Hello, for new readers of CHBE GSC official blog, my name is Jun Sian Lee, the VP Communication of Chemical & Biological Engineering Graduate Student Club (CHBE GSC) Executive Committee. Weekly News is a new initiative started by me to allow the information posted through email goes into a post format. Since last September I have been posting weekly news every Friday (or Saturday) to convey the events happening in the department. The information here is mainly aimed for CHBE graduate students but many events posted here is open to all the UBC students. I hope the weekly news is useful for everyone! Cheers, Jun

CHBE Building Security

After the December break, there continue to be reports of doors propped open and ongoing door lock damage. CHBE may be a target for break-ins.

Please:

• Lock labs and offices when you leave.
• Check that exterior doors latch securely when you exit the building after hours.
• If exterior or stairwell doors are propped open, remove props and check that doors close securely.
• Report doors and latches that are not working properly (email or phone Marlene 778-879-5105).
• Report any suspicious people, unfamiliar faces (Campus Security 2-2222).
• Do not leave valuables in offices.
• Campus Security checks CHBE routinely and on receiving reports of issues. Security Officers may ask individuals for ID and/or authorization to be on the premises.

CHBE Speaker Series Seminar

The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering is hosting a lecture by distinguished speaker Professor Tony Mikos,
on Monday January 20th, 2014 from 12-1 pm in CHBE Room 202.

Everyone is most welcome to attend this lecture.

Speaker: Antonios G Mikos is Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice University. His research focuses on the synthesis, processing and evaluation of new biomaterials. His work has led to the development of novel orthopaedic, dental, cardiovascular, neurologic, and ophthalmologic biomaterials. He is the author of over 500 publications, 25 patents, editor of 15 books and the author of one textbook (Biomaterials: The Intersection of Biology and Materials Science, Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008). He has been cited over 40,000 times and has an h-index of 109.

Title: Biomaterials for Tissue Engineering

For Abstract see HERE

Helsa is away

Helsa will be away as of tomorrow until further notice. 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. All emails should be sent to gradsec@chbe.ubc.ca. – Joanne

Biorenewables Café

The Biorenewables Café is an informal monthly gathering of biorenewables enthusiasts from academia, industry, and the general public. We meet over coffee/beers at the Railway Club in downtown Vancouver (579 Dunsmuir Street). This month, this Tuesday, January 21st, we are hosting Chris Bush, president of Catalyst Agri-Innovation Society, who will be talking about anaerobic digestion to produce biogas, ethanol, fertilizer, and clean water from manure.

For more details about this month’s event, please see the poster HERE. If you’re interested in the biorenewables sector in Vancouver, or just want to come and check it out, we welcome you to come and join us t at the Railway Club!

Fun Comic

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Dear graduate students,

Have you ever wanted to get behind the scene and be a member of the organizing team of an event? If your answer is yes, please continue reading! This is an opportunity which you may want to consider.

After a successful Research Day 2013 (website link here), Research Day 2014 is currently looking to recruit volunteers to complete the organizing committees. We are looking for students who are passionate about team work, interested in developing their set of soft skills, and are willing to make commitments to meet regularly. We usually meet monthly; however, as we get closer to the day of event, we are going to need to meet bi-weekly or even weekly.

The positions available are:

• Administrative committee,co-chair
• Technical committee, co-chair
• Marketing committee, chair

Please CLICK HERE to see the guideline for the roles and responsibilities of each committee. However, please also note that we are working as a team and we may need to help each other as needed.

By joining Research Day 2014 organizing team, you will enjoy working with an enthusiastic team and sharing/expressing your ideas as well as getting trained for organizing bigger events in your future career. You may also want to put this as a volunteer experience on your resume to demonstrate your project management capability, team work ability and leadership skill.

If you would like to join us, please reply to this email by this Friday, Jan. 17, 2:00 PM and kindly indicate your position of interest.

Please do not hesitate to contact us at researchday2014@chbe.ubc.ca if you have any questions/concerns.
Thank you for your contribution and we wish you success and scholarly progress in your research.

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January 2014 CHBE GSC Professional Development Seminar

We are pleased to announce Mr. Claudio Arato as the speaker of the upcoming seminar in the professional development series.Mr. Arato was elected as an Engineers Canada Fellow in 2011 and received Community Leadership Award from UBC Faculty of Applied Science in 2013. He has also been a member of Industrial Advisory Committee of CHBE department for over ten years.
More info here: https://blogs.ubc.ca/chbegsc/2014/01/08/professional-development-seminar-jan-13-claudio-arato/

Title: Applications in Engineering – Opportunity & Risk in a Changing World
Date: January 13, 2014 (Monday)
Time: 12:00 – 1:00 PM
Place: CHBE 2.02 (2360 East Mall)

CHBE January Safety Orientation

New to the department or missed September’s Annual Safety Orientation?
We have a Safety Orientation scheduled in Next Friday.
Date, Time and Venue: January 17th Friday @ 9:00am in CHBE 204

UBC Research Common: FIRETalk

The Research Common invites you to participate in the upcoming FIREtalk: Creativity and Innovation to be held on Wednesday January 29th 4-6 pm. Submit your proposal for a 5 minute presentation by January 15th.
http://bit.ly/CreateandInnovate
To sign up as a presenter click on the following link:
http://koerner.library.ubc.ca/services/research-commons/fire-talks/proposal-submission-form/
To sign up as an attendee click on the following link:
http://elred.library.ubc.ca/libs/dashboard/view/4617/

Call for volunteers to join Let’s Talk Science at UBC

Interested in Science and Engineering? Enjoy working with kids and youths? Want to give back to your community?
TLDR: Sign up as a science outreach volunteer with UBC Let’s Talk Science by filling out a short survey here. No experience necessary. We provide training. Commitment is flexible. We invite you to learn more about our exciting program by visiting our website at www.ubclts.com and reading about the various Outreach Programs.

Workshop: Learn about getting Canadian residency through the B.C. Provincial Nominee Program

For international students in CHBE:
Interested in applying for Canadian permanent residency? Government officers from the B.C. Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) and Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) will speak about current government regulations and application procedures.

When: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM
Where: Neville Scarfe Building, Room 100
RSVP: https://ubc-csm.symplicity.com/students/index.php/pid862296?mode=form&id=360023845fa42f7dcb456ecc7860bb7c&s=event&ss=ws

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Happy New year everyone!

Weekly News is back! Since it is the first week of the term, there isn’t many news to write. But two very important notices.

Room 204 and Room 222 are not available

As you know, next Monday and Tuesday we will be undergoing the CHBE External Review. The meeting rooms 222 and 204 are blocked off during this time for this purpose. The meetings start at 7:45 am on Monday, therefore, we are setting up the rooms today and would appreciate it if you did not use the rooms from now until after the review. – Joanne

Fill in scheduling form for Lunch & Learn Series

In Bring Your Lunch & Learn workshop series, the CHBE Workshop staff, tools & machinery vendors and suppliers provide technical presentations.

Five Lunch & Learn Workshops were presented in the fall:

1. Mechanical Information (pipe fittings, valves, pumps etc) – CHBE Mechanical Workshop
2. Compressed gas handling – Praxair
3. Electrical Component safety – CHBE Electrical Workshop
4. Valves & Fitting – Swagelok
5. Safety Instruments and Devices – Honeywell Safety

The future presentations could include Project management, other aspects of industrial safety and topics of your interest.

You are invited to fill out the form CHBE Lunch & Learn Scheduling . To fill it out, visit:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1JP7jcxNYdaqWkdzUtk8Grn9WTtXyE3ut572AkSf_qE0/viewform

Previous Blog post – CHBE Staff Introduction Series

If you are new to the department, please don’t forget to read the staff introduction blog post! Link below
CHBE staff Info series 1: https://blogs.ubc.ca/chbegsc/2013/09/10/weekly-news-1/

CHBE Info Series 2: https://blogs.ubc.ca/chbegsc/2013/09/16/weekly-news-2/

CHBE Info Series 3: https://blogs.ubc.ca/chbegsc/2013/09/25/weekly-news-3/

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.
Have a great weekend!

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I am relaying the message from GSS to call for Nominations for its Election 2014. Please email elections@gss.ubc.ca if you wish to nominate yourself or a friend for a position.

Dear graduate students,

The Call for Nominations for the 2014 Graduate Student Society (GSS) Elections is now open and will stay so until January 15^th (at noon).

The Graduate Student Society (GSS) is the independent voice of UBC’s graduate students. The GSS represents and advocates on behalf of all UBC graduate students to the University, the Government, and the public and provides academic, professional, social, and recreational services to graduate students. The society also acts as steward of the Thea Koerner House Graduate Student Centre on campus.

The elections are held in order to choose the leadership of the society. The GSS is run by a five-member group of graduate student Executives who serve the graduate student community:

• The President
• The Vice-President Academic and External Affairs
• The Vice-President Services
• The Vice-President Finance
• The Vice-President Administration

The GSS also elects two members to the UBC-Vancouver Senate as student representatives. As part of the Senate, these individuals are responsible for all academic-related matters, such as admissions, exam policy, curriculum changes, and awards and scholarships.

We hope that you are interested in running for any of these positions and encourage you to become familiar with their different responsibilities by consulting our website: http://gss.ubc.ca/main/sample-page/gss-elections-2014/

The website also has the nomination form that all prospective candidates must fill out and return to our office (in the Graduate Student Centre on campus, 6371 Crescent Road) by January 15^th at noon.

We also encourage you to follow the GSS Elections on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/GSSElections) and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/GSSElections). If you have any questions or would simply like to talk to us about elections, please also feel free to contact us at elections@gss.ubc.ca.

Thank you very much for your time!

GSS Elections

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This post summarizes the feedback we received about the CHBE Christmas Party. The figures provide an overview of the responses.

19 people have provided feedback. Majority of the feedback are positive. For example, one praised that the party is well-executed and it is great to honor Dr. Epstein’s birthday. Also, the movie about Dr. Epstein was very nice! Many thanks to Ehsan Beh.

A few responses complain about the length of the speech session and not having enough dessert for everyone. Personally I agree about the lengthy speeches. As for the dessert, that is what the cake is for: satisfy the need for extra dessert!

Thank you so much for all that provided their feedback.

Happy Holiday and Merry Christmas!

Best wishes,
CHBE Grad Student Club

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