The University of British Columbia

I am pleased to accept the role of CFIS Principal  until a search for a new Principal is complete. I would like to thank Michael Burgess for providing guidance and stability to the College during a difficult birth and childhood. Mike will move into a new role advising the Provosts from UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan on the coordination of the social, global and policy implications of personalized medicine across UBC.

I have been asked by the Provost to refocus the role of CFIS university-wide, extending the support for interdisciplinarity and to increase the integration of interdisciplinary units across the University.

I took this job because I believe the University is now committed to making interdisciplinarity work across campus. UBC now has the best chance in a generation to achieve important improvements in how interdisciplinary research is encouraged, supported, and incubated across campus - with CFIS expected to play a critical role in realizing these improvements.

The one clear goal I would like to achieve during my term is to help people already working in the interdisciplinary enterprise across UBC to collaborate more closely and make interdisciplinary research and teaching function better at UBC, so we can ultimately realize UBC’s promise as a global leader in interdisciplinary research and learning.

To get there from here will be challenging, and will involve change. I will be working closely with the Provost, Deans and senior administration, and also drawing on the professional expertise and experience of our faculty and staff, to achieve this goal. I will also make every effort to keep all CFIS stakeholders informed during what I believe will ultimately be an exciting evolution of CFIS and UBC.

Please read the memo from Dr. Farrar, Provost and Vice President Academic, here.

Please ongoing updates regarding this transition here.

Hugh Brock, CFIS Principal  and Professor, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science