Mark Jaccard, head of SFU's Energy and Materials Research Group and “currently the best Canadian mind on the environment” according to the Globe and Mail, was appointed to the federal government's National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. A familiar commentator on energy-related issues, Jaccard gave 54 public talks in 38 cities last year, while his book, Sustainable Fossil Fuels, claimed the Donner Prize from a field of 55 titles as the best book about public policy in Canada.

Arthritis and musculoskeletal diseases cost the Canadian health care system $16 billion per year and represent the nation's second most costly group of diseases. In 2006, SFU announced the creation of a $4-million research chair that will serve as the foundation for the world's only interdisciplinary research partnership devoted to arthritis and musculoskeletal diseases. The program will combine the public health research strength of SFU's new Faculty of Health Sciences with the practical clinical expertise of researchers at the Arthritis Research Foundation of Canada.

It may look like an ordinary aluminum fishing boat, but the C.J. Walters is a state-of-the-art marine research vessel financed by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation. Accessories include a robotic mini-sub, an acoustic-sonar tracking system, an acoustic habitat identification system, and high-end computers and video equipment. Designed by SFU's Fisheries Science and Management Research Group, the $1-million aquatic remote-sensing lab will improve scientific understanding of pressing marine and fish population problems.

SFU established North America's first Centre for the Comparative Study of Muslim Societies and Cultures in 2006 to encourage greater awareness and understanding of the wide range of Muslim societies throughout the world. Also in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the new Stephen Jarislowsky Chair in Religion and Cultural Change will advance the understanding of different cultural and religious traditions, and how globalization and other contemporary forces affect them.

Canadian and international research teams involved in molecular and materials research at Vancouver's TRIUMF accelerator facility will soon benefit from a new Canadian Foundation for Innovation-funded project led by SFU chemist Paul Percival: a $2.4-million initiative to upgrade TRIUMF's outdated muon beam lines. Muons are subatomic particles that can be used to probe extremely small, local magnetic fields of electronic or nuclear origin, in any form of matter. The new line will help researchers capture the full scientific potential of the muon as a probe, and improve both the availability and quality of muon beams.

Mary-Ellen Kelm, a respected historian who earned her MA at SFU, was appointed to a Canada Research Chair in aboriginal history. Highly regarded for her incisive analysis of aboriginal health issues, Kelm is studying the history of medical research in First Nations communities in the 20th century. Her research sheds light on the ethical issues underlying medical research involving indigenous peoples.