UBC Emeritus College Conversations - October 20, 2021

Professor Daniel Coombs is an expert in mathematical modelling applied to human health, immunity, and disease. Dr. Coombs obtained his MSc and PhD in applied mathematics from the University of Arizona and did postdoctoral work at Los Alamos National Lab, before joining the Department of Mathematics at the University of British Columbia (UBC) as a faculty member in 2003. Dr. Coombs contributes to our understanding of infection and immunity across scales from subcellular processes of immunological recognition to virus dynamics at the single-patient level, to epidemiological modelling across human communities. He works closely with experimental scientists at UBC and BC Children’s Hospital Research Centre, and public health experts at the BC Centre for Disease Control. Dr. Coombs is currently a member of the Canadian Chief Science Advisor’s expert panel on COVID19. 

Douw Steyn, Professor Emeritus of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (2015) 

Douw Steyn, ACM, FCMOS is active in the fields air pollution meteorology, boundary layer meteorology, mesoscale meteorology, environmental science and interdisciplinary science.  His research involves measurement and modelling studies of regional air pollution, especially in regions with complex terrain.  He has published more than 100 scientific papers in the international peer reviewed literature. He is an Accredited Consulting Meteorologist, and has provincial, national and international consultancy experience in his areas of expertise, and has provided expert testimony in numerous court cases and appeal board hearings in British Columbia.  

Jim Zidek, Professor Emeritus of Statistics (2004)

Jim Zidek focused on applications of statistics in different domains: air pollution, environmental health, engineering, movement of sea mammals, and the forecasting crop of yields on Canadian farms during this time of climate change. These are extensions of my career into new areas that are of concern to society. Specific examples; serving on a US EPA Committee that in 2015 led to changes in the US air quality standards for ozone; a Canadian program for monitoring the strength properties of lumber; service on task forces to estimate the burden of disease due to particulate air pollution (for the World Health Organization) the health effects of high air temperatures over the UK (for the UK Met Office). 

Marc Levine, Professor Emeritus of Pharmaceutical Sciences (2017)

Prof. Levine’s teaching included therapeutics of neurological and psychiatric diseases and disorders, pain management, clinical pharmacology, and methods for design and analysis of clinical and biomedical research.  The latter included the basis for diagnostic and screening tests and their application to research and clinical practice.  His research interests included drug metabolism, pharmacoepidemiology, pharmacokinetics and clinical trials.  Since 2009 he has been Chair of the UBC Children’s & Women’s Research Ethics Board.