> Addiction researcher to receive Sterling Prize
Addiction researcher to receive Sterling Prize
Contact:
Bruce Alexander, 604.253.2046
Ron Ydenberg, 778.782.4282 (away until Oct. 10)
Susan Jamieson-McLarnon, 778.782.5151
Bruce Alexander, 604.253.2046
Ron Ydenberg, 778.782.4282 (away until Oct. 10)
Susan Jamieson-McLarnon, 778.782.5151
October 9, 2007
Bruce Alexander, SFU professor emeritus of psychology and a pioneer in human addiction research, is the 2007 winner of the Nora and Ted Sterling Prize in support of controversy.
The selection committee, headed by the late Barry Beyerstein, based its decision on Alexander's highly controversial work on drugs and human addiction.
"The Sterling Prize for controversy is unique in the world, and this particular award is a perfect example of why it is important,” says Ronald Ydenberg, SFU biological scientist and committee chair.
“Professor Alexander's work addresses issues that are important locally and globally, and gives another perspective on addiction. The intense disapproval it has generated should make all thinking people want to take a look at just what it is he's saying that is perceived by some as so dangerous."
Throughout his 30-year career at SFU, Alexander's research on drugs and addiction - and the myth of drug-induced addiction - has been more often greeted by screeching headlines (on both sides of the border) and irate letters to the editor than by voices of reason.
When the World Health Organization launched the world's largest-ever global study on cocaine - 22 cites in 19 countries - it was an SFU team, led by Alexander, which looked at Vancouver's cocaine users and government response to the problem.
Alexander is author of Peaceful Measures: Canada's Way Out of the War on Drugs. He has also looked at other addictions, including a 1986 study that found the addiction shared by the greatest number of SFU students was love. Their most serious drug dependencies were caffeine and nicotine.
Nora and the late Ted Sterling, the founding chair of computing science at SFU, established the prize at SFU in 1993 to honor "work which challenges complacency and that provokes controversy or contributes to its understanding."
The prize will be awarded on Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. at SFU's Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, followed by Alexander's lecture on the globalization of addiction. The lecture is free, but reservations are essential: call 778.782.5100.
The selection committee, headed by the late Barry Beyerstein, based its decision on Alexander's highly controversial work on drugs and human addiction.
"The Sterling Prize for controversy is unique in the world, and this particular award is a perfect example of why it is important,” says Ronald Ydenberg, SFU biological scientist and committee chair.
“Professor Alexander's work addresses issues that are important locally and globally, and gives another perspective on addiction. The intense disapproval it has generated should make all thinking people want to take a look at just what it is he's saying that is perceived by some as so dangerous."
Throughout his 30-year career at SFU, Alexander's research on drugs and addiction - and the myth of drug-induced addiction - has been more often greeted by screeching headlines (on both sides of the border) and irate letters to the editor than by voices of reason.
When the World Health Organization launched the world's largest-ever global study on cocaine - 22 cites in 19 countries - it was an SFU team, led by Alexander, which looked at Vancouver's cocaine users and government response to the problem.
Alexander is author of Peaceful Measures: Canada's Way Out of the War on Drugs. He has also looked at other addictions, including a 1986 study that found the addiction shared by the greatest number of SFU students was love. Their most serious drug dependencies were caffeine and nicotine.
Nora and the late Ted Sterling, the founding chair of computing science at SFU, established the prize at SFU in 1993 to honor "work which challenges complacency and that provokes controversy or contributes to its understanding."
The prize will be awarded on Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. at SFU's Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, followed by Alexander's lecture on the globalization of addiction. The lecture is free, but reservations are essential: call 778.782.5100.