Environmental Science and Technology, one of the world's top environmental science journals, has named "Improving Global Estimates of Particulate Air Pollution" as its Top Science Article of 2012.

SPPH's Dr. Michael Brauer was one of the lead authors of this paper, which was written as part of the 2010 WHO study update on improving global estimates of people’s exposure to fine particles of air pollution. The researchers reported that, in 2005, 89% of the world’s population lived in places with average levels of fine particulate matter that exceeded WHO guidelines. Further analysis placed particulate matter pollution among the top 10 risk factors that led to long-term disability and shortened lifespan in 2010.

The study helped inform another team's estimate of how many people died or were disabled in 2010 as a result of these particles (Lancet). That study found that particulate air pollution caused 3.2 million deaths worldwide in 2010. One of the Lancet paper authors also identified the approach in Brauer’s paper as an example of "state of the art" modeling methods.

Congratulations to Dr. Brauer.

The Margaret Fulton award is given to an individual who has had a significant positive impact on student life and student development at UBC. It is rare that this award is given to a student, however, Ruth's contribution to positive curriculum change and her support of her fellow students made her nomination hard to ignore.

Ruth received her award from UBC’s Office of the Vice-President, Students, at a reception for Student Development Award winners on April 18th.

Congratulations, and thank you, to Ruth Lavergne

Rachel was joint top Canadian in the Senior Womens' 8KM, finishing 25th in the world overall, in a time of 25:30

Congratulations! Way to go, Rachel!!!

• 1st Place: Abdulla Moussa (MSc)
• 2nd Place: Mina Park (PhD)
• 3rd Place: Laura Dale (MSc)
• People's Choice: Elizabeth Wilcox (PhD)

Abdulla and Mina are off to the UBC-wide Semi-finals, taking place on March 12th in the Ballroom, Graduate Student Centre, 6371 Crescent Road. Please come and cheer them on.

Thank you to all the SPPH heat participants: Caitlin Frame, Laura Dale, Al-Rahim Habib, Rabia Khan, Alina McKay, Cory McPhail, Abdulla Moussa, Mina Park, and Elizabeth Wilcox

Congratulations Beth!

New website highlights innovative research collaboration

"I am pleased to announce the launch of our website and logo," says Centre Director, Professor Carolyn Gotay in UBC's School of Population and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine. "We are very grateful for the support of both the Canadian Cancer Society, BC and Yukon, and UBC. Their contributions allow us to better understand how to prevent cancer before it begins."

Cancer is a leading health threat in BC. In 2012, an estimated 23,300 British Columbians received new cancer diagnoses and approximately 9,800 died from cancer. We know that about 50% of cancers can be prevented.

The Cancer Prevention Centre’s research projects help people reduce their cancer risk by addressing lifestyle, occupational, and environmental factors. The Centre’s many ongoing projects include the following:

• "Be well at work" evaluates three workplace wellness strategies to decrease employees’ wellness risk. Participants are encouraged to increase fruit and vegetable consumption, boost physical activity, and maintain a healthy body weight.
• "Breast Cancer Prevention & Risk Assessment Clinic" is the first in Vancouver designed to reduce breast cancer risks for women who are at increased risk of breast cancer.
• "Improving cancer-related outcomes in shift-workers" evaluates the impact of a sleep program for women shift workers on sleep quality and factors related to breast cancer risk, including lifestyle and biological markers.
• "Workplace awareness and knowledge study" investigates workers’ awareness of their risks of exposure to harmful substances at work, and their knowledge about how to reduce these exposures.

The Canadian Cancer Society, BC and Yukon, provides primary funding for the Centre. UBC, through the School of Population and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, provides additional support.

The Cancer Prevention Centre is a partnership of the Canadian Cancer Society, BC and Yukon, and the University of British Columbia. As a network of researchers, policy makers, practitioners, and communities, our research and activities inform programs and policy to prevent cancer. The Cancer Prevention Centre uses a novel model that links academic excellence with community championship. Preventing cancer and building healthy communities

The Division of Mathematical Modeling at the UBC Centre for Disease Control, which brings together “complexity science” and health systems decision-making, has won recognition as a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center.

“Complexity science” is a scientific field that studies the many interacting parts within the systems of nature, society and science. Work at the centre will help identify what components of health systems work well and what aspects could be improved based on models and data from many different sources.

The WHO Collaborating Centre for Complexity Science for Health Systems (called CS4HS) will build and maintain an international trans-disciplinary network of expert groups and institutions to develop new decision-support tools to address serious global health issues.

“While the 21st century has given us SARS, the 2009 influenza pandemic, and an explosive chronic disease burden threatening the health of hundreds of millions, it has also equipped us with innovative analytical tools, collaborations, and the computing power to mitigate these emerging problems,” said Babak Pourbohloul, Director of the new centre, and Associate Professor in UBC’s School of Population and Public Health. “It’s time to harness the power of these tools through new collaborative efforts to address major global health challenges.”

The centre will collaborate with national and international health agencies and other stakeholders to develop and implement projects and evaluate existing health systems performance. CS4HS will play a key role in the application of complexity science in health systems policy and planning by establishing an international network that links experts in physical, mathematical, computational, social, medical and health sciences.

“International trans-disciplinary collaborations like CS4HS will allow us to address challenging global issues that are very relevant to the people of BC and our health system,” said Bonnie Henry, Medical Director, Communicable Disease Control at the BC Centre for Disease Control and an Assistant Professor in the School of Population and Public Health. “We are very proud to be hosting this important initiative.”

CS4HS will provide training opportunities for scholars, health practitioners and trainees from low, middle and high-income countries. The centre will also play an important role in knowledge “translation” to help bridge the gap between science and policy.

“The Division of Mathematical Modeling epitomizes the UBC Faculty of Medicine’s goal of promoting innovation and improvement in health systems,” said Gavin Stuart, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and UBC’s Vice Provost Health. “To make the most of the increasing terabytes and petabytes of data, we must bring together health scientists from various disciplines to analyze problems and issues in a rigorous, quantitative manner. The Division, by creating the platform for that collaboration and enabling us to train the next generation of analysts, will ensure that health policy decisions can be made with precision and confidence.”

“Hosting this centre with its international scope and recognition is a great honour for BC and for the BCCDC,” said Perry Kendall, Provincial Health Officer for B.C. “We fully expect the knowledge generated from this global initiative will be used directly to enhance our decision-making in health in BC.”

The Division of Mathematical Modeling is a multidisciplinary and collaborative group that works at the interface of health and complexity sciences. It develops analytical and computational models to identify optimal strategies in support of public health decision making. DMM is a division within the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) (www.bccdc.ca) and is affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine.

Participants have just three minutes to explain the breadth and significance of their research project to a non-specialist audience. Participants will receive feedback from a science communication professional, along with chance to win a cash prize.

3MT competitions have a positive international reputation, and the number of competitions at Canadian academic institutions has grown significantly in the last few years. In 2012, SPPH student Jason Tan de Bibiana was voted the People's Choice in the UBC-wide final.

Students interested in competing should contact beth.hensler@ubc.ca to register