Congratulations to four LFS PhD students on receiving Public Scholars Initiative Awards:

• Celina Solis, Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems
• Colin Dring, Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems
• Wilson Mendes, Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems
• Michael Warren Brunt, Applied Animal Biology

UBC’s groundbreaking Public Scholars Initiative has launched its fifth year in September with a new cohort of 34 students. This program continues to encourage and support doctoral students from all disciplines across UBC who wish to undertake impactful dissertation research and/or knowledge mobilization that engages partners from outside the academy or who hold diverse roles inside the academy.

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A workshop on  “Meta-analysis as a tool in literature review” will be given later in this term by Dr. Marcin Baranski of the  University of Life Sciences, Warsaw.
Dr. Baranski (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marcin_Baranski)  has several publications focused on meta-analyses and is currently involved in the following two projects:

• Ekhagastiftelsen project 2018-1: Promoting human health and well-being by maintaining matrix related organic food qualities from field to fork.
• Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership, 2018-1-PL01-KA203-051124: Transformation of European Food Systems towards Sustainability by Transnational, Innovative Teaching (TEFSI).

The workshop will be held on Nov 13, 14, and 15 from 9:00 – 12:00.  Please review the workshop details below.  If you are interested in attending, please complete the information at  Meta-Analysis Workshop Registration.  Your response is needed by Oct 31, 2019.  

If you have further questions, please email christine.scaman@ubc.ca

________

Workshop:  Meta-analysis as a tool in literature review
For who: Senior undergraduate and graduate students. Please note that enrolment will be limited to 20.
Pre-requisite:  Completion of an introductory statistics course ( e.g. LFS 252, FRST 231 or equivalent)

Topics covered will include:

1. search and meta-analysis,
2. fixed vs random effects model,
3. statistical heterogeneity of the data,
4. meta-regression,
5. publication bias,
6. critical appraisal in evidence synthesis,

The workshop will have practice and ‘homework’ including:

1. introduction to R statistical software,
2. meta-analysis protocol writing,
3. dataset inspection and problems solving,
4. conducting meta-analysis in R using various methods and visualisation of the results,
5. designing meta-regression,
6. inspecting for publication bias,
7. assessing of the strength of evidence

Workshop format – 9:00 – 12:00, on three consecutive days
Day 1: Theoretical background on importance of systematic literature search and meta-analysis, steps in meta-research, the citation universe through scientific literature database Web of Science, search phrase composing.
Practical tasks: participants choose a meta-analysis topic, select key words for a search, run a search in Web of Science, report a number of identified references, screen through a couple of pages and select relevant publications.
Day 2: Theoretical background on fixed vs random effects model in meta-analysis, statistical heterogeneity of the data, meta-regression, publication bias, sensitivity analysis, critical appraisal in evidence synthesis, introduction to R statistical software.
Practical tasks: participants download and install R software and conduct basic data management and calculations.
Day 3: Theoretical background on dataset inspection and handling, problems solving, meta-analysis in R using various methods, visualisation of the results, meta-regression, meta-analysis protocol writing.
Practical tasks: dataset inspection, meta-analysis and heterogeneity calculations, detection for publication bias, assessments of the strength of evidence.

Christine Scaman  PhD
Associate Professor, Food, Nutrition and Health
The University of British Columbia | Vancouver Campus | Musqueam Traditional Territory
Room 247, 2205 East Mall | Vancouver British Columbia | V6T 1Z4 Canada
Phone 604 822 1804 | Fax 604 822 5143
christine.scaman@ubc.ca
https://www.landfood.ubc.ca/christinescaman/

Updated competition announcement: Google PhD Fellowship award opportunity

Addition – Eligibility Requirements:

• New: Completed graduate coursework by the Fall of the award year, when the Fellowship begins. This is usually the 3rd year for US and Canadian students.

Addition –  Application Requirements:

• New: Student essay response (350-word limit) to: Describe the desired impact your research will make on the field and society, and why this is important to you. Include any personal, educational and/or professional experiences that have motivated your research interests.
• New: Student essay response (350-word limit) to: Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes or contributed to group efforts over time.

The application deadline for this opportunity is November 6, 2019 at 4:00 pm PST.  Note: Applicants apply directly to Graduate Awards; graduate programs do not submit nominations.

For more information, please see this link: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/awards/google-phd-fellowship.

Join the next LFS Research Café on Wednesday, November 6!

Barbara Stefanska, Assistant Professor, Food, Nutrition, and Health, will discuss some of her research findings in a presentation titled “Eating the right foods to prevent disease: how your diet impacts DNA and gene functioning, and the link to long-term health outcomes.”

Everyone is welcome to this free event! Light refreshments will be served, but feel free to bring your lunch.

Details:
Wednesday, Nov. 6, 1019 (add to your Outlook calendar)
12:00pm – 12:50pm
Life Sciences Institute, room 1003, 2350 Health Sciences Mall

Click here to let us know if you’re coming!

My name is Berenice Romero and I am writing on behalf of University of Saskatchewan´s PSGSA. As we all know, next year´s Annual Plant Science Graduate Student Symposium will be taking place in Saskatchewan.

I would like to invite UBC graduate students to join us there and provide them with more information on when and where the symposium will be held.

U of S´s PSGSA has determined that the 2020 symposium will be occurring on Friday, March13th and Saturday, March 14th, at the U of S campus, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. As for abstract submission, the deadline will be February 1st. We are still working on our website so that students can submit their abstracts through it, but as soon as we finish it, I will get back to you with the link.

Registration is free and food will be covered by our organization.

Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions.

I look forward to seeing you there

Invitation 2020 Symposium- UBC

Berenice Romero, MSc. candidate

Office 4D22,

Department of Plant Sciences,

College of Agriculture and Bioresources,

University of Saskatchewan

Cell: (306) 227-8702