LFS Today Nov 13, 2020

Call for Nominations – LFS Service Awards

Nominations are now open online for the Faculty of Land and Food Systems outstanding service awards, including the Shynkaryk Service Award (staff), Richards Service Award (faculty) and Graduate Student Service Award. Please do not email your nominations.

LFS Shynkaryk and Richards Awards

Nominees should be LFS staff or faculty members who meet the following criteria: consistently provides excellent service to students, faculty and staff, accomplished tasks with good humour and grace, works extremely well with others, and always goes one step further on every project. Nominations should include the name of the nominator, name of nominee and 3 or more reasons for the nomination (with examples). 

LFS Graduate Student Service Award 

Nominees should be graduate students who meet the following criteria: provide services and / or leadership to fellow graduate students and the LFS community at large, and serve as exemplars to fellow grad students, faculty and staff or the faculty in general. Nominations should include the name of the nominator, name of nominee and 3 or more reasons for the nomination (with examples).

SOIL 500 Graduate Seminar Series – Today

Date: Friday, November 13, 3:00pm
Title: Assessing the impact of semi-natural habitat restoration in agroecosystems on pest and beneficial insect biodiversity
Speaker: Matt Tsuruda, MSc student (supervisor Juli Carrillo)

Title: Effects of overwinter plastic tarping on soil moisture, available nutrients and crop yield on organic vegetable farms in B.C.
Speaker: Raelani Kesler, MSc student (supervisor Sean Smukler)
Abstract & bio available here.

If you have registered previously for one of our seminars, you do not need to register again – the weekly zoom link is the same.
If you need registration information, please email sandra.brown@ubc.ca.

Random Acts of Recognition

Congratulations to Random Acts of Recognition recipient:

Rob Kim, LFS Career Strategist with Student Services, for collaborating with colleagues in the Centre for Student Involvement and Careers and Student Communications to launch the LFS-specific career info, ‘What can I do with my Land and Food Systems degree?’ Rob was deeply consultative within the Faculty to ensure he was able to highlight the greatest strengths of our Faculty, that each program was well-represented, and the students involved had the opportunity to shape how the LFS experience is described. Rob’s unbridled support for the student experience in LFS was evident as he went through this process, and we now join only a handful of other Faculties to have our programs showcased in this way. Thank you, Rob!  You are the living embodiment of the fire emoji.

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.

New Green Folder Update for How to Support Students

The Green Folder on student health and wellbeing has been updated, which includes:

• the key messages to faculty and staff;
• the challenges that students may be experiencing in an online learning environment;
• a new section on how to reach out and support students;
• information on using early alert;
• how to have a conversation with a student in distress; and
• resources for supporting students, including the new UBC Student Assistance Program (UBC SAP);

Student Services has a website on assisting students in distress (https://facultystaff.students.ubc.ca/health-wellbeing/assisting-students-distress).

Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries (IOF) Seminar

Topic: Fighting IUU fishing through improving corporate due diligence
Speaker: Senior Policy Analyst, Oceana Europe
When: Friday, November 13, 11:00am
RSVP: https://oceans.ubc.ca/rsvp-iof-seminars/
More info.

Innovation Competition 2021

The Global Innovation Exchange is excited to announce the Innovation Competition 2021 sponsored by Microsoft FarmBeats, focused on advancing global agriculture through data-driven technology.
 
Info Session
November 16 at 6:30 p.m., featuring Dr. Ranveer Chandra, Chief Scientist, Azure Global at Microsoft. The info session will be hosted by Dr. John Raiti, Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Washington.
 
Registration is open until February 15, 2021. Learn more and register at www.gixnetwork.org/competition

ILSI North America Webinar

Science Is Self-Correcting — but the Record Is Not. Opportunities for Improvement for Journals and Scientists
November 13, 2020, 1:30-3:00 p.m. ET
Register here.

With the heightened visibility of retracted publications during the COVID-19 pandemic there is opportunity for a dialogue on how and why papers are retracted, why this process can be challenging and ethically-fraught, and how scientific corrections can be improved. In this webinar, invited experts will discuss some of the challenges that exist for scientists and journals when attempts are made to correct the scientific record — through retractions, corrections or letters and commentaries. In a facilitated discussion, we will highlight opportunities for the scientific community and journals to improve the corrections process.