Eight UBC professors have been named Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) – the highest honour a scholar can achieve in the arts, humanities and sciences in Canada.
UBC 2017 RSC Fellows
Citations courtesy of RSC
- Sally Aitken, Forest and Conservation Sciences
Sally Aitken is a Professor in the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences at the University of British Columbia, and an internationally recognized authority on the genetic adaptation of forest trees to climate. Her research links genomics, ecology and climatology to understand adaptation and the capacity of trees to adapt to new conditions. She is helping re-shape forest management, conservation, and reforestation decisions for new climates.
- Michael Devereux, Vancouver School of Economics
Michael Devereux is one of the most influential international finance economists in the world. His work has contributed to a re-thinking of the desirability of flexible exchange rate regimes. Professor Devereux used observations on the weak co-movement between retail prices and exchanges rate to motivate a new theory of international macroeconomic adjustment. His insights are now incorporated into macroeconomics models used by central banks and governments throughout the world.
- Guy Dumont, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Guy Dumont is a world-renowned expert in adaptive and process control. His innovative and groundbreaking applications of adaptive control have been commercialized by leading industrial firms worldwide and have inspired the work of others in the field. More recently, his research has been devoted to increasing patient safety through enhanced clinical monitoring, automated drug delivery and medical technology relevant to the problems of the developing world.
- Margery Fee, English
Margery Fee has a stellar national and international reputation for her research in Canadian Literature and Canadian English Lexicography. Among her most influential publications are Literary Land Claims: the “Indian Land Question” from Pontiac’s War to Attawapiskat (2015) and the Guide to Canadian English Usage (OUP), described as “the Canadian Fowler.” Her research on Indigenous Literature has transformed scholarly approaches to the subject and its place within Canadian Studies.
- Gary Hinshaw, Physics & Astronomy
Gary Hinshaw is widely recognized as one of the premier scientists in the world striving to understand the nature and contents of the universe. Over the past twenty-five years he has led the analysis teams on two major prize-winning experiments that have culminated in the standard model of cosmology; a description, in exquisite detail, that encapsulates our current knowledge of the universe.
- Dominic Lopes, Philosophy
Dominic Lopes has proposed new theories of images and their value, the nature of computer and digital art, the nature of art in general, and the special place of aesthetic value in the human experience. In six books and many articles, he has been resolute and effective in helping to reinvigorate aesthetics in North America and abroad.
- Laurel Schafer, Chemistry
Laurel Schafer has made seminal research contributions bridging the areas of organometallic and organic chemistry; she has developed a versatile ground-breaking new class of early transition metal complexes for use in selective carbon-nitrogen and carbon-carbon bond forming reactions of industrial relevance. These new catalytic systems synergistically minimise waste and maximise energy efficiency by utilising metals of low toxicity for sustainable approaches towards selective and specific chemical transformations.
- Jiujun Zhang (Adjunct Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering)
Jiujun Zhang is a world-renown expert in electrochemical energy science and technology with over 450 publications and over 24,000 citations. He is one of the pioneers of modern fuel cell technology and has also made significant contributions to the science of batteries, sensors, supercapacitors, CO2 electroreduction and other electrochemical devices. He has been listed as one of “The 3000 World Most Influential Scientific Minds” by Thomson Reuters since 2014.
The 89 new Fellows will be officially inducted into the academies of the RSC at a ceremony in Winnipeg in November.