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Dr. Brian Hunt interviewed on CBC
Biological oceanographer Brian Hunt (EOAS and Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries) was interviewed for CBC yesterday (Feb 5th, 2018) to talk about his use of drones in jellyfish research. Go to 57:30 in the link below to learn more about this!
http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1154448963814
Mark Johnson wins Charles A. McDowell Award
Congratulations to Mark Johnson for being awarded the Charles A. McDowell Award for Excellence in Research! This award is for young faculty members who show excellence in pure or applied scientific research.
Professor Johnson’s research focuses on interactions between the carbon cycle and the water cycle. He addresses fundamental questions such as: How much carbon does water transport from land to freshwater systems? How much food can be produced in rural and urban environments? How much water would that require? And what efficiencies can be gained through a better understanding of ecohydrological processes? An example the value of his work is his novel method to measure carbon dynamics in aquatic systems allowing for improved assessment of carbon dioxide fluxes in real time in river lakes, and groundwater in a variety of environments. This method has seen rapid uptake in the research community.
Professor Johnson is advancing the field of ecohydrology through field-based observatory and experimental science. His methodological and empirical innovation has enabled both highest scholarly standards and their meaningful consequences. Dr. Johnson’s innovations, curious mind, and engineer’s capacity to develop, test and deploy novel environmental monitoring systems have led him to conduct research in challenging locations, while maintaining a humanists’ eye for the big questions of the future.
To see annoucement on the Faculty of Science page, click here: https://science.ubc.ca/news/ecohydrologist-wins-award-young-faculty-mem…
EOAS Students Participate in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup
On November 4th, a chilly and snowy Saturday morning, members of UBC’s Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences convened on Jericho Beach to participate in the Vancouver Aquarium’s/WWF’s Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup initiative. In total, 22 students, faculty and family/friends helped to collect 12.5 kg of trash (consisting mostly of firework debris, cigarette butts, and shoes), contributing to the over 1.2 million kg that has been collected by volunteers across Canada since the first cleanup of Stanley Park, in 1994. EOAS will be organizing a second event in the new year, but in the meantime, everyone can do their part by always helping to keep public spaces clean and tidy. Special thanks to all of the volunteers for their participation, and Keep Vancouver Spectacular for donating supplies!
Passing of Former EOAS Professor Arthur Soregaroli
Arthur Earl (Art) Soregaroli
1933 - 2017
Art Soregaroli was a UBC alumnus and former faculty member within UBC Science. His many accomplishments during his illustrious mining exploration career speak for themselves, but his legacy truly lies in the lives he touched along the way. He was highly intelligent, keenly observant, and always enthusiastic to share his deep knowledge of the natural world. If you showed even a remote interest in geology or minerals, he was a willing and earnest partner in conversation for as much time as you would afford him.
Art was born and raised in small-town Madrid, Iowa, where he learned to hunt and fish and appreciate the land and nature. He excelled at team and individual sports throughout his youth, always playing several inches above his height class.
He completed his undergraduate degree at Iowa State University, and his Masters in Geology at the University of Idaho. He then went on to pursue his Doctorate at the University of British Columbia in 1962, where he met and married Rosalie. They started their family as he completed his PhD in Geology while working for Noranda Mines. During this time, he also embarked on two other life-long love affairs: one with mineral collecting and the other with ice hockey, both of which kept him actively engaged until well into his retirement years.
Art returned to UBC as a professor of Economic Geology in the early 1970s before taking a position with the Geological Survey of Canada in Ottawa. The mid-70s saw his return to Vancouver as Vice President of Exploration for Westmin Resources. Art capped off his career with nine years as chief geoscientist for Teck Corporation.
Highlights of Art’s service to the mining community included driving the effort to acquire and display the world-class Pinch Collection for the Canadian Museum of Nature, and resurrecting the Britannia Mine site near Vancouver, stewarding it as president for many years towards its new life as the BC Museum of Mining. Throughout his career, he was very active with industry associations and was highly accomplished in his field. Art authored numerous scientific publications, and was regarded as one of the pre-eminent geologists in Canada. He held elected and appointed positions with, and received awards from many industry associations, including:
• Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM, Vice President, District 6 Proficiency Medal (1986), Julian Boldy Award (1989), Distinguished Service Medal (1991), A. O. Dufresne Award (2000))
• Geological Association of Canada (GAC, Duncan R. Derry Medal (1987))
• Society of Economic Geologists (SEG, President)
• Association of Exploration Geochemists (AEG, President)
• Canadian Mining Institute (CMI) and the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC)
• President and an editor of the highly respected publication the Mineralogical Record
• Editor of authoritative books on the minerals of Russia and Peru.
Art finally retired from his exploration career in the late 1990s, and his irrepressible love of mineral collecting and travel took him and Rosalie to many exotic destinations in the years that followed. With the new millennium, his discretionary time was soon directed toward a new-found passion: his grandchildren. Always a teacher, he spent many hours playing with and guiding them during their formative years.
Art lived his life with consummate integrity. He championed the underdog, stood up for justice, and reached out to those who were in need of a lift. His friendly, genuine and kind disposition endeared him to many, and his keen sense of humour, accompanied by that mischievous twinkle in his eye, enriched our lives. He will be greatly missed by us all.
Canada Foundation for Innovation commits $3.8M towards robotic ocean observing facility for the NE Pacific
A team of oceanographers and ocean engineers from UBC, the University of Victoria and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans have recently been awarded $3.8 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation toward a $9.5 million project to build a robotic ocean-observing facility in BC waters. The facility promises to provide invaluable data on weather, climate change, fish populations and wave energy through a better understanding of the dramatic changes occurring in the Northeast Pacific Ocean.
The Canadian Pacific Robotic Ocean Observing Facility (C-PROOF) is a proposed state-of-the-art facility that promises a step-change in our capacity for observing the Northeast Pacific Ocean. Ocean change, its potential for life, and its potential as a source of energy are still poorly understood largely because of a lack of observational data. C-PROOF will help to address this by deploying autonomous ocean observing platforms, such as instrumented ocean gliders and profiling floats, to explore and monitor both BC coastal and offshore waters to track life, quantify turbulence, and measure ocean nutrients. The facility will also deploy mooring arrays with innovative instrumentation capable of measuring ocean winds and waves with unprecedented fidelity. In this way, it is posed to play a vital role in the growth of BC’s marine-energy technology sector through furthering the development of wind and wave moorings capable of exacting and continuous measurement of wave energy.
UBC oceanographers involved in leading the project include Stephanie Waterman, Roger Francois and Philippe Tortell. Rich Pawlowicz, Susan Allen, and Brian Hunt are identified as key facility users.
Having secured $1.9 million cash and in-kind contributions from project partners, and now $3.8 million from the federal level, the fate of C-PROOF rests only with its application to the BC Knowledge Development Fund for the required provincial matching funds. A decision on this funding is expected in December 2017.
Links to related stories:
https://www.innovation.ca/about/press-release/putting-new-tools-hands-leading-canadian-scientists
Passing of EOAS Emeritus Dr. Oldrich Hungr
The Canadian and world geotechnical communities recently lost Oldrich Hungr, PEng/PGeo (BC)….a landslide specialist, a researcher, an educator, a consultant, a philosopher, a mentor, a husband, a father, a grandfather, a friend, a rare breed.
Oldrich and his wife, Klema, fled communist Czechoslovakia in the late 1960s and eventually went to Ottawa, where Oldrich obtained his BASc and MASc in Civil Engineering (Geotechnical) from the University of Ottawa in 1972 and 1975. After several years working as a consultant with the Trow Group in Toronto, primarily in the field of rock mechanics, Oldrich enrolled in a PhD program at the University of Alberta under the supervision of Dr. Nobert Morgenstern, and graduated in 1981.
Upon graduation, Oldrich joined Thurber Engineering Ltd in Vancouver, BC, with whom he worked until 1996. As a consultant, Oldrich carried out approximately 1000 assignments associated with, among other things, community planning, transportation routes, hydro projects, open pit mines, and forestry. These projects were primarily related to slope stability, the assessment of hazards and risks associated with landslides, landslide stabilization and the design of debris flow protective structures. While consulting full time, Oldrich also developed and marketed CLARA, his successful 3-D slope stability software program, (named after his daughter), and DAN, a computer model for dynamic analysis of rapid landslides.
In 1996, Oldrich joined the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences (currently Earth, Oceans and Atmospheric Sciences) at the University of British Columbia. Over the next 20 years, he became very well known as a teacher, graduate student supervisor and researcher. He served as Director of the Geological Engineering program and taught courses in Engineering Geology, Geomorphology, Slope Engineering, Natural Hazards and Field Techniques. Oldrich’s engaging storytelling, unique sense of humour and practical insights made his lectures both popular and memorable. In 2006 he was awarded the faculty’s teaching prize. Oldrich supervised or co-supervised 35 Master’s students, 5 PhD students and a myriad of undergraduate theses and projects. His very practical research continued to be related to many different aspects of slope stability and landslides. He expanded his computer model DAN to a 3-D version and developed PIERRE, an advanced computer model for dynamic analysis of rock fall (named after one of his sons and, of course, the French word for ‘stone’). During his tenure at UBC, Oldrich was also in high demand as a consultant and an expert witness.
Oldrich’s research resulted in approximately 100 refereed and 70 non-refereed publications, 15 book chapters and 4 edited books. One of his last papers, which won an award for best paper in the journal Landslides in 2015, was an update of the classic ‘Varnes classification of landslides’. Oldrich was sought after in BC and around the world to give short courses, invited lectures and keynote addresses, and to be a guest and visiting lecturer. His last keynote address was the prestigious Heim Lecture at the 12th International Symposium on Landslides in Naples, Italy, in 2016. During his career Oldrich received many other awards and recognitions from the Canadian Geotechnical Society, and other geotechnical organizations from around the world. Examples are the Schuster Medal (2008), a joint medal presented by the CGS and the Association of Engineering and Environmental Geologists that recognizes North American contributions to geohazard research, and the Varnes Medal (2015) from the International Consortium on Landslides. Oldrich was elected both as a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada and a Fellow of the Geoscientists Canada.
Oldrich always gave freely of his time to his students, colleagues and the local, national and world-wide geotechnical communities in many ways. At the time of his death he was a member of the Slope Safety Technical Review Board of the Geotechnical Engineering Office in Hong Kong.
Humble, soft-spoken, pragmatic and devoted are some adjectives that have been used to describe Oldrich. He was someone to be respected. Someone with a profound understanding of soil and rock mechanics, a constant desire to continue learning and an unendingly inquisitive mind. Someone uncomfortable in a jacket and tie, but comfortable in field clothes. Someone who could, with his dry wit, tell a good story, and someone who was at the heart of many other good stories. Oldrich will not be forgotten.
Oldrich leaves behind his wife, Klema, his children, Pierre, Nikolai and Clara, and two grandchildren. For the past several years, Oldrich and Klema had a second home in southwestern France where they spent their summers and where Oldrich passed away.
Footnote from Oldrich’s family: Since Oldrich's passing, we have been flooded with personal and sincere messages of condolence from all over the world. We are moved by this overwhelming response that clearly shows how Oldrich touched so many people, not just professionally but personally. We would like to thank the geotechnical community for the home they created for Oldrich. His passion for his work infused itself into our family life in so many wonderful ways. He taught each of his children to pursue life with the same level of integrity and fervour. To extend Oldrich’s efforts, we have opened for contributions a scholarship fund through the University of British Columbia to help students in the same line of research. For more information, please see https://memorial.support.ubc.ca/oldrich-hungr/.