Outreach & Alumni

Outreach

Outreach and Alumni Activities in 2020-21

CHEMISTRY ALUMNI REUNION 2020 - 2021

Thanks to everyone that was able to join us as we celebrated 104 years of Chemistry at UBC!

 

2020 Alumni Award Winners

Alumni Award of Distinction | Dr. Peter Caravan

This award recognizes an alumnus whose accomplishments are of such excellence that they provide inspiration and leadership to students and other alumni. The recipient has shown significant leadership either in their professional career and/or community service.

 

Peter Caravan, PhD, is Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School, Head of the Translational Molecular Imaging Lab and Co-Director of the Institute for Innovation in Imaging (i3) at Massachusetts General Hospital. His research interests include the development of novel molecular probes for use in positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, application to disease detection, staging and treatment monitoring, and ultimate translation to clinical practice. Two of his inventions, the PET probes 64Cu-FBP8 and 68Ga-CBP8 are currently undergoing human clinical trials for detection of thrombosis and pulmonary fibrosis, respectively. Originally from Bay Roberts, Newfoundland, Dr. Caravan received his BSc(Hons) from Acadia University and PhD in Chemistry from the University of British Columbia with Chris Orvig in 1997. Following a NSERC post-doctoral fellowship at the Université de Lausanne, he worked at Epix Pharmaceuticals in Massachusetts developing the FDA approved imaging drug gadofosveset. He has published over 160 peer-reviewed manuscripts cited >17,500 times, 11 book chapters, given over 100 invited lectures worldwide, and holds over 20 issued patents. Dr. Caravan has directly guided over 40 trainees in this field. He was Deputy Editor at Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (2011-2020) and served on the Editorial Advisory Boards of Investigative Radiology, Contrast Media and Molecular Imaging, and the Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry. He is Fellow of the ISMRM, Fellow of the WMIS, and Distinguished Investigator of the Academy of Radiology Research. Dr. Caravan has founded two companies, Collagen Medical and Reveal Pharmaceuticals which are commercializing his discoveries.

Young Alumnus Award | Dr. Rodney Smith

This award recognizes a young alumnus (aged 35 or under) whose accomplishments are of such excellence that they provide inspiration and leadership to students and other young alumni. The recipient has shown significant leadership either in their professional career and/or community service.

 

Rodney’s path to his position as Assistant Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Waterloo took him around Canada, the globe, and the world of chemistry. His B.Sc. degree at the University of Manitoba in 2007 involved an international exchange to Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and a research project that blended organic and materials chemistry to develop novel liquid crystals. This was followed by a PhD in 2012, where he focused on electrochemistry and the modification of electrodes with molecular inorganic electrocatalysts. He then developed new techniques to synthesize solid-state electrocatalysts during first postdoctoral position at the University of Calgary. Following a glovebox-laden U-Haul trip through the Rocky Mountains, this work was expanded on at UBC in 2013 in tandem with the advancement of a spinoff company. Publications in leading journals such as Science and J. Am. Chem. Soc. enabled Rodney to acquire a prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship in 2016, which funded a year of research in the Physics Department of the Freie Universitat Berlin. Since 2017, Rodney has been establishing a research group in Waterloo that is focused on using structure-property analysis as a tool to establish catalyst design principles and optimize the fabrication of solid-state electrocatalysts.