Elections are being held for three positions on the Science Dean's Advisory Committee (DAC). Any tenured or tenure-track faculty member, on either the research or educational leadership tracks, is eligible to vote in the election for DAC members, and to serve on this committee.
The purpose of the DAC is to ensure a new path of communication for the Dean with the faculty members, and to allow the Dean to receive continuing input on matters of importance within the Faculty of Science. The committee acts on behalf of the entire Faculty, and does not represent interests of individual departments or units.
The DAC will have six members, each of which will serve a two year term. Three members are to be elected, one in each of the following categories: Biological Sciences; Mathematical, Computational, and Data Sciences; and, Physical Sciences. Please vote for one of the two candidates in each of the three areas.
Voting Instructions
Voting will be open from 11:00am on Thursday, March 7, 2019 until 11:59 pm on Thursday, March 14, 2019.
To vote, go to UBC WebVote and log in using your CWL credentials. You will then be able to vote in three separate elections.
- Click on the election you seek to place your vote in
- Click "vote" next to the name of the candidate for whom you wish to vote
- Click "Ok"
- Click "submit vote" (this will make your vote final)
- Repeat the process for the next two elections
- Log out of WebVote
Candidate Information
1. BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES (VOTE FOR ONE)
Terre Satterfield, Institute on Resources, Environment, and Sustainabilty
I am a Professor in the Institute on Resources, Environment, and Sustainability (IRES). (http://ires.ubc.ca/person/terre-satterfield/). I am an anthropologist by training and an interdisciplinarian by design. My work concerns sustainable development in the context of debates about cultural meanings, environmental values, perceived risk, environmental and ecosystem health. Difficult environmental policy dilemmas and the qualitative and quantitative methods that might resolve these are of particular interest. Locally, this work pertains to First Nations interest in land management, oil and gas development, and regulatory contexts. Globally, it incorporates biodiversity management and politics, and the perceived risk of new technologies (biotechnology, fracking and nanotechnology).
Michael Whitlock, Department of Zoology
I am a Professor in the Department of Zoology (http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/person/whitlock). My research focuses on evolution in structured populations: What are the forces which control the nature and distribution of genotypes in subdivided populations and how does this affect the outcome of other evolutionary processes? These questions and others are addressed in a variety of ways, from theoretical analyses to experimental lab model systems to field research.
2. MATHEMATICAL, COMPUTATIONAL AND DATA SCIENCES (VOTE FOR ONE)
Reid Holmes, Department of Computer Science
I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science (https://cs.ubc.ca/~rtholmes). I am broadly interested in the problems software engineers encounter as they create and evolve software systems and finding novel techniques to improve their effectiveness at these tasks. My past research projects have investigated a range of problems surrounding software testing and validation, source code reuse, code search, context-sensitive example location, API understanding, speculative analysis, code review and team awareness.
My research often involves collaboration with industry and I am the Industrial Liaison for the Department of Computer Science. I sit on the editorial board for the IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering and am the recipient of the 2017 CS-Can Outstanding Young Computer Science Research prize.
Brian Wetton, Department of Mathematics
I have been a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics since 1991. My research area is scientific computing, with application to fluid mechanics, materials science, and electrochemical systems. I have worked with Industry on several occasions. Relevant experience for the role of Dean’s Advisory Committee include includes DACOPAT 2015-18 and the Institute of Applied Mathematics Director 2013-18. In that latter role I facilitated interdisciplinary research and graduate education across Departments and Faculties. More information can be found on my web site: http://www.math.ubc.ca/~wetton/.
3. PHYSICAL SCIENCES (VOTE FOR ONE)
Ingrid Stairs, Department of Physics and Astronomy
I am a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy (https://www.phas.ubc.ca/users/ingrid-stairs) . My work involves the observation of pulsars and transients with some of the world’s largest radio telescopes. I use the 305-m Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico and the 100-m Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia to study relativistic binary pulsars and to time an array of millisecond pulsars to search for low-frequency gravitational waves, via the NANOGrav collaboration. I time pulsars and look for short-duration Fast Radio Bursts with the newly built CHIME telescope in Penticton, B.C. Another focus is on searching for new pulsars, including those suitable for inclusion in NANOGrav, using all three telescopes. I am also involved in science planning for the next-generation Square Kilometre Array radio telescope.
Steve Withers, Department of Chemistry
I am a Professor in the Department of Chemistry (https://withers.chem.ubc.ca ) with Associate member status in the Michael Smith Labs, and in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. My research interests have always focused around the fascinating question of how enzymes function as such formidable catalysts. Enzymes involved in glycosyl transfer have served as useful model systems for developing this understanding, especially since they are amongst Nature’s most proficient catalysts, accelerating reactions by some 1017 fold. To address these questions we have combined our ability to synthesize substrates and inhibitors with classical enzymology and molecular biology such that we can alter the structures of both the substrate and the catalyst and then measure the consequence of the modifications on reaction rates. Collaborations with structural biologists have allowed us to then visualise the enzyme in action. We have applied these understandings to the design and development of new therapeutic candidates, as well as engineered enzymes for industrial scale synthesis. Most recently we have been applying high-throughput methodologies to the discovery of new enzymes for various applications.
Questions
If you have any questions or difficulty voting please contact elections.information@ubc.ca