LEEF Announces Dr. Laurie Chan as The BC Leadership Chair in Aboriginal Environmental Health

FEB 03, 2006 - PRINCE GEORGE – The Province will invest $2.25 million through the Leading Edge Endowment Fund to help fund the new Dr. Donald B. Rix B.C. Leadership Chair in Aboriginal Environmental Health to be held by Dr. Laurie Chan at the University of Northern British Columbia, Premier Gordon Campbell announced today.

“The establishment of this chair will spearhead a program of research on the relationship between Aboriginal people and their environment through groundbreaking work at one of B.C.’s leading universities,” said Campbell. “This is an innovative field of research with the potential to generate real health and community benefits, and we look forward to drawing on Dr. Chan’s work as we act to close the social and economic gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians.”

The B.C. Leadership Chair in Aboriginal Environmental Health will initiate a research program that will link health and environmental data to identify potential health risks in the Aboriginal population. Innovative approaches will be developed to improve preventive, diagnostic, and prognostic approaches to ecosystem management.

Dr. Chan is a nationally recognized researcher and contributor to northern and Aboriginal research. Prior to taking up this post, he was an associate professor at the Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment at McGill University. Dr. Chan currently holds awards totalling more than $600,000 a year from a variety of national agencies – the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Health Canada, Indian and Northern Affairs, and Natural Resources Canada.

“With a new medical program and a long-standing relationship with Aboriginal people, UNBC is a natural place for a research program in topics that link together health, the environment, and northern communities,” said Chan. “This is an incredibly exciting opportunity of significance to B.C. and the whole country, and I really wish to thank Dr. Donald Rix, the Rix Family Foundation, Cantest Ltd., and the LEEF for providing funding to establish this chair.”

“Establishing this B.C. Leadership Chair at the University of Northern British Columbia will stimulate and provide leadership for collaborative research projects that will take a cross-disciplinary ecosystem approach to study the relationship between environment and health,” said Advanced Education Minister Murray Coell.

The funding for the B.C. Leadership Chairs was established with an initial provincial commitment of $45 million for LEEF. Twenty leadership chairs will each receive a total endowment of up to $4.5 million, which is cost-shared between the government and the private sector. Dr. Donald Rix, the Rix Family Foundation and Cantest Ltd have committed matching funding of $2.25 million for the Dr. Donald B. Rix B.C. Leadership Chair in Aboriginal Environmental Health.

“I know that Dr.Chan will be a great asset as a new B.C. Leadership Chair,” said Dr. Martha Salcudean, chair of the LEEF Board. “These internationally peer-reviewed chairs provide a unique opportunity to further strengthen our world-class research to benefit all British Columbians.”

This is the province’s fifth B.C. Leadership Chair:

• The first LEEF chair, for spinal cord research, was awarded to the Rick Hansen Institute at UBC. Dr. John Steeves, a recognized leader in spinal cord research was appointed as the B.C. Leadership Chair in Spinal Cord Research in 2002.
• The second LEEF chair, for prostate cancer research at the Prostate Centre at Vancouver General Hospital, was awarded to Dr. Martin Gleave in July 2005.
• The third LEEF chair, for depression research at the University of British Columbia, was awarded to Dr. Allan Young in November 2005.
• The fourth LEEF chair, for salmon conservation and management at Simon Fraser University, was awarded to Dr. John Reynolds in November 2005.
• The remaining B.C. Leadership Chairs will be awarded by the end of 2006.

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Dr. Laurie Chan as Aboriginal Environmental Health Chair

Background information