May 5, 2005 for immediate release

The University of Northern British Columbia is one of Canada’s mostresearch-intensive small universities and the President of the CanadaFoundation for Innovation will be attending a research celebration on campustoday and recognizing three new projects.

CFI President Eliot Phillipson is visiting UNBC from Ottawa and will be speaking at the research celebration,which is taking place in the Atrium of the Administration Building,starting at 2pm. CFI provides funding for research equipment and infrastructureand since 1999, UNBC has received just over $4 million in funding for 20research labs and projects. All of this funding has been matched by theGovernment of British Columbia through the BC Knowledge Development Fund.

Dr Phillipson will be recognizing the three most recentrecipients of CFI funding:

Jianbing Li (Environmental Engineering) has received$212,000 to develop a research laboratory used to simulate the breakdown ofpetroleum contamination in cold climates.

Youmin Tang (Canada Research Chair in Climate Prediction) isreceiving $75,000 to enhance the computing power of UNBC’s high-performancecomputing centre to develop mathematical models that can be used to predictclimate change.

Hanh Huynh (Northern Medical Program) is the project leaderof a new Computer Assisted Telephone Interview Laboratory that is being used byresearchers to gauge health-care access issues in rural and northerncommunities. CFI is providing $81,000.

“For a young and relatively small university like UNBC, theCFI funding has provided our researchers critically important opportunity toaccess equipment that is as good as any across Canada,” says Max Blouw,Vice-President of Research at UNBC. “While faculty, students, and communitiessupply the research questions and the brainpower, CFI provides tremendousassistance in giving researchers the tools to seek answers to the diverseeconomic, environmental, and social issues of the North.”

Contact:

Rob van Adrichem, Director of Media and Public Relations,UNBC – 250-960-5622