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Student Awards - CSC 2012

Congratulations to the following chemistry students who won awards at the 2012 Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition in Calgary, Alberta:

Graduate Student Poster Competition
Philippa Payne: 1st place, Organic Chemistry Division
Erin Lindenberg: 1st place, Physical, Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Division

Suzana Strauss awarded Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship

Associate Professor Suzana Straus was recently awarded a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship. These awards, granted by the European Commission, are designed to attract top-class researchers to work and undertake research in Europe with the ultimate goal of developing mutually-beneficial research cooperation between Europe and Canada.

Grad student Lauren Keyes wins Best Oral Presentation

At the 95th annual Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition in May, UBC chemistry graduate student Lauren Keyes was awarded Best Oral Presentation in the Symposium on Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Catalysis in Honour of Howard Alper. Lauren Keyes, a member of the Love group, is currently entering the final year of her PhD at UBC. Her research has focused on the development...

Grad student wins Killam Doctoral Scholarship

Congratulations to PhD student Chad Atkins who has been awarded a Killam Doctoral Scholarship for the upcoming academic year. Chad has been working with Michael Blades and Robin Turner on a project that involves the study of storage lesions in red blood cells using Raman spectroscopy.

Killam Doctoral Scholarships are provided annually from the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Fund for Advanced Studies. These are the most prestigious graduate awards available at UBC, and are awarded to the...

Reconnecting with Chemistry Alumni

Two successful alumni events bring May to a close in the Chemistry Department. It has been a busy month, first with our inaugural Alumni Reunion on Saturday May 12, followed by our family event for UBC’s Alumni Weekend on Saturday May 26. Both days featured perfect weather - uncharacteristic for Vancouver – bringing plenty of sunshine, energy and excitement to our events.

Stephen Withers elected Fellow of the Royal Society (London)

Congratulations to Professor Stephen Withers, who has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (London). The honour recognizes Dr. Withers’ contributions to our understanding of the reaction mechanism of enzymes.

Stephen Withers is one of the world’s foremost experts on the enzymes that assemble and degrade the carbohydrates that perform important biological functions such as storing energy and providing structural support for cell walls. The impact of this extends across many...

Chemistry Killam Award Winners

UBC Chemistry Killam Award Winners

Congratulations to the following UBC Killam Award winners!

Professor Greg Dake:
UBC Killam Teaching Prize

Amanda Musgrove, Graduate Student:
UBC Killam Graduate Teaching Assistant Award

Jason Wickenden, Graduate Student:
UBC Killam Graduate Teaching Assistant Award

Grad student featured in UBC Reports

Erica Kiemele, a member of the Love group, has been featured in the May edition of UBC Reports. The full story can be found here.

Bartlett Symposium Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Famous Discovery

On Friday, March 23, attendees travelled from as far as Nova Scotia to honour the 50^th anniversary of Dr. Neil Bartlett’s discovery of the first noble gas compound at UBC. The 2012 Bartlett Symposium brought together alumni, students, staff and faculty from chemistry departments in the lower mainland to celebrate this momentous event.

Opening remarks by Department Head Dr. Michael Fryzuk and David Farrar, Provost and Vice President Academic touched on the...

Ed Grant and coauthors make cover of Journal of Physics B

A paper authored by Professor Ed Grant, J. P. Morrison and N. Saquet has been featured on the cover of the Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics. The paper, “Classical scaling and the correspondence between the coupled rate equation and molecular dynamics models for the evolution of ultracold neutral plasma” can be found here.

Research Scholarships Available for Incoming International Students

Scholarship money is available for international students (graduate and undergraduate) who are coming to study or conduct research at UBC for a period of 4-6 months. Applications for the CBIE Research Scholarships are due on April 5, 2012 and must be made through the UBC Go Global Office.

Eligibility:

Professor Mark MacLachlan honoured with National Award

Chemistry faculty member Mark MacLachlan has been awarded a 2012 E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) honour that recognizes some of the nation's most promising scientific talent.

JACS Spotlight on Dr. Brian James and Coworkers

The recently published article "Thiol, Disulfide, and Trisulfide Complexes of Ru Porphyrins: Potential Models for Iron-Sulfur Bonds in Heme-Proteins" from Dr. James and coworkers, will be highlighted in JACS Spotlights, a new feature introduced to the Journal of the American Chemical Society in 2012. JACS Spotlights are intended to make JACS research more accessible to the broader community. Brief summaries by science writers explain the impact and significance of the...

Annual Staff Appreciation Lunch

On one of the few sunny days in February, staff left their desks, locked their doors, and made their way down to Cecil Green Park House for the second annual Staff Appreciation Lunch. Department staff – from administration to lab technicians – were joined by a number of faculty members and enjoyed delicious food, speeches, door prizes and stunning views.

Dr. William Cullen makes outside cover of Journal of Environmental Monitoring

Chemistry Professor William Cullen made the outside cover of the Journal of Environmental Monitoring (JEM), Issue 3, with the article “Arsenic speciation in freshwater snails and its life cycle variation”. The Journal of Environmental Monitoring (JEM), published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, covers research on environmental processes and impacts.

PhD Candidate wins Analytical Chemistry Summer Fellowship

Congratulations to Chang Liu, a PhD candidate from the Chen group, who was awarded a 2012 ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry (DAC) Summer Graduate Fellowship. This award is sponsored by the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh (SACP).

The ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Graduate Fellowship Program is designed to foster research in the field of analytical chemistry, promote the growth of analytical chemistry, and provide recognition of future leaders in...

Raymond Andersen awarded prestigious CIC Medal

Dr. Raymond Anderson, a faculty member of both the Chemistry and Earth and Ocean Sciences Departments at UBC, has received the 2012 CIC Medal. The CIC Medal is the most prestigious award granted by the Chemical Institute of Canada, and is given annually to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to the science of chemistry in Canada.

Dr. Andersen is known for his research into the identity and structure of novel chemical compounds derived from marine organisms, the molecular...

50 Years of Xenon Chemistry

March 23, 2012 marks the 50^th Anniversary of Neil Bartlett’s groundbreaking discovery of the first noble gas compound. Prior to Bartlett's discovery, all chemistry textbooks were written with the fixed idea that the Group VIII elements He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, and Rn, the Rare Gases, were chemically inert. In fact, they were often referred to as the Inert Gases. Working alone one night in the Chemistry Department, Bartlett demonstrated the first reaction of a noble gas by...

Mark MacLachlan wins Killam Research Prize

Chemistry Professor Mark MacLachlan was awarded the 2011 Killam Research Prize in the Science/Applied Science category. This award recognizes Dr. MacLachlan’s outstanding research and scholarly contributions.

The UBC Killam Research Prizes, established in 1986, are awarded annually by the Office of the Vice President Research & International to the top campus researchers. Full-time faculty members are nominated by their peers and adjudicated by the Faculty Awards Committee.

UBC Chemistry in the Top 20

UBC Chemistry is ranked 19^th in the world, according to the most recent QS World University Rankings report. The QS Rankings, published annually in October, evaluate universities around the globe based on six indicators including academic peer review, student to faculty ratio, and citations per faculty member, among others.

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