Frontier Issue 5 Winter 2008 by The University of British Columbia

Office of the Vice President Research

A Journal of Research and Discovery > Issue 05 > Fallâ&#x20AC;&#x2030;/â&#x20AC;&#x2030;Winter 2008

EAST MEETS WEST

The impact of UBC research on Asia

Lost in translation

Unraveling cultural interpretations of international law

Serendipitous science A rare pharmaceutical discovery offers hope to thousands

The politics of preservation

Why preserving authentic digital records matters

Fall / Winter 2008 04 Mercury rising According to Marcello Veiga, artisanal gold mines are rife with opportunity for migrant workers – and exposure to environmental and health risks 06 Culture clash The interpretation of international law by different cultures spurs disputes over human rights and trade. Pitman Potter is seeking a common ground

From the great Mongolian plains to the skyward reach of the Himalayas, from Arctic winter to tropical monsoon, from the dawn of humanity to present day, Asia hosts an unparalleled diversity of peoples, places and cultures. The world’s largest and most populous continent has borne witness to the great migrations of human history, offering a vast canvas upon which we have etched an age of exploration, conquest, civilization and innovation. This history continues unabated today, as the world witnesses the emergence of two of the world’s strongest developing economies in India and China. As East and West seek to reconcile past differences, a new common understanding emerges. Opportunities abound for international collaboration and innovation, for the exchange of knowledge, and for partnerships that seek to solve common problems amid myriad cultural contexts. Like pebbles in a pond, the five UBC researchers profiled in the following pages are creating ripples of discovery and understanding that resonate outward to touch lives across Asia and beyond.

08 Leashing Leishmaniasis A serendipitous discovery by Kishor Wasan could give hope to thousands afflicted with a fungal infection in North America and a parasitic infection in the developing world 11 The air up there Delhi’s reputation for poor air quality is infamous. Milind Kandlikar is working to expose its root causes 12 The future of fir The alarming decline in yield among fir trees in China could have severe economic consequences; it’s a trend Adam Wei is looking to reverse 14 Shadow of doubt Why organizations and governments are approaching Luciana Duranti for help on preserving authentic digital records 16 Grape expectations Wine production is on the rise in B.C. How Hennie van Vuuren and Steven Lund are improving winemaking techniques 18 Breaking the surface Find out how Andrea Damascelli is breaking new ground in harnessing the power of superconductors 20 Word by word After two decades at the UBC Press, Jean Wilson shares her insight on the future of scholary publishing in Canada Cover photo > GMB Akash / Panos This page > Veer

A MESSAGE FROM THE Vice President RESEARCH British Columbia is often heralded as Canada’s gateway to Asia. International trade with our partners across the Pacific Ocean is thriving, and our province’s local culture – as well as that of UBC – is infused with the traditions of thousands of new Canadians who have immigrated from all over Asia, especially China. It is no surprise, then, to find UBC engaged in a number of collaborative research projects with Asian partners. What is surprising is the scope of this research, both academically and geographically.

In this issue of frontier we venture far beyond the Pacific Rim to profile five UBC researchers working in Asia to improve human health and potentially save lives, reduce environmental damage, bolster trade and improve international relations. Each of these interdisciplinary research projects touches on a very human theme – not of North American know-how saving the world, but rather of collaborations between peers who seek to address similar issues despite diverse cultures and political ideologies.

Closer to home, the Canadian wine industry – along with its global counterparts – stands to benefit from a UBC-led international research collaboration that aims to improve wine production at the molecular and biochemical level. Another global research project, also based at UBC, seeks to protect and maintain a broad spectrum of digital records in the face of rapidly advancing data storage technology. Finally, this issue of frontier celebrates the symbiotic relationship between publishing and research, highlighting the

contributions of UBC Press and Canada’s scholarly presses toward furthering knowledge. Just as Vancouver is considered a gateway to Asia, university research provides a gateway to discovery, understanding and innovation. This issue of frontier explores the impact of these research efforts, both at home and half a world away.

Dr. John Hepburn, Vice President Research

Eyes on asia

“ We have serious humanitarian concerns about the use of natural resources without regard for the environment.”

The use of mercury in artisanal mines is posing serious environmental and human health risks. Marcello Veiga is aiming to introduce global standards to regulate its use

Photos > Marcello Veiga

Around the world, the ever-rising price of gold has produced the largest gold rush in history. Approximately one-third of the world’s gold supply comes from artisanal mines that are too small to be of interest to large mining companies, but which present an irresistible draw to millions of poor and itinerant workers. These myriad mines directly and indirectly employ 50 to 100 million people worldwide and collectively produce 600 to 800 tonnes of gold each year. They are a key economic activity for hundreds of communities in more than 70 countries, but the pervasive and unregulated use of mercury – a potent neurotoxin and a key ingredient in gold refining – is posing a serious risk to human health and the environment. “Liquid mercury is mixed with a slurry of gold ore to form a solid alloy called an amalgam,” says Dr. Marcello Veiga, an Associate Professor at UBC Vancouver’s Department of Mining Engineering. “This alloy is then heated with an open flame, either in the field or in a gold shop, to evaporate the mercury and leave behind a gold nugget. In the absence of environmental regulations or best practices, much of the waste mercury ends up in the air or in the local water supply – or in the lungs of miners and community members.” Mercury’s affordability, availability and ease of use have made amalgamation a widespread practice in artisanal mines around the world. Most miners are not aware of the health risks, which are

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greatest when the amalgam is heated without protective equipment, releasing mercury vapours that are toxic when inhaled. Mercury released to the environment can be transformed into deadly methylmercury, to be bioaccumulated in fish.

educators and anthropologists. Veiga and his team provided basic technologies and training to over 1,000 members of government and the mining community. They also launched a public awareness campaign involving radio and TV programs, booklets, brochures, posters, school visits and newspaper articles. Intervention in Indonesia “We installed 38 fume hoods in the gold buyers’ shops so that Since 2005, Veiga has directed the Global Mercury Project (GMP) they could burn amalgams without polluting the air or inhaling the at UBC, a collaboration between the UBC Department of Mining toxic mercury vapours,” Veiga says. “In some shops, we recovered as Engineering and the United Nations Industrial Development much as 90 per cent of the mercury from the amalgam. We estimate Organization (UNIDO). Artisanal mining accounts for about that these filters will prevent the release of about 900 kilograms of one-third (1,000 tonnes/yr) of global mercury consumption, and mercury into the air through 2008.” Veiga estimates that a further one-third of this occurs in Asia – The first phase of the Global Mercury Project concluded in particularly in Indonesia, which is the second-largest artisanal gold December 2007 and focused on artisanal gold mining practices in mining nation in the world, employing as many as 400,000 miners. Brazil, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Laos and Indonesia. Veiga is “We have serious humanitarian concerns about the use of natural currently working with Indonesian authorities to replace mercury resources without regard for the environment,” Veiga notes. “We are with cyanide, a cheaper and less toxic alternative to mercury that not only fighting mercury here; we are fighting hunger and poverty recovers a higher percentage of amalgamated gold. He is also too. Our research involves a lot of people from many disciplines.” working to introduce formal legal standards requiring the use of Using satellite imagery provided by Dr. Kevin Telmer of the proper fume hoods in Indonesian gold shops. University of Victoria, Veiga selected three key Indonesian sites that posed the greatest threat to the local environment. He then Dr. Marcello Veiga’s research is funded in part by grants from the Natural coordinated an extensive program of education and technology Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). transfer that involved an interdisciplinary team of engineers, The Global Mercury Project is funded by UNIDO.

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Eyes on asia

“ We have serious humanitarian concerns about the use of natural resources without regard for the environment.”

The use of mercury in artisanal mines is posing serious environmental and human health risks. Marcello Veiga is aiming to introduce global standards to regulate its use

Photos > Marcello Veiga

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Interpretation of international law can vary from culture to culture. Pitman Potter is investigating new models that respond to these cross-cultural differences

Eyes on asia

The Asia-Pacific region is home to dozens of nations with distinctive cultures, lengthy traditions and complex societal values. Under the modern forces of globalization, many of these nations are engaged in an unprecedented – and increasing – level of international trade. When two countries with diverse cultures and values seek to interpret the same set of international laws, misunderstandings and disputes are bound to occur. It was this inevitability that piqued Dr. Pitman Potter’s interest in forming the Asia Pacific Dispute Resolution Project (APDR), based at UBC Vancouver’s Institute of Asian Research. “International regulations are often grounded in European liberal norms,” says Potter, a Professor of Law, Hong Kong Bank Chair in Asian Research, and former Director of the Institute of Asian Research. “They make perfect sense to us in the Western world but in different economies like China, interpretation of these standards is influenced by a completely different set of societal norms.” Trade, tradition and human rights Assembling an interdisciplinary research team of experts in law, political science, anthropology, economics, sociology, dispute resolution and commerce from 12 international universities, Potter sought to compare how international human rights and trade laws are applied in Canada, China and Japan. Their aim was to create new models and develop innovative programs to effectively respond to cross-cultural differences. “Our purpose was to move away from the preoccupation with political will that often informs questions of compliance with international law,” he explains. “For instance, in many Western circles, the view is that when China is not in compliance, it is a question of political will – they know the rules but don’t feel like following them. For me, that is an incomplete explanation.” To this end, the APDR team investigated the key role of the interpretive communities – lawyers, government officials, professors, and other legal experts – whose function is to interpret international rules in a local context. Many of these communities do not interact directly, producing distorted interpretations of international law based on conventional wisdom and perception. Through an in-depth analysis involving archival data, surveys, and thousands of questionnaires, the team focused on selective adaptation, which seeks to explain the ways in which international rule regimes are mediated or interpreted by local values and cultural norms. They also investigated the institutional capacity of various agencies – their cohesion, location, and purpose – to effectively contribute to compliance with international law.

“We’re trying to build an understanding of the way that sociocultural norms affect behavior, specifically with regard to trade and human rights questions,” Potter says. “In Canada, there are implications for policy work within key immigrant communities from China, Japan, Indonesia and India. But there is also important learning to be applied in the resolution of commercial disputes and other international conflicts.” Navigating international conflict Formed in 2003 with the aid of a $2.5-million grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the APDR program has just completed its first phase of investigation with collaborators in Japan (Kyushu, Kyoto, and Waseda Universities), China (Lanzhou and Peking Universities and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences), the United States (Pepperdine, Willamette, and George Mason Universities), and Australia (Bond University and the University of Melbourne).

“ Let’s not assume that globalization is an inexorable march toward a global liberal ideal.” The first phase of the APDR program has produced a number of useful journal articles and policy briefings that have helped to inform the approach of Canadian trade and human development agencies toward projects in Asia. Seven edited volumes are underway or in press, containing results of the research. Potter’s Asian counterparts have prepared similar briefings for their own government agencies. The project’s second phase, currently pending a funding decision, will include India and Indonesia – each of which brings an important post-colonial dimension to the research. “Studying these countries will allow us to appreciate the extent of European influences on the normative foundations of trade and human rights,” Potter notes. “Culture is very diverse but not immutable; there is constant flux involving traditions and internal and external influences. Let’s not assume that globalization is an inexorable march toward a global liberal ideal. I think local culture is much more resilient than it receives credit for, but even a society as traditional as China or India is still very diverse and constantly changing.”

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Interpretation of international law can vary from culture to culture. Pitman Potter is investigating new models that respond to these cross-cultural differences

Eyes on asia

Fall / Winter 2008

Eyes on asia

LEASHING LEISHMANIASIS

Photo > PHOTOTAKE Inc. /Alamy

Kishor Wasan’s promising oral formulation of an intravenous drug is offering the prospect of EFFECTIVE treatment for two unrelated infections Dr. Kishor M. Wasan’s work as a pharmaceutical sciences researcher is part science, part humanitarianism. But even he could never have imagined that a challenge issued to him several years ago by a group of Vancouver doctors might impact millions of people in India and around the world. At the time, a rapid rise in the number of bloodborne fungal infections was sweeping the community of needle users in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, and community doctors faced a critical hurdle. “These fungal infections are highly treatable with a drug called Amphotericin B, but treatment is intravenous, which requires a hospital visit,” says Wasan, a Professor and Distinguished University Scholar in UBC Vancouver’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. “The problem was, the doctors couldn’t get people to come in off the streets to receive treatment. So they asked me to develop an oral formulation of Amphotericin B that they could take to the people.” Having worked with Amphotericin B (Amp B) for a number of years, Wasan and his wife and fellow formulation expert, Dr. Ellen Wasan, an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, devised a liquid formulation that showed promising lab results with minimal side effects. The significance of their breakthrough multiplied when the Wasans realized their treatment had more than one application. “It turns out that Amp B is not only effective in treating blood-borne fungal infections, which are a problem in our part of the world, but also in treating visceral leishmaniasis, a big problem in the developing world,” Wasan says. “It’s quite rare in pharmaceuticals for a treatment to be effective against two separate conditions, but the mechanism of action is similar in each.”

Micrograph of Leishmania major promastigotes, a cause of leishmaniasis

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Eyes on asia

LEASHING LEISHMANIASIS

Photo > PHOTOTAKE Inc. /Alamy

Micrograph of Leishmania major promastigotes, a cause of leishmaniasis

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Photo > Picture Contact /Alamy

“ It’s quite rare in pharmaceuticals for a treatment to be effective against two separate conditions.” Milind Kandlikar is uncovering how Delhi’s air quality problem isn’t necessarily a traffic congestion problem A deadly parasitic infection transmitted by sandfly bites, visceral leishmaniasis claims over 60,000 lives annually, mainly in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sudan and Brazil. In the Indian subcontinent alone, more than 500,000 people host the parasite. Worldwide, visceral leishmaniasis affects more than 200 million people in 62 countries and, if left untreated, is fatal within two years. The key barrier to treatment – echoing Vancouver’s outbreak of blood-borne fungal infections – is that most of the afflicted live far from hospitals where intravenous Amp B is readily available.

chapter. This strategy for enhancing the equitable licensing of UBC’s intellectual property was a first among Canadian universities, and Wasan quickly engaged the UILO to negotiate the first licensing agreement under the new Global Access Principles with a local pharmaceutical company, iCo Therapeutics Inc. In return for the exclusive worldwide right to develop and sell Oral Amp B as a treatment for blood-borne fungal infections in the developed world, iCo Therapeutics has agreed to ensure a suitable formulation is available and accessible to developing nations, at subsidized prices, to treat leishmaniasis. Wasan and iCo Therapeutics Global access principles are currently pursuing funding from a number of philanthropic The discovery that Oral Amp B might be effective in the field against organizations including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to two distinct conditions was equivalent to striking pharmaceutical proceed with clinical testing of Oral Amp B against both bloodgold. A traditional next step might have been to form a lucrative borne fungal infections and visceral leishmaniasis. spin-off company, but the unexpected intervention of former “It’s a long way from our laboratory ‘home brew’ to getting graduate student Rebecca Goulding helped to focus Wasan’s vision someone in India to actually administer it,” Wasan says, “and the for Oral Amp B. Goulding is an active voice in the UBC chapter of biggest challenge will be creating a formulation that is resistant to the Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM), a studentheat and long-term storage. But we’re not starting with a brand new led group with more than 25 chapters across North America that drug; other formulations of Amp B have been effective for years. advocates improving global access to public health goods developed I’m optimistic that our development timeline can be accelerated.” on university campuses. “She blew me away, made me feel guilty for even considering Dr. Kishor Wasan’s research on Oral Amp B is funded in part by the forming a spin-off company,” Wasan says. “She said, ‘you should Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). think about doing this for the developing world.’” In late 2007, UBC’s University-Industry Liaison Office (UILO) – which oversees industry-sponsored research and the commercialization of UBC discoveries – launched the University’s new Global Access Principles, developed in collaboration with the UBC-UAEM

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In 2002, the City of Delhi and the Supreme Court of India tackled the capital’s famously poor air quality in one legislative stroke. Over a multi-year grace period, thousands of diesel taxis, autorickshaws and transit buses were required to convert to cleaner fuels such as compressed natural gas (CNG). This dramatic shift in policy provided a convenient exogenous experiment for Dr. Milind Kandlikar, an Assistant Professor jointly appointed to the Liu Institute of Global Studies and the Institute of Asian Research at UBC Vancouver. Fluent in the languages of climate science and public policy, Kandlikar and his team analyzed environmental data collected before and after the policy shift to determine whether air quality had actually improved. The study zeroed in on particulate matter – scientific shorthand for any number of tiny, airborne particles, which, unlike greenhouse gases, do not have a universally accepted chemical composition. Particulate matter is so heterogeneous that it is nearly impossible to quantify, let alone predict its behavior or impact. “We found that it was difficult to detect changes in particulate matter concentrations

that could be attributed to the CNG switch, suggesting that a portion of the air quality problem in Delhi was the result of particulate matter originating mostly from industry and biogenic sources,” says Kandlikar. “Air pollution in Delhi is not necessarily just a traffic problem – its causes are much broader.” As evidence, Kandlikar points to the notorious Asian brown cloud, a vast pall of polluted air that periodically envelops parts of Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Its causes are a complex stew of airborne particles and pollutants, released across an entire continent by industry and by the burning of agricultural residues and other biomass. “Our contribution was to look at the data and point out that focusing on transport alone is not going to solve Delhi’s air quality problems, at least with respect to particulate matter,” says Kandlikar. “This problem has regional and local characteristics with multiple sources.” Autorickshaw assessment In collaboration with Dr. Madhav Badami of McGill University and Dr. Geetam Tiwari of IIT Delhi, Kandlikar and his team of graduate students are conducting a series of interconnected projects combining policy analysis and empirical data gathering, with a view to providing a comprehensive analysis of air quality issues in Indian cities. A current study by doctoral student Conor Reynolds seeks to establish a baseline of emissions from autorickshaws, three-

wheeled motorcycles that form a major component of India’s public transport system, and which make a poorly understood contribution to pollution. The study will also survey the attitudes of autorickshaw drivers toward maintaining their vehicles and thus reducing air pollution. Another element of Kandlikar’s research addresses the intersection of air quality and global climate change. In a recent paper published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, Kandlikar and Reynolds showed that conversion of Delhi’s public transit fleet to compressed natural gas – which produces more carbon dioxide than diesel but less light-absorbing particulate matter – has had a net beneficial impact of reducing atmospheric warming. “Within India, there are piecemeal research efforts on air quality but still very little comprehensive understanding of the problem or how to address it in a coordinated way,” says Kandlikar. “We’re seeking to combine analyses of air pollution and climate change, and so to inform policies that provide solutions to both issues.” The collaborative research project, Air Quality in Indian Cities is funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and AUTO21, a Network of Centres of Excellence.

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Photo > Picture Contact /Alamy

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eyes on asia

The future of fir

Adam Wei is employing homegrown UBC technology to help manage the sustainability of China’s fir trees British Columbia’s vast forests have earned an almost legendary reputation for their beauty and for the quality of their timber, but Canadian forestry is still in its infancy compared to the thousand-yearold forest industry of China. When Chinese forest managers noticed an alarming decline in yield among their long-dependable firstands, they turned to UBC researcher Dr. Xiaohua (Adam) Wei for assistance. “Chinese fir has been a very important commercial species in five or six provinces in southern China for over a thousand years,” says Wei, Watershed Management Research Chair and Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at UBC Okanagan. “A Chinese fir stand matures within 30 to 40 years and is harvested and replanted. Because of the frequency of these rotations, the Chinese foresters began to notice a decline in yield of 30 to 40 per cent after just a few rotations of planting and harvesting. The overall cause was clearly the result of long-term unsustainable management.” It was a complex problem with potential for severe economic consequences. Any number of variables could affect the productivity of a forest ecosystem, and Chinese researchers needed a way to explore various scenarios in order to identify a root cause. Such a technology has been in development at UBC for more than 20 years: the FORECAST simulator is an ecosystem-based computer model that can predict the impact of different management practices on forest growth and carbon sequestration. The brainchild of Dr. Hamish Kimmins, Professor Emeritus of Forest Ecology at UBC and Canada Research Chair in Forest Ecosystem Modelling, FORECAST has modeled forests around the world and was recently accepted by the B.C. Ministry of Forests and Range as one of the standard tools to analyze timber supply and evaluate the sustainability of a forest. Big wake-up call “FORECAST is a unique hybrid model that considers the impact of ecological processes, such as nutrient cycling, as well as the growth and yield of a stand,” says Wei. “This enables us to predict future productivity based on changes in ecological processes. Surprisingly, FORECAST is even more suited to Chinese forests than B.C. forests, because the Chinese have a much longer history of empirical data describing their ecosystems than we do in Canada.”

In collaboration with the Zhejiang Forestry University in Huangzhou (Professors Hong Jiang, Guomo Zhou and Shuquan Yu), Wei is working with Dr. Kimmins and UBC Research Associate, Dr. Brad Seely on a three-year project to implement FORECAST in select locations in China, with a view to expanding its reach in China and the rest of Asia. In September of this year, UBC and Zhejiang Forestry University organized a two-day joint international workshop that provided training for 20 to 30 students from both universities on the use of FORECAST. “FORECAST provides a unique opportunity to integrate data from a variety of ecological processes,” Wei notes. “There are many researchers in China who study Chinese fir forests – looking at moisture, temperature, soil biology, decomposition, photosynthesis – but the research is not collaborative or integrated. FORECAST allows us to integrate these data sets and to run scenarios on the overall forest ecosystem.” As China begins to address long-standing environmental issues such as deforestation, the ability to explore potential ecological scenarios has become more significant than ever. The catastrophic flooding of the Yangtze River in 1998 – partially attributed to wide-scale deforestation – killed thousands of people and produced a huge economic loss, providing the Chinese government with a “big wake-up call,” Wei says. The government moved expeditiously to enact a ban on harvesting trees in the upper regions of the river and implemented a nation-wide reforestation program. “Chinese forestry is very different today than it was 20 years ago,” Wei says. “As China grows and quality of life improves, people can afford to care more about the environment. Reforestation is an obvious way to do this, and FORECAST can answer specific questions about which species to plant in an area, whether to plant mixed stands or monocultures, and what is the best management strategy for that forest based on its own unique ecological properties.” Dr. Adam Wei’s research in China with FORECAST is funded jointly by the B.C. Innovation Council (BCIC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China.

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eyes on asia

The future of fir

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Scholarly communication comes full cIRcle cIRcle is UBC’s free, open-access institutional repository for published and unpublished materials and organizes and maintains a variety of publications by UBC faculty members, departments, labs, research centres, schools and other administrative units. Articles from frontier are now available on cIRcle under the “Vice President Research” community. Visit https://circle.ubc.ca to learn more.

Shadow of doubt As digital records increasingly replace paper records, Luciana Duranti is developing preservation methods that ensure accuracy and authenticity

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The essential records of one of history’s most advanced civilizations did not take shape in stone but rather, in a substance known for its highly malleable form. While the flexibility of wax proved effective for effortless inscription by the ancient Romans, this same flexibility also left it vulnerable to unauthorized tampering. To combat any unforeseen threat to the authenticity of the record during transfer from its originator to the safekeeping of a secured vault, the Romans built a tunnel underneath every government office that connected to the official public archives. At the archive threshold, a sequestered custodian would accept the incoming tablets into his custody and place them safely in the archives. There, they would remain accessible to all Roman citizens who could request copies from the custodian, a process that would ensure the authenticity of the records and their contents. Wax tablets have long-since been replaced as the preferred method for records creation. However, the solutions developed by the Romans to safeguard the precious information inscribed on these highly fragile tablets have given Luciana Duranti, Chair of Archival Studies at UBC Vancouver’s School of Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), vital insight on how streamlined procedures can help tackle the preservation challenges posed by 21st century technology.

“With paper records, we can put them in a box and forget about them and even after 500 years, they would still be there,” Duranti explains. “The primary problem with digital records of the 21st century is that our actions and transactions, including those of a legal and medical nature, are often exclusively entrusted to the digital medium. Digital records can easily be lost, corrupted or tampered with. That’s why it’s imperative to develop systems, in terms of technology and procedures, that overcome these limitations.” Duranti would know about the fragility of digital records: She is leading the world’s largest effort to establish methods and produce guidelines for preserving accurate and authentic digital records over the long term. Known as InterPARES (International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems), the project, now in its third phase, involves collaborations with archivists from over 20 countries including China, Italy, the U.S., Brazil and South Africa, as well as input from scientists, artists, government, industry and partnerships with other international research projects dealing with complementary issues. According to Duranti, the goal of InterPARES is to develop methods and practices for ensuring records that are generated today will be trusted in the future. A digital record’s “trustworthiness” can be assessed based on three criteria: the accuracy of data, the reliability of the creation process and persistency over time of the identity and integrity of the record. One of the biggest obstacles to verifying the authenticity of preserved digital records is the loss of originals. Because technology quickly becomes outdated, it is recommended that digital objects (data, documents, records, etc.) be transferred to new technologies every three to five years. But as soon as this material is transferred, its form is altered, putting the integrity of its content into question. Duranti explains: “When we were dealing with clay tablets, parchments or paper, we could always test the authenticity of the record on the record itself by examining, for example, the ink and the style of writing. Through that, you could confidently say if a record was or wasn’t authentic. With digital records, we no longer have originals so authenticity is an inference.” As a means to ensure short- and long-term trustworthiness in digital records, InterPARES combines development of theoretical and methodological ideas with the issuing of direct-knowledge

guidebooks to give individuals and organizations around the world practical instruction on how to select the right technology and formats to transfer files to new technologies, prevent file tampering and ensure retrievability. Upgrading digital records to new technologies every few years can be a costly endeavour, which is why InterPARES also studies the financial and ethical issues surrounding digital records preservation and helps organizations and governments determine which records should be carried forward and which could be discarded. The creator and preserver guidelines to digital records creation, maintenance, use and preservation have been instrumental to organizations that rely on Duranti and her team to help them preserve their vital records so that they can be accessed and trusted. Even previously aloof sectors are now realizing the benefits of secure recordkeeping and are slowly approaching Duranti for help. “An environment that has been taboo for us is the medical environment because of patient records,” says Duranti. “Organizations want to be helped but they’re terrified because of privacy issues, which can infringe on both corporate and individual security. But preserving accurate medical records is a life-and-death issue so we’re collaborating to find a way to help without the need for disclosure of sensitive information.” For Duranti, preserving accurate and authentic records has a more fundamental purpose, one that is relevant to all sectors and all individuals of society: “We must be able to provide a justification for our actions to future generations. That’s why we have archives; to preserve the records so people can understand the reasons for certain choices and can verify what happened. I can’t think of an area in our life where this is not an issue. Records are what research is conducted on and if you do not know whether your sources can be trusted, your research is worth nothing.” The InterPARES Project is primarily funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the only project ever to receive three consecutive rounds of funding. In addition, InterPARES was selected by SSHRC, among more than 10,000 projects funded in its 30 years of existence, as one of the 30 research projects and the only one from UBC featured in its 30th anniversary book: Celebrating 30 years of Cultivating Excellence in Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research.

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Shadow of doubt As digital records increasingly replace paper records, Luciana Duranti is developing preservation methods that ensure accuracy and authenticity

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GRAPE EXPECTATIONS Deciphering grape genomics and the yeast fermentation process is giving Hennie van Vuuren and Steven Lund clues on how to help wineries improve wine quality

Above > Hennie van Vuuren Right > Kaldor

“ The question for wineries is how to consistently achieve superior wine quality despite variable external conditions.”

Deep within the heart of the Okanagan Valley lies one of Canada’s foremost winemaking regions – and for good reason. An arid climate coupled with a relentless summer heat that scorches grapes to ripened perfection serve as the ideal backdrop for an abundance of winemakers, like Jeff Del Nin and staff at Burrowing Owl, who are eager to reap the agricultural benefits generated within this desert-like environment. Here, Burrowing Owl’s meticulous winemaking efforts, from the careful selection of harvest-ready grapes to the vigilant monitoring of the fermentation process, yield wines that are world-renowned for their robust flavour profiles. Yet despite an exact process that is fastidiously emulated year after year to ensure the highest quality, Del Nin has quickly learned that not all wines can be created equal and, in fact, are heavily influenced by external conditions beyond a winery’s control. “The quality of red wine is directly proportional to the amount of heat that you get during the growing season. Two of our warmest years on record, 2003 and 2006, produced superbly high-quality wines. In 2004, we had a lot of rain during the harvest so we achieved very different flavour profiles that, while still awardwinning, put a damper on quality,” says Del Nin. “The question for wineries is how to consistently achieve superior wine quality despite these variable external conditions.” As Del Nin can attest, the process of achieving superior wine quality is complex and depends on multiple intricate interactions that when modified, can have a dramatic impact from year to year. In an effort to help wineries achieve consistently high-quality wines,

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UBC Vancouver researchers Dr. Hennie van Vuuren, Dr. Steven Lund, Dr. Jörg Bohlmann and Dr. Vivien Measday have made improving the understanding of these interactions their mission through a Genome BC-sponsored project entitled WineGen. The idea for WineGen began to germinate as a result of the Genome Canada-sponsored GrapeGen, a project aimed at exploring the genetic and environmental determinants that underlie berry quality in the most economically important fruit species worldwide, grapevine. While the project made progress in identifying genomic components that may affect grape cultivation, GrapeGen project leader Lund quickly realized that a crucial component needed to be addressed if the research was going to influence wine production on a more comprehensive scale. Consequently, WineGen is specifically designed to not only build on the grape genomic research uncovered through GrapeGen but also address yeast fermentation, or the critical period that converts the grape’s sugars into alcohol and flavour compounds. The result is a multi-faceted, international project that takes a two-pronged approach to developing techniques that optimize wine quality: changes at the molecular and biochemical level that affect grapevine biology (viticulture) as well as how wine yeasts can improve winemaking processes and wine quality (enology). For Lund, understanding plant physiology at the molecular level and how it affects the development of the berry is critical to ensuring the finest grape quality. Using the Pinot Noir and Gewurztraminer varieties in Canada and Sauvignon Blanc in New Zealand, Lund and his team are using genomics to investigate grape genes associated

with specific compositional traits that respond to nitrogen fertilization and affect berry ripening and berry flavour. “The challenge, as with any agricultural crop, is you learn that if you do X, you’ll get result Y. But if you do X again next year and you get a different result, then you’re at a loss to understand how that happened,” says Lund. “The beauty of what genomics can do is look inside the grape at the molecular level and see how the expression of genes in grapevine is being changed by what growers are doing under a given set of environmental conditions.” In order to more effectively study changes at the molecular level, Lund and his team are focusing on developing devices modeled after the biomedical field that monitor the biomarkers, or characteristics that are measured and evaluated as indicators of biological or pathogenic states, in grape vegetative and fruit tissues. Lund explains: “Technology that facilitates early detection should help us to predict what outcome you can expect in grape composition and if there is any way you can better fine tune the degree and timing to which you’re applying any treatment along the season.” Because most metabolites in grapes are altered by wine yeasts resulting in different compounds in finished wines, insight into yeast metabolism is a very important part of the equation when developing techniques to improve wine quality, which is where van Vuuren’s research on yeast fermentation comes in. van Vuuren and his team are employing sophisticated approaches to understand the response of yeast strains to stressful wine fermentations and the effects of manipulating fermentation conditions on the production of wine aroma and flavour.

One particular aspect of van Vuuren’s research involves tackling a common problem in wineries called stuck fermentations. Stuck fermentations occur when fermentation has stopped before the fermentable sugars in grape must have been converted by yeast into alcohol, often resulting in spoiled wine. While wineries around the world add nitrogen at different stages of the fermentation process to prevent this, van Vuuren and his team have been working to uncover when is the best time to add diammonium phosphate based on the chemical composition of the grape must. “If you add a good nitrogen source at the beginning of fermentation, it will switch off a large number of genes in yeast cells, many of which currently have no function and lead to the production of less-complex wines. We believe the work that we’re doing will lead to annotation of many of these genes,” says van Vuuren. The research produced through the WineGen Project will be invaluable to the booming Canadian wine industry, which has grown exponentially in recent years particularly in the Okanagan. Currently, the Thompson-Okanagan region accounts for approximately 80 per cent of all B.C. wine production and the Okanagan wine industry generates over $220 million in revenue per year. Funded by Genome BC, WineGen is a $5-million multinational project led by Drs. Hennie van Vuuren and Steven Lund of UBC’s Wine Research Centre, Dr. Richard Gardner of the University of Auckland, Dr. Chris Winefield of Lincoln University and Dr. Michael Trought of the Marlborough Wine Research Centre in New Zealand.

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GRAPE EXPECTATIONS Deciphering grape genomics and the yeast fermentation process is giving Hennie van Vuuren and Steven Lund clues on how to help wineries improve wine quality

Above > Hennie van Vuuren Right > Kaldor

“ The question for wineries is how to consistently achieve superior wine quality despite variable external conditions.”

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“ We had to find a trick to bring the electrons back to where they are supposed to be.”

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andrea damascelli is looking to usher in a new era of quantum computing with a groundbreaking technique that defies all nanotechnology research to date Dr. Andrea Damascelli is accustomed to facing the unimaginable. An expert in nanoscience, a field of applied science that seeks to control matter on an atomic and molecular scale, he routinely peers into a world where structures are between 100 and 1,000 times smaller than what scientists are traditionally familiar with. As Canada Research Chair in Electronic Structure of Solids and Associate Professor at UBC Vancouver’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, Damascelli’s research on harnessing the power of hightemperature superconductors and quantum materials is exploring possibilities that few thought were possible – and it is offering the promise of a widespread technological revolution. Conventional superconductors are materials that offer no resistance to the flow of electricity at temperatures reaching absolute zero (-273.15°C). These materials are commonly used in medical imaging machines, lossless power lines and in the development of next-generation quantum computing and information processing. However, their potential has not yet been fully exploited because their topmost surface layers take on different properties from the rest of the material, which provides a critical barrier to their application in functional devices and makes them a difficult subject to study. Despite these obstacles, Damascelli and his team have developed a way to understand and control how electrons behave on the surface of high-temperature superconductors, a breakthrough that is expected to take superconductor research to the next level. “Today, we realize that the thin surface layer of material is really a new playground to work with,” says Damascelli. “Actively manipulating the surface is a better way to control the physics than just hoping nature does what you would like it to do.” The seminal discovery came following experiments conducted at UBC and the Advanced Light Source synchrotron at Berkeley Lab. Synchrotrons, such as at the Canadian Light Source in Saskatoon, are large-scale particle accelerators in which electrons traveling at nearly the speed of light generate the most brilliant light available to scientists. Damascelli and his team’s groundbreaking experiment involves using samples of yttrium-barium-copper oxide, which are widely considered to be the purest high-temperature superconductors and were produced locally by another team of UBC researchers. Firstly, in order to avoid contamination, atomically clean sample surfaces are generated in a stainless steel chamber subject to “outer space” vacuum conditions. Then, potassium atoms are evaporated

onto the sample’s surface, unleashing additional electrons on the surface. Finally, ultraviolet light from the synchrotron source is shone on the sample, where it is absorbed by the electrons. The electrons are then expelled from the surface in a way that can be measured by scientists. Damascelli explains: “What we discovered is the number of electrons at the surface is different than inside the sample, which makes the physical properties very, very different. Because of this, we had to find a trick to bring the electrons back to where they are supposed to be and precisely control their number. Using light to emit electrons from a material, we can study those electrons in a vacuum and use energy and momentum conservation laws to infer their properties inside the solid. For instance, we can really study the motion of electrons inside the solid, which defines the electronic properties of the material.” According to Damascelli, the significance of this technique is that scientists are now able to manipulate the number of electrons on the superconductor’s surface in an effort to enhance the material’s potential for applications. While research at this stage is primarily aimed at understanding electron behaviour, the impact of this discovery is expected to have a ripple effect on the development of new technologies that hinge on utilizing extremely thin layers of materials, particularly in the field of electronics and computing. “Material surfaces and interfaces can exhibit very exotic properties; if you can control them, then you can really get into new things,” says Damascelli. “Quantum materials are now a much bigger class of systems with many more spectacular properties. You can imagine the technology that would come out of this could be groundbreaking in many ways. The simplest examples are lossless power lines and high-efficiency fuel cells. More significantly, we’re trying to come up with new electronic materials whose functionality is defined by quantum mechanical interactions and whose application could strongly impact the quality of everyday life.” Dr. Andrea Damascelli’s research is funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Under Damascelli’s leadership, future studies into superconductor and quantum material technology will be conducted at the Quantum Materials Spectroscopy Centre at the Canadian Light Source in Saskatoon.

The Fermi surface of a high-temperature superconductor as revealed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Photo > Andrea Damascelli

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“ We had to find a trick to bring the electrons back to where they are supposed to be.”

B r e a k i n g

t h e

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The Fermi surface of a high-temperature superconductor as revealed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Photo > Andrea Damascelli

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accolades

by 2007-08 UBC fellows elected to Royal Society of Canada RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (RSC) is the senior national body of distinguished scientists and scholars. Fellowship to the RSC is one of the most prestigious academic distinctions that can be attributed to a Canadian scholar. Individuals are selected based on their outstanding scholarly achievements on both a national and international level through publishing learned works or through original research in the arts, humanities and sciences. Photo > Kaldor

2007 Once a struggling regional university publisher on the brink of demise, UBC Press is now one of North America’s most venerable university presses and has played a key role in disseminating leading social sciences research. After nearly 40 years in the publishing industry, UBC Press’s retired Associate Director, Editorial, Jean Wilson reflects on her 20-year career at the Press and the critical importance of scholarly publishing to the academic community. Frontier: You joined UBC Press as Managing

Editor in 1988 when the Press was struggling and you are consistently credited with helping to revive it. Why was it struggling and what did you do to help restore it? JW: UBC Press was quite dysfunctional in the late 1980s. People didn’t work well together and the Press had lost its focus. It had published some important books especially in B.C. history and Native studies, but essentially, it was a small west coast publisher that no one east of the Rockies took very seriously. There was an internal review in 1989 after which most of my senior colleagues were fired and I was made acting director. I had the position for a year and then UBC hired Peter Milroy to be the new director of the Press and I became the acquisitions editor. We refocused the publishing list in areas that the Press already had strengths in, particularly B.C. history and Native studies, and dropped other

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areas that were well covered by other Canadian scholarly publishers.

reputation as one of the leading scholarly publishers in Canada.

F: UBC Press is now one of the most respected

F: You have been in the business of university

university presses in North America. Why? JW: We publish books that are very well received and well reviewed in their fields. People know that we take a great deal of care with our books at all stages. We have very rigorous standards for editing and production and I think we may be the only university press on the continent that still hires proofreaders. Our list has grown because of the editing and production quality of the books and authors know we’ll deal with the manuscripts expeditiously and professionally. F: What is UBC Press most proud of? JW: We’re proudest of the contribution

we’ve made to scholarship and publishing in Canada over the last 20 years.

F: How do you see UBC Press’s role evolving? JW: The Press can maintain its present

strength and maybe even grow a little bit more, in the sense of maybe publishing 70 books per year. At present, we publish about 60 books per year. The Press was one of the first presses to edit manuscripts online and it’s quite likely that it will lead the way in digital publishing, doing fewer hard copies of books and more in digitized form. I am confident it will maintain its

publishing for 40 years. How have you seen the industry change? JW: When I joined University of Toronto Press (UTP) in 1968, typesetting was all hotmetal typesetting; now we’re into digital publishing, which is very indicative of how rapidly technology has changed. In terms of the industry, today there are a lot more scholarly publishers. In the 1970s, there were only two well-established scholarly presses and now there are nine Englishlanguage university presses. F: Why are university presses so integral to the

university and its research endeavours?

JW: If scholarly books aren’t published, the

research done at universities languishes in university libraries as theses and reports that don’t reach the right audience. If academic presses don’t publish what has been found out through academic research, then they shortchange both the academic community and the larger world of scholarship as well. UBC Press has been and will continue to be a great asset to UBC, both in terms of the prestige it brings to the university as an important publisher of books in the social sciences, and in terms of the role it plays in disseminating research results in Canada and internationally.

Mandakranta Bose, Institute of Asian Research Mandakranta Bose is a leading scholar of the classical performing arts of India. Her reconstruction of the ancient tradition of dance and mime in India is based on all extant Sanskrit texts on dance, drama and music. David Brydges, Department of Mathematics David Brydges is an outstanding mathematical physicist with a sustained record spanning thirty years of inventive and highly creative achievements in the fields of constructive quantum field theory and mathematical statistical mechanics. Donald Douglas, Department of Chemistry Donald Douglas is known for his contributions to mass spectrometry. He is noted for developing the first commercial inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer system for trace element analysis and for his fundamental studies of protein ions. Charles Haynes, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Michael Smith Laboratories Dr. Haynes is a scholar of international stature in the field of bioseparations and downstream bioprocessing. His fundamental and applied research crosses disciplinary boundaries to devise

2008 original methods of recovering and separating products of biological significance from solutions and mixtures. Brian MacVicar, Department of Psychiatry Dr. MacVicar is a superb electrophysiologist and a pioneer in the development and application of cellular imaging to models of normal and pathological brain function. His research has direct application to topics like stroke, epilepsy, and Alzheimer’s disease. Marco Marra, Department of Medical Genetics and BC Cancer Agency Dr. Marra was instrumental in the construction of a human genome map, which has allowed an international consortium to efficiently complete and make publicly available the human genome sequence. Another major contribution was in sequencing the SARS coronavirus genome. Jack Saddler, Faculty of Forestry John (Jack) N. Saddler is trained as a microbiologist/biochemist and works in the primary areas of applications of enzymes to fibre modification and in the bioconversion of wood residues to fuels and chemicals.

Graeme Wynn, Department of Geography Graeme Wynn is among the leading historical geographers and environmental historians in the English-speaking world. He is known for his analyses of the social and environmental ramifications of staple trades, especially in the forests of colonial New Zealand. Clarence W. de Silva, Department of Mechanical Engineering From fundamental research to technology development, Clarence de Silva has made significant seminal contributions to knowledge generation and dissemination, advanced education, and the practice of engineering in Canada and overseas.

Ivar Ekeland, Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences Ivar Ekeland’s contributions to mathematics include fundamental results in convex and non-linear analysis, control theory, Hamiltonian mechanics, symplectic geometry, mathematical economics and finance. Martha Cook Piper, Past President (RSC Specially Elected Fellow) With her superb communication skills, Martha Cook Piper has been instrumental in raising public awareness of the importance of research and in persuading governments to increase their investment in higher education and research.

Curtis Suttle, Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences Professor Suttle has changed our understanding of biological oceanographic processes by being among the first to recognize the abundance of viruses in seawater and their importance as major agents of mortality and drivers of global biogeochemical cycles. Ann Marie Craig, Department of Psychiatry Dr. Craig has made some of the most important advances in neuroscience in the past decade and her work has important significance for the development of new and effective therapies for numerous neurological and psychiatric diseases, like stroke and autism.

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accolades

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areas that were well covered by other Canadian scholarly publishers.

reputation as one of the leading scholarly publishers in Canada.

F: UBC Press is now one of the most respected

F: You have been in the business of university

we’ve made to scholarship and publishing in Canada over the last 20 years.

F: How do you see UBC Press’s role evolving? JW: The Press can maintain its present

university and its research endeavours?

JW: If scholarly books aren’t published, the

Fall / Winter 2008

NEWS

newswire

For more information about these and other news stories, please visit www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/ubcnews

Spying on space This June, a suitcase-sized space telescope originally designed to operate for 12 months celebrated its fifth anniversary in orbit. The $10-million telescope is a key component of MOST (Microvariability & Oscillations of Stars), a Canadian Space Agency mission led by UBC’s Jaymie Matthews. Designed to measure the brightness variations of stars – a process likened to “taking the pulse” of distant stars – MOST has expanded its role to study planets around other stars. More than 20 scientific papers have been published by the MOST team in the past 18 months, and more were published by international scientists using data from MOST. Last year, MOST scientists invited amateur Canadian astronomers and students to submit their own research proposals for the telescope, soliciting dozens of online submissions at www.astro.ubc.ca/MOST. MOST is jointly operated by Dynacon Inc., the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies and the University of British Columbia, with the assistance of the University of Vienna. Image > courtesy of UBC Public Affairs

Fall / Winter 2008

Novel tactics to tackle Alzheimer’s

New frontiers in federal funding

Cultural evolution revolution

Researchers at UBC have uncovered a new tactic in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder and common form of dementia. The researchers targeted brain cells called microglia, which patrol the brain and migrate to a site of injury to help restore normal function. An Alzheimer’s-afflicted brain is characterized by the accumulation of plaques that contain the beta amyloid protein and which accumulate faster than the brain’s 14 billion microglia can digest them. By treating the microglia with inflammatory stimulants, the researchers enhanced the digestion of plaques in a post-mortem brain. The study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, marks the first time that this phenomenon, believed to take place in the living brain, has been duplicated in the laboratory. The research was led by Dr. Sadayuki Hashioka and supported by the Pacific Alzheimer Research Foundation and the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute.

UBC researchers have received the second-highest level of funding in Canada this year from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), earning more than $35 million in health research funding for projects including screening techniques for colorectal cancer, evaluating the HPV vaccine in HIVpositive women, male infertility and substance abuse in teenagers.

Liane Gabora, Assistant Professor of Cognitive Psychology at UBC Okanagan, is developing computer software that will help archaeologists piece together the process by which human culture evolves. Dr. Gabora’s computer models of cultural evolution will not only offer insight into the minds of those who came before us, but will also predict the kinds of minds that will follow us and the directions in which humanity is evolving. If, for example, a certain settlement acquired pots with handles through trade, and soon after started producing cups with handles, her computer program will be able to suggest that they used analogical thinking to abstract the concept ‘handle’ from pots and applied it to cups. Gabora believes the computer models she is developing will help to gain a better understanding and appreciation of our collective and individual roles in the cultural evolutionary process. Read the full article in the June 2008 edition of UBC Reports at www.publicaffairs. ubc.ca/ubcreports.

Mind maze Researchers at UBC and the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute have documented the first case of a patient who, without apparent brain damage or cognitive impairment, is unable to orient within any environment including the neighborhood where he/she has lived for many years. Navigating and orienting in an environment requires at least two distinct memory systems involving the use of landmarks and distances, and the creation of a mental representation or cognitive map of the environment. It is the ability to “create” and “read” these cognitive maps that enables a person to navigate a route without getting lost. Researchers believe others within the general population may be affected by this disorder. Visit www.gettinglost.ca for more information.

Photo > Bob Willingham

The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat A recent psychology study at UBC investigated the non-verbal expressions and body language of sighted, blind, and congenitally blind judo competitors representing more than 30 countries. Using photographic data collected at the 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the study showed that winning athletes, both sighted and blind and across all cultures, tended to raise their arms, tilt their head up and puff out their chest. Also largely universal were the expressions of defeat, which include slumped shoulders and a narrowed chest. The results suggest that the responses to winning and defeat are innate rather than learned, although culture moderated the shame response to some extent among sighted athletes.

Bracing for impact A sports helmet invented at UBC reduces direct impact to the neck by up to 56 per cent, according to preliminary tests. Dubbed Pro-Neck-Tor™, the patent-pending technology features a movable inner shell that guides the head to tilt slightly forward or backward in a head-on impact, allowing direct loads to dissipate to the cervical spine. Visit www.pronecktor.com to view an animation showing how the helmet works. The research project involves surgeons from the UBC Department of Orthopedics and researchers from the Division of Orthopedic Engineering Research and the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD).

Improve performance, increase trust According to a recent study, retail companies that communicate trust to their employees will see superior sales and customer service performance. Researchers from the Sauder School of Business at UBC and from York University explored how workers’ perceptions of being trusted affected their performance. Involving 88 locations of a major retail chain, the study collected data from each location’s sales and employee performance records and conducted anonymous surveys of employee attitudes. The result: employees who feel trusted accept more responsibility at their jobs and work harder in pleasing customers.

Images > courtesy of UBC Public Affairs

Fall / Winter 2008

NEWS

newswire

For more information about these and other news stories, please visit www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/ubcnews

Fall / Winter 2008

Novel tactics to tackle Alzheimer’s

New frontiers in federal funding

Cultural evolution revolution

Photo > Bob Willingham

Images > courtesy of UBC Public Affairs

Fall / Winter 2008

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