs, seniors organizations, schools and business associations in the region. UVic's POLIS project on ecological governance picked up the Environmental Achievement Award in the community organizations category.

Political science professor Dr. Oliver Schmidtke has been appointed president of the European Community Studies Association–Canada, which promotes discussion, study and understanding of the European Union. The association seeks to encourage the study and teaching of the EU in Canada through the development of networks between academics nationally and internationally, the exchange of information and research findings, and assistance for the expansion and development of EU-related teaching and research activities. In 2000, the European Commission chose UVic's European studies program as one of five Canadian centres and institutes that it supports through funding.