UBC appoints three new University Killam Professors

UBC has announced the appointment of three new University Killam Professors. The University Killam Professorship—the highest honour UBC can confer on a faculty member—recognizes exceptional teachers and researchers who are leaders in their fields, and who have received international recognition for their achievements. 

The new University Killam Professors are:

Isabel Grant

Peter A. Allard School of Law

Professor Isabel Grant specializes in criminal law with a particular focus on violence against women and against people with disabilities. Her expertise spans a wide range of subject areas including homicide, sexual assault, HIV nondisclosure prosecutions, and medical assistance in dying. Her scholarship has been followed in numerous judicial decisions and has been influential in shaping legislative law reform. She has volunteered with advocacy groups representing women and people with disabilities on more than 20 interventions in the Supreme Court of Canada and other appellate courts. She is the recipient of a Killam Teaching Prize, the Georges A. Goyer, QC Memorial Award for Distinguished Service from the Canada Bar Association (BC Branch), and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Marco Marra

Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine & Michael Smith Laboratories

Professor Marco Marra has demonstrated the pivotal role that genomics can play in human health and disease research, through contributions to the Human Genome Project, leading the sequencing of the SARS coronavirus genome and the first proof-of-concept study demonstrating the effective use of whole genome analyses in personalized cancer medicine. His research has uncovered new cancer mutations, candidate biomarkers and therapeutic targets, and has been instrumental in demonstrating the functional interplay between the cancer genome and epigenome. Prof. Marra is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a member of the Order of British Columbia, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a laureate of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

Jamie Peck

Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts

Professor Jamie Peck is a geographical political economist with research interests in urban and regional restructuring, capitalist transformations, the politics of policy formation, and economic geography. His work is concerned with the ways in which ostensibly global processes—such as traveling ideas, ideological projects, and new governance regimes—are made and remade through localized sites, extended networks, and grounded practices. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, and the recipient of the Vautrin Lud Prize, Professor Peck is the founder of the Summer Institute in Economic Geography.

Please join us in congratulating these outstanding members of the UBC community as we recognize their extraordinary research and teaching accomplishments.