Updates, news and stories

UBC Okanagan – Call for nominations for this year's Staff Awards of Excellence

The Staff Awards of Excellence celebrate the contributions of individuals instrumental in helping UBC’s Okanagan campus achieve its strategic imperatives, and to contribute to the commitment to create an outstanding work environment. There are seven categories of awards. Up to five awards per year are offered in the following categories:

Research in focus: Anamaria Richardson

As a community-based clinician and researcher in the Faculty of Medicine, Anamaria's work is focused on improving health equity and access. Find out how she accidentally landed in research.

Discover the lonely fate of a robot on Mars

Covered in the red dust that sealed its fate, NASA's InSight lander is slowly shutting down, more than 250 million kilometres from home. With its solar panels now obscured by the planet’s debris, the four-year-old robot is running out of power. One by one, its instruments are being taken offline: its robotic arm moving into ‘retirement pose’, and its seismometer likely to be turned off sometime in June.

2022 Aspire-2040 Learning Transformations Fund Awards

A message from Rehan Sadiq, Provost and Vice-President, Academic pro tem, UBC OkanaganDear colleagues,The Aspire-2040 Learning Transformations (ALT-2040) Fund supports program development, curriculum transformations, student experience enhancement and educational resource development that accelerates the curricular vision in UBC’s strategic planning documents Outlook 2040 and UBC’s Strategic Plan, Shaping UBC’s Next Century.

See photos from the Staff & Faculty Sports Day

Staff & Faculty Sports Day took place in-person in Vancouver and the Okanagan earlier this month.  More than 360 people took part in the festivities at UBC Vancouver, with over 200 participants at UBC Okanagan. The afternoon was filled with lots of energy, bright colours and cheer. See the photos! UBC Vancouver

Meet the turtle that helped reduce plastic office waste

As part of a UBC Psychology experiment, pictures of a turtle and other marine animals were placed above recycling bins to see if they could influence people to reduce their plastic waste in offices. The research indicates that visualizing marine consequences helped reduce plastic waste by 17%.

Santa Ono and UBC professor Henry Yu discuss Asian Heritage Month and what it means to them

Asian Heritage Month is an opportunity for all Canadians to learn more about the many achievements and contributions of Canadians of Asia

New research suggests ways to get men to open up

Reconnecting on campus: Graduation and Principal’s Town Hall

A message from Lesley Cormack, Principal and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, UBC Okanagan Dear colleagues, It’s been a tough two years—but the normal things in life are starting to resume. And opportunities to connect on campus are resuming, too. I’m pleased to highlight the return of two meaningful opportunities to connect with our community on campus in the coming weeks:

Equity Enhancement Fund — call for proposals

As part of UBC’s commitment to advancing equity and inclusion across its campuses, faculty and staff are invited to submit a proposal to the Equity Enhancement Fund for projects that are responsive to community needs and advance one or more of the actions outlined in UBC’s Inclusion Action Plan.  Please encourage faculty and staff in your area to submit a proposal by June 5. A total of $40,000 is available at UBC Vancouver and $5,000 at UBC Okanagan. Applicants can request up to $5,000 per project in Vancouver and up to $1,500 in the Okanagan. 

Message from the Provost, UBC Okanagan

A message from Rehan Sadiq, Provost and Vice-President, Academic pro tem, UBC OkanaganDear colleagues,As we conclude a busy winter term at UBC Okanagan, I am pleased to share a new iteration of the Provost Office newsletter, Academic Update. We will be issuing this newsletter quarterly on the Provost’s website to keep you apprised of the many academic initiatives happening on our campus.