Suzuki to receive honorary degree from Western

Acclaimed environmentalist and host of the long running CBC television show The Nature of Things, David Suzuki, will be honoured at a special convocation ceremony this Friday at the Trois-Pistoles campus of The University of Western Ontario. The special convocation ceremony will mark the 75th anniversary of the Trois-Pistoles French Immersion School.  Also receiving an honorary degree at the ceremony is Quebec journalist Jean-Pierre Proulx.

Universite de Montreal awards the first Ph.D. in bioinformatics in Canada

On Tuesday, the Universite de Montreal awarded Emmanuelle Permal the first doctoral degree in bioinformatics in Canada.  Permal's work on the 3D structure of RNA virus genomes was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The results, obtained using tools that were developed at Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Theoretical Biology, revealed the existence of structural motifs that are essential to the survival of the hepatitis B virus, the A-type influenza virus and the bovine immunodeficiency virus. These motifs constitute novel therapeutic targets and could eventually be used to develop more efficient antivirals.

Bioinformatics is a relatively young field of multidisciplinary research that brings together biologists and computer scientists in an effort to model living structures and decipher biological information. Starting in the 1990's, this research field grew considerably as a result of the huge amount of data generated by the human genome project.

Waterloo researchers receive CFI support for wide-ranging projects

University of Waterloo researchers have received $796,545 in funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation(CFI)to perform work in such wide-ranging areas as ecosystem restoration, snow and ice hydrology of cold regions, and quantum information processing.

The funding will create a Centre for Biophyscial Research in Ecosystem, assist a Cyrospheric Remote Sensing Research Facility, the laboratory for optical quantum computation and communication technologies, the laboratory for the Synthesis, Physical and Thermodynamic Characterization of Novel Nanostructures for Applications in Chemical and Biological Systems, and fund Quantum heterostructure optoelectronic devices for terahertz applications.

B.C. universities face falling enrolment due to booming western economy

B.C. universities are facing a challenge in attracting new students to attend their institutions in light of a booming economy which is offering competitive wages for young people.

Brian Silzer, UBC's registrar, told CBC News that some departments have reduced their admission averages by three or four per cent from last year and UNBC stated they will have empty spaces in September.

Medical residents get break on student loan repayment

Medical graduates in the residency phase of their careers will no longer be required to start repaying their student loans until their residency is complete under a new program announced in Nova Scotia. Their loans will collect interest during their residency and they will be required to repay the principal plus interest when they complete their internships.