Seven UBC faculty have been named as members of the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. Those named to the College represent the emerging generation of scholarly, scientific and artistic leadership in Canada.
Read the RSC media release here: http://www.rsc.ca/en/friends-partners/newsroom/press-releases/royal-society-canada-welcomes-2016-members-college-new
UBC 2016 RSC Members
Citations courtesy of the RSC
- Purang Abolmaesumi (Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Purang Abolmaesumi is an outstanding and innovative researcher with an international reputation for his contributions to medical imaging. His work broadly covers image analysis theory to practical computer aided therapy systems. His contributions to ultrasound imaging are used globally at leading research institutions. Thousands of cancer patients have directly benefited from his image analysis techniques that have been adopted to develop standard-of-care radiation therapy planning software for cancer treatment.
- Jehannine Austin (Psychiatry / Medical Genetics)
Jehannine Austin’s pioneering genetic counseling research, showing that genetic counseling has meaningful benefits for people with psychiatric disorders and their families, has been acknowledged with national and international awards, and by her election as president of her professional association. Based on her data, she founded the award-winning, world’s first specialist psychiatric genetic counseling service—which is influencing health services internationally.
- Molly Elizabeth Babel (Linguistics)
Molly Elizabeth Babel is Associate Professor of Linguistics at The University of British Columbia. Her research innovatively marries such diverse fields as linguistics, experimental and social psychology, sociology, cognitive science, and the speech sciences, allowing her to explore how social knowledge is manifested through spoken language, revealing insights into such basic questions as how personal and social attributes affect how people perceive and produce language.
- Roman Krems (Chemistry)
Roman Krems of the Chemistry Department at the University of British Columbia has developed the numerical tools for calculating the collision properties of molecules in electromagnetic fields. This work has been instrumental for the development of a new research field of cold molecules. His work has helped to lay a foundation for new research directions aimed at quantum technologies based on controlled ensembles of molecules at extremely low temperatures.
- Shaylih Ryan Muehlmann (Anthropology)
As Canada Research Chair in Language, Culture and the Environment and Associate Professor of Anthropology, Shaylih Muehlmann is renowned for her courageous fieldwork and gripping ethnographic analyses of one of the most fraught geographies in the world: the narco-corridor of northern Mexico, where the Sonora desert, the dried out delta of the Colorado River and the fenced US-Mexico border intersect to create a particularly rugged social geography.
- Philippe D. Tortell (Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences)
Philippe D. Tortell’s work has made seminal contributions to understanding the effects of oceanic CO2 variability on marine primary productivity and phytoplankton physiological ecology. He has also pioneered the development of new automated instruments and experimental methods to measure the oceanic concentration and production/ consumption rates of various biogenic gases including oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane and dimethylsulfide. This work informs our understanding of ocean biogeochemistry and climate regulation.
- Katherine White (Sauder School of Business)
Katherine White has made significant contributions to knowledge in the area of consumer psychology. In 2015, she was identified by the American Marketing Association as one of the top five marketing researchers in the world based on publications top-tier marketing journals over the prior five years. She is well-known for her work on social identity, social influence, and ethical consumption. Her research has identified positive social and environmental consequences of marketing.