John S. MacDonald, the fifth Chancellor of the University of Northern British Columbia, died on Boxing Day at the age of 83.

Dr. Stephen Déry is the new NSERC/Rio Tinto Senior Industrial Research Chair in Climate Change and Water Security. The $1.5 million in research funding will allow Déry to to better understand the impacts of climate change and human activity on the long-term water security of the Nechako watershed.

Dr. Chelsea Pelletier, a UNBC health sciences researcher, and her team will spend the next year studying what is known about the health impacts of occupational exposure to wildfires that B.C. wildland firefighters and related personnel face on the job.