Yukiko Asada

A former post-doctoral fellow (2003-2005), Yukiko joined the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie University as Assistant Professor (tenure-track) in 2005 with a support from the Capacity for Applied and Developmental Research and Evaluation in Health Services and Nursing (CADRE) Program by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) and the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF). Yukiko's research focuses on health services research, population health, and ethics. She is particularly interested in ethical issues that arise in the development and application of quantitative methods used in health research. Projects on which she has worked include a framework for measuring health inequality reflecting moral concern, critiques of the World Health Organization's health inequality measurement, health inequality analyses in Japan and the United States, access to health care, and ethical issues in the development and application of health outcome measures. The program helped her extend her focus on equity from health to health systems, and at her current position she continues to develop a research program under the umbrella theme of equity in health systems.

Janet Atkinson-Grosjean
UBC W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics Post-doctoral Fellow

I completed my EHRP postdoc at the WM Young Centre for Applied Ethics (CAE) in May 2005. My book -- Public science, private interests: culture and commerce in Canada's networks of centres of excellence--was published by the University of Toronto Press in February 2006. Later that year, I learned I'd been successful in a GE3LS grant proposal to Genome Canada and was reappointed to CAE as a Senior Research Associate and Lead Investigator, effective January 1 2006. After completing teaching commitments, I embarked on my new research project: 'Translational Genomics' in May 1, 2006. The project builds on my long-standing interest in relationships between science, commerce, and public policy and the socio-cultural practices of scientists in relation to funding and policy. It's an international comparative study of factors that affect the willingness of genomics researchers to translate their discoveries into commercial, clinical, and civic practice, as required by their funding. The study cover 4 countries and is funded for 3 years with a 4th year possible.

Michael Mascarenhas
UBC W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics Post-doctoral Fellow

Michael Mascarenhas earned his doctorate in sociology from Michigan
State University in 2005. He also holds graduate degrees in forestry and environmental science. His work revolves around the relationships between society, science, technology and the environment. His current work at the University of British Columbia involves studying environmental justice and health inequalities of Canada’s First Nations communities. He is also working on converting his dissertation, Where the waters divide: Neoliberalism, environmental justice and being indigenous, into a book for UBC press. In over a dozen publications, he has written on water, wolves, seed-saving, standards, supermarkets, family farms, and forests. These seemingly diverse lines of inquiry share a common thread of examining the intertwining of social inequalities with practices and policies within and around science, cultures, and nature.

Zubin Master
UBC W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics Post-doctoral Fellow

I am originally trained as a scientist in molecular biology and genetics from York University and the University of Toronto and have since transitioned into the area of bioethics and health policy by conducting my post-doctoral studies in the CIHR Ethics of Health Research and Policy program. Within the program, I had worked with Dr. Françoise Baylis in the Department of Bioethics at Dalhousie University for the first year and with Dr. Michael McDonald at the Centre for Applied Ethics at the University of British Columbia (UBC) for my second year. Some of my achievements in the training program were the publication of several articles in major peer-reviewed science and bioethics journals, delivering key lectures in my area of research interest and membership on the UBC Clinical Research Ethics Board. My major aim of this program was to receive the necessary skills and experience in ethics and health policy research in the area of embryo research (stem cells and cloning), assisted reproduction and more generally the governance of research ethics. By acquiring skills in ethics and health policy research, my intension was to pursue a career in policy and regulatory development. At present, I am a Senior Policy Analyst for the Assisted Human Reproduction Implementation Office of Health Canada involved in developing regulations in assisted human reproduction procedures.

Catherine Schuppli
UBC W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics Post-doctoral Fellow

I am interested in ethical issues surrounding the use of animals in society – in research, agriculture, and as companion animals – and in particular, how we govern their use. My research also tries to understand our relationship with animals, how this is shaped by culture and how these influence animal welfare. Research specialties include qualitative animal welfare research, research ethics, and animal biology. In the training program I am currently a collaborator in a project that is examining the meaning and experience of being a human subject in health research, funded by CIHR. Using qualitative methods, this study will determine what issues are relevant to human subjects, researchers and members of REBs and how these differ. The study will also explore how the topic, design, structure and organization of different types of health research gives rise to new or overlooked ethical issues. This will inform the development of new understandings of the experience of being a research subject and new methods of implementing these understandings in research design, the process of ethical review and the governance of research involving humans.