Media: news releases

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Discovery tests theory on cooling of white dwarf stars

March 6, 2024 - Media release

Open any astronomy textbook to the section on white dwarf stars and you’ll likely learn that they are “dead stars” that continuously cool down over time. New research published in Nature is challenging this theory, with the University of Victoria (UVic) and its partners using data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite to reveal why a population of white dwarf stars stopped cooling for more than eight billion years.

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Canada and Spain scientists establish new Antarctic Ocean observatory

January 16, 2024 - Media release

Canadian and European experts in polar observation are joining forces in a new partnership that will see Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) operating a subsea observatory at the Spanish Antarctic Station, providing year-round, near real-time data on ocean conditions there—the first time that ONC will extend its ocean monitoring outside Canadian waters.

Read more: Canada and Spain scientists establish new Antarctic Ocean observatory
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New director joins Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium

November 20, 2023 - Media release

Xuebin Zhang has been named director, president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (PCIC), bringing more than a decade of experience collaborating on PCIC projects and 25 years of experience as a research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada where he led the assessment on changes in temperature and precipitation for Canada’s Changing Climate Report.

Read more: New director joins Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium
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UVic awarded $8M Canada Excellence Research Chair

November 16, 2023 - Media release

Globally renowned Indigenous art historian and curator Dr. Heather Igloliorte joins the University of Victoria as the inaugural Canada Excellence Research Chair in Decolonial and Transformational Indigenous Art Practices. The $8-million research chair will advance reconciliation through the transformative power of art and innovative exhibition practices and support a new generation of students, researchers, educators, curators and artists to drive change through artistic practice.

Read more: UVic awarded $8M Canada Excellence Research Chair
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UVic documentary celebrates resilient spirit of Métis nation

November 14, 2023 - Media release

The Métis are often referred to as Canada’s “invisible people” – the “ghosts of the land” – whose stories haunt the country’s collective unconscious. Lii Michif Niiyanaan: We Are Métis is a one-hour documentary that addresses this invisibility by shining a new light on the historical and contemporary experience of Métis people in Canada and providing a space for Métis people to share their diverse perspectives on what it means to be Métis today.

Read more: UVic documentary celebrates resilient spirit of Métis nation
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UVic’s future shaped by Indigenous communities

September 25, 2023 - Media release

Unlearning colonial ways is a journey with many steps. For the University of Victoria, those next steps are grounded in language and ancestral teachings—guided by Indigenous communities—to ensure the work is done in a good way. UVic launches Xʷkʷənəŋ istəl | W̱ȻENEṈISTEL | Helping to move each other forward: UVic’s Indigenous Plan. With local Indigenous teachings and Lək̓ʷəŋən and SENĆOŦEN language woven throughout, this new plan proposes a fundamental rethinking of the institution’s approach to learning and work.

Read more: UVic’s future shaped by Indigenous communities