The worst typhoon of the century hit Philippines a few days ago and some estimated over 10,000 death toll! As the result of food and water scarcity, this number might unfortunately rise in the next few days. The unfortunate events after this natural disaster, such as looting/gunfire, and famine, was featured in today’s Metro News. Link here.

According to BBC news, Philippine President Benigno Aquino has declared a state of national calamity to speed relief efforts for victims of Typhoon Haiyan. The news link here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24901993

We have a significant number of Filipinos in our department and they might be already affected by this catastrophe. As Philippines is on another side of the world, what we can do is to provide them with financial aids.

Below you can find the related donation address for Red Cross:
http://www.redcross.ca/donate/donate-online/donate-to-the-typhoon-haiyan-fund

Typhoon Haiyan Aftermath (Photo Credit: Metro News)

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Hello friends! How is everyone? It is Friday again! 😀 Here is the list of news for the week!

1. The University is offering free influenza (flu) immunizations to UBC students, faculty and staff at clinics throughout UBC Vancouver starting November 5 and running through November 28, 2013. Here is the link to the program. http://riskmanagement.ubc.ca/health-safety/influenza-immunization-program.Closest clinic is in CEME.

2. We have new CUPE 2278 (Teaching Assistant Union) Representative in our department. Joylene Yu and I (Jun Sian Lee) will be the person to contact if you about any concerns about the right of your TA position.

3.

GPS: Graduate Pathways to Success

GPS/SCARL Workshop II:  Exploring and Visualizing Data is next Wednesday, November 13, 2013; 10:00am to 12:00pm. For a complete session description, please visit: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/about-us/events/10563-gpsscarl-workshop-exploring-visualizing-data . To register, see: https://www.surveyfeedback.ca/surveys/wsb.dll/s/1g2ce8

4.

Bring Lunch and Learn 4

Our department’s 4th Lunch & Learn Workshop: Swagelok Hands On Introduction on Wednesday, November 20th 12:00 to 1:00 pm at CHBE Courtyard (north side of CHBE). What is different this time is, we will be provided with FREE food! Click here for more info. RVSP here.

5. Ivan, our safety officer will be a unavailable November 12-15.  Please contact Ken Wong @ 604 827-4833
should any safety issues arise,  any building related issues  should be directed to trouble calls @ 604 822-2173.

6. Helsa, our graduate secretary is away for the whole November!

In her absence, Stephen Godfrey will be covering. You may reach Steve by emailing gradsec@chbe.ubc.ca.

Please note that Helsa will not be checking her email while she is away. Effective immediately, all emails should be send to gradsec@chbe.ubc.ca.

Some Notes: (1) Please check your @CHBE.UBC.CA email. Staff members communicate with graduate students through those email. (2) Helsa and other staff members are only doing their job distributing information. There is no intention to spam anyone with emails.

7.. Interesting comic from GSS weekly news.

If you have any suggestion for what you like to see on our weekly news, please email me at jslee@chbe.ubc.ca or comment on this blog post.
Also please join the CHBE Grad Student Club Facebook Group onhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/chbegsc/ if you are a graduate student or a recent alumni of graduate program of UBC CHBE.

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Hello everyone, I hope everyone has an awesome week so far! Here are our news! If anyone has special announcement, please let me know!

1. FIREtalk: Learning Machines

The Research Commons invites graduate students from any discipline – engineers, philosophers, computer scientists, writers, neuroscientists, artists, psychologists, social theorists, and others – to explore the boundary between mind and machine.
Join us for the next FIREtalk (bit.ly/firetalk), Learning Machines.
When: Wednesday, November 27, 4-6 pm
Where: Koerner Library, Room 216

2. Congratulations to our department’s Adjunct Professor, Dr. Alfred Guenkel (info link),  P.Eng., for receiving the Association for Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of B.C. 2013 Meritorious Achievement Award at the APEGBC Annual Conference and AGM in Whistler, B.C. (October 24-26, 2013). A Youtube video (LINK here) was made to celebrate his achievement as partner and Principal Chemical Engineer of NORAM Engineering and Constructions Ltd.

3. Doug Yuen, our Technical team leader (also, “Workshop Supervisor”) will be off starting this Friday, Nov 1st  2013 to next Friday, Nov 8th  2013. In his absents Marlene Chow will be consulting and supervising shop. You can contact her by e-mail @ (Chow, Marlene Marlene.Chow@ubc.ca) or by Phone   604-827-3537 or cell   778-879-5105. Her location is room 173 in stores.

4. Next week is Thrive Week at UBC!   www.thrive.ubc.ca is a weeklong campaign (Nov. 4-8) promoting mental health for all.
Movember @ Mahoneys will be an open forum about men’s mental health facilitated by UBC faculty, staff and students.
Details: Monday November 4^th, 3:00-5:00pm at Mahony & Sons Public House – UBC
Food will be provided and drink specials will also be available. Attendees must be 19 years of age to take part in this event. Please forward the event links to others who might be interested; however, space is limited so be sure to RSVP (link below) to ensure your spot.

RSVP CLICK HERE!

5. Hello November! I wish everyone had a great October and will have a even more awesome month in November. Cheers!

If you have any suggestion for what you like to see on our weekly news, please email me at jslee@chbe.ubc.ca or comment on this blog post.
Also please join the CHBE Grad Student Club Facebook Group onhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/chbegsc/ if you are a graduate student or a recent alumni of graduate program of UBC CHBE.

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Some of you might notice, I have posted a number of “news” post without giving them the title “weekly news”.
Those are weekly features of news. I think that way of posting news neglects other news that were important too. For example, the great talk yesterday Oct 24 by Dr. Atsushi Tsutsumi from University of Tokyo on Energy Recuperation. Thus, I shall start listing down events/news that are sent to my inbox by the department’s staff, GSS Communication and other sources (if any).

1. Jane McCarthy joins the CHBE Admin Team as the new Executive Assistant to the Head as of Wednesday, October 23, For 2013. For more info, click here.

2. A series of stranger assaults have occurred on UBC Vancouver campus. PLEASE be careful when walking around campus by yourself. Click here for the Safety Advisory.

3. After almost 1 year of building renovations and seismic upgrades, Sage at the University Centre has re-opening, offering a comfortable and contemporary environment, personalized service and incredible menus that include bounty from the Pacific Ocean and local gardens, farms, fields and woodlands.

4. CHBE GSC Professional Development Speaker Series – Oct. 30 – Dr. Madjid Mohseni. A blog post was made for this special seminar! link here. Make sure to go and learn about Dr. Mohseni’s life and experience in research!

5. MANDATORY CHBE TA Union Orientation Meeting on Friday, Nov 1st at 1:30 PM in room 202. The session will serve as an introduction to the TA Union: the services it offers to TA’s and its collective agreement with UBC (in other words, your employment contract). Please be sure to attend.

If you have any suggestion for what you like to see on our weekly news, please email me at jslee@chbe.ubc.ca or comment on this blog post.
Also please join the CHBE Grad Student Club Facebook Group onhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/chbegsc/ if you are a graduate student or a recent alumni of graduate program of UBC CHBE.

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In this weekly news, I feature a short summary of the CHBE Industry Night, which is a bi-annual event organized by UBC CHBE Undergrad Student Council and the UBC APSC Alumni Relations Team.

Some of you that follow the CHBE GSC Blog might know, the featured alumni are Dr. Eric Jervis, PEng – STEMCELL Technologies, Jane Nieuwenburg, EIT – Lorax Enviromental Servies Ltd, Peter Wynne, PEng – Chevron, and Warren MacPhail, PEng – Devon Energy, who is actually an alumni of U of Calgary.

The event started with Dr. Peter Englezos welcome speech. The evening continued with Claudio Arato, PEng as the host. Claudio Arato is a alumnus of UBC CHBE and currently sits on the department’s Industrial Advisory Board.

Following this, I will state important points that each speaker had mentioned during the presentation.

Dr. Jervis is the 1st speaker of the evening. He encouraged the students to work for good grades because that shows how hardworking a student is. He stressed the importance of 10 year plan as a successful career requires time, patience and planning to build.

Jane Nieuwenburg, who is a recent graduate from our graduate. discussed her job hunting experience. There are 2 points that hit the spot.

1. No matter which year you’re in, start looking for a job right now.
2. Don’t limit yourself to posted jobs. You have to approach companies by contacting them personally. State your interest and your capability to the company clearly.
3. Learn more about companies by talking to representatives in career fairs and info session available on campus and else where.

Peter Wynne has worked with Chevron since his graduation from UBC in year 1981. He said that he actually worked in many different jobs in the same company. He stated as a design engineer, then financial and marking representative and currently a process engineer at a refinery. He works with clients from around the world in daily basis. The advice that Peter gave is to try as many experience as you can. When you’re young, try out jobs that are outside your comfort zone. For example, working in the freezing North of BC or somewhere far away from home. This will help yourself to widen your mindset and also serves as a great opportunity for you to learn many lessons that one might not learn in an office job.

Warren MacPhail talked about his experience at Devon Energy. He talked about the development of optic fibre well temperature sensor and search for improved technology for the future 5 or 10 years. Warren also talked about what he looks for in a resume. He looks for something that people challenge themselves to do over time. Join professional societies and organizations and get involved.

To sum up, start now, build your technical and soft skills, expand your network, and find your passion immediately.

If you have any suggestion for what you like to see on our weekly news, please email me at jslee@chbe.ubc.ca or comment on this blog post.
Also please join the CHBE Grad Student Club Facebook Group onhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/chbegsc/ if you are a graduate student or a recent alumni of graduate program of UBC CHBE.

From the left, Warren MacPhail, Jane Nieuwenburg and Peter Wynne

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We are very happy about the great turnout for the First Research Day 2013 event! This event is a success because of the efforts of the organizers (CHBE GSC executives, faculty and staff members in UBC CHBE and APSC), keynote speakers, presenters, and the participants! Don’t forget the generous sponsors of this event.

I represents the Research Day Organizing Committee to thank you everyone who provided support to this event and we will see you next year! Cheers!

Below are the congratulation wishes from our Department Head, Dr. Peter Englezos

“Dear Fahimeh [Chairwoman of Research Day 2013 Organizing Committee],
On behalf of the Department, congratulations one more time for organizing the Department’s Research Day. The event was a huge success and exceeded expectations.
Everyone I talked to was impressed with the organization and the quality of the oral and poster presentations and how effectively you brought together students, faculty and the broader community.Your efforts are much appreciated by all of us. I am confident that the experience you gained will be valuable in your professional life. Please also convey my congratulations and appreciation to Alireza, Hafiz, Negar, Ramin, Sonia, Jun Sian, and Hamid.”

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Ehsan Espid

My name is Ehsan Espid. I am currently a MASc Student working on a project related to developments of a new photocatalytic microreactors. During my     B.S. career, I dedicated a great portion of my time to do group activities and participate in social committees, so my Extracurricular Activities gave me valuable experiences by fully interacting with faculties and staff. Here I’m going to devote myself to help the GSS become better integrated into graduate student life. My goals for my term in GSS generally will  be on developing an effective connection to establish closer relation with graduate students to promote awareness of campus facilities and devise a way to share these facilities with all graduate students in different departments.

Pooya Hossein

Greeting my fellow grad students, I, Pooya, hail from Iran and started my PhD program in January 2012 working on “bi-functional oxygen evolution/reduction cathodes in alkaline batteries and fuel cells” under the supervision of Prof. Elod Gyenge. Since I am currently the treasurer in our one and only ECS BC Student Chapter, I have some experiences dealing with financial issues such as funding for events. Hence, I would like to work with my fellow councilors in GSS Council to make GSS funds more accessible to every events hosted by any grad student including my friends in CHBE. I think it is a great opportunity for me to deal with one of major grad event’s sponsors in our UBC to hopefully make it easier to host a grad event in CHBE or any other department in the future.

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The first seminar this year of the “CHBE Professional Development Seminar Series”, organized by the CHBE Graduate Student Club, was successfully held on September 20th with Professor Xiaotao (Tony) Bi as the speaker. After completing his PhD from this department, Professor Bi worked at the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal as a postdoctoral follow and Natural Gas Technologies Centre as a research scientist prior to joining UBC as a faculty member in 1997. In addition to teaching and active research, he served as the associate department head for 3 years, as an associate director of the Clean Energy Research Centre since 2009, manager of the Fluidization Research Centre since 1998, and a faculty mentor of the UBC Bridge program since 2007.

In his talk, Professor Bi provided a summary of his academic career starting from his childhood. He was born and raised in a small town in the south-west of China. The end of Chinese Cultural Revolution opened the door for him to compete for and get admitted in the prestigious Tsinghua University of China. After completing Bachelor degree, he decided to pursue Masters degree at the influence of some faculty members there. Later, he moved to UBC to obtain a PhD degree in this department under the supervision of Professor John Grace.

Professor Bi frankly admitted that throughout his career he had been attracted by many diversions, but successfully managed to get over all the allurements and pursued his main goal. He always asks himself what is the most important thing he needs to do at that time in order to reach the main goal. By sharing the stories of his own struggles, he has addressed some of the interesting questions which cross the mind of a graduate student who wishes to develop career in the field of research and/or teaching. Professor Bi highly recommended participating in extra-curricular activities for developing soft skills; however, he stressed the need for giving academic activities the priority.

CHBE Graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty members well attended the talk. Graduate students from other engineering departments, too, participated.

If you have any suggestion for what you like to see on our weekly news, please email me at jslee@chbe.ubc.ca or comment on this blog post.
Also please join the CHBE Grad Student Club Facebook Group on https://www.facebook.com/groups/chbegsc/ if you are a graduate student or a recent alumni of graduate program of UBC CHBE.

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Introduction to our Technical personnel in Chemical & Biological Engineering Department

This is the 3rd part and the last part of CHBE Staff Info Series. Here are the links for the 1st part: Administration personnel; 2nd part: Management personnel. This post features our staff members from the CHBE Workshop, led by Doug Yuen, the workshop supervisor, CHBE Store, managed by Richard Ryoo, our storekeeper and CHBE Lab, managed by Ken Wong, our lab technician.

Doug Yuen is the Technical team leader of CHBE technical staff. He manages most the technical staff members who help graduate students, faculty member and other researchers in the department to build and  setup there equipment according to specifications provided by requestor. The workshop is divided into two main sections: Mechanical Workshop and Electrical Workshop. Graham Liebelt, Gordon Cheng, Charles Cheung and David Roberts are the mechanical workshop technicians. Alex Thang and Serge Milaire are the electrical workshop technicians. To name a few machines in the workshop, there is a Fadal CNC milling machine, OMAX CNC water jet-cutter, Plasma cutter, TIG welder,TOS lathes, EDM machine and many other machines. Quoting Doug, “Anything you dream,  we can build !” This line perfectly echos the work that is performed by the workshop. However, Doug stressed that detail planning, drawing and deep understanding of a setup have to be done before the job is sent to the workshop. Graduate students should consult their supervisors then consult the workshop about what they wish to build. The most important thing is to have mutual understanding between you and the workshop on the objectives, the problems and the results that are desired from a setup.

Richard Ryoo is our CHBE storekeeper. He handles the delivery and pickup of supplies and instruments of the department. At the same time, Richard keeps the store well-stocked with supplies of consumables, such as paper towels, gloves, small bottles for sample collection, and many other items. He helps us to order items from specified suppliers, provided that you have a speed chart (more info about speed chart, click the hyperlink and find [ctrl+F] “speed chart”). Also, to ease his work, please submit your order using the “New Workshop and Online Ordering System” in CHBE IT Resources.

Ken Wong is our lab technician. His main job is to maintain the undergraduate laboratory in the 4th floor. However, he is also in charge of assigning access to a fob-access laboratory, e.g Lab 506. Ken is the one that provides us with assess to the undergrad lab to obtain ice and distilled water.

Next week, we will feature the summary of Dr. Bi’s professional seminar. Starting the week following that, I will ask graduate students to contribute on posting to describe their research groups. If you wish to contribute, please email me to the email address below.

If you have any suggestion for what you like to see on our weekly news, please email me at jslee@chbe.ubc.ca or comment on this blog post.
Also please join the CHBE Grad Student Club Facebook Group on https://www.facebook.com/groups/chbegsc/ if you are a graduate student or a recent alumni of graduate program of UBC CHBE.

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Introduction to our Management Personnel in Chemical & Biological Engineering Department

This is 2nd part of our CHBE staff Information series. This post features the all management staff except Joanne, who was featured in the previous post about the main office staff. Click this link: [https://blogs.ubc.ca/chbegsc/2013/09/10/weekly-news-1/] to view the info about the personnel in the main office.

Dr. Peter Englezos is our Department Head. He has the ultimate responsibility of all aspects of the operation and development of the department. He has the responsibility to ensure the delivery of high quality undergraduate and graduate programs. The head facilitates the work of faculty to support world class research and oversees all the services and facilities available in the department to support its teaching and research. Dr. Englezos ensures that the financial and other resources are well-managed . The head reports to the Dean of Applied Science on all the academic matters, as well as facilitates collaboration with other engineering departments. Dr. Englezos is working on initiatives with the department’s industry advisory council to increase Co-op placement for the department’s students, to enhance industrial collaboration on research, to enhance student professional skils development, and to fund-raise to support the research and educational activities in CHBE department. Dr. Englezos has an open door policy and If you have any issues that you want to bring up, you can go to his office in room 261.

Dr. James Piret is our Associate Head of Undergraduate Programs. Dr. Piret’s main responsibility lies in supporting the undergraduate academically. He is involved in curriculum issues and other matters related to undergraduate students. He also helps the Department Head in other general aspects of running the department and serves as the Acting Head when Dr. Englezos is away.

Marlene Chow is our Manager of Technical and Physical Resources. She officially became a staff in our department in June 2013. With a comprehensive background in the Oil & Gas, Petrochemical, Specialty Paper industries, she offers wide knowledge including technical and safety aspects of chemical, process and project engineering and plant operations. Marlene’s main duties include CHBE safety, the workshop, purchasing and the laboratories.  Marlene takes care of technical building and laboratory issues in CHBE, Gas Gun, and other buildings that CHBE faculty utilize.  She manages the CHBE safety program and offers research project management services.  If you want to see her for research design advice, her office is right beside the CHBE stores in room 173.

Richard Zhang is our Systems Administrator. He handles everything related to IT, from course website setup and login to installation of software in your office computer. Richard occasionally sends out notices about changes or interruption in UBC internet services, and IT tips, such as how to identify phishing messages. His office is in room 261.

Ivan Leversage is our Safety Officer. Most of us, who do work in the lab, will remember him as the one that nudged us to sign up for the chemical engineering safety course. His duties are actually wider than that. He monitors the safety aspects of setting up and decommissioning of an experimental apparatus, and helps students on setup delivery, such as setting up Plant Op service, assigns and monitors storage space for all areas of the building, coordinates and participates in accident/incident investigations and anything that is related to running the building safely and efficiently. I think most important for most of us is that Ivan is the the person to contact should you lock your keys in the office or find you have burnt out lights in your office or a plugged up sink in your lab. His office is in room 437.

The blog will feature the technical staff in the next and final post about CHBE staff.

If you have any suggestion for what you like to see on our weekly news, please email me at jslee@chbe.ubc.ca or comment on this blog post.
Also please join the CHBE Grad Student Club Facebook Group on https://www.facebook.com/groups/chbegsc/ if you are a graduate student or a recent alumni of graduate program of UBC CHBE.

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