2007 Award Recipients

 

2007 BC Science and Technology Champion of the Year Award

Dr. Julio Montaner

As Professor of Medicine and Chair of AIDS Research at UBC, Director at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, and Director of the HIV/AIDS Research Program at St. Paul's Hospital, Dr. Julio Montaner has developed a national and international reputation as a leader in HIV/AIDS clinical work and research.

He has revolutionized the care for patients with HIV/AIDS in British Columbia and throughout the world by making numerous important discoveries regarding drug therapy that have altered the model of management for the disease. His simplified therapy for AIDS patients is considered the standard therapy across the country.

Dr. Montaner is a prominent advocate for the reduction of HIV prevalence and incidence by supporting the increased accessibility of HIV/AIDS treatment. As Director of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Dr. Montaner has secured funding for the Centre to ensure that patients in the province get the best care in the world. Dr. Montaner continues his efforts globally as president-elect of the International AIDS Society, where he is focused on the global expansion of antiretroviral programs and the effect on the global spread of HIV/AIDS.
 

2007 Chairman's Award for Career Achievement

Dr. Michael Isaacson

Dr. Michael Isaacson, Dean of Applied Science and Professor of Civil Engineering at UBC, is recognized around the world as a leader in the field of offshore and coastal hydrodynamics research. Throughout his 30 year career, Dr. Isaacson has been active in teaching, research, university administration and professional service.

He has authored over 200 technical papers and co-authored two textbooks, including Mechanics of Wave Forces on Offshore Structures, one of the most widely referenced and definitive works in the field. Dr. Isaacson has been a specialist consultant on over 100 engineering projects, and is one of the most cited experts on the topic of wave forces on coastal and offshore structures. Through a diverse range of methodologies and modeling techniques, Dr. Isaacson's work has found wide application in many practical engineering projects.

As Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science at UBC for the last 10 years, Dr. Isaacson administers a diverse faculty consisting of the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, the School of Nursing, the UBC Okanagan School of Engineering, six engineering departments, and various non-department programs and research centres. In this role, Dr. Isaacson has shifted his focus to assisting others in their technical accomplishments - by recruiting world-class engineering faculty to UBC; developing new professional programs; establishing research centres, initiatives and collaborations; building infrastructure; providing support for faculty members' research, commercialization and breakthrough activities; and championing the engineering profession in British Columbia and Canada.
 

2007 Eve Savory Award for Science Communication

Bryan Tisdall

Bryan Tisdall, President and CEO of Science World and his management team have made an important contribution to science and technology education in British Columbia by exposing children to science and technology at an early, impressionable age.

Under Mr. Tisdall's leadership, Science World has engaged the support of B.C.'s science and technology communities, spanning government, academia and industry, to renew facilities, program and exhibits making each interaction with Science World a fresh experience.

Over the last 10 years, the annual attendance at Science World has increased 66% to 830,000. Science World has also expanded its reach beyond the facility with its Community Outreach program, visiting communities and schools through the province while enlisting support from local technology companies and colleges.
 

2007 Frontiers in Research Award

Dr. Martin Gleave

Dr. Martin Gleave, Director at the Prostate Centre at VGH heads the PC-TRIADD (Prostate Centre's Translational Initiative for Accelerated Discovery and Development) team, contributing tremendously to the research and fight against prostate cancer, one of the leading causes of death in North American men.

Dr. Gleave's major research focus involves the study of cellular and molecular mechanisms affecting progression of prostate cancer to its lethal stage of androgen independence, and use of this information to develop new and more efficient therapies that specifically target these mechanisms. PC-TRIADD aims to comprehensively and rapidly characterize progression-related changes in gene expression, and to translate this into human trials of new drugs targeting these changes. Through PC-TRIADD, Dr. Gleave has raised more than $50 million in peer-reviewed grant funding and helped create one of the world's most comprehensive prostate cancer research facilities.

Dr. Gleave is also the founder & CSO of OncoGenex, a company focused on leveraging partnerships between universities and industry to facilitate translation of preclinical observations into the clinic. In addition, he is an active member of the Department of Urologic Sciences and is considered one of the best surgical educators in the country. Dr. Gleave is a skilled surgeon, talented scientist, teacher and superb critical thinker who has made significant contributions to medical science.
 

2007 Young Innovator Award

Dr. Dugan O'Neil

One of the top young scientists in particle physics in the US and Canada, Dr. Dugan O'Neil, Assistant Professor of Physics at SFU, has pioneered a new technique in his field and made one of the most important measurements in the scientific program at the The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

His accomplishments include making SFU the first Canadian institution admitted into to the DZero collaboration, which involves approximately 600 physicists from 19 countries. He has brought worldwide attention to British Columbia through his leadership of SFU's high-energy particle physics research group credited for detecting an elusive subatomic particle: the single top quark.

It was Dr. O'Neil who first introduced the use of Boosted Decision Trees, a machine-learning technique which is "trained" on simulated signal and background event samples. The trees are then applied to the real collision events to try to separate signal from real background. Dr. O'Neil adapted this technique to successfully extract the single top "signal", ending a twelve year international effort. This work is seen as a major stepping stone towards discovery of the Higgs boson, the last missing piece of the Standard Model of particle physics and the particle that gives mass to all others. After an intense period of internal reviews in fall 2006, Dr. O'Neil was selected by his collaboration to present the results to the world first at a seminar at Fermilab on December 8th, 2006.