How exciting! Canada has won its first Gold Medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics, in the men's moguls up at Cypress. I can see the lights of the mountain from my balcony -- pretty amazing.

 Alexandre Bilodeau, Gold Medalist!

From all appearances, our champion Alex Bilodeau is a sweetheart, who loves his family and is very close with them. So Canadian!

Having the Olympics in Vancouver has been amazing so far -- everyone here was absolutely devastated at the horrible accident on the luge course, just hours before the Opening Ceremonies, but I believe it has been handled tastefully and compassionately (despite CTV showing the accident over and over. That's a FAIL.)

I took a couple of pictures as the torch went by my apartment on Davie street on Friday, on its final leg before arriving at BC Place.  I was also lucky enough to be at the dress-rehearsal for the opening ceremony, which I thought were spectacular.

That's my apartment, proudly flying the Canadian flag!

A mounted police escort for the torch, as it travels up Davie street on its way to BC PLace
on Day 106 -- the last day! -- of the torch relay. 

The Torch!! 100 metres from my home.

This afternoon I spent a couple of hours wandering around our beautiful city in today's sunshine, and couldn't be prouder. As I type this, I can hear the nightly celebratory fireworks exploding over Coal Harbour. Being an Olympic host city is AWESOME!!!

My Mom shot this photo

Only a week until the 2010 Winter Games begin in Vancouver, and the city is starting to feel *Olympic*!

I met some athletes from Denmark today walking down Granville street (who spoke excellent English) and their excitement and enthusiasm for their sport, for the Games, and for life in general was infectious. 

A lot of people -- or at least people getting coverage in the media -- seem to think having the Olympics here is a bad idea, but I disagree. I think it's great. Vancouver is an amazing city, and I'm glad we're going to be able to show the world.

I'm hoping to get out and enjoy some of the many events going on in the city over the next two weeks, including...

The Da Vinci Exhibit at the Art Gallery (admission to VAG is usually a bit steep for my pocketbook, but during the Games it's FREE!) Apparently Queen Elizabeth is loaning the drawings.

LiveCity Vancouver -- lots of cool local artists, free stuff and more.

Vancouver's amazing world-class restaurants

So celebrate the city!

I'll be posting photos over the coming weeks from the heart of the Olympic zone.

GO CANADA!!!

I have exciting news!

This summer, I was part of a team that spent several months writing a grant application to create a new Network of Centres of Excellence. On December 1, the federal government announced that our application, the NeuroDevNet Network, was one of three networks that will be funded!

Click here to read the press release.

The NeuroDevNet Network, led by Dr. Daniel Goldowitz, will study ways to reduce the long-term costs to the health care system through early intervention and effective treatment of children with developmental brain disorders. The Network will be hosted at UBC. 

I am very proud to have played a part in this achievement!

A bit more about Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research...

The goal of the CECR program is to create world-class centres to advance research and facilitate commercialization of technologies, products and services.

These centres operate in the priority areas of the S&T Strategy: health, information and communications technology, environment, and energy and natural resources.

After several months of work, intense collaboration with researchers and scientists, and some significant rewriting, I am thrilled to announce the publication of the official COPD 2009 Report!

Many of you will remember that I was hired to cover the 2009 COPD Conference, held back in February, in Vancouver. The event consisted of two full days of speakers from around the world, presenting their research on every conceivable scientific aspect of COPD -- from treatment, genetics, environmental factors, airway remodeling and more -- and was an intense, eye-opening event, for many reasons. 

The conference also included an enlightening public forum hosted by the BC Lung Association and a lovely tribute dinner to Dr. Jim Hogg, whose research excellence has created a lasting legacy for BC. All in all, it was a very full three days.

The report has something in it for everyone -- there are write-ups on each of the presentations, some highlights from the Public Forum, interesting facts on COPD, and lots of great event photos. I'd love to hear your feedback -- click here to read the report now. 

I'd like to extend a special thank you to my superstar designer Justine Bond for her brilliant design, endless patience with revisions, and support in publishing this report. Not only did she conceive the layout for the entire publication from scratch, she also served as an editor, a source of copy ideas, and all-around cheerleader. I couldn't have done it without her help.

Also, a shout-out to Jennifer Myers, for agreeing to help us out at the last minute, and her great event photos.

This entire process -- from event to the final publication of this report -- has been a great experience. I learned a lot, and met some great people in the process.

I look forward to hearing what you think -- feel free to let me know in the Comments section below.

Click here to read the COPD 2009 Report now.