Yonghong Bing won the prestigious Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada doctoral prize for groundbreaking chemistry research that will improve the capabilities of sophisticated electromechanical devices. She is the sixth SFU winner or runner-up in as many years. SFU produces just two per cent of all Canadian PhDs in NSERC-supported fields, but has won 16 per cent of the prizes in the past six years, successfully competing against larger institutions such as the University of Toronto and McGill University.

Several SFU scientists received significant career honours in 2006. Among them, Michael Plischke, dean of science, became a fellow in the distinguished American Physical Society; John Clague, Canada Research Chair in natural hazards research, won the E.R.W. Neale Medal from the Geological Association of Canada for his “sustained and outstanding efforts to share earth science with Canadians”; Gwenn Flowers, Canada Research Chair in glaciology, was named Outstanding Young Scientist by the European Geophysical Union; and Erle Nelson, an archaeologist who discovered a new method of radiocarbon dating, was elected to the Royal Society of Canada’s academies of arts, humanities and sciences.

SFU Business student Andrew Kumar and recent grads Terry Beech and Anastasia Radetski claimed all three top prizes in the 2006 New Business Venture competition held in Hong Kong. Their business plan called for businesses to advertise on new cell phone software and combine it with services such as mobile couponing. For example, says Radetski, “If you wanted to know the nearest Chinese restaurant, you could click on our icon on your cell phone and see all of them in a 10-mile radius. It's like Google on your phone.”

A one-stop shop for long-term academic success: that's the idea behind the new Student Learning Commons at SFU's Surrey, Burnaby and Vancouver campuses. The new academic support centres, which centralize and expand on existing services, offer free writing, learning and library research assistance to undergraduate and graduate students. Services include workshops, tutorials, peer counseling, one-on-one consultations and drop-ins, as well as online resources.