Hi everyone,

It is my absolute pleasure to inform you that the executive committee of CHBE GSC for 2014/15 has been formed:

President: Max Yu Wang
VP Academic: Guarav Subedi & Sonia Rahmani
VP Social: Jeanette Leeuwner & Maryam Tajilrou
VP Communication and Secretary: Jun Sian Lee

Please join me to welcome them.

On behalf of the executive team of 2013/14, I am wishing an exciting and successful year ahead for the new committee!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the executives of outgoing committee, namely Alireza Bagherzadeh, Ehsan Behzadfar, Bijan Hejazi, Hamid Khaleghihamedani, Jun Sian Lee, Jeanette Leeuwner, Sonia Rahmani and Max Yu Wang. I, myself, feel quite fortunate to be able to work with these highly motivated and extra-ordinary individuals. Their passions and hard works have enabled the club to meet and exceed expectations of the students.

My team and I feel very grateful to faculty and staff members of the department including Professor Peter Englezos, Joanne Dean, Marlene Chow, Ivan Leversage, Magnolia Flores, Jane McCarthy, Lori Tanaka, Amber Lee and Helsa Leong for their outstanding supports.

And, many thanks to the graduate students of this department who participated and/or actively volunteered to make our events successful.

With best wishes,
Hafiz Rahman
Outgoing President of CHBE Graduate Students Club

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Hello everyone,
Happy Friday! The weather has been hot! But it looks like it is going to rain today!

There is a new fridge in the grad lunch room! Please move your food items from the old fridge to the new fridge as soon as possible.

The chbe grad club is still looking for candidate nomination for the next president! Please email Hafiz at mhrahman@chbe.ubc.ca to nominate yourself.

The GSS is organzing a hike to Mt. Seymour.  Savor panoramic views of the city and the Coastal Mountain Range on this intermediate hike, about 9 kilometers long, up an elevation of 450 meters. The less experienced hikers among you may take in the scenery while catching your breath. See HERE for more detail.

Have a great weekend!

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Dear 5th and 6th floor lab users in CHBE,

May’s compliance rate was 60%. The target is 100%, i.e. every single person working in their labs wears their PPE!

 It was the time to announce the winners of May’s PPE Compliance Survey.

Ivan, our safety officer will conduct monthly PPE check and those who had the highest PPE compliance level, will be put into a draw for a starbuck giftcard!
*The highest PPE compliance level simply means you have lab coat, safety glasses, waterproof footwear and appropriate gloves.

May’s winners are

Daniel Kalinowski
James Campbell

Everyone has equal chance to win the draw if you put on your PPE.

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Happy Friday everyone!
There are two garage sales happening in the following weeks!
This Saturday, June 14, 2014 at 2300 Block West 6th Ave (between Vine and Balsam), there will be a garage sale from 9AM to 1PM, featuring homehold items, art and craft items and many more. LInk to the event HERE.

For another garage sale, on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 from 11AM to 5PM, in the General Services Administration Building (GSAB)! Check out the sale details and their items HERE.

Now, we move to discuss about the grad club news. The deadline for call for nomination for Presidential Candidates are extended to Monday June 16th! Have ideas to improve the grad club? Confident with your leadership skills and interpersonal skills? Very sure that your friend is the best person to be the next CHBE GSC President? Please email Hafiz at mhrahman@chbe.ubc.ca to  nominate yourself or a friend!

Here is a social event worth spreading: Summer is finally here at Vancouver and GSS hiking trip is back. This Saturday will be the first GSS hiking trip of this year. The destination will be Sasamat Lake. It is an easy 8km trail and a perfect place for some friendly exercise. You could find more details about the trial and the event here:
http://www.vancouvertrails.com/trails/sasamat-lake/
http://gss.ubc.ca/main/gss-hike-to-sasamat-lake/

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Hi everyone, Happy Friday!

It is going to be another sunny weekend! There is an event worth noting in Vancouver Downtown. The  Gallery,performance “Downtown Bhangra” will be happening today and tomorrow for FREE outside the Vancouver Art Gallery! Check out http://vibc.org/   for more info!

From Graduate Pathway for Success, there will be

GPS/Centre for Student Involvement & Careers Graduate Career Exploration Symposium (Internships, Entrepreneurship, Career Panels, Networking) on Tuesday, June 10, 2014, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, (Hebb, Henning and Brock Hall)

Details, including registration information, can be found at: http://students.ubc.ca/career/resources/graduate-career-exploration-symposium
Fee: $10 (includes lunch)

To help the Graduate Student Society to better support you and other graduate students like you, GSS wants to hear about your experiences at UBC through
this GSS Survey. this! They are the independent voice of the over 10,000 graduate students at UBC Vancouver, so help us advocate for and improve graduate student experiences at UBC by filling out this 15 minutes survey:

And some latest health and wellbeing offering, as disseminated by Colin from UBC HR.

• Free Fitness Class- River District Vancouver

June is Free Trial Month at the River District Centre (8683 Kerr Vancouver, BC V5S 0A4). Come to any of their Yoga/Yogalates or Zumba classes for the first time free!

• This week’s Healthy Recipe:

As previously advertised Dietetics student Stephanie Dang from the school of Food Nutrition and Health has come onboard with us to contribute a weekly Healthy Recipe Series for staff and faculty at UBC to enjoy– The next one is here and it is ‘CROWD-PLEASING VEGETARIAN CHILI- – Poster Attached

• Cookspiration

On Thursday May 29 2014 dietitian Annie Tsang facilitated an excellent workshop on campus titled ‘Eating Well to Optimize Performance’. She mentioned an excellent desktop resource and smartphone app called Cookspiration  – created by Dietitians of Canada. Recipe ideas are served up to suit your mood and schedule (Basically like a food version of Songza for anyone who knows it). Check it out here

Have a great weekend!

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Happy Friday everyone,
It is a sunny day and the weekend forecast is just as beautiful! Isn’t this weather the best?

Thank you for everyone that stopped by at the BBQ last Monday. Hope you enjoy our burgers the organic vegetable, and chips. The CHBE GSC annual election is coming in the month of June! Stay tuned to the blog to read about the details!

Since 2008, UBC has had a Statement on Respectful Environment for Students, Faculty and Staff.  It is a comprehensive statement issued by the UBC Executive about our commitment to a respectful environment, the responsibilities of members of the community, and how to address related concerns. It can be viewed online at http://www.hr.ubc.ca/memos/revised-respectful-environment-statement-may-27-2014/. 

Please take this opportunity to familiarize yourself with the revised statement and share it with faculty, staff, and students as they commence work or learning opportunities in your department or faculty.

• Visit the Respectful Environment Statement website: http://www.hr.ubc.ca/respectful-environment/
• Visit the UBC Bullying & Harassment Prevention website: http://bullyingandharassment.ubc.ca/
• Read the Respectful Environment Statement online: http://www.hr.ubc.ca/respectful-environment/files/UBC-Statement-on-Respectful-Environment-2014.pdf

The GSS and the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies is carrying out a qualitative study of graduate students’ perceptions of mentoring. They will
be exploring graduate students’ perspectives on mentoring to inform and improve mentoring as an integral part of teaching and learning at UBC. They’d now like to invite you to participate in this study and share your experiences and perspective with us. Please review the official invitation letter and consent form then sign up to do your bit in helping them improve  the graduate student mentorship experience at UBC.

Wish everyone a great weekend! Cheers, Jun, VP Communication

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Hello everyone, happy Friday! Hope everyone had a fun and productive week!

The official information for the CHBE GSC Summer BBQ is out!
It is on Monday, May 26 12 PM, outside the Chemical & Biological Engineering Building East Mall Entrance! Please join us for a delicious burger!
You can enlarged version of the poster by clicking the picture below!

The CHBE department is holding a number of seminars next week. It includes:

• Seminar on Control Technologies for Paper Making by Dr. Michael Forbes, a senior research scientist at Honeywell on Tuesday, May 2012 at 12 noon in Room 202 (CHBE) 2360 East Mall. For more information, check out this PDF.
• Seminor on Nano-Engineered Materials for Clean Energy Applications by Dr. Shahram Karimi, Professor & NSERC Industrial Research Chair
  Alternative Energy Engineering, Lambton College, Canada on Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. in CHBE Room 103.

Graduate Pathway for Success always has great workshops going on. Check out their event list here: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/current-students/gps-graduate-pathways-success/gps-workshops-events

Finally, if you have any suggestions and news to be posted on the blog, please feel free to contact me. My contact info is on the “Contact” page on the top bar of the blog.

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Although we had rain yesterday, with all the sunshine today, is it officially the summer yet? The CHBE Graduate Student Club have a summer event for you.

The graduate students club of CHBE cordially invites you for a BBQ party, the CHBE Summar BBQ Party.
on Monday, May 26, 12 PM. Come join us to mark the arrival of the summer 2014.
Please stay tuned with the blog for the details.
From the Graduate Student Society (GSS), they are sponsoring WEST Conference. This is a multidisciplinary water/wastewater conference to be held at UBC from June 8-10th. I believe, some students, who are working on this area, in the department might be interested with this conference. You can register at: http://west-conference.ca/

Lets end with some message from the department.To comply with BC’s Workers Compensation Act Policy Guidelines and UBC’s Respectful Environment policy, CHBE has scheduled bullying and harassment training sessions. All employees must complete the course either online or in person. The training sessions are open to all CHBE faculty and staff including summer students. If you have missed the training session on Thursday, you can still join the training session on Next Thursday.
May 13 –     1:00 – 2:00 pm      CHBE Rm 202
RSVP at: http://doodle.com/7w69svmg29a3cht3

Have a great weekend everyone!

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Dear 5th and 6th floor lab users in CHBE,

It was the time to announce the winners of April’s PPE Compliance Survey.

Ivan, our safety officer will conduct monthly PPE check and those who had the highest PPE compliance level, will be put into a draw for a starbuck giftcard!
*The highest PPE compliance level simply means you have lab coat, safety glasses, waterproof footwear and appropriate gloves.

April’s winners are

Babak Adeli
Miguel Garcia

Everyone has equal chance to win the draw if you put on your PPE.

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