Cash for lucky 7

The BC government announced $3.4 million in new funding for research at UBC Friday, which will benefit seven research projects at the Okanagan campus and 15 in Vancouver.

More than $967,000 of the BC Knowledge Development Fund will go towards the seven research projects in the Okanagan.

These projects range from cancer screening research to funding a new wildfire science laboratory.

The funding of the wildfire lab comes just days after a University of Toronto professor told the Wildland Fire Conference in Kelowna that the scientific community has failed the forest fire industry.

“Supporting these kinds of investments is making a better future for all of us,” said Dr. Deborah Buszard, principal of UBC Okanagan and vice-chancellor of UBC.

Additionally, the funding will help support UBC Okanagan engineering professor Dr. Joshua Brinkerhoff with his research into simulating natural gas spills, timely research in the wake of the province's push for LNG plants in northern B.C.

“I am able to acquire a much larger and more powerful computer system, and with these new and improved capabilities, my students and I are now able to accurately model how natural gas will disperse into the atmosphere in the event of an LNG spill at sea, during bunkering operation or a pipeline rupture,” Brinkerhoff said.

Because UBC Okanagan is a relatively new university, at just 11 years old, the school started out based more around teaching than research, but this is quickly changing.

“We now have over 400 professors who are active in research and we are starting to have a real impact in terms of developing collaborations with other researchers around the world and also with industry right here in the Okanagan and with the health authorities,” Buszard said.

The newly appointed president of UBC, Dr. Santa Ono, spoke highly of the Okanagan campus' future at Friday's announcement.

“It's very exciting what's happened here in just 11 years, it's amazing, and I think the next decade will be even better,” Ono said.