All posts by EOASpciuser

July 29, 2020

PCIGR researchers PhD candidate Kate Smith and supervisor Dominique Weis talk to UBC Science, UBC News, and The New York Times about their latest research.

Kate and Dominique used sensitive mass-spectrometer techniques to determine that the average concentration of lead in honey collected downwind of the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, three months after the devastating April 2019 fire, was around four times higher than lead levels in honey collected from the countryside and about three-and-a-half times higher than the urban honey collected before the fire. The research was published last week in Environmental Science & Technology Letters.

Despite these lead levels, all the honey collected for this study in and around Paris following the fire are still within the European Union’s safe levels for consumption.

February 2020

Dominique has received the 2020 Mentorship Medal from the Canadian Federation of Earth Sciences.

The award is made in recognition of her passion for helping students to achieve their potential and her transformative vision for enriching student training. Throughout her career, she has kept an exceptional track record of mentoring over 60 students and many more early career researchers.

The award was created by the CFES in 2008 to recognize the sustained and inspirational mentorship of colleagues and employees including peers, graduate students, undergraduate students and technicians.

June 14, 2019

Today, PCIGR had the pleasure of hosting the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Canadian Minister of Science, Sports and Persons with Disabilities, accompanied by Dr. Gail Murphy, UBC’s Vice-President Research and Innovation.

PCIGR’s team of research staff and graduate students had the opportunity to introduce themselves and describe their research. The Minister asked many questions and was very excited about the diverse and wide-ranging research being carried out at PCIGR.

October 2018

Congratulations to PCIGR Director Dominique Weis, who was elected President-elect of the Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology (VGP) Section of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). The Leadership Development/Governance Committee recently announced the results of the 2018 AGU Elections. Newly-elected leaders begin their term on 1 January 2019 and serve a 2-year term.

The chemical and physical evolution of rocks and minerals, particularly igneous and metamorphic rocks, falls under the purview of the Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology Section. Because of the Section’s interest in studying and mitigating the hazards of volcanoes, its work has a direct bearing on public safety and the preservation of life. VGP overlaps strongly with other Sections, such as Planetary Sciences, Tectonophysics, Seismology, Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism, and Hydrology.

May 2018

PCIGR Director Dominique Weis was recognized as a great supervisor by her PhD student Rhy McMillan during UBC’s second annual Great Supervisor Week (May 7-13, 2018). Graduate students were encouraged to give kudos to their graduate supervisors using #GreatSupervisor and #UBC on Twitter or Facebook.

Dominique and Rhy then attended an event celebrating UBC’s great supervisors at Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies on November 1, 2018.  Congratulations Dominique on this well-deserved honour!