Created 19 March 2008 02:03

VANCOUVER – A Simon Fraser University professor who is an international expert in environmental policy and a University of Victoria professor working on preventing injuries amongst senior citizens will receive this year’s CUFA BC Distinguished Academics Awards on March 26th.

SFU’s Mark Jaccard will be named the 2008 Academic of the Year for his tireless work in persuading governments to enact effective policies to deal with climate change. UVic’s Elaine Gallagher will receive the 2008 Career Achievement Award for employing her studies of injuries sustained by senior citizens to prevent falls through training of health professionals and changes in living environment. These awards are presented annually to recognize faculty members at BC public universities who use their research and scholarly work to make contributions to the wider community.

“Prof. Jaccard and Prof. Gallagher are outstanding examples of public university faculty members who use their considerable research talents to improve our communities,” said Chris Petter, President of CUFA BC.

“Prof. Jaccard has invested an incredible amount of time helping politicians and the public to understand the consequences of failed government policies to combat climate change,” Petter continued. “Prof. Gallagher has spent almost two decades studying falling injuries sustained by seniors and devising methods of preventing them. The accomplishments of these two academics are proof of the high-quality and community-relevant research taking place at our public universities.”

Mark Forsythe, host of CBC Radio One’s BC Almanac, will emcee the awards dinner on Wednesday, March 26th at the Law Courts Inn in Vancouver.

The CUFA BC Distinguished Academics Awards are in their fourteenth year and receive generous support from the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, the University of Victoria, the University of Northern British Columbia and Royal Roads University.

CUFA BC represents 4,300 university professors, instructors, academic librarians and other academic staff at SFU (Burnaby, Vancouver and Surrey campuses), UBC (Vancouver and Kelowna campuses), UNBC (Prince George, Terrace, Fort St. John and Quesnel campuses), UVic and Royal Roads University.

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For further information, please call Robert Clift, CUFA BC Executive Director, at (604) 817-1649.