For Dr. James Bedard, the 2022 winner of the Research Excellence award at UFV, a faculty posting in the biology department turned out to be the perfect fit. His mentor during his undergraduate and graduate years studying microbiology in Manitoba had told him that he’d make a good teaching-focused professor with a minor focus on…

Dr. Sandra Gillespie’s lineage explains plenty. Growing up in the Fraser Valley in a family of biologists, she developed an affinity for the outdoors and all of the species that inhabit it.  “My interest in the natural world started naturally from being around adults that encouraged observation and curiosity,” says Gillespie, an assistant biology professor…

It’s somewhat fitting, at least this year, that the decision of who receives the Governor General’s Silver Medal comes down to numbers. This prestigious academic medal goes to the student graduating from a bachelor’s degree program at UFV with the highest grade-point average. And for 2021, that status goes to Tanner Boos, who is graduating…

UFV students help shape curriculum for a school with environmental focus Donovan Toews and Michelle Lefebvre are a part of something big. Ecosystem big. The UFV student duo stand in a forest beside a school playground on a rainy day in north Mission. On the other side of a fence separating Donovan and Michelle from…

In honour of Earth Day, Faculty of Science communications consultant Carin Bondar created a parody video about climate change, featuring singing by College of Arts student Cambree Lovesey, and cameos by many UFV faculty and students, Dean of Science Lucy Lee, and President Joanne MacLean. "The art-form of the parody meets the epic challenge of…

Dr. Lucy Lee is in demand. She’s on the phone, walking down the hall near her UFV office arranging a trip to New Zealand, having just returned from San Francisco. There’s an email from Chile in her inbox. Is she going to Japan in a few weeks? There’s also that shipment that needs to get…

You could be forgiven for having a sense of déjà vu when hearing the name of the 2019 winner of the Governor General’s silver medal at UFV, awarded to the top graduate in a bachelor’s degree program. That’s because Perrin Waldock was also the 2018 winner of the Governor General’s collegiate bronze medal, awarded to…

Andrew Alexander has only been a UFV alumnus for four years, but he’s accomplished enough in that short period to earn him the Young Distinguished Alumni Award for 2018. After finishing his Bachelor of Science (Honours) with minors in biology and chemistry in 2014, he headed into a master’s degree program in molecular biology and…

Perrin Waldock enjoys combining theoretical and applied approaches to learning. While his end goal at UFV is a Bachelor of Science with a major in physics and a minor in computing science in 2019, he’s also picking up the Engineering Physics in Mechatronics diploma along the way in 2018. And because he has accumulated perfect…

Like the windmills she once worked to improve, Alexis Warmerdam possesses potentially endless energy. And she needs every ounce. UFV’s 2017 Young Distinguished Alumni Award winner is a driving force behind Abbotsford’s blossoming agriculture tourism industry. She created two events, both wildly popular straight out of the gate: Bloom the Abbotsford Tulip Festival, and Abby…

Three scientists at the University of the Fraser Valley have received federal funding to continue their research. Dr. Lucy Lee, Dr. Derek Harnett, and Dr. Olav Lian received a combined total of $345,000 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. The three grants each cover a five-year period, until 2022. The funding received by…

The senior physics lab at UFV is bursting with energy on a Monday afternoon. It’s team time. There’s no formal lecture taking place; this is the time when the students in the Engineering Physics in Mechatronics program work on their group projects. One team of four students is working on a quadcopter, built from scratch…