New research chairs tackle molecular basis of disease
Collaborative work by the University of Victoria’s two newest Canada Research Chairs may one day slow down the spread of influenza—especially when the next global pandemic strikes. Organic chemist Jeremy Wulff and biochemist Martin Boulanger are among a slate of new and renewed Canada Research Chairs across the country that were announced on March 13 by Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology.
UVic profs tops in research productivity, impact
Drs. Colin Macleod (law, philosophy), James Tully (political science, law, Indigenous governance, philosophy) and Hari Srivastava (math and statistics, emeritus) were listed in the March 27 edition of The Globe and Mail in a list of Canada’s top researchers in terms of productivity and impact, based on the “h-index,” a measure of citations to their published works. Srivastava received second ranking in the area of mathematics and statistics and Macleod and Tully received third ranking in the areas of philosophy and law, respectively.
Conference addresses telling the story of your research
Are you a faculty member or student looking for guidance on how to communicate your research more effectively with non-academic audiences such as the news media, schoolchildren and the general public?
If your answer is “yes”—or even if it’s “maybe”—there’s a conference taking place at UVic this spring that will interest you.
IDEAFEST 2012: Climate change and food security for BC
When people analyse the issue of climate change, they often consider global temperature increases, rising sea levels and changes to ecosystems. The issue of food production and protection is another concern, though. On March 6, as part of UVic’s IdeaFest, Dr. Francis Zwiers, director of the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium, and Dr. Aleck Ostry, a professor in UVic’s Department of Geography, held a public discussion about climate change in relation to food security in British Columbia—specifically in regard to water issues.
Bob McDonald: The joy of (communicating) science
Bob McDonald, distinguished CBC science commentator and host of CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks, entertained a nearly full house at the Farquhar Auditorium on March 14 as the Axys Group Distinguished Speaker Series’ inaugural lecturer. Reflecting on the topic “Science as I’ve Seen It,” he described the advantages of being a science journalist and the freedom this has offered him in making knowledge more engaging and accessible to the public.
Science honours students parade their research
A throng of people gathers around an island of poster boards in the atrium of the Bob Wright Centre. Undergraduate students are proudly discussing their research to a caravan of professors judging them on their research and the way they explain it. Welcome to HonoursFest 2012, the first annual celebration of undergraduate science research at UVic.
Travel award to Hof
Dr. Fraser Hof (chemistry), Canada Research Chair in Supramolecular and Medicinal Chemistry, has been selected to receive one of four 2012 travel awards bestowed by the Canadian National Committee for the International Union of Pure & Applied Chemistry (CNC/IUPAC). The travel awards program is highly competitive amongst the most outstanding young faculty members across Canada. The award will fund Hof’s costs to attend the International Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry in Durham, UK, in September 2012.
UVic biochemist wins Steacie national research award
Finding molecular ways to thwart microbial infections and generate biofuels will be uppermost in the mind of University of Victoria biochemist Dr. Alisdair Boraston for the next two years. Boraston is one of six Canadian scientists to be awarded a prestigious 2012 E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, announced on Feb. 27 by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
Purkis, Weaver win 2012 Victoria Leadership Awards
UVic climatologist Dr. Andrew Weaver and Dr. Mary Ellen Purkis, dean of UVic's Faculty of Human and Social Development, are this year's recipients of the University of Victoria Community Leadership Awards. On Feb. 21 they were two of 29 nominees celebrated at the eighth annual Victoria Leadership Awards (VLA) gala at the Fairmont Empress Hotel.
Cosmic mystery deepens
In a study appearing in this month’s Astrophysical Journal, an international team of scientists—including an astrophysicist from the University of Victoria—use data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to confirm the presence of a baffling gigantic clump of dark matter at the very heart of Abell 520, a “high-speed cosmic pile-up” involving multiple massive clusters of galaxies 2.4 billion light years from Earth.

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