LFS Today Jun 16, 2021 | LFS Intranet 2020

New Face Joining the Student Services Team!

We are happy to announce that Cassandra Torres will be joining us as our new Undergraduate Student Support Specialist, where she will be working closely with Christine Klaray and the Student Services Team in providing front-line support, information, and assistance to current students, prospective students, LFS faculty and the general public regarding admission, basic course planning, student records and registration, and other routine functions supporting LFS students. Cassandra is no stranger to UBC, having worked most recently as the Emergency & Continuity Planning Assistant for UBC Safety & Risk Services and as a Customer Service Representative for UBC Conferences & Accommodations! Being both staff and student (Cassandra holds a BA in Geography, Environment & Sustainability), she brings valuable UBC experience to our role. We are excited to have her join the Faculty! Her first day will be Monday, June 21^st so please feel free to virtually introduce yourself!

LFS Virtual Townhall – Cancelled today

Just a reminder that we will not be holding an LFS Virtual Townhall today as there were scheduling conflicts with Rickey and the Associate Deans. The next Virtual Townhall will be on Wednesday, June 30.

Canada Research Chair (CRC) announcements in LFS

Congratulations to Mahsa Jessri and Simone Castellarin!

Mahsa is a new CRC (Tier 2) in Nutritional Epidemiology for Population Health. Mahsa’s research program provides the evidence-base and decision tools to inform nutritional guidelines and polices that can reduce the burden of chronic diseases. Also congratulations to Simone, whose CRC (Tier 2) in Viticulture has been renewed. Simone is Associate Director of UBC’s Wine Research Centre and has collaborations with international scientists in the fields of viticulture, grapevine physiology and applied genomics.

Read the UBC announcement.

NSERC Discovery Grants in LFS

These LFS researchers were successful in the recent NSERC Discovery Grants program, and are leading the following projects:

Gurcharn Singh Brar – Exploring effectors in Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici and identifying new sources of host resistance; $165,000 (5 years)
Simone Castellarin – Metabolic responses of the grape (Vitis vinifera L.) berry to environmental stimuli; $275,000 (5 years)
Thorsten Knipfer – The sequence of drought-induced physiological and anatomical events in woody perennial crops; $190,000 (5 years)
Alexandra Protopopova – Intra-species variation in dogs (Canis lupus familiaris): Testing the Pace-of-Life Syndrome hypothesis; $140,000 (5 years)
Barbara Stefanska – Diet and the epigenome: Investigating the impact of the environment on cell biology; $205,000 (5 years)
Marina von Keyserlingk – Mood states in animals, exploring individual and external factors that promote resilience; $275,000 (5 years).

Read full details in the UBC announcement.

Wellness Wednesdays

Your Mental Health Tip of the Week:

Feeling overwhelmed?
Take a few minutes to organize your workspace.

Random Acts of Recognition

Congratulations to Random Acts of Recognition recipients:

Mona Lee, Imelda Cheung and Andy Jeffries for their work over the years making sure that important documents and letters get to the correct people on time, responding quickly to questions and keeping recipients updated throughout the process.

To nominate a faculty member, staff or graduate student that’s been doing an outstanding job or has gone above and beyond in some way, send an email to lfs.recognition@ubc.ca and tell us why this person should be recognized. We’ll send them a $6 Starbucks gift card and acknowledge their good work in LFS Today.

Return to Campus Town Halls: Response

The Office of the Provost and Vice-President Academic has prepared an information document based on the questions posed at the VP Academic Town Halls on June 2, 3 and 4. The information is available at https://academic.ubc.ca/return-to-campus-town-halls-response, and it focuses on four main areas: Return to Campus Planning, Academic, Safety Planning, Employee Supports, and Operational Supports and Campus Services.

For more information: