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The UVic-based team who created the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History website has won the 2008 Pierre Berton Award, presented by Canada’s National History Society for outstanding work in popularizing Canadian history. “It’s like the Pulitzer Prize in our field,” says Dr. John Lutz (history), one of the project’s three historian co-directors. Unsolved Mysteries invites students to “solve” mysteries plucked from Canada’s rich history while developing their research skills.
Dr. Neena Chappell (sociology) is the 2008 recipient of the Canadian Association on Gerontology’s Distinguished Member Award for outstanding contributions to gerontology and providing significant support and encouragement to the students who will shape the future of the field. Chappell has spent the last two decades researching care giving, health and social policy from a social perspective. She holds UVic’s Canada Research Chair in Social Gerontology, housed at UVic’s Centre on Aging.
Dr. Nancy Turner (environmental studies) is the 2008 recipient of the William L. Brown Award. Administered through the William L. Brown Center for Plant Genetic Resources at the Missouri Botanical Garden. This award recognizes outstanding individuals in the field of genetic resource conservation and use. Turner’s area of research includes the fields of botany and ecology, and the intersection among anthropology, geography and linguistics. She has spent nearly 40 years working with and learning from First Nations elders and cultural specialists in northwestern North America.
Dr. Francis Lau (health information science) has been awarded $185,000 per year for five years from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Applied Chair in Health Services and Policy Research for a project entitled “An eHealth Observatory to Monitor the Effects of Health Information System Deployment in Canada.”
Dr. Patrick Nahirney (medical sciences) is co-recipient of the British Medical Association’s Best Illustrated Book Award for 2008 for Natter’s Essential Histology, an important textbook of human microscopic anatomy, co-authored with Dr. William Ovalle of UBC.
Professor Denis Protti (health information science) has received the Leadership in the Field of Health Informatics Award bestowed by Canada’s Health Informatics Association for outstanding ongoing contributions. Protti has been an international leader in the field for more than 40 years and was founding director of UVic’s School of Health Information Science.
Postdoctoral fellows
UVic has attracted six postdoctoral fellows under a new international program supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade—more than any other comprehensive university in Canada. These fellowships offer recent PhDs from other countries the chance to work with a Canadian researcher in the sciences, the social sciences and engineering.
Dr. Gustavo Andrade, from the spectroscopy group at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, is working with Dr. Alexandre Brolo (chemistry) developing light-based sensors for biomolecules using microstructured optical fibres modified with metallic nanoparticles.
Dr. Jayme Garcia Arnal Barbedo, from the State University of Campinas, Brazil, is working with Dr. George Tzanetakis (computer science) on digital audio signal processing. “Since Prof. Tzanetakis is one of the most important researchers on the subject of digital audio, coming here was the natural choice,” he explains.
Dr. Keillah Mara Nascimento Barbosa, from the National Institute of Amazon Research, Brazil, is working with Dr. Maycira Costa (geography) on the use of remote sensing in the Amazon wetlands and floodplain.
Dr. Fabio Iglesias, also from Brazil, is working with Dr. Robert Gifford (psychology) researching environmental attitudes and behaviour, patterns of co-operation and competition for limited resources, and barriers to and facilitators for bicycle use. “I chose to come here because Dr. Gifford is a leading scholar in the field of environmental psychology,” says Iglesias.
Dr. Rinaldo André Mezzarane, from São Paulo, Brazil, is working with Dr. Paul Zehr (exercise science, physical and health education) researching spinal cord neural mechanisms involved in the control and coordination of rhythmic movements of the limbs. “The experience working with new techniques will be very useful for my scientific career,” he says.
Dr. Edward Pope, from the University of Leeds, England, is working with Dr. Arif Babul (astronomy) refining theoretical models of galactic evolution, studying active galactic nucleus feedback mechanisms by which black holes at the centre of galaxies energize gases, keeping them from cooling and forming more stars.
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