Dr. Kathy Lewis to be honoured for applying her research into the mountain pine beetle during arbitration of Softwood Lumber Agreement.

For the second straight year, a professor from the University of Northern British Columbia has been named Academic of the Year by the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of BC (CUFA BC).

UNBC Ecosystem Science and Management Professor Kathy Lewis will receive the 2013 Academic of the Year Award for applying her research on pine beetle-infested wood to defend Canada's interests in front of a Softwood Lumber Agreement arbitration panel in 2012. “Dr. Lewis' testimony was key to Canada winning the arbitration and avoiding a potential penalty of $380 million,” states Robert Clift, Executive Director of CUFA BC.

Media Download: UNBC Professor Kathy Lewis in the Canfor Winter Garden at UNBC's Prince George campus.

“I’m honoured and deeply grateful to be receiving this award from CUFA BC,” says Dr. Lewis, who is a registered forester and last year also received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for her work. “I’d like to thank my colleagues for this distinction, both at CUPA BC and at UNBC. It’s a great honour to be recognized in the same way Dr. Opio was last year.”

Last year, long-time UNBC Ecosystem Science and Management Professor Chris Opio also received the award, which is presented annually by CUFA to recognize outstanding faculty members at BC's public universities who use their research and scholarly work to benefit the general public.

Sheryl MacKay, host of CBC Radio One's North by Northwest, will emcee the awards dinner on Wednesday, April 3 at the Law Courts Inn in Vancouver.