News Category: News
Congratulations to ms infinity program coordinator Monique Desroches
Monique was awarded with the Kevin Brown Hero Award at the BC Persons With AIDS Society’s AccolAIDS gala on April 18, 2010. The award was established in memory of one of BCPWA’s founding members and the first Chair of the Board of Directors.
Congratulations Monique!
Congratulations to Anne Condon, Sara Swenson & Dawn McArthur on 2010 YWCA Women of Distinction Noms
Honorary SCWIST member Dr. Anne Condon and SCWIST members Sara Swenson and Dawn McArthur have been nominated in the Education, Training & Development category for a 2010 YWCA Women of Distinction Award.
Dr. Condon is a Professor of Computer Science and Associate Dean of the Department of Computer Science at UBC. Dr. Swenson is a Senior Research Grants Facilitator at SFU. Dr. McArthur is a Senior Research Development Facilitator at the Child & Family Research Institute. Drs. McArthur and Swenson received a co-nomination. Congratulations to all and best of luck!
The event will be held June 1, 2010. For more information please click here.
Nominee Profiles
Dr. Anne Condon A gifted Professor of Computer Science and Associate Dean of Science at UBC, Anne has led several successful initiatives aimed at broadening participation in science and engineering, with a particular focus on women in computing. As the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada/General Motors Canada Chair for Women in Science and Engineering, she created a regional community of leaders who support girls and women in exploring non-traditional career goals and funded nationwide research and mentoring programs for women undergraduates in computing. Anne initiated the development of policies at UBC’s Faculty of Science that strengthen mentoring practices and support faculty who take maternity or parental leaves. Anne is an inspiring mentor and role model to countless students and faculty across North America.
Connecting the Community Award quote: “Education in computer science offers incredible opportunities for everyone to make a positive difference in society. I choose to support early learning and care for children so that our children can be curious, yet secure, in exploring the frontiers of tomorrow’s world.”
Drs. Dawn McArthur and Sara Swenson More than ten years ago, searching the Internet for “research grants facilitator” provided only two names: Dawn McArthur and Sara Swenson. Since then, almost every university and research institution in Canada has embraced Sara and Dawn’s model of research support. Dawn and Sara are scientists who love research, educators who love teaching and writers who love using language as a tool. They are out-of-the-box thinkers who play multi-faceted roles as advisors, collaborators, mentors, teachers and coaches. Dawn and Sara both have long histories supporting young women in science and scholarship and are both former Presidents of the Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology.
Connecting the Community Award quote: “Reducing child poverty is one of our greatest social challenges; raising healthy children, one of our primary social responsibilities. I choose this area because the YWCA takes on the challenge of child poverty directly at the grassroots level—where services have the most impact—by providing community-based resources to support the essential daily needs of vulnerable children and women.” Dawn McArthur
Connecting the Community Award quote: “As the mother of three children—two sons in university and a daughter in high school—I understand how difficult it is to help youth make the transition from childhood to adulthood and the challenges that many youth face. I choose to support the YWCA program supporting healthy choices for youth which empowers young people to become self-confident, healthy, socially responsible adults.” Sara Swenson
SCWIST Newsletter - April 2010
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Grey whale victim of suspected orca attack, zoologist says
By Sandra McCulloch, Vancouver Sun – April 6, 2010, p. A7
A grey whale that has attracted hundreds of people to an East Sooke beach could have died as a result of an orca attack, a Victoria zoologist suggested Monday.
An autopsy on the whale, known as a necropsy, would have to be done to narrow down the cause of death, said Anna Hall, “but I would think that based on the wounds that I saw it was killer whale predation.”
Friday’s intense windstorm may have been another factor that led to the near-adult male getting beached at East Sooke Park, said Hall.
But the wounds on its belly seem to indicate it was preyed on by an orca.
“It has a couple of wounds that need to be verified by a killer whale expert,” Hall said.
“I do think it was a natural event.”
It’s not clear when or even if government biologists will carry out a necropsy. Calls to Fisheries and Oceans Canada were not returned Monday.
Laura Verhegge, a marine science teacher at Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific, saw the whale Sunday.
“Grey whales wash up fairly frequently. They feed by going to beaches and taking a mouthful of mud. They filter the mud out and eat little shrimps.”
Grey whales usually winter in Baja California and migrate north from May to October.
This whale, at 9-10 metres in length, is “pretty close” to full grown, said Verhegge: “That’s almost adult size.”
Verhegge will take her observations back to the classroom. “It’s quite the opportunity to see an animal that is so big.”
Jason Drewery brought his three kids out to see the whale Monday after seeing news reports on its location.
“When you see pictures, you don’t really grasp the size of it.”
Ken Froggatt of Red Deer, Alta., took a side trip to East Sooke while holidaying in Victoria. “It’s pretty impressive,” he said.
Breast cancer linked to chemical exposure
Study points to synthetic fibres, petroleum products
Vancouver Sun – April 1, 2010, p. B2
Exposure to certain chemicals and pollutants before a woman reaches her mid-30s could triple her risk of developing breast cancer after menopause, Canadian scientists said on Thursday.
In a study in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, a British Medical Journal title, the researchers found that women exposed to synthetic fibres and petroleum products during the course of their work appeared to be most at risk.
“Occupational exposure to acrylic and nylon fibres, and to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons may increase the risk of developing post-menopausal breast cancer,” they wrote.
But some experts commenting on the study expressed caution, saying such links can crop up by chance.
“In a study of this sort, positive associations often occur simply by chance,” said David Coggon, a professor of occupational and environmental medicine at Britain’s Southampton University. “They carry little weight in the absence of stronger supportive evidence from other research.”
The Canadian scientists conceded their findings could be due to chance, but also said they were consistent with the theory that breast tissue is more sensitive to harmful chemicals if the exposure occurs when breast cells are still active—in other words, before a woman reaches her 40s.
The researchers, from Montreal’s Occupational Health Research Institute based their findings on more than 1,100 women, 556 of whom were diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996 and 1997 when they were aged between 50 and 75 and had gone through the menopause.
A team of chemists and industrial hygienists investigated the women’s levels of exposure to around 300 different substances during their employment history.
After taking account of the usual factors associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, the analysis indicated a link between occupational exposure to several of these substances, the Montreal team wrote.
Compared with the comparison group, the risk peaked for exposures before the age of 36, and increased with each additional decade of exposure before this age, they found.
This meant women who were exposed to acrylic fibres appeared to run a seven-fold risk of breast cancer, while those exposed to nylon fibres almost doubled their risk.
The scientists said more detailed studies focusing on certain chemicals were now needed to try to establish what role chemical exposure plays in the development of breast cancer.
Reuters
The study Postmenopausal breast cancer and occupational exposures is authored by France Labrèche (Occupational Health, Quebec National Institute of Public Health, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Départements de Médecine sociale et préventive et de Santé environnementale et santé au travail, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada), Mark S Goldberg (Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada), Marie-France Valois (Division of Clinical Epidemiology, McGill University Health Center, Montreal, Quebec, Canada) and Louise Nadon (INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier, Laval, Quebec, Canada) and can be found at Occup Environ Med 2010;67:263-269. The abstract is below.
Abstract
Objective To determine whether exposures in the workplace to organic solvents and to other agents, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, are associated with increased risks of developing postmenopausal breast cancer.
Methods Between 1996 and 1997 a case–control study was conducted in Montreal, Quebec. Cases comprised 556 women, aged 50–75 years, with incident malignant breast cancer, and their controls were 613 women with other cancers, frequency matched for age, date of diagnosis and hospital. An expert team of chemists and industrial hygienists translated their job histories into exposure to about 300 agents.
Results Odds ratios (ORs) were increased for the usual risk factors for breast cancer and, adjusting for these, risks increased with occupational exposure to several agents, and were highest for exposures occurring before age 36 years. Increased ORs were found for each 10-year increment in duration of exposure, before age 36 years (OR<36), to acrylic fibres (OR<36=7.69) and to nylon fibres (OR<36=1.99). For oestrogen-positive and progesterone-negative tumours, the OR doubled or more for each 10-year increase in exposure to monoaromatic hydrocarbons, and to acrylic and rayon fibres. The OR<36 also doubled for exposure to organic solvents that metabolise into reactive oxygen species, and to acrylic fibres. A threefold increase was found for oestrogen- and progesterone-positive tumours, with exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from petroleum sources.
Conclusion Certain occupational exposures appear to increase the risk of developing postmenopausal breast cancer, although some findings might be due to chance or to undetected bias. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that breast tissue is more sensitive to adverse effects if exposure occurs when breast cells are still proliferating. More refined analyses, adjusting for hormonal receptor subtypes and studies focusing on certain chemical exposures are required to further our understanding of the role of chemicals in the development of breast cancer.
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Collider’s first test a smashing success
Data collected will help to explain how the universe works
By Margaret Munro, Canwest News Service – March 31, 2010, p. B3
Isabel Trigger and her husband Rob McPherson were a bit sleep-deprived after the much anticipated and oft delayed collision in the tunnel under the Swiss-French border Tuesday.
But the physics power couple, key players on the Canadian team involved with the unprecedented international experiment, are ecstatic to see the Large Hadron Collider finally smashing subatomic particles.
“It really is fantastic,” Trigger said from the TRIUMF national physics laboratory at the University of B.C. after Tuesday’s collision in Europe.
The protons collided 100 metres underground just after 1 p.m. Central European time.
Whoops and cheers filled the crowded control room at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, near Geneva and were echoed by physicists from Tokyo to Toronto.
“This is the breakthrough movement we have all been waiting for,” says McPherson, a professor at University of Victoria and principal investor of the Canadian team that helped design, build and commission the most complicated machine ever.
The Large Hadron Collider is designed to collide proton beams at energies not seen since the milliseconds after the Big Bang—prompting some to dub it the Big Bang: The Sequel.
The scientists were marvelling Tuesday over the quality and volume of the data from the “events” generated as the machine finally went live.
“The amazing thing is not that they got them to collide,” says Trigger, “but that since then we’ve had in the order of a million events in ATLAS.”
ATLAS is one of the cathedral-sized detectors inside the collider that runs in a circular 27-kilometre long circular tunnel under the Swiss-French border. Scientists have spent almost 20 years designing and building the collider that ran into serious problems when it was first fired up in 2008, resulting in an explosion. They are taking it slower this time and will run the collider at half power for the next year and half.
The detectors will record everything that happens when proton beams collide. There is so much data that it is being been sent to a network of “computing farms” around the world, including one humming away at a processing centre at TRIUMF, which is tucked in the woods on the edge of the UBC campus.
Nigel Lockyer, TRIUMF’s director, says it is all pretty remarkable.
“The protons beams collide in Geneva, they go through this incredible detector with millions of sensors, then the electronic signals are transferred to computers that end up sending light signals across the Atlantic and across Canada all the way to TRIUMF,” he says. “And then, if somebody in Japan wants to access data, they have to cross the Pacific to get to Canada.”
Canada’s contribution to the project has cost close to $100 million over the last 15 years, which Lockyer describes as “an absolute steal for Canada.”
About 200 people are currently involved, including 100 graduate students who will be among the first to “study matter at this new energy frontier,” says McPherson.
Researchers are hoping for new understanding of how the universe works. They hope to discover new forces, new dimensions, and perhaps even find the Higgs boson, a theoretical particle that may be responsible for mass.
“With a little luck, nature will be kind to us,” says Trigger, group leader of the ATLAS team at TRIUMF. She likens the task to looking for needles in a haystack because there will be so much data to sift through.
Two city students named to science team
By Denise Ryan, Vancouver Sun – March 31, 2010, p. A2
Two Vancouver high school students have scored big, landing spots on Youth Science Canada’s Team Canada, and the opportunity to compete in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
Team Canada selected 16 students from across the country. Mary Zhao of Sir Winston Churchill secondary and Claire Edgcumbe of Kitsilano secondary will compete with other high school students from more than 50 countries for more than $4 million in scholarships and prizes.
Edgcumbe was chosen for her project, exploring the question “Do NMDA Receptors Affect Early Brain Development?” Zhao’s project was titled “Grasping Water: Exploring a Novel Method of Inducing Precipitation.”
The competition, which runs from May 9 to 15, will be held in San Jose, Calif. It is the largest student science fair in the world.
In last year’s competition, Team Canada distinguished itself with six grand awards and three special awards.
US Young Leaders in Applied Science & Engineering Receive Nation’s Most Generous Ph.D. Fellowship
The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation, one of the leading non-profit organizationsin the United States, focused on supporting innovative young leaders in the applied sciences and engineering fields, has awarded Hertz Fellowships to 15 students for support lasting up to five years of their graduate studies. Since 1963, the Hertz Foundation has provided the nation’s most generous Ph.D. Fellowships to over 1,070 uniquely gifted applied scientists and engineers with the potential to change the world for the better.
“By supporting uniquely talented young leaders in the applied sciences and engineering to develop and explore their genius, the Hertz Foundation promotes innovative solutions to emerging challenges our nation and world face today,” stated the Hertz Foundation President Jay Davis. “The Hertz Foundation welcomes the fifteen new Hertz Fellows to this community of leaders whose creativity and risk-taking are producing advances in science, technology, business, academia and government that address and attack the most important national and global problems.”
This year’s class of fifteen Hertz Fellows was selected from an elite pool of nearly six hundred applicants. The 2010-2011 Hertz Fellows are comprised of eleven men and four women. Last year eight men and two women were offered Hertz Fellowships. Mathematics, physics and biophysics were the most popular current fields of study among the 2010-2011 new Fellows. In addition, eight of the new Hertz Fellows were previously awarded Goldwater Scholarships as undergraduates, the prestigious scholarships for students pursuing careers in science, mathematics and engineering. Also, three of the new Hertz Fellows were awarded Churchill Scholarships, one-year scholarships to Cambridge University for recent US undergraduates who demonstrate creative work at the advanced level in the sciences, engineering, or mathematics.
Valued at over $250,000, Hertz Fellowships are unique no-strings-attached fellowships, which allow exceptional applied scientists and engineers the freedom to innovate. Hertz Fellows pursue their own ideas with financial independence under the guidance of the finest professors at the country’s top universities. Hertz Fellows are chosen for their intellect, their ingenuity, and their potential to bring meaningful and lasting change to our society.
ABOUT THE HERTZ FOUNDATION
The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation is one of the nation’s leading non-profit organizations focused on empowering young scientists and engineers with the freedom to innovate. Since 1963, the Hertz Foundation has identified over 1,070 promising applied scientists and engineers with the potential to change the world for the better and supported their doctoral research by providing the nation’s most generous Ph.D. Fellowships. The highly competitive selection process includes a comprehensive written application, four references, and two rounds of exacting interviews by recognized leaders in applied science and engineering. The Foundation not only supports the Fellows in their graduate education, but also provides unique seminars, workshops and symposia away from their campus environments to expose the in-school Fellows to national leaders and researchers, many of whom are alumni Fellows of the Foundation. More information on the Hertz Foundation can be found at http://www.hertzfoundation.org.
FELLOW – CURRENT SCHOOL – FIELD OF STUDY
Andrea Barrett (1) – Georgia Institute of Technology, GA – Biomedical Engineering
Ylaine Gerardin – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA – Biology & Electrical Engineering
Maria Monks (2) – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA – Mathematics
Melanie H. Smith (1) – University of California, San Francisco, CA – Biophysics
(1) Goldwater Scholarship
(2) both Goldwater and Churchill Scholarships
Federal government gives UBC $11.4 million for research
By Gerry Bellett, Vancouver Sun – March 27, 2010 p. A16
Research into neuroscience, cancer screening, pediatrics, psychology, balance disorders and economics at the University of B.C. received an $11.4-million boost from the federal government Friday.
North Vancouver MP Andrew Saxton made the funding announcement at the Neural Control of Posture and Movement Lab, one of the beneficiaries of the Canada Research Chairs grants, which will fund three new research chairs at UBC and nine existing ones.
The new research chairs are:
Theoretical and experimental evolution. Sarah Otto, professor of zoology and director of the Biodiversity Research Centre, will research the uses of mathematical, experimental and genomic tools to understand evolution.
Social psychology. Associate professor Toni Schmader of the psychology department will research the interplay between negative stereotypes, self-esteem, emotion, motivation and performance.
Sujatha Ramdorai, a mathematics department professor, is the new chair of mathematics and her research will focus on arithmetic, geometry and algebraic number theory.
Volunteer Spotlight - Stephanie McInnis
By day Stephanie McInnis is Projects Coordinator at the BC Cancer Agency’s Genome Sciences Centre. Outside of work she is a dedicated SCWIST volunteer… she is our XX Evening Coordinator extraordinaire! Stephanie generously donates an incredible amount of time to oversee our annual XX Evening at TELUS World of Science. From corralling volunteers, to arranging catering, to promoting the event and even sewing tablecloths(!), Stephanie is invaluable to us in organizing this fabulous networking event. We truly could not do without her amazing contributions to SCWIST. THANK YOU Stephanie!!
Marine biologist Kathy Conlan wants Canadians to understand how their everyday activities affect
the oceans and the North.
While plunging into minus 1.8°C water might be a truth- or-dare ark for some, for Kathy Conlan it’s part of the job. Kathy, a research scientist in marine biology for the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, has dedicated her life to studying the polar regions. Her scuba dives to study marine life sometimes take her below five-metre-thick ice.
A family trip to Canada’s west coast crystallized Kathy’s interest in marine biology when she was a teen. ‘That was the first time I’d ever seen the ocean. It was absolutely beautiful,” she says. She became captivated by the biology of the polar regions after doing her PhD at Ottawa’s Carleton University. Researchers in California were sending sea life to Kathy to study. Her professor suggested she get to know the critters – from worms and snails to starfish and burrowing anemones — a little better; this led to an invitation to an Alaskan expedition. After that, she was asked to goon an expedition down to the Antarctic. “My immediate reaction was, Why would I want to go to a place like that?” says Kathy. Not only did she go, but she’s been back 10 times.
Kathy has shared her expertise through programs such as Students on Ice, which takes high school students on expeditions through the Arctic and Antarctica. She hopes that this intensive program will help spread awareness about conservation issues, especially the warming of the waters and changes to the currents.
Kathy wants all Canadians to realize that our actions, such as releasing contaminants and consuming carbon, affect the health of the North.
Homemakers magazine April 2010 p. 94
Turning Point by Leslie Wicks
UBC’s Heidi Boyda wins 2010 Lionel E. McLeod Health Research Scholarship
Heidi Noel Boyda is currently completing her PhD in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC. She has received numerous awards and scholarships during her academic career from organizations such as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and BC Mental Health and Addictions Research Services. Ms. Boyda’s work focuses on the metabolic side effects of anti-psychotic drugs. More knowledge in this area could help provide better treatments in the mental health field.
The award honours Dr. Lionel McLeod the late first president of the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR) (1981 – 1990).
The annual Lionel E. McLeod Health Research Scholarship is given to outstanding students from the universities of British Columbia, Calgary, and Alberta. The award provides $21,500 to support each of the recipient’s studies.
