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Majestic and mysterious, whales continue to fascinate researchers and nature lovers, but how whales live in the ocean’s depths is largely unknown. Now, the University of Victoria is on a mission to deepen our knowledge of rare and threatened baleen whales and help protect them from ship strikes. Over the next three weeks, a two-metre underwater ocean glider equipped with acoustic sensors, sonar and hydrophones will allow researchers to track whale movements by listening to and recording their sounds along the shelf break in Clayoquot Canyon.

An international conference, led by the new UVic Chair in Transgender Studies Aaron Devor, brought together some of the world's top researchers, opinion leaders, transgender community activists and students this month to explore the history of transgender activism and crucial issues which impact the lives of trans and gender-nonconforming people.

Ann-Bernice Thomas doesn’t hesitate when asked the most surprising aspect of being named the City of Victoria’s 2016 Youth Poet Laureate. “All the attention,” she says with a quick laugh. “Considering I didn't really hear anything about last year's poet, it's been really surprising . . . but nice.” A second-year double-major in theatre and writing, Thomas was announced as the new Youth Poet Laureate in January and quickly received a flurry of attention from nearly all of Victoria’s media outlets. Her one-year term, jointly funded by the City of Victoria and the Greater Victoria Public Library, ends on December 31, for which she will receive a $1,750 honorarium and $1,000 in special project funding.

Ethnobotanist and ethnoecologist Nancy Turner is a long-time champion of Indigenous traditional knowledge and a world expert on traditional plant use. Her book, Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge: Ethnobotany and Ecological Wisdom of Indigenous Peoples of Northwestern North America, was announced the winner of the 2016 Canada Prize in the Social Sciences by The Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, on Monday, April 11th.

Scientists have found that trees are growing faster in BC due to global warming, which counters the carbon-loss impacts of the province’s devastating mountain pine beetle outbreak.

Rob Johns has seen first-hand the destruction and chaos that large-scale disasters can cause. In his previous role with the City of Victoria, UVic’s new manager of emergency planning visited Louisiana and Mississippi following Hurricane Katrina, and Christchurch, New Zealand after its major earthquakes. “Seeing such massive damage really drives home the importance of emergency planning,” Johns says. “Especially in Christchurch, with its similarities to Victoria in terms of earthquake risks and impacts, I was forcefully reminded that, while we can’t prevent these disasters from happening, we can and must prepare for them.”

An ocean explorer striving to preserve fragile marine ecosystems. A physicist unlocking the secrets of the universe. An oceanographer who makes science open and accessible to everyone. A writer who helps us interpret the trials and tribulations of modern life. And two engineers and an entrepreneur who came up with a brilliant idea and ran with it.

Linda Hasenfratz, chief executive officer of Linamar Corporation, a diversified global manufacturing company, is the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business 2016 Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year.

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The following University of Victoria expert is available to discuss the joint public hearing of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to review Sprout Pharmaceuticals’ application for flibanserin, a sexual pharmaceutical drug for women often dub…

Updated: April 6, 2016 An introduction to poetry, eye witness memory, neuropolitics, the politics of the refugee crisis in a Canadian context, a short history of early Protestantism in England and functions of the human immune system. These are just some of the many topics covered in Uni 101, Uni 102 and Uni 201 — a program at UVic offering free, non-credit university courses to people who face significant barriers to post-secondary education. On March 31, University 101 celebrated its 10th anniversary.

UVic Vice-President Finance and Operations Gayle Gorrill was recently awarded the title of fellow by the Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia, one of the largest professional organizations in the province. The designation (FCPA, FC…

Dr. Sybil Seitzinger, executive director of the UVic-hosted and led Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS), has been awarded an honorary doctorate by Utrecht University in the Netherlands—one of Europe’s oldest universities.

The theme of this year’s World Health Day is “Beat diabetes.” About 350 million people worldwide have diabetes and that number is projected to more than double in the next 20 years. Eleven million Canadians are living with the disease, and every thr…

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Nearly $825,000 in BC funding for UVic to conduct cutting-edge research will be applied to health and life sciences, infrastructure, remote sensing, software development and transportation.