All about the Academy
Dear Colleagues, It is no exaggeration to say that this Friday, September 1, 2023 will mark the end of an era at UBC Mathematics. Well, actually the end of two eras. Our esteemed colleagues, Leah Edelstein-Keshet and Nassif Ghoussoub, will Continue reading
My friend and fellow mathematician, Nicole Tomczak-Jaegermann, passed away peacefully on the 17th of June. She had been suffering from Parkinson disease since 2007. Nicole received her Master s (1968) and Ph.D. (1974) degrees from Warsaw University, where she held Continue reading
By Professor Christopher Rea June 22, 2022 Dear Ms. McKenzie, President Ono, and Members of the Board of Governors: This is our “I have a dream” moment on campus housing. It is an opportunity for UBC to solve its existential Continue reading
By Professor Ivar Ekeland, le 17 Avril 2020 Nous sommes nombreux, en ce jour de janvier, à avoir reçu le message : « Louis est mort cette nuit ». On ne parlait pas encore du COVID-19, qui était encore confiné Continue reading
“We the undersigned are writing to express deep concern with the lack of transparency regarding the decision on the renewal of the Provost”. This looks like an ordinary enough preface to a standard petition signed by the usual “rebellious” suspects at a North American university. Continue reading
by Dr. Jim R. Woodgett The government of Canada released a budget on April 19th, 2021, the first for two years. It was, as anticipated, a high spending, deficit projecting budget that clears the ground for pandemic recovery with its centre Continue reading
The last time I used this title was in 2012. Canada’s Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) had grown embarrassed by the dwindling success rate in its postdoctoral fellowship program, the latest having clocked in at 7.8%. So, Suzanne Fortier, Continue reading
(This post is a slightly updated version of an article that appeared on October 10 in The Ubyssey). On September 12, I resigned from the Chair of the Learning and Research (L R) Committee of the Board. I chose to do Continue reading
“You had demanded to chair the Learning and Research Committee,” the Chair of the Board proclaimed at last week’s open meeting of a Board s committee. You bet I did, I replied, “because the reason I ran for the Board one more time Continue reading
I had promised many things to those who elected me to the Board of Governors as a faculty representative for UBC-Vancouver. But as I mentioned in a previous post, a data dump from the faculty association last October opened my eyes Continue reading
The bureaucrats of a leaderless NSERC have extended the 5-year grants of three research institutes by two years. This amounts to assigning awards exceeding $7,500,000. They have done so without peer review and against the wishes of one of their Continue reading
Things are different from my earlier 2008-14 term on the Board of Governors, but I still don t know exactly why. The 2015-17 revolt of the faculty has surely been a factor. The UBClean campaign was triggered by questionable actions of Continue reading
On December 7th, the academic publisher Taylor Francis informed two authors that they are unable to publish their mathematical research paper, even though it had been accepted by the editorial board of one of its journals two years after submission Continue reading
Maurice Sion was a very dear friend and a distinguished colleague in the mathematics department at the University of British Columbia. He died peacefully in his sleep on April 20, 2018. Maurice retired from UBC in 1989, after a career Continue reading
I just got word that my friend and colleague, Robert Miura, passed away on November 25th. Robert was born in Selma, California, to an immigrant family from Japan. When he was three years old, he and his family were sent Continue reading
“We are deeply disappointed that Janis Sarra has had to step down as Director of the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies … Like her, we will all work to secure the academic independence of the Institute and its programs, Continue reading
During my previous two terms on the UBC Board of Governors from 2008 to 2014, I always voted in support of the administration’s maximum government-allowable 2% increases in tuition fees for domestic students. But things are different this time. The Continue reading
The Board of Trustees of the Wall Institute is trying to reach out to a revolted UBC community by announcing a one-year moratorium on the changes they had dictated, only a week ago, to Director Philippe Tortell. This had led to Continue reading
By Professor Philippe Tortell Universities are places where imagination and unconstrained thinking converge to produce major advancements in fundamental knowledge. Intellectual breakthroughs hide in unusual places, and often appear when they are most unexpected. For this reason, the University must Continue reading
By Professor Mark Thomson Mac Lean Over the past months I have become increasingly concerned about the disparity between UBC’s growing tuition revenues and enormous budget surpluses, and the struggles that many academic departments face in meeting their teaching and Continue reading